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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75709 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  STANDARD
+
+  NOVELS.
+
+  No CXVII.
+
+  "No kind of literature is so generally attractive as Fiction. Pictures of
+  life and manners, and Stories of adventure, are more eagerly received by
+  the many than graver productions, however important these latter may be.
+  Apuleius is better remembered by his fable of Cupid and Psyche than by
+  his abstruser Platonic writings; and the Decameron of Boccaccio has
+  outlived the Latin Treatises and other learned works of that author."
+
+  TALES
+
+  OF
+
+  THE PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.
+
+  COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.
+
+  LONDON:
+  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET;
+  AND BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH.
+
+  1849.
+
+
+
+
+  LONDON:
+  Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
+  New-street-Square.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Clara Cause, del._          _C. Cook, sc._
+
+TALES OF THE PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.
+
+"_The Chevalier received the Countess of Nithsdale with what he meant
+to be marked attention, but his manner was subdued, his bearing
+dejected_" Winifred
+
+_London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1849._]
+
+
+
+
+  TALES
+
+  OF THE
+
+  PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.
+
+  EDITED BY LADY DACRE.
+
+  LONDON:
+  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET;
+  AND BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH.
+
+  1849.
+
+
+
+
+NOTICE.
+
+
+The Proprietors of Circulating Libraries in all parts of the country
+are compelled by the new Copyright Act to discontinue purchasing and
+lending out a single copy of a foreign edition of an English work. _The
+mere having it in their possession ticketed and marked as a library
+book_ exposes them to
+
+ A PENALTY OF TEN POUNDS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By the new Copyright Act and the new Customs Act, even single copies of
+pirated editions of English Works are prohibited both in Great Britain
+and the Colonies. Copies so attempted to be passed are seized.
+
+These measures will be rigidly enforced.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The authoress feels much diffidence in sending forth to the world a
+tale which by its title gives promise of treating not only of history,
+but of Scottish history; an act of presumption from which she is
+anxious to clear herself;--and at the same time she wishes to re-assure
+those readers who may not like historical novels from a woman's pen,
+that she has entered no farther into public affairs, than as they may
+have influenced the fortunes and feelings of the one admirable woman
+who forms the subject of the following memoir.
+
+Since in the human heart the same passions and the same emotions are
+found in all ages, she hopes she has not trespassed beyond the limits
+assigned to one who is conscious that all she writes bears the stamp
+of feminine authorship, in attempting the development of a female
+character, the firmness and tenderness of which may be gathered from
+Lady Nithsdale's own beautiful letter to her sister.
+
+The foundation of the story of the Hampshire Cottage is strictly true.
+The appearance, the characters, the sentiments, and the death of the
+old couple, are entirely from nature. Their very Christian names have
+been preserved; and the circumstance of the blind old man feeling too
+low for the head of the little girl, who had outgrown his recollection,
+actually occurred to the authoress, when visiting the cottage after a
+long absence.
+
+For reasons which perhaps may be understood by her friends, she adds,
+that the tale of Blanche was written in the year 1832.
+
+  London.
+  June 26, 1835.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                       Page
+
+  Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale        1
+  The Hampshire Cottage                194
+  Blanche                              273
+
+
+
+
+TALES
+
+OF
+
+THE PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.
+
+
+
+
+WINIFRED, COUNTESS OF NITHSDALE.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  My father stood for his true king,
+    Till standing it could do nae mair;
+  The day is lost, and so are we,--
+    Nae wonder mony a heart is sair.
+
+  _Jacobite Song._
+
+
+The sound of the organ pealed through the chapel of the English
+Augustine convent at Bruges: a bright gleam of sunshine, streaming
+through the painted window to the south of the altar, shone upon the
+clouds of incense which arose in silvery folds from the censers; it
+shone upon the white-robed assistants, upon the priests, and upon the
+calm brow of the young nun who had that moment taken the irrevocable
+vows which separated her from the world--a world of which she knew
+but little; but which, from the circumstances in which her family was
+placed, offered not to her the temptations it usually holds out to
+youth, beauty, and rank such as hers.
+
+The Lady Lucy Herbert was the fourth daughter of William Marquis of
+Powis, who, having devoted himself to the cause of James the Second,
+and accompanied his queen in her flight to France, received from the
+exiled monarch, as a reward for his uncompromising loyalty, the empty
+titles of Marquis of Montgomery and Duke of Powis.
+
+James afterwards appointed him steward and chamberlain to his
+household--offices which, although of small advantage, may have been
+gratifying to his feelings, as proofs of the estimation in which he
+was held by the master to whom he had sacrificed everything.
+
+Upon the Duke of Powis's death, which took place in 1696, his widow
+placed her two youngest daughters in the English Augustine convent
+at Bruges; while the three elder remained with her at the melancholy
+shadow of a court still kept up at St. Germain's.
+
+It was no grief to the widowed mother when she found that the bent
+of the young Lucy's mind was sincerely and enthusiastically directed
+towards a religious life. Although the attainder had been reversed,
+and her son had been restored to the Marquisate of Powis, it was not
+till some years afterwards that she had ventured to return to England;
+even then she lived in retirement and privacy. The widow of so zealous
+an adherent to King James could not be regarded without suspicion;
+her means were scanty; her elder daughters had not then made the
+advantageous alliances which they afterwards formed; and joyfully did
+she hail the vocation which she hoped would secure, to one of her
+children at least, a peaceful and tranquil existence, secure from any
+farther vicissitudes of fortune.
+
+But to one person the decision of the Lady Lucy Herbert was a matter of
+deep and unmixed sorrow. Her younger sister, the Lady Winifred, loved
+her with all the devotion of a fresh and unpractised heart. They had
+been early separated from the rest of their family. At the period of
+their father's death, when their childish hearts had for the first time
+been made acquainted with grief, they had been thrown entirely on each
+other for support and consolation.
+
+Though many years had now elapsed, the moment was still fresh in their
+memories, when their mother, in her mourning habit, with pale cheek
+and streaming eyes, delivered them over to the care of the friend who
+was to convey them to Bruges. The sad countenances and black garments
+of their sisters, and of the few domestics who still remained of their
+former establishment, coupled with the vague, ill-defined feeling,
+half resembling fear, half shame, which children experience when they
+witness grief more intense than their young minds can comprehend, had
+left a deep impression upon both the youthful pensioners. When first
+they found themselves in the convent, with none but strangers around
+them, the timid Winifred clung instinctively to her sister; while Lady
+Lucy, forced, as it were, to become the prop and stay of one younger
+and weaker than herself, acquired at an early age the habit of seeking
+strength and support from above.
+
+Loving and admiring her sister as did the Lady Winifred, it may excite
+wonder that she did not imbibe her strict religious notions; that she
+also should not have looked forward with joy to the idea of devoting
+herself to pious seclusion, and thus, at the same time, preserving the
+society of the being she most loved on earth. But it was not so. On the
+contrary, she felt her sister's vows as a barrier of separation between
+them.
+
+Although she had no wish to wander beyond the walls of the little
+convent garden, though she seldom even went to the parlour grate, and
+never wished to avail herself of the occasional opportunities which
+occurred to the pensioners of mixing in society, still she felt an
+instinctive horror of irrevocable vows, to renounce--they knew not
+what. It was with a feeling amounting to despair that she witnessed
+the funeral rites, that she heard the service for the dead, that she
+saw the black veil dropped between her sister and the world, of whose
+pains and pleasures they could form no idea. Moreover, these vows for
+ever precluded the possibility of her seeing their native country in
+company with that beloved sister; and in the heart of the Lady Winifred
+there existed the strong instinctive affection for the land of her
+forefathers, which the coldest and the most hardened are not wholly
+without, but which in minds of a more ardent temperament amounts almost
+to a ruling passion. She had never beheld the British shores, she had
+never breathed British air, and yet she felt as if England was her
+home--her natural resting-place.
+
+When first the young girls had been sent to Bruges, an old and faithful
+servant of the name of Evans had accompanied them. She was a native of
+Wales, and had been born in the neighbourhood of the ancient seat of
+the Herbert family, Poole Castle, in Montgomeryshire.
+
+Loyalty to the family of Herbert had grown with her growth and
+strengthened with her strength, and was only balanced by the attachment
+to her country, which is generally more enthusiastic in the inhabitants
+of mountainous districts than of any other.
+
+The young girl had listened for hours together to old Evans's glowing
+descriptions of the cloud-capped Snowdon, the green mountains, the
+smiling valleys, the rapid streams, the wreaths of mist,--all the
+varied beauties of her own Wales. From the windows of their convent
+they could descry nothing but the flat and uninteresting country
+which surrounds Bruges: but when the clouds formed themselves into a
+thousand fantastic shapes, old Evans would point out to them how one
+mass resembled such a mountain near their ancestral castle--how another
+was the very picture of Snowdon when he wore his white cap of clouds,
+as she familiarly expressed herself. She would describe to them the
+peculiar customs of Wales--the snowy caps, the small black hats, of
+the women,--would expatiate on the light form and airy step with which
+they trod the mountain paths--would picture to them how beautiful were
+the white sheep dotting the soft green of the steep and swelling hills,
+till the youthful Lady Winifred's heart would burn within her to flee
+to the home of her ancestors.
+
+Nor, though Evans afterwards returned to her mistress, the duchess,
+when she established herself in England, did these impressions fade
+away.
+
+The nunnery was all composed of English, most of whom had been driven
+into exile by the adherence of their families to that of Stuart; thence
+it naturally arose that all their ideas of prosperity, happiness,
+splendour and gaiety, were blended with the memory of England. These
+recollections also partook of the colouring thrown around them by the
+joyousness of youth; so that perhaps in no spot of earth had patriotism
+a firmer hold on the human heart than in the English Augustine convent
+at Bruges. There also did King James the Third, as he was ever styled,
+reign without a rival. To every inhabitant of the convent was his
+cause endeared by the sacrifice of friends, of property, of rank, or
+of situation; and all those whose age or disposition inclined them
+to hope, rather than to despond, looked forward with superstitious
+confidence to the time when "the king should enjoy his own again."
+
+It was an additional grief to the Lady Winifred that her sister's vows
+would prevent her ever witnessing the glorious restoration which was
+to take place at some future and unknown period; and it was with a
+feeling of desolation keener than any emotion she had experienced since
+the grief of childhood at her father's death, that she retired for the
+first time to her solitary apartment as one of the pensioners; while
+her sister--her friend, her companion by day and by night--was now a
+professed nun, immured within her narrow cell, and henceforward subject
+to all the rules and regulations of the order.
+
+The Lady Lucy's vocation had been so decided, and her only surviving
+parent's consent so unhesitating, that her noviciate had been
+shortened; and it seemed to Lady Winifred a sudden and violent
+separation.
+
+During the next year, her thoughts, which could no longer be
+communicated as they arose in the hourly companionship of sisterhood,
+turned more frequently than ever towards her native land; her studies
+were all of the glorious deeds of England; she read none but English
+poets; she carolled none but English ballads; and she hailed with joy
+the intelligence that her eldest sister, the Lady Mary, was united to
+the eldest son of Carril Viscount Molineux, and that an alliance was in
+treaty between the Lady Frances and the Earl of Seaforth, for she hoped
+her mother might wish for her society when her sisters were honourably
+disposed of in marriage.
+
+Since she had taken the vows, the Lady Lucy had unavoidably been
+not only less her companion, but moreover the constant practice of
+religious forms and exercises occupied her mind as well as her time.
+She was unable to sympathise with Lady Winifred: her lot was cast
+within her convent walls; and she would have considered it a vain
+and sinful indulgence to let her thoughts wander towards scenes or
+pleasures, which she had renounced. At the age of fifteen, therefore,
+the Lady Winifred's mind had been thrown back upon itself; and it
+gradually acquired a gentle reserve, a mild thoughtfulness, which
+suited well the cast of her features. The placid brow, and the full
+white eyelids,--the rounded cheek, which, except when some sudden
+emotion called up an evanescent bloom, was pale as the white rose
+consecrated to the Jacobite party,--were not calculated to strike at
+first sight; but any one who had once looked upon her, could not choose
+but look again. The dove-like eyes, the lips so full of expression, the
+whole form so aristocratic in its mould, so feminine in its movements,
+so delicate, so fragile,--all were rather like a poet's dream, than
+a being formed to encounter the chances and changes of this rough
+work-day world. Her slender throat gleamed white from the close,
+narrow mantilla of black silk edged with lace, which, according to the
+fashion of the time and country, was closely fastened down the front;
+her soft brown hair was smoothly parted off her brow, and tucked under
+the little white cap, enclosing the back of the head, which is still
+worn in the Low Countries, and which formed part of the dress of the
+young pensioners.
+
+The character, the countenance, the features, and the habit, all seemed
+in unison with each other.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  Hail, Childhood! lovely age, in thy short race
+    Too oft we know our only happy hours.
+  With what fond yearnings later we retrace
+    Each several step in thy sweet path of flowers.
+  The spirit bounding wild, unknowing why,
+  And still expectant of new ecstacy--
+  The little sorrows that to memory seem
+  As 'twere joys undefin'd in some fair dream.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+
+One evening the Lady Winifred was alone in the small and simple
+apartment of which she was now the sole inhabitant; the fading light
+had obliged her to relinquish her employment, and she gazed through the
+narrow grated window as the sun sank behind the bank of purple clouds
+which, in low flat countries, so frequently accompany the decline of
+day. She thought on old Rachael Evans's descriptions of her home, and
+she remained lost in fanciful imaginings, conjuring the masses of
+vapour into the forms of mountains which she had never beheld, when
+she was roused from her meditations by the entrance of the sister
+porteress, who came to announce to her that a messenger from England
+had arrived, and to summon her to the parlour grate.
+
+What were her joy and surprise at recognising old Evans herself, who,
+with a trusty servant, was sent to convey her in safety to London,
+where she would meet her mother, the Duchess of Powis, as she was
+called by all her immediate dependants, although the title conferred
+upon her husband by James the Second was not allowed to her son at the
+court of Queen Anne.
+
+The Lady Winifred listened with even fresh delight to all which Rachael
+Evans could impart respecting her family and her country, though she
+could not but express her surprise that her mother should so suddenly
+command her to her presence.
+
+"Your lady mother may have her reasons," replied the old woman, with a
+mysterious and important air; "and it is likely his gracious majesty
+himself, (Heaven bless and restore him to his own!) may also have his
+reasons for wishing you should not follow your sister's example."
+
+"The king! He cannot surely take any thought of what my fate may be!"
+
+"It is not for me to make so bold as to dive into a king's counsels;
+but it would not be fitting for all the heads of noble Catholic
+families and true Jacobites to be intermarrying with the daughters of
+crop-eared Whigamoors, as many of the young lords have done of late.
+If all the beautiful young ladies of loyal families were to take the
+veil, as the Lady Lucy has done, it would not be the better for the
+true cause. Your fair sister, the Lady Anne, is about to be married to
+the Viscount Carrington; and there may be other nobles as great, or
+greater, whom King James may also wish to see attached to his cause,
+rather than withdrawn from it, by the lady whom they may chance to
+marry."
+
+Lady Winifred was half alarmed at Rachael Evans's insinuations. Love
+and marriage were topics of conversation interdicted by the elder nuns,
+and subjects on which she had never wittingly allowed her thoughts to
+dwell. Yet she could not but collect from various expressions which
+Evans let drop, that some alliance, by which the Jacobite cause might
+be strengthened, was in contemplation for her.
+
+Her thoughts were all duty, submission, and obedience, both towards
+her mother and her king; but her pure and ardent soul recoiled from
+the idea of being condemned to love and honour one of whom she knew
+nothing. She questioned Evans more closely, and extracted from her that
+Colonel Hook had been despatched with credentials from the court of St.
+Germain's, for the purpose of ascertaining the situation, numbers and
+ability of King James's adherents in Scotland; that he had reported the
+Earl of Nithsdale to be a nobleman of much weight and consideration in
+the southern counties, and the head of a Jacobite family; and that he
+was considered by the Chevalier de St. George as a person whom it was
+of great importance to attach firmly to his cause, by uniting him to a
+lady of undoubted loyalty.
+
+The Lady Winifred received this intelligence with tears and sorrow.
+The notion of resistance to the wishes of her superiors never crossed
+her mind as within the scope of possible events; but the prospect
+which unfolded itself before her seemed to her simple, yet ardent
+imagination, awful in the extreme.
+
+"Have you ever seen the Earl of Nithsdale?" she timidly inquired, after
+the long silence which succeeded Rachael Evans's developement of the
+views entertained with regard to her.
+
+"No, my sweet young lady," replied Evans; "but you need not harbour a
+fear that he is other than a good and a noble gentleman. There never
+was a Whig nor a traitor among any of the Maxwells of Caerlaverock. Was
+it not his ancestor, the noble Sir Eustace, who was as true to King
+Robert Bruce, as your own blessed father was to his king? and rather
+than that the enemy should have a chance of turning it into a garrison
+for themselves, did he not, with his own hands, assist in demolishing
+his fair castle of Caerlaverock? The king gave him twenty-two pounds in
+money for this piece of service; and though that sounds little enough
+in these days, they say it was then thought a great sum of money. It
+was his ancestor, Lord Robert, who was killed at the battle of Flodden,
+fighting by King James's side. They always were a noble family, and
+true to their lawful sovereign. It was the first earl who spent all his
+princely fortune in the wars of King Charles the Martyr;--nor would
+he surrender his castles of Caerlaverock and Thrieve, till he had
+received his majesty's own letters commanding him to do so. It may be a
+bold speech for me who am but a servant--though, I am proud to say, a
+trusted one--but I think a young lady should esteem herself honoured to
+ally herself with one descended from such worthy parentage."
+
+The Lady Winifred sighed: she also set a high value upon an honourable
+and noble lineage; that a woman should match herself beneath her
+station appeared to her a shameful degradation. The idea of a Jacobite
+intermarrying with a Whigamoor was as revolting to her imagination as
+to Rachael Evans's; yet she would fain have learned something more of
+her future husband's character, his age, and his appearance.
+
+"But, Evans," she replied, "it sometimes happens that persons of noble
+birth are mean and sordid in their minds, and such that it would be
+difficult to love and honour them, as a wife should love and honour her
+husband, and as I have heard you say my mother loved and honoured my
+father. Oh! I could tell you a sad tale which one of our nuns has often
+told to me, how a friend of hers was married to a great duke, who was
+of the oldest and noblest family in France."
+
+"And was he not noble in mind, as such a great person should ever be?"
+
+"I will repeat it all to you, as sister Margaret has so often told
+it to me, and you will not wonder at my fears:--She was brought up
+in the same convent as Eugénie de St. Mesnil: they were friends from
+childhood; and when Eugénie was removed to her father's house, previous
+to her betrothment, she begged that her friend might be permitted
+to accompany her. One morning they were all dressed in their most
+brilliant apparel,--sister Margaret says that poor Eugénie looked
+more like an angel than a woman,--the relations were assembled, and
+in the adjoining apartment waited the notaries and the family of the
+bridegroom. The folding doors opened:--sister Margaret kept close
+to Eugénie, who stole a fearful glance towards the gentlemen at the
+farther end of the room. She whispered softly to sister Margaret
+'she only hoped it was not he who wore the blue and silver!' The
+future bride and bridegroom were now summoned to sign their names to
+the parchments. Eugénie advanced, and from among the gentlemen she
+indeed saw him who wore the blue and silver step forward, and it was
+he who signed his name with hers. Sister Margaret says, that to her
+dying day she shall never forget the expression of despair in poor
+Eugénie's countenance. At that moment she resolved she would profess
+herself a nun; and the very day which saw Eugénie become a miserable
+wife, sister Margaret returned to her convent. She was soon afterwards
+removed hither, that she might take the veil among others of her own
+country.--Alas! alas! how often have I wished to see my native land;
+and now how much rather would I embrace the fate of sister Margaret,
+than that of Eugénie de St. Mesnil, if I could do so without failing in
+duty to my mother!"
+
+"My dear young lady, you should not listen to these love tales; they
+are almost as bad for young people as reading idle romances and songs."
+
+The Lady Winifred could not suppress a smile. "Nay, dear Evans, I do
+not think my tale has been a tale of love," she replied.
+
+"I dare say sister Margaret's French friend was very happy after a
+while, when she became accustomed to the strange duke."
+
+"Alas! I believe not"--and the young Winifred shook her head. "Sister
+Margaret never would tell me any more of what befel her. She says poor
+Eugénie is at rest, and bids me ask no farther of her history. It was a
+very sad one, she always adds; so sad, that she rejoiced when she heard
+of her friend's death!"
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+      You call this weakness!--It is strength,
+  I say; the parent of all honest feeling!
+  Who loves not his country, can love nothing.
+
+  _The Two Foscari._
+
+Dear as her sister had ever been to the Lady Winifred, never had she
+seemed so dear as at the moment of parting from her for ever: never had
+she so loved the convent garden, which had hitherto been her only place
+of recreation; the cloisters, through which she had so often wandered
+in the twilight; the chapel, where she had so regularly joined her
+companions in devotion. It was with a sensation resembling awe, that
+she bade adieu to the tranquil retreat where she had passed a youth
+unruffled by any grief, if not enlivened by many pleasures, to enter
+upon a career which was destined to call forth feelings as pure and as
+ardent as ever informed mortal clay; feelings which, whatever might
+prove their intensity in after years, now lay dormant under an exterior
+almost child-like in its placidity.
+
+To her unpractised eyes every object was new, every sight interesting.
+The very streets of Bruges were not familiar to her, for she had
+seldom passed the portals of the convent. The town appeared to her
+interminable. So many houses, with their high roofs and their pointed
+gables; the innumerable people, who hurried past each other in every
+direction, intent on business or on pleasure; the various vehicles
+which crowded the streets;--all confused her, and she forgot for the
+moment the grief of parting from her sister, the joyful prospect of
+seeing her mother, her curiosity concerning her native land, and even
+her dread of the husband to whom she was destined.
+
+Uninteresting as was the country between Bruges and Ostend, she looked
+with pleasure at the fields so brightly green, at the hedgerows of
+willow, at the luxuriant crops; at the industrious peasant who still
+toiled at his daily labour, or at the noisy boors who were enjoying the
+relaxation of their favourite game of bowls; at the stout and active
+boys, who almost excited her mirth by their antics as they ran with
+incredible speed by the side of the carriage.
+
+The extreme flatness of the country prevents the traveller from
+becoming aware how near he is to the ocean, till he finds himself
+almost upon the shore. Though overpowered, her first emotion was mixed
+with disappointment. When standing on a level with the sea, the eye
+embraces so much smaller a range than when placed on higher ground,
+that she did not receive that impression of its boundless expanse
+which she had anticipated. Yet the sight of the ocean awakened other
+emotions. She almost felt as if it were part of her native country. She
+had imbued and fed her mind with the history of England's glories--of
+England's triumphs. She felt as if the waters were all tributary to the
+Island Queen; she knew that the navies of England maintained the empire
+of the sea, and she hailed with a feeling of love and reverence the
+waves which washed the white cliffs of Albion--the waves which bore the
+British fleets to conquest and to glory.
+
+It was not till on board the vessel which was to convey her to her
+long-loved though stranger home, and that the first surprise had in
+some degree subsided, that her thoughts were again able to dwell on her
+own future fate.
+
+After a long and thoughtful silence, she thus addressed Evans:--
+
+"It would be impossible that a person who was good should fail to love
+her husband, would it not?"
+
+"A woman's first duty, madam, is towards her husband."
+
+"Then I trust I shall assuredly love the Earl of Nithsdale," she
+replied with a brightened countenance; "for when my confessor parted
+from me, he bestowed on me this little crucifix, which was brought from
+Our Lady's holy convent at Einsiedlin, and giving me his benediction,
+he told me I had been ever a good girl, and that he felt confident
+I should prove myself a virtuous woman. I have felt happier from
+that moment; for since Father Albert says so, I suppose I must prove
+virtuous, and fulfil my duties, whatever they may be."
+
+"I wish her grace, your honoured mother, were present," answered Evans,
+"to hear you speak so beautifully and so properly!"
+
+"But if I should not love Lord Nithsdale, I shall be sinful!" exclaimed
+Lady Winifred with a look of terror.
+
+"Young ladies' minds should not be turned upon such subjects as love:
+it is a word which does not befit a maiden's lips," replied Rachael
+Evans, with an expression of severity in her countenance.
+
+The Lady Winifred was silent and abashed. She feared to have been
+unmaidenly in her questions, and she buried within her own bosom the
+emotions which she could not subdue.
+
+It was long before she again ventured to address her companion. She
+found that years had not softened the old woman's character. She was
+faithfully devoted to the objects of her loyalty--the Herbert family,
+the exiled Stuarts, and after them the mountains of Wales; she did not
+imagine that any doubts or scruples could lawfully interfere where duty
+towards either of the first-mentioned objects was in question.
+
+The Lady Winifred sat watching the waves as they dashed one after
+another against the side of the vessel; she wondered within herself
+to find that the accomplishment of her constant and early wish--the
+prospect of so soon setting her foot on British land--should not give
+her more pleasure. She wished she had remained in ignorance of her
+mother's intentions respecting her, and she felt a certain awe of that
+mother stealing upon her, from finding old Evans so much more stern
+and serious than when she had parted from her. Since that period,
+Evans, who was a privileged person, had been entrusted with many of the
+secrets of the Jacobite party, and had occasionally been of service in
+conveying intelligence between the Duchess of Powis and her friends.
+She had consequently become more and more devoted to the cause, and
+would have resented any difficulty thrown in the way of a Jacobite
+plan as an injury offered to herself. She feared Lady Winifred might
+not blindly submit to the decrees of her mother, and she felt almost
+displeased with her for even wishing to know to whom she was destined.
+But the Lady Winifred was so thoroughly imbued with the principles of
+submission and duty, that resistance to parental authority seemed to
+her impossible: yet her submission would have been that of a mind in
+which the sense of duty was stronger even than the warm and ardent
+feelings of which she in after life gave such signal proofs, not the
+submission of weakness or of indifference.
+
+At length the white cliffs of Albion actually greeted her eyes, and
+she once more forgot herself and all that might await her. What a
+strange and strong tie is that which binds the soul to the land of
+one's forefathers! Her heart went forth towards the very earth: strange
+as it was to her, it seemed familiar: and as the vessel glided up the
+stately river, and passed the ships which bore the riches and the arms
+of England to every region of the habitable globe, she exulted in the
+power and the wealth of her country.
+
+They passed the Tower of London; and little did the fair young
+creature, who gazed with youthful curiosity upon the antique edifice,
+anticipate what she would one day endure within those walls! Little did
+she think, when the Traitor's Gate was pointed out to her awe-struck
+and wondering eyes, that he in whom her own existence was wound up
+would one day mount those dreary steps, and pass that ominous portal.
+
+The duchess's coach was in waiting to convey the Lady Winifred to her
+mother's presence--the Duchess of Powis having undertaken a journey
+to London purposely to receive her daughter: she usually resided in
+retirement at her son's castle in Wales. She did not wish to excite
+suspicion by openly refusing to attend the court of Queen Anne; yet she
+could not bring herself to pay the accustomed homage expected of one of
+her exalted rank, when, in truth, she was devoted to the cause of the
+Chevalier de St. George--when she looked upon Queen Anne as an usurper,
+though, as many others at that time did, she looked upon her in the
+light of an unwilling usurper.
+
+Queen Anne was known to speak with kindness and pity of her exiled
+brother; and she was not regarded by the Jacobites with the same horror
+they had entertained towards Mary, whose want of filial piety afforded
+her enemies a never-failing topic for eloquent invective.
+
+As the heavy coach, with its ponderous horses, conveyed Lady Winifred
+to that part of the town where the Duchess of Powis had for the time
+established herself, her feelings were too much excited to remark upon
+the long, muddy, and unpaved streets, which contrasted so strangely
+with the extreme brilliancy of the shops, and which usually called
+forth the astonishment of those who visited London for the first time.
+
+At length she was ushered into the presence of her who was at once a
+parent and a stranger. She knelt at her feet;--it was her mother's
+hand which was placed upon her head--it was her mother's voice which
+pronounced a blessing over her. The venerable lady embraced her, while
+a tear shone beneath her eyelid. She looked with tenderness upon
+her child--her youngest child, but it was a tenderness mixed with
+reserve and with habitual stateliness. Her mind had been of late years
+turned to matters of secrecy and importance, and her countenance had
+acquired an expression which, while it did not amount to sternness,
+was nearly enough allied to it to awe her young daughter rather than
+to attract her. Her silver hair was parted smoothly from her forehead,
+while a black silk hood, from beneath which appeared a close cap of
+the finest lace, formed her head-dress. Her stature was tall, and
+remarkably erect. She moved and looked the daughter of a long line of
+ancestors--the widow of the true and loyal Duke of Powis--the mother of
+a race of nobles!
+
+The Lady Winifred was presented to many of her relations; and to her
+sisters, the Ladies Seaforth and Carrington, and the Lady Mary Molineux.
+
+All were delighted with the timid and graceful girl, whose heart was
+so ready to receive them, as if she had ever been nurtured among them;
+while the freshness of her mind, her wonder at all she saw, and her
+determination to love and to admire every thing English, rendered her
+as interesting as she was attaching.
+
+The Duchess of Powis did not devote many days to making her daughter
+acquainted with her kinsfolk, but shortly set forth upon her journey to
+Wales; and at length the Lady Winifred's ardent desire to gaze on real
+mountains was likely to be gratified. In the agitations of the last
+few days, and the anticipated delight of visiting Wales, the destined
+husband had been forgotten. Her mother had not alluded to the subject;
+and with the natural buoyancy of early youth, she gave herself up to
+the enjoyment of the moment, and would not look beyond the present
+happiness.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  Peace, brother, peace! Speak not irreverently
+  Of maiden bashfulness; it were to slander
+  The breath of morn--the dew-drop on the bud--
+  The thousand, thousand evanescent sweets
+  That mix in Nature's earliest incense.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+For the first few miles of her journey every step of the way called
+forth from the Lady Winifred fresh expressions of delight; at every
+inequality of the ground, she inquired whether these were yet the
+mountains of Wales, although at the same time she would have been
+disappointed had she received an answer in the affirmative, for her
+imagination had pictured something far more wild and sublime.
+
+By degrees her questions became fewer, her exclamations less frequent.
+It was not that her wonder, or her delight, decreased; it was not that
+her mother was unkind; but there was no sympathy between the artless
+child, (for she was scarcely more than a child in experience,) and the
+aged and serious women, who had arrived nearly at the end of a career,
+in which they had witnessed the overthrow of the monarch to whom they
+were attached, the destruction of the religion they professed, and the
+blasting of the hopes of youth. All that remained of warmth of feeling
+in the Duchess of Powis was concentrated in the desire of once more
+seeing a Catholic king upon the throne; all the energies of a lofty and
+commanding spirit were devoted to that one object.
+
+The innocent wonder, the simple delight of her young daughter, would
+have afforded to many a subject of pleasing interest: but her thoughts
+were upon weightier matters; and to a person engaged in secret
+negotiations for the restoration of a dynasty, such artless graces
+possessed no charm. The Lady Winifred's personal attractions were
+such that there was no reason to fear the Earl of Nithsdale would not
+gladly fulfil the engagement which was desired by his king; from the
+gentleness and duty of her child, no resistance to her wishes could be
+anticipated, and she was satisfied.
+
+The duchess journeyed with her own horses, and from the state of the
+roads in those days there was leisure during their progress for much
+reflection. By the time the dark blue outlines of the mountains became
+visible, the Lady Winifred had learned to subdue her raptures, and to
+resume the staid and sober demeanour which had been usual to her in the
+convent, but which had in some measure given way under the excitement
+of her first arrival in England.
+
+When once established in the castle, of which Lord Powis considered
+his mother as the mistress, and where he himself only occasionally
+resided, the Lady Winifred found her life nearly as monotonous as it
+had been at Bruges. She had the pleasure of looking upon the beauties
+of nature, it is true; but it was only from a distance. The duchess
+would have considered it improper and undignified for her daughter
+to have strayed beyond the terrace which surrounded two sides of the
+castle, or the pleasaunce, which, having been neglected during the
+years that the Herbert family passed in exile, now rather resembled a
+straggling orchard, and, although superior in extent, was very inferior
+in neatness and cultivation to the trim garden of the Augustine convent
+at Bruges.
+
+There were moments when the Lady Winifred looked back with regret to
+her convent life--when she thought with painful tenderness of her
+beloved sister--when she keenly felt the want of congenial companions.
+
+Her mother, serious and abstracted, would sometimes pass whole hours
+in unbroken silence. Seated in her carved arm-chair of black oak, with
+its high back and its velvet cushions, she industriously plied her
+needle at the elaborate piece of carpet-work which had occupied her
+fingers, though not her thoughts, for the last twelve years; while the
+Lady Winifred as patiently toiled at the delicate embroidery, in the
+execution of which persons brought up in foreign convents are usually
+so skilful.
+
+An airing in the ponderous coach, through roads which would now be
+deemed impassable, constituted the only break in the routine of their
+life.
+
+But even then, there was no one to whom she might exclaim upon the
+beauties of the Dovey, the rich interchange of meadow and mountain,
+wood and fields of waving grain, or admire the more majestic glories of
+Cader Idris; which, although inferior in height to Snowdon, strikes the
+eye as being more lofty, from its more abrupt and bolder outline.
+
+The daughter of Rachael Evans had been appointed as the personal
+attendant of the Lady Winifred, and notwithstanding the difference in
+their birth, their condition, and their education, it was not long
+before the high-born Lady Winifred Herbert discovered in the humble Amy
+Evans a spirit as simple, as ardent, as unsophisticated, as her own.
+
+Their young hearts warmed to each other. The want of sympathy in the
+other persons who surrounded her naturally led the Lady Winifred to an
+unconstrained communication with her waiting-woman; which, had Amy's
+mind been stamped in a common mould, might have produced disrespect
+or familiarity, but which, with a soul so true, so frank, as that of
+the Welsh girl, inspired the enthusiastic devotion which subsequently
+proved invaluable to her lady.
+
+The Lady Winifred was one evening summoned from her walk upon the
+terrace, where she was calmly listening to the tinkling of the distant
+sheep-bells, and watching the sun as it gradually sank behind the blue
+mountains.
+
+It was Rachael Evans, whose tall and stately form approached through
+the twilight. From the circumstances before alluded to, she had been
+associated with those in a class above her, till she had acquired
+manners, as well as sentiments, beyond her station. She now wished to
+prepare the Lady Winifred's mind for the unresisting compliance to her
+mother's wishes, which she knew would be expected from her; but she
+was too really well-bred ever to lose, in the freedom of the trusted
+companion, the respect due from a menial to her superiors--while at
+the same time the affection she felt for one whom she had nursed in
+infancy, though it tempered the sternness of her character, was but
+secondary to her devotion to her lady, and the cause her lady had
+espoused.
+
+There was respect, affection, and decision in Rachael Evans's tone as
+she thus accosted Lady Winifred:--"Her grace requests your presence
+in the oak-chamber, madam: she has matters of high importance to
+communicate to your ladyship. You remember, my dear young lady, what I
+once told you, that your honoured mother had chosen for you a gentleman
+of noble lineage and undoubted honour; and I trust that my dear young
+mistress will show herself, as I know she is, a dutiful and grateful
+child."
+
+"Oh, Evans! you do not mean--that my mother is really about to speak to
+me of the gentleman you mentioned--now!--this evening?"
+
+The Lady Winifred clasped her hands and trembled.
+
+"Yes, madam, assuredly is she. And from whom can a young lady more
+properly receive the first intimation of her approaching marriage,
+than from her parent--her only remaining parent? But I thought I would
+prepare you for what you were about to hear, lest you should at first
+look strange upon her grace; and you know full well that the lady
+duchess is not one of those who could brook an undutiful word, or a
+look of disobedience. Ever since his grace's death--Heaven rest his
+soul!--my mistress has been used to rule everything; and nobly has she
+contended with adverse fortune, and well is she entitled to observance
+and respect from all around her!"
+
+"Certainly, Evans. Full well do I know that it is the first duty of a
+child to honour and obey her parents: still I cannot but feel uneasy
+and alarmed."
+
+"Compose yourself, my sweet child. I know you are dutiful, although
+somewhat timid. Do not linger on the way, but hasten to her grace; she
+is in the oak-room,--and see! the tapers are already lighted. Hasten,
+lest the supper may be served, and her grace may not be pleased if you
+are absent."
+
+The Lady Winifred followed old Rachael's injunctions, neither did she
+venture to question her any farther. Though kinder and less stern than
+when she had formerly opened the subject, still Rachael's manner was
+firm and uncommunicative, and she feared to show a curiosity which
+might be deemed forward or unbecoming. In ages and in countries where
+marriages are arranged and contracted by parental authority, love,
+whether lawful or unlawful, is equally treated as a feeling improper to
+be indulged.
+
+With trembling hands the Lady Winifred turned the lock of the high and
+massive door. The apartment was brilliant from the wax tapers in heavy
+silver sconces which illuminated it. The venerable lady was content to
+live in retirement; but though she inhabited only a few rooms of the
+rambling old castle, in those she would not dispense with any of the
+state to which her youth had been accustomed.
+
+She was, as usual, employed upon her carpet-work. How many serious and
+lofty thoughts--how many ambitious, proud, and melancholy feelings--how
+many sad and tender recollections--how many aspiring and loyal
+hopes--had passed through the mind of the noble embroideress, while
+her fingers had been employed in tracing the unconscious leaves and
+fruits!--if unrolled, it would have been to her as a journal of past
+thoughts and feelings!
+
+The Lady Winifred gently closed the door behind her, and timidly
+approached her mother.
+
+"I sent Rachael Evans to bid you hither, my child," said the duchess,
+as Lady Winifred stood before her: "be seated, Winifred; I have much to
+say to you. I have just received a letter from your brother, informing
+me that he will be here to-morrow by mid-day, and with him the Earl
+of Nithsdale, who accompanies him from Scotland. He is a nobleman of
+undoubted loyalty and gallant bearing, and one to whom I shall feel
+proud and happy in committing the welfare of my child. He is to become
+your husband, my dear Winifred; your king, your surviving parent, and
+your brother, have chosen him for you: so prepare yourself to receive
+him with such maidenly attention as may be fitting in one of your noble
+birth."
+
+The Lady Winifred answered not; but the tears stood in her eyes, and at
+length flowed down her cheeks.
+
+"What mean these tears?" resumed the duchess, when she observed them.
+
+"Oh, nothing, madam; only the news is sudden, and I scarcely know----"
+
+"You scarcely know what, my child?"
+
+"I scarcely know how I should comport myself on such an occasion. Is
+he--is the Earl of Nithsdale--a person--such a person--is he a good
+man?" the Lady Winifred faltered forth.
+
+"Assuredly is he. Does my daughter think I would wed her to a person
+who was mean in character--a heretic, a coward, or a profligate? No;
+not even to fulfil the commands of my king would I peril the immortal
+soul of my child!" answered the lady, with a proud reliance on her own
+integrity of purpose.
+
+"Oh, no! my honoured mother, I never imagined such a thing: only----"
+but she durst frame no other question. If in her secret bosom she
+wished to know whether he was in outward appearance, and in manners,
+such as might win a youthful heart, she scarcely ventured to
+acknowledge to herself any anxiety upon subjects concerning which both
+her mother and Rachael Evans had appeared to consider it unbecoming in
+her to inquire.
+
+The Duchess of Powis presently resumed. "The young earl" (the word
+young was not lost upon Lady Winifred) "was at Bruges when your sister
+Lucy took the veil; indeed, he has not been many months returned from
+Flanders. When there, he was fortunate enough to obtain a secret
+interview with our gracious king."
+
+"Did he indeed?" asked Lady Winifred with eagerness; for the loyalty in
+which she had been nurtured invested every thing that appertained to
+the exiled monarch with interest in her eyes.
+
+"Yes; it was when King James was serving in the King of France's army.
+His retinue, alas! was scarcely equal to that of a private gentleman;
+and his gracious majesty was suffering so severely from ill-health,
+that he was shortly obliged to return to St. Germain's; but he received
+the earl most graciously, and accepted his homage and devotion. Colonel
+Hook, who has since been sent from St. Germain's to Scotland, has
+been for some time in communication with the earl, and it is through
+him that the king has expressed a wish that the loyal family of the
+Maxwells should form an alliance with that of the Herberts."
+
+The servant now entered to announce that supper was served, and the
+Lady Winifred offered her supporting arm to conduct her mother into
+the adjoining apartment, although perhaps at that moment the daughter
+more needed a stay to her footsteps than the parent, who was pleased
+and satisfied at the successful termination which she anticipated to
+the plans she had long been forming.
+
+The repast was silent. The Lady Winifred felt as if the gray-headed
+butler and the two serving-men must all be aware that she was a
+destined bride, and she blushed for the agitation which prevented her
+being able to touch any of the viands placed before her.
+
+It was the custom of the ladies to retire to rest soon after supper;
+and when the young girl had carefully folded and arranged all belonging
+to her mother's work, and had dutifully lighted her to her apartment,
+the duchess gave her a more tender and fondling embrace than was usual,
+according to the formal manners of the time, and the cold bearing of
+the person we have described.
+
+This temporary unbending on the part of the parent roused all the
+smothered feelings in the bosom of the daughter.
+
+"Give me your blessing, dearest mother," she exclaimed, with an emotion
+her mother had never yet witnessed: "Bless me before I leave you, and
+pray that I may make a good wife to the stranger I am to marry."
+
+"I do indeed bless you, my good child; nor can I doubt that you will
+prove the virtuous wife that is a crown of glory to her husband. None
+of your race and lineage have failed, nor will you, my gentle daughter.
+Heaven bless you, and preserve you, my Winifred, to be an honour to
+your family and to your sex!"
+
+Amy Evans was surprised, when her young lady had closed the door of her
+sleeping-apartment, to see her suddenly throw herself into a chair and
+burst into convulsive sobs. She was greatly alarmed, and prescribed
+such simple nostrums for hysterics as occurred to her. She knelt by
+her side; she patted her lady's hands; she bathed her temples with
+distilled waters.
+
+"I am not ill, dear Amy! I shall be better in a moment; but--but, I am
+going to be married, Amy!"
+
+"Indeed, my lady! You do not say so? I hope it is to a worthy
+gentleman."
+
+"Oh, yes: my mother says he is in every respect most worthy, and was
+almost angry with me that I could doubt it."
+
+"And is he young?"
+
+"I think the word young escaped my mother's lips."
+
+"And handsome, I hope?"
+
+"Nay, of that I know nothing."
+
+"How! my lady, not know?"
+
+"I have never seen him, and these are questions it would not have been
+fitting for me to ask."
+
+"Oh! I thank my kind stars I am not a lady," exclaimed Amy, "to be
+married to some ugly old man one knows nothing of."
+
+"Alas! is he indeed old and ugly? Oh, Amy! would I were an humble
+country-girl! But," she added, after a moment's pause, with a gentle
+dignity and firmness of resolve--"but, being what I am, I must do that
+which my station requires. I must obey my mother, even though he may be
+as old and as disagreeable as you say."
+
+"Nay, my dear, dear lady, do not look so sad! I know not that he is old
+and ugly; I was only thinking it would be a sore trial to be married
+to some old stranger, when--when----" It was now Amy's turn to blush,
+and to look confused, for she was betrothed to the son of a tenant of
+the Duke of Powis's. "But with you, my lady, it is quite different. Who
+knows but your future husband may prove as dear to you, as--as--David
+is to me?" she added, half-blushing, but half-smiling also, for her
+engagement was an acknowledged thing.
+
+"Perhaps you may have seen him, Amy? He is a friend of my
+brother's,--the Earl of Nithsdale."
+
+"No, my sweet lady, I have never seen him; but the name is a marvellous
+well-sounding name; so do not look sorrowful, but hope for the best.
+If your lady mother has chosen him, and if your brother loves him, why
+should not you love him also?"
+
+"And the king, Amy--the king approves of him, and confides in him; and
+the king wishes for this union!"
+
+"His majesty!" exclaimed Amy with awe; "then it must be right! And
+yet," she added, "I know not how it would fare with me, if the king was
+to send his commands from beyond the seas, that David was not to be my
+husband, but that I was to marry some one he chose for me! Ah, well!
+it is all as it should be! You are a lady, and I am a country maiden;
+and it is all for the best!"
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  His soul is tost sweet hopes and doubts between,
+    And you might almost 'mid these flutterings trace
+  A dear assurance to be lov'd by her;
+    For silence is Love's best interpreter.
+
+  He might, besides, as she drew near, observe
+    O'er all her face a deep vermilion dye;
+  And short and broken, check'd by cold reserve,
+    Her accents of condoling courtesy.
+
+  _Translation from the Italian of Pulci._
+
+The morrow came. The Lady Winifred was pale, more pale than usual. Her
+hands trembled as she toiled at her many-coloured silks; more time was
+spent in disentangling them than in embroidering. Her heart beat at
+every sound: she started every moment. But the duchess was in the habit
+of veiling all emotions under an exterior of imperturbable composure,
+and proceeded with the eternal carpet-work without making one false
+stitch, although she might feel some inward agitation at the prospect
+of presenting her daughter to her future husband, and some joy at that
+of seeing her son, who had been many months absent.
+
+Once or twice she turned her eyes upon her daughter, and secretly
+regretted that she seemed pale and languid, and she even fancied she
+could perceive traces of tears upon her cheek; but she knew that the
+marriage was arranged, and she was certain that a shade more or less of
+beauty in his betrothed would not affect the ultimate success of the
+negotiations with the Earl of Nithsdale. She was confident that the
+Herbert family was too noble to be slighted; and she doubted not that
+the gentleness and virtues of Winifred must attach her husband, even
+should her personal attractions fail to strike him at first.
+
+The Lady Winifred, meantime, thought not of her own appearance. She
+imagined that Lord Nithsdale was as inevitably bound to her as she was
+to him; and her agitation at the notion of first beholding him, and her
+longing desire to see the brother, who was equally a stranger to her,
+swallowed up all personal feelings.
+
+The apartment already described as that usually inhabited by the
+Duchess of Powis was a corner room, and was lighted by windows on two
+sides. Lady Winifred habitually established herself in one of those
+which looked towards the east; it commanded the most extensive view;
+and, moreover, when gazing in that direction, her thoughts o'erleaped
+the space between, and wandered towards the friends and playmates
+of her childhood. From the other, to the south, could be seen the
+approach of travellers from some distance. If her brother only had been
+expected, probably she would have placed herself so as to command a
+view of the road, but now she scarcely ventured to turn her eyes that
+way: she sat with her face bent low over her frame, almost breathlessly
+listening to every sound.
+
+The castle clock struck three. The Duchess of Powis wondered her
+visitors had not yet arrived. She desired her daughter to look out
+towards the southern entrance, and tell her whether she saw any one
+approaching.
+
+"Yes, madam!" answered Lady Winifred, in a voice scarcely audible.
+
+"Well, my child, whom and what do you see?"
+
+"There are four horsemen, madam, riding quickly up the hill."
+
+"Then I imagine we may order dinner to be served," answered the mother,
+who was accustomed to the strictest punctuality. "How near are they?"
+
+"They are even now entering the castle gate;" and Lady Winifred sunk
+on the window-seat, while her eyes became so dizzy she could scarcely
+distinguish anything farther. A vague indistinct recollection of sister
+Margaret's French friend, Eugénie de St. Mesnil, and of the betrothed
+in blue and silver--a confused thought of Amy's expression, "old and
+ugly," ran through her brain--when her mother bade her ring the bell:
+she obeyed; and rallying herself, she returned to the embroidery, which
+she hoped would assist her in recovering from her confusion.
+
+In a few moments footsteps were heard in the adjoining apartment; the
+clank of boots--the sound of voices. The door opened; and the Marquis,
+or, as he was more usually called, the Duke of Powis, advanced to his
+mother, and having kissed her hand, was folded in her maternal embrace;
+while Lady Winifred, having risen mechanically from her seat, stood
+pale and immovable behind her.
+
+"My sister?" inquired the duke.
+
+"Our dear Winifred," replied the duchess; and, to her utter surprise
+and confusion, the Lady Winifred suddenly found herself embraced by a
+bluff, gay, honest-looking man, who was indeed her brother.
+
+"And now, my lady mother, you must allow me to present to you my friend
+and companion, the Earl of Nithsdale, who has been my host for the last
+three weeks, which I have passed with him at Terreagles."
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale, who had hitherto kept in the background, now
+advanced with a graceful and respectful bow to make his obeisances to
+the duchess, who then presented him to her daughter.
+
+The Lady Winifred, startled by her brother's greeting, blushed
+rosy-red. Lord Nithsdale bowed still lower than to the duchess, and for
+a moment gazed upon the fair young thing before him, but as quickly
+withdrew his glance; for, with the nice feeling of a refined mind, he
+perceived, although her eyes were not for one moment raised from the
+ground, that she quivered beneath his gaze.
+
+The parent might have been satisfied with the personal attractions
+of her daughter at this moment. The surprise and the excitement had
+summoned a bloom that gave her all the brilliancy which at times she
+might require. The extreme purity of her expression, and bashfulness of
+her demeanour, suited well with the embarrassing situation in which she
+was placed.
+
+The mid-day repast was announced. The duchess was handed by Lord
+Nithsdale; while the Duke of Powis gave his arm to his shrinking
+sister, who, shy and trembling, scarcely ventured to slightly touch it,
+alarmed to find herself on so familiar a footing with any man, even
+though a brother--she who had scarcely spoken to one of the other sex,
+except good Father Albert.
+
+Had the soft innocent eyes of young Winifred never yet been raised? Had
+she not yet beheld the face of her future lord? When first the door had
+opened, she had stolen a furtive glance--had seen enough to convince
+her that the person who accompanied her brother, if indeed he were
+the Earl of Nithsdale, was neither old nor ugly. But from that moment
+forward they had been riveted to the ground.
+
+The dinner was dull and constrained--how should it have been otherwise?
+Though the Duke of Powis exerted himself to the utmost, and told many
+lively anecdotes concerning his exploits when deer-stalking in the
+Highlands, or salmon-fishing in the Lowlands, his unassisted efforts
+could not succeed in sustaining the conversation. The venerable duchess
+was always stately in her manners: she had lived almost entirely out of
+the world, and had none of the small talk of the day. Lady Winifred,
+of course, could not be expected to speak. Lord Nithsdale, although
+he had read much, travelled far, and although he had seen much of the
+world in general, felt that in his situation, also, light and flippant
+conversation would be out of season; and upon subjects of nearer
+interest, of deeper anxiety, whether personal or political, they could
+none of them touch while surrounded by attendants.
+
+When, however, they adjourned to the pleasaunce, they were able to
+communicate more freely.
+
+The Duke of Powis imparted to the duchess all that Colonel Hook had
+told them of the Chevalier's hopes and fears; of all the promises of
+assistance which were held out to him by Louis the Fourteenth; of all
+the pledges of devoted attachment to the cause which he had received
+from the various nobles and lairds of Scotland.
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale qualified his friend's hopeful view of the case,
+by mentioning the divisions which, in consequence of Colonel Hook's
+mismanagement, had arisen between the more zealous partizans, including
+the Dukes of Athol and of Perth, who were for at once receiving the
+king without any conditions, and the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl
+Marishal, and others, who adopted more moderate principles.
+
+The Lady Winifred cowered close to her mother; but once or twice,
+attracted by the deep, low, earnest tones of his voice, as he feelingly
+deplored these disunions, which he feared might prove the destruction
+of all their hopes, she found her eyes involuntarily turn towards the
+speaker; and once--once only--he surprised them fixed upon him.
+
+Confused and shocked at herself, she hastily withdrew them, and from
+that instant found herself, all loyal Jacobite as she was, totally
+incapable of listening to the chances of success which attended the
+plans in agitation, but wholly occupied in wondering what must have
+been the Earl of Nithsdale's impression of her boldness, in having
+ventured thus to gaze upon him, and fearing he must necessarily have
+formed a very unfavourable opinion of her.
+
+This was a great change! She was little aware herself that the
+subject of her anxiety had so completely shifted its ground, from the
+impression he might make on her, to that which she might make on him.
+
+The Lady Winifred found the young Amy awaiting her with impatience in
+her chamber. "I have seen him, my dear lady--I have seen him!" she
+exclaimed with eagerness; "and if he is but as good as he is comely,
+why there is no harm in leaving it to one's king and one's parents to
+choose for one. I am so overjoyed to think my dear mistress may be as
+happy as she deserves to be! for you never could have been happy, my
+lady, if they had married you to such a husband as I had fancied in my
+own mind.--But you do not look half pleased, madam! Think you he is not
+so worthy a gentleman?" inquired Amy with a tone of alarm.
+
+"Oh, yes, Amy; I do not think any one with such a voice could be other
+than most excellent and most gentle!"
+
+"And it seemed to me, madam, as he was walking in the pleasaunce, that
+he had the goodliest eye-brows!--so black, and so straight! And yet he
+did not look as though he were stern."
+
+"I believe not;--but indeed I scarcely ventured,--I was
+fearful--lest----"
+
+"And then every time you turned at the end of the broad walk, he bowed
+with such grace and respect to your honoured mother, it did one's heart
+good to see; for it seemed as though he would make a dutiful son to
+her, as well as a good husband to you."
+
+"Oh, Amy! I cannot think it possible he should ever be my husband."
+
+"Why, I thought, madam, he was come here on purpose."
+
+"He never can think of me, I am sure! so wise, so noble as he is! And
+I who know nothing, and have seen nothing--I never can make him a wife
+such as would be worthy of him!"
+
+"And if you are not worthy to match with any earl, or duke, or prince
+in the wide world, my lady, I do not know who is--good, sweet,
+gentle, beautiful, and noble as you are!" exclaimed Amy, with a burst
+of enthusiasm which almost resembled indignation at her lady for
+undervaluing herself.
+
+"Oh, no! Amy, not beautiful! I never thought before how much more
+beautiful my dear sister Lucy is than I am!"
+
+"Nay, my dear, dear lady, I have often heard my mother say the Lady
+Lucy may be taller, and may have more colour in her cheeks, but that
+for real beauty her features are not near equal to yours; and as for
+the Lady Carrington, or the Lady Mary, or----"
+
+"Stop, stop, Amy! I must not listen to such flatteries! What would
+Father Albert say, if he knew I was listening to such sinful vanities
+as praises of personal beauty, and that I was listening to hear myself
+preferred before my sisters? Oh, no! It is not thus I may make myself
+worthy of him who is to be my lord, if indeed he can condescend to such
+as I am."
+
+"Oh, my sweet mistress! you are only too good. Bear with me, my lady,
+and I hope in time I may learn to be something like you. But indeed it
+hurts me to hear you speak so humbly and so sadly: I am sure that every
+time you dropped behind, I saw the earl slacken his pace, and steal a
+look to see if you were there."
+
+"Did he, indeed?" said the young Winifred; but, checking herself,
+she added, "but now I will to my prayers. Alas! I wish Father Albert
+were here! I feel as if I had much need of confession, and of ghostly
+counsel; and yet I do not know what sin I have committed which seems
+to weigh so heavily upon me. My mind is bewildered. It is so very long
+since I have confessed! I wonder what Father Albert would say!"
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ His affection was of a very extraordinary alloy,--a composition of
+ conscience, and love, and generosity, and gratitude, and all those
+ noble affections that raise the passion to its greatest height.
+
+  _Clarendon's Life._
+
+On the following morning, after some private conversation between the
+duchess, her son, and the Earl of Nithsdale, the Lady Winifred was
+summoned to the oak-chamber, where her mother formally taking her hand,
+placed it in that of the earl. They both knelt before her to receive
+her blessing; and though as yet they had never addressed one word to
+each other, they rose from their knees, their faiths mutually plighted.
+
+Such marriages have often been contracted, and sometimes they may have
+proved as well assorted as those in which the choice of the individuals
+has been more consulted; but it has seldom occurred that hearts have so
+sincerely acquiesced in the vows dictated by others as on this occasion.
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale was approaching the age of thirty. He had visited
+Paris, he had travelled in Italy, he had passed some time in Germany.
+There was a singularity in the eye-brows, whose darkness had already
+attracted Amy's notice, and the clear but melancholy blue eyes which
+they shaded, in the pale complexion, and the expression of sadness
+about the mouth, which had proved irresistible to many a foreign fair
+one. He had often won unwooed the hearts of those Parisian belles,
+who were not devoted to the dreary court decorum prevalent during the
+reign of Madame de Maintenon; while many of the more glowing beauties
+of Italy had absolutely courted the favour of the young Englishman,
+and many a sentimental German seemed ready to yield her heart, almost
+before he could lay siege to it.
+
+In his early youth he had not failed to profit by the advances which
+were thus made to him; but his was not a character which could long
+find pleasure in such conquests. He had an innate preference for
+virtue and purity; his disposition was naturally enthusiastic and
+contemplative. The gay, the thoughtless, passing attachments to which
+we have alluded, were not in unison with his mind. The sprightly
+Parisian was too volatile to make any lasting impression on such a
+heart, the Italian too little refined, the German too easily won;
+so that, though he had passed the first flush of youth, his real
+affections were still unhackneyed.
+
+He had accidentally found himself at Bruges when the Lady Lucy
+pronounced her vows, and was one of the assembly who crowded the church
+to witness the ceremony. Lady Winifred had been pointed out to him
+among the convent pensioners, as being sister to the young nun; and he
+had then remarked upon the innocence and purity of her countenance,
+and had thought within himself how much more attractive was such an
+expression than all the graces and fascinations which are meant to
+allure.
+
+If there is any foundation of virtue in the heart of a man, the more he
+has been thrown with the less respectable part of the sex, the more he
+has been exposed to their allurements, the more highly does he prize
+entire innocence when he meets with it, and the more strict is his line
+of demarcation between the modest, and those in whose conduct there may
+be any touch of levity. It might almost be taken as a touchstone of
+the original disposition, whether or not, through all the errors into
+which man, when tempted, is liable to fall, he yet preserves a quick
+perception of genuine purity, and also retains a taste and a veneration
+for it. Whatever may have been his aberrations, there is always hope
+that such a one will return to the path of virtue.
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale, however, was not one who had ever been
+completely carried away in the vortex of dissipation. He had still
+cherished within his mind an ideal model of perfection, which had
+preserved him from yielding up his affections to any of the fair
+creatures who fluttered around him. He had always resolved that the
+woman to whom he should unite himself should be pure as the unsunned
+snow, with mind, soul, and affections fresh and unpolluted.
+
+It was, therefore, willingly that he entered into the alliance urged
+by the agent of his master--a master towards whom he inherited loyalty
+with the blood which flowed in his veins, and to whom, since his
+interview with him in Flanders, he felt additionally bound by every tie
+of romantic honour.
+
+Lord Nithsdale had sought that interview with all the feelings of
+enthusiasm naturally inspired by the circumstance of the young prince
+so gallantly entering the King of France's army. He was then saddened
+at the appearance of ill-health visible in the Chevalier, and he was
+disheartened by perceiving how poorly he was attended. These facts,
+unpromising as they were, affected his hopes of success, but they did
+not lessen the interest he felt for the royal exile. The divisions
+among the Chevalier's adherents, consequent upon Colonel Hook's
+imprudent neglect of the more moderate Jacobites, who were not prepared
+rashly and unconditionally to yield the hard-earned liberties of their
+country into the hands of a restored monarch, portended, to a person
+who was not of a sanguine temperament, the ill-success which attended
+the attempt of 1707, but it did not for a moment affect his allegiance.
+
+This despondent, yet devoted loyalty threw over his whole demeanour
+a tinge of melancholy, which was calculated to render him only more
+interesting in the eyes of a young girl; and she soon learned to watch
+with anxiety the varying expression of his brow, and to hail with joy
+the smile which her presence invariably called forth.
+
+His affection for her was a mingled feeling of almost parental care and
+protection, with a punctilious respect, excited by her innocence and
+her noble birth.
+
+She had been brought up to honour and to obey; and the love to which
+she gladly and dutifully yielded every faculty of her soul, evinced
+itself in a thousand actions of almost filial reverence. She was
+unaccustomed to the common attentions mechanically granted by the other
+sex, and unconsciously received by those who have lived in the world;
+and he sometimes smilingly checked her when she stooped for her own
+roll of silk, or performed for herself and others a thousand little
+services, which, in former days especially, were exacted not only from
+a lover, but from all gentlemen towards all ladies.
+
+When, however, they occasionally found themselves alone, a circumstance
+of rare occurrence, then her instinctive inborn nobleness and modesty
+made her for the time assume, unknown to herself, the dignity of
+demeanour befitting one of her rank and station. She was no longer the
+timid and affectionate girl, only watching to forestall the wishes of
+him to whom she owed duty and allegiance; but the high-born damsel,
+whose gentle purity was more awful in its simplicity than the frown of
+another.
+
+The novelty of such a character--the contrast it afforded to those
+which he had previously met with--the unusual mixture of perfect
+confidence in her entire affection for himself, and of perfect
+certainty that a few weeks would make her his wedded wife, with the
+fear of alarming the shrinking bashfulness of one nurtured in such
+utter seclusion,--the desire of winning the unreserved confidence of a
+creature accustomed to reveal the secret workings of her innocent soul
+to her confessor alone, and the pleasure of gently insinuating himself
+into her heart of hearts,--gave a new and singular character to this
+courtship. His own soul seemed to grow fresh, young, and pure by the
+study of hers. He enjoyed once more all the simple tastes and pleasures
+of childhood, which had long ceased to charm him; and he hailed with
+as much delight, as in some cases a lover would the confession of
+reciprocal affection, any detail of the youthful amusements of her
+convent life which he could succeed in luring her to describe.
+
+It was seldom, however, that she spoke herself. She loved to sit
+in her own accustomed and retired seat, apparently occupied with
+her embroidery, while she gave up her whole soul to the rapture of
+listening to his voice, and of drinking long draughts of the new
+and absorbing passion which it was become her duty to feel. If, as
+not unfrequently happened, he addressed himself to her, and asked
+her opinion, her feelings, upon the subject which might be under
+discussion, she started as from a reverie; and unless it was one which
+touched upon some matter of morality, of religion, or of loyalty, she
+could give no opinion, for in truth she had none. She listened for
+the pleasure of hearing his full, sweet, mellow voice; of learning
+his sentiments; and of sometimes stealing an occasion of dwelling
+unobserved upon the countenance, which, in her eyes, beamed with all
+that was noble and intellectual.
+
+On the day preceding that on which the marriage ceremony was to be
+performed by a Catholic priest in the chapel of Poole Castle, the
+Duchess of Powis gave her daughter some of the sage maternal counsel
+which was to fit her to become a virtuous wife, and the head of a noble
+household, at a period when the duties of housewifery really devolved
+upon the mistress.
+
+"Be seated, my dear Winifred, and listen to me attentively. You are
+now about to enter upon a mode of life entirely new to you; you will
+have no one to guide and direct you."
+
+"Oh! madam! think you my lord is likely to be called away from me so
+soon?"
+
+"No, my child; it is not on that account I speak, unless indeed our
+gracious master should carry his proposed landing into effect; in such
+a case you would not be a degenerate daughter of the house of Herbert,
+but you would wish your husband to be among the first who flock to the
+standard of our rightful sovereign. But though no such paramount duty,
+to which all others must yield, should call him from your side, there
+are many points connected with your household arrangements in which you
+must act and judge for yourself. Of course, should any circumstance
+occur on which there should be a diversity of opinion between yourself
+and your husband," (the Lady Winifred looked up in her mother's face
+with an expression of unfeigned astonishment,) "remember, Winifred,
+that on such occasions it will be your duty to submit, whether your
+reason is convinced or not."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"Is what possible, my child?"
+
+"Is it possible, madam, that I should ever hold an opinion contrary to
+my lord's?"
+
+"Such things have occurred," resumed the duchess, while a transient,
+almost imperceptible smile passed over her lips. "When you have lived
+more in the world, you may perhaps acquire wishes and sentiments of
+your own. Should subjects of dispute arise----"
+
+"Oh! madam!"
+
+"Remember, it is the wife's duty to yield; and remember, that a soft
+word turneth away wrath."
+
+The duchess had proceeded so far with her advice, because she had ever
+deemed it right thus to admonish each of her daughters before they
+entered into the marriage state, when the Lady Winifred exclaimed with
+tears in her eyes--
+
+"Oh! my dearest mother! surely you have not seen in me any signs of
+wilfulness! Heaven knows my heart is all submission towards him to whom
+it has pleased you and my sovereign to unite my destiny. Heaven is my
+witness," she added, clasping her hands, "that I honour him--that I
+revere him, (saving yourself, madam, and Father Albert,) second to
+nothing under Heaven! And to-morrow, mother--to-morrow, I suppose,
+I may honour him first of all created beings!" She turned her soft
+and tearful eyes to Heaven with an expression of such enthusiastic,
+such sublime devotion--though the devotion was not at the moment
+all religious, that the duchess looked upon her for a space in mute
+astonishment.
+
+"You are a strange girl," at length she said; "so silent, so reserved,
+and yet so ardent:" and the mother, who had been too much occupied with
+other thoughts to study the real character concealed under the gentle,
+unobtrusive deportment of her child, was surprised and perplexed at
+this unexpected burst of feeling.
+
+After a pause she resumed. "And there is another thing which I have
+never failed to impress upon your sisters, which is, that however
+exalted may be a woman's rank, however ample her husband's fortune,
+she should not disdain to be the diligent housewife as well as the
+high-born lady. I have in this small clasped book a collection of
+family receipts, which I wish you to study carefully, and which
+you will find of infinite service. They descended to me from my
+grandmother, her grace of Somerset; and our family have always been
+renowned for our almond comfits and our spiced cakes. Amy Evans can
+assist you, for she has learned to compose these condiments under our
+faithful Rachel."
+
+The Lady Winifred with gratitude and humility received from her
+mother's hand the small green book with silver clasps which contained
+these valuable documents. The duchess continued: "In uniting you to
+one of the Maxwell blood, I need scarcely fear for your principles of
+loyalty. There can be no doubt that, born of the Herberts, and married
+to a Maxwell, you will live and die true to the king of your ancestors.
+And now, my dear child, may a merciful Providence grant that, firm in
+the faith in which you have been brought up, you may live a virtuous,
+if not a happy life, and that you may die the death of the righteous!"
+
+The Lady Winifred knelt; and her mother having thus advised her upon
+conjugal, economical, political, and religious subjects, kissed her
+fair child's forehead, and they retired to rest.
+
+The next day witnessed the vows of the betrothed pair; and they shortly
+afterwards took up their abode at the Earl of Nithsdale's castle of
+Terreagles, in Dumfriesshire.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  The realm from danger to secure,
+    To foreign aid we cry;
+  With papists and non-jurors join
+    To keep out popery.
+
+  _Whig Song._
+
+In the mutual affection which subsisted between herself and her lord,
+the Countess of Nithsdale would now have enjoyed happiness, as perfect
+and as unalloyed as mortals may look for here below, had not the public
+affairs of the time been to both a subject of deep interest and anxiety.
+
+The party of the Chevalier de St. George was strong in Scotland. The
+people in general were disaffected to the government in consequence
+of the Union: a measure against which many signed a protest, which
+was presented by the Duke of Athol; and a measure which, in the
+eyes of many Scotchmen, appeared contrary to the honour, interest,
+and constitution of their country, the birthright of the peers, the
+privileges of the barons and boroughs, and to the claim of right,
+property, and liberty of the subject.
+
+While such feelings tended to produce discontent among all orders, the
+regular troops, under the Earl of Leven, did not exceed 2500 men, many
+of whom upon the landing of the Chevalier would most probably have
+joined him. The castle of Edinburgh was destitute of ammunition; and if
+it had surrendered, the Jacobites would have found themselves masters
+of a considerable sum of money.
+
+The King of France, with the view of making a diversion from the
+Netherlands, and of occupying Queen Anne with disturbances at home,
+had granted considerable assistance to the Pretender. A squadron was
+assembled at Dunkirk under the Chevalier de Fourbin, and a body of land
+forces was embarked under M. de Gace: James was furnished with services
+of gold and silver plate, sumptuous tents, splendid liveries, and all
+sorts of necessaries, even to profusion. Louis had presented him with
+a sword studded with diamonds, and had repeated to him the same words
+with which he had dismissed his father,--that the kindest wish he could
+express towards him was, "that he might never see him again."
+
+The Scottish nobles but awaited the moment of the Chevalier's landing
+to rise simultaneously in his favour: though outwardly all was quiet,
+they were on the tip-toe of expectation, when the active measures taken
+by Queen Anne, the vigilance of Sir George Byng, who intercepted the
+squadron before it could reach Edinburgh, and the wind, which prevented
+its ever arriving at Inverness, rendered vain all their hopes and fears.
+
+The Chevalier, after having been tost upon the seas during a month of
+tempestuous weather, returned to Dunkirk; and Sir George Byng sailed up
+the Leith road to Edinburgh, for the purpose of receiving the freedom
+of the city which he had delivered from impending danger.
+
+Thus ended the Chevalier de St. George's first, and almost ridiculous,
+attempt to recover the throne of his ancestors.
+
+To the Earl of Nithsdale this period had been one of no common
+anxiety: he was too well aware of the dissensions which Colonel Hook's
+imprudence had produced among the Chevalier's most faithful partisans,
+to feel confident of the result under any circumstances; and he knew
+that till the king was actually in Scotland, and was himself a rallying
+point for all his adherents, nothing but mischief could accrue from
+any movement among his friends. He had therefore so conducted himself
+as to escape the notice of government: his disappointment was great
+when he found that a moment, in many respects so favourable for the
+Jacobite cause, had been allowed to escape; but far greater was his
+mortification at finding the monarch to whom he had devoted himself
+could be so easily persuaded to return to dependence on the court of
+France; and his fears for the future affected him still more deeply
+than his vexation at the failure of the present attempt.
+
+His young wife also grieved at the dispersion of their cherished hopes;
+but to her, the object of real and deep anxiety was her husband.
+Sometimes, when, with folded arms, he would gaze vacantly upon the
+blazing fire, his dark brows knit, his lips compressed, his mind
+absorbed in sad retrospections and melancholy forebodings, the un-read
+book would fall upon her knee, or the needle drop from her hand, as she
+watched the expression of his face. On one occasion, when he caught
+her eyes thus fixed upon him, a kind but passing smile illumined his
+countenance; and addressing her with the low and mellow voice which
+first made her maiden heart his own,--"My gentle Winifred," he said,
+"you have exchanged a calm and peaceful home, beloved and cheerful
+friends, the sister of your affections, and all the joyous carelessness
+of youth, for an unsettled country, a troubled land, and a gloomy
+husband--who hates himself, dearest, when he thinks his thoughtfulness
+and his abstraction can cast a shade of care over that smooth and
+tranquil brow----"
+
+"Oh my dear lord!" she exclaimed, as she looked up at him, her eyes
+half filled with tears.
+
+Lord Nithsdale continued,--"Or that his moody silence can bring tears
+into those dear eyes!" and seating himself beside her, he pressed her
+slender hand in his.
+
+"It is not his silence, but my beloved lord's kind words, that have
+brought tears into these foolish eyes. I can scarce believe that one so
+far above me in wisdom and in knowledge--one whose mind is engrossed by
+subjects of such moment, can take so much thought for such an ignorant
+child as I am. I often regret my convent education; for I feel, my
+lord, that I can be no companion to you; and in these times especially,
+when----"
+
+"Wish not yourself other than you are, my love! It is that purity, that
+heavenly innocence, that confiding simplicity, which render you in my
+eyes so immeasurably superior to all the far-famed beauties of this, or
+any other land. What are their charms, their wit, their talents, their
+learning, their acquired attractions, to that pure blush which even now
+mantles my own sweet Winifred's cheek, to hear her praises, though from
+a husband's lips?"
+
+And Winifred was happy; for she found that in truth her unobtrusive
+affection, her gentle cares, could alone dispel the gloom which hung
+over that beloved husband.
+
+Time, however, changed the nature of his regrets. Lord Nithsdale's
+clear understanding could not fail to perceive that his country was
+quiet, prosperous, and glorious under the rule of its present monarch;
+and the doubt would cross him whether it were the act of a true patriot
+to favour the pretensions of one who must necessarily overturn much of
+what tended to promote that prosperity.
+
+Still, was he not by birth a Jacobite? a Catholic? and therefore bound
+from motives of religion to support a Catholic claimant to the throne?
+Moreover, had he not, in his romantic interview with the Pretender,
+pledged himself personally to his service? It was too late to retract!
+If any attempt were renewed in his favour, he could not but join in
+it. Yet the consciousness of being bound in honour to a cause of which
+his reason could not thoroughly approve, oppressed him with a sense of
+care--almost of guilt.
+
+He was a man who wished strictly to act as honour and as duty might
+dictate, and he was not carried away by eager hopefulness, or by
+ambition, or by passion. He saw and balanced so nicely the reasons
+and arguments on both sides, that he was apt to be dissatisfied with
+himself; sometimes to think he was guilty of a dereliction of duty
+towards his lawful sovereign, when his clear judgment forced upon him
+the thriving condition of his country; at others, to feel that he
+was perhaps ready to sacrifice the real good of thousands to his own
+private notions of personal honour.
+
+The Lady Nithsdale, with never-failing gentleness, soothed these
+wayward feelings, if wayward they may be called, which were so natural
+to a conscientious man in times such as those we treat of. She would
+chase away his gloom by light and playful converse; she would gather
+around him their friends and neighbours, and lure him to forget his
+careful thoughts in the pleasing duties of hospitality; or she would
+draw his attention to the gambols of their children, the young Lord
+Maxwell and the little Lady Anne, and lead him to join in their sports,
+and thus lose the sense of the conflicting duties which pressed so
+heavily upon his mind. He was always, and at all times, the object
+of her thoughts; and the earl in return hung on her as his stay, his
+support, his consolation.
+
+The bond of their mutual affection thus became more firmly knit than
+if their lives had passed in an uninterrupted flow of happiness. The
+affection which is wearied by sadness, or falls off in sorrow, is one
+which has taken but shallow root in the heart.
+
+It is perhaps to the credit of human nature, that misfortune is not
+the trial under which mutual attachment so frequently gives way as
+under that of unbroken prosperity. When there is any groundwork of
+tenderness, the sight of the object of that tenderness in sorrow, in
+sickness, or in suffering, endears it more and more. The attention is
+fixed; the thoughts are occupied: affection is called into action;
+it is not allowed to drop into a slumber, which sometimes ends in
+lethargy. The enduring love of wives to wayward husbands, the exceeding
+fondness of some husbands for capricious wives, may thus be accounted
+for. How natural was it, then, that an anxious and thoughtful temper,
+produced by conscientious scruples, devoted loyalty, romantic honour,
+and disinterested patriotism, should concentrate upon her husband every
+feeling of a soul which, like the Countess of Nithsdale's, was made up
+of duty and of tenderness!
+
+The imprudent boldness with which many Jacobites professed their
+principles and their attachment to the Pretender was to Lord Nithsdale
+a source of much vexation. The Duchess of Gordon sent the faculty of
+advocates a silver medal, representing on one side the Chevalier de
+St. George, and on the reverse the British islands, with the motto
+"Reddite." The duchess was thanked for having presented them with a
+medal of "their sovereign lord the king;" and a confident hope was
+expressed that her grace would soon have an opportunity of offering
+them a second medal, struck upon the "restoration of the king and royal
+family, and the destruction of usurping tyranny and whiggery."
+
+This whole proceeding was afterwards disowned by the faculty, and
+by a solemn act they declared their attachment to the queen and the
+Protestant succession. But such uncalled-for boldness, such weak
+retracting of daring imprudence, in the opinion of Lord Nithsdale,
+augured ill for the cause to which he was bound. Such conduct could in
+no wise forward the hopes of his master, and it only served to keep the
+country in an unquiet and disturbed state.
+
+He disapproved of the measures of his party; and consequently he kept
+himself somewhat retired at Terreagles, associating more with his
+immediate neighbours than courting political connexions. With the
+Earl of Derwentwater alone he kept up a constant and confidential
+intercourse. They together deplored the infatuation of some of their
+friends: in loyalty and patriotism each found in the other a spirit
+congenial to his own.
+
+Lord Nithsdale's visits to London, or to Edinburgh, were rare; and
+no change occurred to mark the lapse of years, unless we may note
+that which took place in the bearing of Amy Evans. She was still,
+as before, high in her lady's favour, who regarded her more in the
+light of a confidential, though humble friend, than merely as a
+waiting-woman. Indeed, Amy in her childhood had been admitted as
+play-fellow and associate to the daughter of an old cavalier who
+resided in the neighbourhood of Poole Castle, and from her youthful
+intercourse with Mrs. Mellicent Hilton, she had acquired a tone of
+feeling somewhat superior to those in her station of life.
+
+Lady Nithsdale could not but remark that the laughing eyes which once
+sparkled with merriment were now dull and spiritless, and that the
+ruddy cheek had lost its bloom. When she sought the chamber where her
+maidens were employed at their needle, she no longer heard the clear
+voice of Amy, who used to enliven the light labours of her companions
+with the ditties she had learned in her childhood. Her gay laugh no
+longer pealed cheerily on the ear. Lady Nithsdale attributed the change
+which had gradually stolen over the demeanour of her dear Amy Evans to
+her separation from her lover.
+
+"You are sad, dear Amy," she one day remarked to her; "but I think
+I have news that will call up the bloom on those pale cheeks, and I
+shall hear your old Welsh songs carolled with fresh glee. The farm
+of Hetherstone is vacant now, and my lord proposes that David should
+become his tenant;--and then I suppose I must make Jeannie Scott my
+'tirewoman!"
+
+"Alas! my gracious mistress, not unless your ladyship is weary of the
+services of poor Amy Evans. I trust that I can still diligently ply my
+needle, and that I can arrange your ladyship's head-gear with as neat a
+hand as Jean Scott at the least."
+
+"Nay, you have been a diligent and careful servant to me, Amy, and I
+shall love to see you as careful and diligent a wife; and when I visit
+you in your home, I shall once more see your merry eyes sparkle as they
+used to do."
+
+"No, madam, those days are gone by for me. You shall ever find me a
+true and faithful servant, but I shall never be a wife."
+
+"And what will David do without a housewife to see to his dairy, to
+bake his bread and his bannocks, and to trim his hearth, and keep all
+neat and seemly around him?"
+
+"He needs not me for a housewife, madam: he has found one, more to his
+taste, these six months back. He was married, madam, last Lammas-tide;"
+and, though her hands trembled, she still proceeded in the composition
+of the spiced comfits which her lady had come to overlook.
+
+"Oh! my poor Amy! And is this true? Can men really be so false?"
+
+"Indeed can they, madam. And I am not the first girl who has been
+slighted: they all tell me so! But I always held myself high; and it is
+no comfort to hear how, when his wedding morning came, Donald M'Rae was
+nowhere to be found; or how Jockie Smith deserted Kate Armstrong, after
+he had broken a gold piece with her; or how Mary Morrison pined herself
+to death for the loss of Jamie Elliot. But I am not one to pine myself
+to death! David's wife shall never hear that Amy Evans had so mean a
+spirit; no, she shall hear of me cheerful, and contented, madam. And
+why should I not be so, when I have such a good, kind lady, whom I love
+better--ay, better than I once did David himself!" And now the tears
+rained fast from her eyes, which Nature seemed to have intended should
+only express sprightliness and warm affection. "But, I beseech you,
+madam, speak not to Jean Scott or to Annie Bell of my griefs. They have
+never yet seen me weep, and I would not have them know that David's
+falsehood had wrung tears from me. I shall not feel it so much after a
+while, my lady! And when all is said and done, where could I ever be
+so happy as with my kind, my honoured mistress? So you will never say
+anything more, my lady, of making Jean Scott your 'tirewoman?"
+
+"Oh no! dear Amy; I should never, never like any one about me so well
+as you!"
+
+"I thought so, my lady; and I told Jean Scott I was sure you would
+never turn me off, though she prides herself so upon her taste, and the
+nimbleness of her fingers, and is always throwing out that the time
+will come when she will have my place!" And Amy was half consoled for
+the loss of David, when she had ascertained that she retained the same
+hold on her mistress's affections. Since the blight which had fallen on
+her first and early love, she valued the favour of her lady above all
+other earthly goods, and watched over it with the jealous tenderness of
+a lover.
+
+Her secluded education, and her own early marriage to so honourable a
+man, had prevented the Countess of Nithsdale's having ever witnessed,
+much more having ever experienced, the caprice and infidelities of the
+other sex. She had heard and read of them, as of matters undoubtedly
+true, but as never likely to come under her own immediate cognizance;
+and she was astonished at Amy's treating a lover's desertion of his
+mistress as an event of common occurrence. She wondered still more that
+pride should, in a low-born country maiden's heart, almost overbalance
+the more instinctive feeling of love. That a noble damsel should resent
+any slight was indispensable to her birth and breeding; and the proud
+blood of the Herberts mantled in her cheeks at the mere imagining such
+a case. But she thought, had she been lowly born, pride could never
+have sustained her under so cruel a blow. She forgot that, in all ranks
+alike, each feels the eyes of his equals upon him,--that the lowest,
+as well as the highest, have their world, before whom to blush is
+degradation.
+
+It was not that the gentle Lady Nithsdale was haughty in her nature;
+the affection which subsisted between herself and Amy sufficiently
+proved the contrary; but as she was imbued with the divine indefeasible
+right of kings, so was she with the innate inherent nobility of an
+ancient family.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  The virtue of her lively looks
+    Excels the precious stone,
+  I wish to have none other books
+    To read or look upon.
+
+  The modest mirth that she doth use
+    Is mixed with shamefacedness.
+
+  _Attributed to Lord Rockford,
+    Anne Boleyn's brother._
+
+Although they differed widely in politics, the Duke of Montrose was one
+of the persons whom Lord Nithsdale looked upon as a true patriot, and a
+young man of great promise. He was the grandson of the great marquis,
+and had been by Queen Anne lately raised to the dignity of Duke of
+Montrose.
+
+The family of the Earl of Nithsdale was, through Douglas, Earl of
+Moreton, nearly connected with that of the duke; and also, through
+the marriage of Lord Nithsdale's sister, the Lady Mary Maxwell, to the
+Earl of Traquhair, with that of his young duchess, the Lady Christian
+Carnegie, daughter to the Earl of Northesk.
+
+This double connexion had assisted to foster a friendship, which the
+opposite tendency of their political opinions might otherwise have
+prevented from attaining maturity; and consequently, when the young
+Duke of Montrose first brought his fair bride and cousin into Scotland,
+he failed not to present her to a family with which they were mutually
+connected.
+
+The duke was a zealous supporter of the Protestant succession, and was
+at that period high in favour with Queen Anne. His youthful wife had
+shone as one of the most brilliant stars at her court; and gay, lovely,
+and volatile, she had not failed to adopt the style and manners then
+in vogue; she was esteemed the most modish lady about the court; the
+furbelow of her petticoat was no sooner seen than it was copied; her
+commode attracted all eyes, the jaunty air of her hoop was envied by
+all the sex, and she no sooner appeared in one of the small muffs which
+we sometimes see represented in pictures of the time, than all the
+muffs about town were cut in half.
+
+She enjoyed the admiration she excited, as was natural to one who
+was aware, though not vain, of her powers of fascination; and there
+was a grace in her harmless coquetries, and a joyous good-humour, a
+frankness, piercing through the court airs, which had become as it were
+second nature to her, that took captive the hearts of all.
+
+The young duchess would sometimes rally Lady Nithsdale on her
+antiquated notions, her housewife-like avocations, her retired habits;
+she would try to persuade her to follow the fashion of the day, and
+would urge her to taste with her the exciting pleasure of being swiftly
+borne by a spirited steed over hill and vale, dell and dingle: but Lady
+Nithsdale, unaccustomed to such exertions, would shrink from the very
+idea, and trembled when she saw her fair friend mounted on her palfrey,
+and, dressed according to the mode which has excited the indignation
+of cotemporary writers, dash from the hall-door like an arrow from the
+bow; then, turning gaily back, laugh at her timid cousin's fears. Her
+hair, which was suffered to hang at some length on her shoulders, was
+loosely tied by a scarlet riband, which played like a streamer behind
+her; her small hat was edged with silver; her dress was of green camlet
+embroidered with the same material; and a cravat of the finest lace
+completed the toilet of the _élégante_ of the year 1711. The horse, as
+though it were proud of so fair a rider, seemed to share in her vanity:
+he was adorned after the same airy manner; and tossed and shook his
+pretty head, as if he despised the silken rein which hung loosely upon
+his neck.
+
+Lady Nithsdale watched the party of equestrians as long as they
+continued in sight; and Amy, whose blighted hopes enabled her to give
+her undivided affection to her lady, and her undivided thoughts to
+her dress, had not allowed this opportunity to escape of enlarging
+her notions upon the subject of the prevailing mode. Presuming upon
+her favour with her mistress, she had stolen away from Annie Bell and
+Jeannie Scott, and glided to the oriel window of the hall, that she
+might see the great London bride in her new-fangled garb.
+
+"By my troth, madam, but her grace is very fair, and wears a goodly
+dress, and mounts a jennet such as might befit a lady in one of my old
+ballads!"
+
+"Yes, Amy," replied Lady Nithsdale, "the dress is strange, but
+graceful, and well does it suit my gay and sprightly cousin: yet she
+must have a marvellous good courage; I think I never could mount any
+horse, much less a pawing prancing steed such as delights her grace. It
+is strange thus to peril one's life for pleasure!"
+
+"And yet, my lady, such a close-fitting jaunty coat as that would
+right well set off your ladyship's slender waist. Trust me, madam,
+but I should like to have the curling of your soft brown hair, and
+the shaking in a thought of powder, (her grace's maid showed me the
+powder-puffs they use now,) and the making it just hang in such
+ringlets as my lady duchess's."
+
+"Nay, Amy, such flighty doings are not for me!"
+
+In the evening, when the company were sipping their chocolate, and the
+servants were preparing the ombre-tables, the lively duchess again
+rallied the Lady Nithsdale upon her taste for staying at home.
+
+"Now we will put you upon your trial," she said, playfully tapping
+her with her fan; "and you, my lord duke, and the Earl of Nithsdale
+himself, and Sir Hector M'Gregor, and Mr. M'Kenzie, and my fair cousin
+Crawford of Kilbirny, and young Mistress Rose Scott of Murdiston,
+shall sit in judgment, and pronounce whether I have not passed a more
+profitable morning than our demure hostess there! Now stand forth,
+Countess of Nithsdale, and answer the truth, the whole truth, and
+nothing but the truth!"
+
+The Lady Nithsdale smiled, while the slight colour mounted to her
+cheek, at being called into notice; but she professed her willingness
+to submit to the verdict of so goodly a tribunal.
+
+"After our morning meal," resumed the duchess, "which I grant you was
+somewhat to the credit of the housewife--there was no fault to be found
+with the bannocks, nor with the saffron-cakes, nor the honey, nor the
+marmalade, nor the Finnan haddocks, nor any of the other delicacies for
+which our good land of Scotland is renowned,--after this meal, what
+were my lady countess's avocations!"
+
+"Even such household duties as your grace must needs attend to when
+you reach your own castle of Kincarn. I visited the 'still-room, and
+gave the housekeeper directions for making of some mint-water, and some
+julap, and other simple medicines, which the neighbouring poor are used
+to procure at the castle. And, moreover, this is the season when the
+distilled waters for the year must be made; the elder-flowers and the
+roses are all in bloom."
+
+"Oh, stop, my dear countess! This last employment was most vain and
+useless! for who could endure such homely scents? It is impossible
+now to use anything but orange-flower water; so you have indeed
+mis-spent your time most shamefully! Now you, by your own confession,
+did only one thing at a time, while I cultivated my mind and improved
+my beauty at one and the same moment. I studied Locke on the Human
+Understanding, while my woman curled my hair; after which I read two
+chapters on the properties of the loadstone, and--I would fain have
+studied the mathematics, only my wicked lord"--and she shook her fan at
+the duke--"would not give me the lesson he promised." She put on the
+prettiest pout of her ruby lips, while her gay eyes laughed through
+their fringe of eye-lashes, as she looked down her cheeks with a mock
+air of pettish anger; then raising them suddenly on the duke, she
+continued in a reproachful tone, "You know, my lord, you would not wish
+your wife to be quite out of the fashion; and every lady now talks of
+the mathematics, and speaks but in words with a Latin derivation; and I
+will learn these things too, in spite of you!"
+
+The duke looked upon her with delight and love, while he replied,
+"Learn of our fair hostess how to make a sack-posset, Christian!"
+
+"Not unless your grace will teach me the mathematics! Now promise, and
+it shall be a bargain, and I will let you kiss my hand upon it."
+
+The duke most gladly availed himself of her permission to imprint on
+the fair hand she extended more than one kiss.
+
+"Nay, you are too bold!" she added, withdrawing her hand suddenly,
+and frowning for a moment, while she expressed a pretty anger in the
+eloquent language of the fan, by quickly opening and shutting the
+sticks so as to produce a somewhat sharp noise. "But, my lord duke,
+you interrupt the trial. Silence in the court! The Lady Nithsdale had
+not made an end, when I, to my shame be it spoken, somewhat rudely
+interrupted her. Proceed, fair countess."
+
+"I visited my children for a while, and then I practised to my new
+spinet some of the songs your grace showed me last night; for my lord
+loves sweet sounds so well, that he will sometimes listen to such poor
+music as I can make."
+
+"That is well. But now, fair countess, how did you pass your time while
+I, having duly attended both to my understanding and my person, now
+took heed to my health, by galloping in the clear fresh air, many and
+many a mile, over sweet heath and thymy downs?"
+
+"Why, after seeing my maidens at their embroidery, I wrote and
+despatched a letter to my dear sister Lucy at Bruges."
+
+"Useless! still vain and useless! If your letter had been addressed to
+some court lady, who might have informed you in return of what colour
+was Mrs. Masham's new hood, and whether the queen had yet adopted the
+fashion of my last commode, and whether her grace of Marlborough had
+yet left off the philomot-coloured petticoat of which we are all so
+weary,--well! But what news can your devout sister send you from her
+dull convent?"
+
+"Nay, your grace is jesting now! Every word that comes from Bruges, and
+tells me of the dear, dear friends of my childhood, is precious to me."
+
+"I can well believe it," replied the duchess with a winning frankness;
+"for dearly do I love a letter from old Eupheme Stuart, the sister of
+our minister at Ethy; and I would often rather sit and con over her
+prosy epistle, than dress myself for a court-ball. But you know, Lady
+Nithsdale, that all other considerations must give way before our
+loyalty to our monarch."
+
+"Most true, your grace," answered the Lady Nithsdale, in a tone of
+voice which showed she thought of the "king over the water," while the
+volatile duchess watched her with a laughing and malicious countenance.
+
+"Oh, my dearest countess!" she exclaimed, "do you know you have patched
+yourself in the most factious manner! For Heaven's sake, remove that
+shocking patch on the wrong side of your face! it might lead to much
+mischief. It is an old saying, that extremes meet; and they say that
+some of the discomfited Whigs are even now plotting with the Jacobites.
+This is a season when it behoves every one to be most discreet in such
+tokens of their sentiments, and your imprudent patching might bring
+suspicion on your good lord."
+
+"Does your grace speak of the mole on my right temple?"
+
+"Is it indeed a mole? I pray your pardon, dearest cousin. But this is
+very sad! quite a misfortune! Do you not know we all of late express
+our political opinions after this fashion? You may perceive I always
+wear a patch on the left side of my chin, to evince my loyalty."
+
+"If such be the case, my loyalty is born with me, and cannot cease but
+with my life!" replied the Countess of Nithsdale, whose feelings were
+so strong and so devoted she could not jest or banter on the subject.
+
+"Treason! treason!" exclaimed the duchess: "we shall have to put you on
+your trial for still higher crimes and misdemeanours."
+
+"A prisoner cannot be tried for two offences at once, and your grace
+has not brought the first accusation to an end," interposed the Earl of
+Nithsdale, somewhat anxious to give the conversation another turn.
+
+"To tell the honest truth, my lord, I thought the evidence seemed
+likely to go against myself, and I was not sorry to drop the
+prosecution. We will let judgment go by default! Is that good law,
+my Lord Privy Seal, for you should understand these matters?" she
+continued, turning to her husband with an air of mock solemnity.
+
+"You are a mad-cap, Christian!" replied the duke, who, while he half
+attempted to repress her lively sallies, listened to them with pleased
+amusement, and, like the mother of a spoiled child, looked round upon
+the company to see if they also did not applaud her wit and grace.
+
+In truth, though she was somewhat the spoiled child of fortune, no one
+could wish her other than she was. What in another would have been
+frivolous or impertinent, in her was graceful and most fitting. She
+was in the vein for playful malice, and with an air of mock penitence
+replied, "Well, then, my lord, I will be most staid and serious. I will
+not play one single game at ombre to-night, but I will sit by my gentle
+cousin's side, and learn of her to ply my needle as good housewives and
+virtuous matrons should;" and seating herself on a low stool in the
+window, she fell to sorting and choosing shades of silks, till she had
+confused and mixed them all.
+
+"I must look at you, fair cousin," she added suddenly, "to learn how I
+should begin;--but methinks you have not chosen your colours with that
+taste which all admire in whatever else you do. Surely a white rose
+on that pale blue ground lacks contrast: a red rose, or a tulip, or a
+peony, would better please the eye; a white rose is, to my mind, but
+a mean and insipid flower," she added, with a sidelong glance at Lady
+Nithsdale.
+
+"In my eyes it is the fairest flower that blows," replied the countess.
+"This stool is for my mother; and well may the white rose be dear to
+the widow, and the daughter, of the Duke of Powis!"
+
+"Well, may it be dear, for it has cost you dear, or rather it might
+have cost you dear, had it not been for our gracious sovereign's
+clemency in restoring to your brother his estates. Now own, sweet
+coz, that never was Old England so great or so glorious as she is
+at present; our navies triumphant, our armies crowned with laurels,
+our commerce flourishing, our colonies prospering, our negotiations
+successful----Anything else, my lord duke? for I often hear a
+recapitulation of our glories, and I ought to know them by heart."
+
+"Nay, dearest cousin, I do not understand such things; but I know full
+well that adverse fortune cannot loose us from our allegiance."
+
+"Nay, nay, constancy to a falling cause is treason, not allegiance; for
+you know
+
+  'Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason?
+  That when it prospers, none dare call it treason.'"
+
+"Methinks, if any are guilty of treason, it is not those who through
+weal and through woe, through danger and distress, at the risk of their
+fortunes and their persons, preserve their fidelity to the king of
+their ancestors!"
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale turned a warning glance upon his wife, whose
+feelings had for a moment outrun her prudence. The blood rushed into
+her face; her eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Nay, dearest cousin, you are moved. Forgive my giddy bantering, and
+trust me, that whether Whig or Tory, Protestant or Catholic, Jacobite
+or not, I love you dearly; and if ever there should arise occasion to
+prove it, you shall not find your cousin Christian Montrose wanting:"
+and she threw her arms around her neck, and embraced Lady Nithsdale
+with a warm-hearted frankness which caused their playful dispute to
+draw still closer the bonds of affection between them.
+
+Although the earl would not have denied his attachment to the exiled
+family, he wished not to be unnecessarily forward in expressing
+his sentiments. He respected the sincere patriotism of the Duke of
+Montrose--he did him the justice to believe that it was from firm
+conviction that he was so strenuous a supporter of the Protestant
+succession; and it was no matter of surprise to him when, two years
+afterwards, the duke retired from the ministry, rather than support the
+Earl of Oxford in measures of which his conscience did not approve.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  Wigton's coming, Nithsdale's coming,
+  Carnwarth's coming, Kenmure's coming,
+  Derwentwater and Foster's coming,
+  Withrington and Nairne's coming:
+      Little wot ye who's coming,
+      Blythe Cowhill, and a's coming.
+
+  _The Chevalier's Muster-roll._
+
+The queen's health was now declining; and Lord Nithsdale, in common
+with many others of his party, looked forward to the chance of a
+peaceable restoration of the Stuarts.
+
+His impartial judgment acknowledged that, under the rule of Anne,
+England enjoyed a more than common measure of prosperity; and though
+she was not the rightful heir, still it was Stuart blood which ran in
+her veins. He augured, from her silence upon the address of both houses
+of parliament, urging her to press the Duke of Lorraine and her other
+allies to exclude the Pretender from their dominions, and from her open
+disapprobation of the Elector's sitting in the house of peers, as Duke
+of Cambridge, or even taking up his abode in England, that her secret
+inclinations were in favour of her brother.
+
+All these considerations combined to render Lord Nithsdale unwilling
+to disturb the tranquillity of his native land; and it was with
+satisfaction that he found month after month elapse without his being
+called upon to sacrifice either the peace of his country, or the
+principles of loyalty in which he had been brought up.
+
+The moment, however, came at length, in which conflicting duties made
+it difficult for the most conscientious to preserve a fame untarnished,
+or so to conduct themselves as that their motives should not be liable
+to misconstruction. If in times comparatively settled, when loyalty and
+patriotism may and ought to go hand in hand, it is difficult for public
+men to steer clear of suspicion, we should not be too severe on those
+who were exposed to trials, and placed in difficulties, from which all
+are now happily exempt.
+
+Queen Anne died: and it might have afforded a lesson to both the
+claimants to her throne, that she, under whom this country had ranked
+higher in the scale of nations than at any previous period of its
+history--under whom the British arms had been crowned with unexampled
+success--under whom no British subject's blood had been shed for
+treason--that "good Queen Anne," the mild and merciful, sank a victim
+to mental anxiety, a martyr to the harassing dissensions of her
+ministers and of her confidential friends and favourites. But when was
+such a lesson of any avail? The prize was sought by both parties with
+unabated ardour; and Lord Nithsdale's hopes that the title of King
+James the Third might be acknowledged were quickly blasted.
+
+The Duke of Montrose, true to the Protestant cause, hastened to
+Edinburgh, there to assist in the proclamation of the Elector; and the
+Jacobites lost no time in communicating with the Pretender.
+
+Both pity and indignation had been roused in the Earl of Nithsdale's
+bosom, when, upon the queen's death, the King of France intimated
+to the Chevalier that it was expected he would immediately quit his
+territories and return to Lorraine; and when, on the other hand, the
+King of England refused an audience to the minister of Lorraine till
+the unfortunate exile was removed from his master's dominions.
+
+That the descendant of a long line of monarchs should thus be hunted
+from country to country--that the lawful sovereign of one of the
+fairest realms of Europe should not have where to lay his head,
+over-came all other considerations; and it was with zealous passion
+that he joined himself with the Earls of Mar, Carnwarth, Kenmure,
+and the other most ardent Jacobites. It was the generous impulse of
+compassion for the injured,--indignation, reckless of the consequences,
+which prompted his conduct, rather than hope of seeing their efforts
+crowned with success.
+
+While others were elated at the unpopularity of the king, whose foreign
+language, manners, and habits were not calculated to please the
+multitude, and who, by the favour shown exclusively to the Whigs, had
+indisposed the Tories, with whom lay the great mass of landed property;
+Lord Nithsdale perceived that the new monarch was determined, spirited,
+and active. While others relied on the secret assistance which Louis
+the Fourteenth, notwithstanding his engagements with England, afforded
+to the Chevalier; Lord Nithsdale was convinced, from the effectual
+measures taken to defeat them, that the Chevalier's designs must be
+by some means communicated to the government: and, in truth, the Earl
+of Stair, the English ambassador at Paris, found means to discover,
+and transmitted to his own court, all the plans and intentions of the
+Pretender while yet in embryo.
+
+Not many months after the king's accession, some tumults and riots
+took place, which tended greatly to raise the spirits of the more
+sanguine; and even to Lord Nithsdale himself seemed to augur well for
+the ultimate result.
+
+Those who celebrated the king's birth-day were insulted; while on the
+following day, which was the anniversary of the Restoration, the whole
+city was illuminated, and its streets re-echoed with the sounds of
+mirth and rejoicing.
+
+The government, aware that the spirit of disaffection was making
+considerable progress, adopted measures of some severity towards the
+Scottish Jacobites; they resolved that all who were in any degree
+liable to suspicion should be summoned to appear at Edinburgh, and
+there required to give bail for their peaceable behaviour.
+
+The Earl and Countess of Nithsdale were one evening on the
+bowling-green of their castle of Terreagles, watching the gambols
+of their children; the little Lord Maxwell, a stout bold boy, was
+exerting all his might to drag one of the garden-seats up the steep
+grass bank. He had turned it upside down; had stuck in it a tall staff,
+with a handkerchief for its streamer; and having christened it "his
+gallant vessel the Royal James," had laden it with all the bowls and
+bowling-pins he could find scattered upon the grass.
+
+The parents for the moment forgot the disputed succession to the
+throne, the claims of James the Third, the dangers which beset their
+country, the perils which awaited themselves--lost in the pride and
+delight of watching the eager spirited boy, whose sun-burned cheek was
+flushed with the exertion, every muscle called into action, every sinew
+strained, as by turns he pushed and dragged, and shoved his unwieldy
+plaything.
+
+"He is a brave boy, is he not, my lord?" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale,
+looking into her husband's face, her eyes teaming with maternal pride;
+"he will not bring disgrace upon the Maxwells! Methinks he may one day
+fight as gallantly for his king and country as his ancestors have done
+before him!"
+
+"God bless him!" ejaculated the earl; and he turned half away, ashamed
+of the emotion which suddenly surprised him.
+
+At that moment a servant approached, and delivered to him the summons
+issued by government, requiring his attendance at Edinburgh, there to
+offer bail for his good behaviour, under pain of being denounced a
+rebel.
+
+"Winifred, my love, the decisive moment has arrived," said Lord
+Nithsdale, turning to his lady with a sad, a serious, but a determined
+air. "I am here ordered to Edinburgh--a summons I cannot and will not
+obey. I am henceforward a rebel to the existing government. The die is
+cast. Alas! alas! for this poor land! Let the event be what it may,
+ruin and desolation must fall on many. Blood must flow!--the blood of
+our countrymen! Winifred, it is an awful thing to take the first step
+which must inevitably lead to civil war!"
+
+"Nay, nay, my lord, if our gracious prince but sets foot upon his
+native land, all loyal hearts will at once acknowledge him. Was not
+his uncle's restoration bloodless? and was not the public mind less
+prepared for such an event than at the present moment? Oh, think more
+hopefully, my dear, dear lord! The 'rose of snow' will be triumphant
+yet!"
+
+The earl shook his head sorrowfully. "I cannot join in the sanguine
+hopes of those who think this matter can be brought to a speedy
+termination. I tremble, Winifred,--nay, do not look at me as though
+you scarcely believed, and yet blamed me," he continued, with a smile,
+in which there was little mirth,--"I tremble for my native land: God
+knows I honestly and sincerely wish for its welfare. During the just
+and mild reign of the late queen, it would have gone hard with me to
+have assisted in any disturbance, for her people were happy; but now,
+when a stranger and a foreigner persecutes my rightful sovereign--when
+he is driven, like a hunted beast, from one land to another--when
+all the persons of note in the country are prosecuted, banished, or
+disgraced--when my honoured friend and cousin, the Duke of Ormond's
+name and armorial bearings are razed from out the list of peers, his
+achievement as Knight of the Garter taken down from St. George's
+Chapel,--no, it is not in mortal man to sit down calmly under this
+tyranny! I should disgrace my name, my ancestors! Let the success be
+what it may, it shall never be said that William Maxwell, Earl of
+Nithsdale, proved false to the cause of his king, through coward fear
+of the event!"
+
+Lady Nithsdale watched his kindling countenance with love and awe: the
+colour flushed into his pale cheek; his eyes, so full of care, gleamed
+from beneath the coal-black eye-brows.
+
+"King James must succeed," she cried; "a few such spirits as my noble
+lord's must carry victory with them. Let the king but set foot in
+Scotland----"
+
+"Yes, Winifred," he resumed, and an expression of care again stole over
+his countenance; "let the king come in person, and come quickly!--but,
+alas! he is in the hands of those who use him for their own purposes.
+I fear--but I scarcely dare own the fear to myself--that he lacks that
+decision, that boldness, that promptitude of action, which in such
+an undertaking are so indispensably requisite! Why is he not here
+even now? Why does not the Earl of Mar receive his commission? Yes,
+Winifred, I tremble. Should we plunge our native land in strife, should
+the 'rose of sna'' be indeed 'steeped deep in ruddie heart's bluid,'
+and should we fail in our object, shall we not have much to answer for?"
+
+At that moment the little Lord Maxwell came running to his parents,
+breathless and exulting: "I have towed the Royal James safe to land,
+father; there she is in port!"
+
+"Oh, take this for a good omen, my lord!" said Lady Nithsdale, kissing
+the boy. Lord Nithsdale shook his head; but bending over the boy, he
+kissed him likewise.
+
+"Winifred, do you not think your sister Lucy, the abbess, would let
+them be pensioners in your old convent? I should engage in this
+business with better heart, if I knew that my boy and poor little
+Annie were safe in any other land. I would urge your accompanying
+them,"--Lady Nithsdale started,--"but I know that it would be in vain."
+
+"Vain indeed!" replied Lady Nithsdale. "In all things else I have been,
+and I will be, a submissive wife; but do not ask me to leave you, my
+lord,--I scarcely think I could obey."
+
+"But the children?"
+
+"Gain but a little time, and we will despatch them to Bruges."
+
+"I will excuse myself from attending the summons to Edinburgh, will beg
+the commissioners to take my bail here, at my own castle. This they
+will refuse; but some days will thus be gained, and we will hope--" he
+added with a sigh--"and we will hope his majesty will either arrive in
+person, or we may be authorised from himself to set up his standard
+openly."
+
+In consequence of this resolution, the Earl of Nithsdale returned an
+evasive answer, in which, under the plea of ill-health, (and indeed the
+mental anxiety which he had of late undergone had somewhat affected his
+health), he applied to those entrusted with the government in Scotland
+for indulgence to have his bail received at Terreagles; and, in the
+mean time, the children were despatched, under the care of trusty
+and confidential attendants, to Bruges, and there placed under the
+protection of their aunt, the Lady Lucy.
+
+It may well be imagined that such a separation could not take place
+without a bitter pang to both parents. With Lady Nithsdale it was the
+instinctive tenderness of the mother which suffered at parting from the
+objects of her love; but she looked forward with hope and reliance that
+the long-desired moment had arrived, that they were at last on the eve
+of seeing realised the expectation, which in her mind amounted to a
+kind of religious trust. With her husband the feeling was different.
+
+Lady Nithsdale wept as she bade her children adieu. Lord Nithsdale's
+eyes were dry. The last sound of their voices, the last embrace, melted
+away the heart of the mother. The father, silent and almost stern,
+scarcely heard their parting words; but as he watched the carriage
+which bore them from their paternal halls, pass under the archway and
+emerge into the brighter light beyond, he felt that the heir of the
+house of Maxwell had for ever quitted the tower of his ancestors; and
+that he, by his own act and deed, was about to deprive his child of
+his home, his heritage, his titles, and his country. Bitter were the
+thoughts which struggled in his soul. He turned abruptly from the
+portal, and strode with a hasty but firm step into the withdrawing-room
+beyond the hall.
+
+Lady Nithsdale followed with streaming eyes; and winding her arm within
+her lord's, she spoke of the winning words of their boy, of the pretty
+grief of the Lady Anne. For the first time Lord Nithsdale forgot to
+soothe her sorrows, forgot to press the arm that clung to him for
+support; but throwing himself into a chair, he hid his face with both
+his hands, and remained for some seconds absorbed by emotions far more
+painful in their intensity than the tender regret which drew tears from
+the mother's eyes.
+
+Those tears were, however, soon dried, for in the fearful grief of her
+husband she found cause for alarm, which changed the current of her
+thoughts. "My lord, my dear lord!" she said, "be not thus moved, the
+children will do well. See! I have dried my woman's tears. They will
+be well cared for by my good sister; and we shall see them soon again
+bounding through the hall, we shall hear their gay voices prattling on
+the stairs."
+
+"Never, Winifred, never!" he replied, withdrawing his hands, and
+looking at her with a sad and fixed countenance; "never! I have
+banished my children; I have deprived my son of his lawful patrimony;
+I have now driven him forth to beggary, exile, and dependence. No Earl
+of Nithsdale will ever inhabit these halls again: I know it, I feel
+it! The lands I inherited from my forefathers must pass to others.
+Our castles will be desolate, our name extinct! But this is weakness
+all. I knew I hazarded all earthly goods when I devoted myself to
+the interests of my king. Alas! If I could but feel assured that I
+was truly devoting myself to the interests of my king, _and_ also of
+my country, I would not pause to think of my fair castle, my goodly
+lands!" And his eye glanced quickly round the noble apartment, and
+dwelt for a moment on the smiling prospect from the windows, where the
+Nith danced along the valley through banks diversified with fields
+of waving corn, and luxuriant copses, whose deep green contrasted
+beautifully with the yellow harvest.
+
+During this momentary silence the distant sound of the bagpipe came
+fitfully on the ear, as its wild music cheered the reapers to their
+toil. "Though," he added, "the descendant of a long line of ancestors
+loves the halls where those ancestors have dwelt,--though the man
+loves the spot where he has wandered a child,--though," he continued,
+"a patriot loves the soil which gave him birth; yet," and his voice
+strengthened, his eye flashed upwards,--"gladly, willingly, gallantly,
+would I resign them all, were I certain that I indeed strove to secure
+my country's good, when I seek the restoration of my king."
+
+Neither the countess nor her lord had ever contemplated the possibility
+of their deserting the Jacobite party; but they viewed the probable
+result of the enterprise, in which both deemed it equally indispensable
+to join, with very different eyes.
+
+Even the success of his schemes did not to him hold out a prospect of
+certain good. Though a strict Catholic, he was no bigot; and he could
+not blind himself to the inexpediency of giving a Catholic king to a
+Protestant people.
+
+To Lady Nithsdale, on the contrary, the peaceful restoration of the
+Stuarts appeared to be the universal panacea; and she devoutly
+believed that if that object could be accomplished without effusion of
+blood, all orders of British subjects must be good and happy. Little
+used, however, to join in political discussions, little accustomed
+indeed to hear them, she did not venture to urge any arguments of her
+own; yet she could not remain silent when she saw her lord thus moved,
+and timidly suggested--
+
+"You are a true patriot, my lord; and that you yourself could not be
+content under the rule of a stranger and a heretic, is surely proof
+enough that neither could others, who have noble souls, be happy under
+his dominion. Does England boast any man whose name is fairer, whose
+character is more unblemished, than the kind, good, generous Earl of
+Derwentwater? he whose purse is open to the poor, whose hand is ever
+ready to assist the unfortunate? Must not he seek his country's good?
+Is not the Viscount Kenmure's name a noble and an honourable one? would
+he sacrifice his country? But why should I seek other names than my own
+dear lord's? The Earl of Nithsdale's is in itself a justification, and
+a sanction, of any cause he espouses!" she continued with warmth. Lord
+Nithsdale shook his head. "Our noble friend, the Duke of Ormond too! he
+has joined his majesty at Havre."
+
+"Ah, Winifred! now you have touched the chord to which my soul
+vibrates. Such flagrant injustice must rouse the spirit in all
+honest hearts! Ormond's name must be restored! Ormond's banner must
+be replaced! Yes, we are driven to the course we are pursuing: we
+must proceed. Let us think no more; but blindly follow where honour,
+loyalty, friendship, consistency lead us, without anticipating
+what may be the event! To-morrow we shall receive the answer from
+Edinburgh--to-morrow I am a denounced rebel; I must join the other
+lords who are already seeking the Earl of Mar. But oh! Winifred!
+would any other general were appointed to the undertaking! That man
+has not the head, the heart, nor the character fitting for such a
+situation. He has zeal, but that is all. The honour--the undoubted, the
+unquestionable honour is wanting. Was he not one of the first to make
+protestations of loyalty to the Elector? and now----But there is no use
+in retrospection; we must on--on--on! To-morrow, my love, I leave you:
+how, when, where to meet, is in the hands of Providence."
+
+Lady Nithsdale's eyes were cast to Heaven, and her hands involuntarily
+clasped themselves in prayer. "And now, dearest wife," he continued,
+"we must to business. You are safe here at present. I shall take
+but four men with me. The inmates of the castle, and the dependants
+immediately around, are more than sufficient to defend you from any
+ministers of the law who might seek to make you answerable for the
+actions of your husband. But, before I go, I must commit to your care
+the title-deeds to the estates, and the other papers, which may secure
+to us and to our children some property in case of the worst."
+
+Lord Nithsdale then entered into all necessary details concerning his
+wishes and intentions, with a firm, methodical coolness, which proved
+how little he expected ever to return to the happy home of his youth
+and manhood.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  Let us think how our ancestors rose.
+    Let us think how our ancestors fell;
+  The rights they defended, and those
+    They bought with their blood, we'll ne'er sell.
+      Let the love of our king's sacred cause
+        To the love of our country succeed,
+      Let friendship and honour unite,
+        And flourish on both sides the Tweed.
+
+  _Jacobite Relics._
+
+The messenger returned from Edinburgh, and brought with him such a
+reply as the Earl of Nithsdale had anticipated. Towards evening,
+therefore, he made ready for his departure.
+
+The Lords Athol, Huntley, Traquhair, Seaforth, and others, were already
+gathered round the Earl of Mar, under pretence of joining in a hunting
+expedition; but, after his refusal to attend the commissioners at
+Edinburgh, Lord Nithsdale's making one of the famous "Hunt of Braemar"
+would have betrayed the nature of the meeting. He therefore resolved to
+seek the Earl of Derwentwater at his castle in Northumberland.
+
+Lord Derwentwater was perhaps of all the Jacobite lords the one
+with whom his feelings and sentiments were most in unison: even his
+enemies have never ventured to cast any imputation on the motives and
+the character of a nobleman of such known integrity: with him Lord
+Nithsdale felt he could ever conscientiously act in unison.
+
+Lady Nithsdale assisted her lord in all his arrangements, listened to
+all his instructions: it was indeed fitting she should do so. The time
+was past when the wife needed only to be the gentle housewife, the
+graceful hostess, the dignified countess. Her husband knew well the
+enduring courage, the calm resolution, which were latent in the soul
+of his wife; and in her he reposed entire confidence, on her he placed
+implicit reliance. But she herself was not aware of the qualities which
+slumbered within her; qualities which, had her life been passed in the
+common routine of polished existence, would never have been awakened
+and called into action. She trembled as she heard her lord give the
+directions which he deemed necessary for the security of the castle;
+and she shrank instinctively when she saw him gird on his sword, and
+prepare the pistols which he carried in his holster.
+
+Such precautions, although not unusual in these times, struck her as
+the real actual commencement of war,--of civil war; and an icy chill
+ran through her veins when she heard the balls rattle down the iron
+barrels of the pistols.
+
+The shades of evening had now gathered around: the four domestics who
+were to attend their lord were ready mounted in the court-yard; his own
+stout horse was there, bridled and saddled. Lord Nithsdale, with a firm
+and stately step, traversed the dimly lighted apartments. The time for
+doubt or hesitation was past. There was sadness, but no wavering in his
+eye. His wife was on his arm, but she pressed it lightly; she dared not
+cling to him as her heart would have prompted her to do, neither durst
+he unman himself by giving way to the tenderness he felt.
+
+When he reached the door, he paused for a moment; and turning back,
+he looked slowly round the hall, where hung the portraits of his
+forefathers, the battle-axe of Eugene Maxwell, the helmet of Lord
+Eustace, the banner of good Earl Robert.
+
+His eye rested for a moment on the family motto, "Reviresco." "Not
+here, my love, not in these ancient halls, will the Earls of Nithsdale
+flourish again!" and gently pressing both the cold trembling hands of
+his wife between his own, he descended the steps, and, mounting his
+horse, he rode resolutely from out the castle gate.
+
+It was a glorious summer night. Lord Nithsdale felt, painfully felt to
+his heart's core, the beauty of the scene, as he traversed the valley
+from which he took his title, and the lands endeared to him by early
+recollections, as well as by that consciousness of possession, which
+assuredly has for the mind of man a charm almost magic in its influence.
+
+The moonbeams slept calmly on the towers of Terreagles,--of his home!
+and they sparkled on the waters of the Nith as it bounded through the
+smiling vale with its green sheep-walks and its wild copses.
+
+Avoiding the town of Dumfries, he followed the banks of the stream,
+till he found himself under the very walls of his own far-famed Castle
+of Caerlaverock. It was with a pardonable feeling of pride that the
+fifth Earl of Nithsdale surveyed, for the last time, the noble edifice
+which had been the seat of his ancestors for nearly seven hundred
+years, and which they had rendered famous by many an act of prowess.
+
+The two circular towers which flanked the northern entrance stood out,
+bold and dark, against the deep blue of the moonlight sky; the rippling
+waves were tipped with silver as they broke against the walls of the
+castle, which, built in a triangular form on the point of land where
+the Nith throws itself into the Irish Sea, rose on two sides abruptly
+from the waters.
+
+But though he might cast towards the ruined walls a glance of regret,
+and might bid them in his heart a long and sad adieu, he reminded
+himself that the Lord Eustace had in his zeal for King Robert Bruce
+demolished the ancient fortifications of this same castle, lest the
+English might garrison it themselves; and he thought of Robert, the
+eighth Lord Maxwell, and first Earl of Nithsdale, who had so gallantly
+defended it for his unfortunate master Charles the First: and in the
+glorious recollections of former deeds of loyalty, and in resolutions
+to emulate such deeds, he attempted to drown the sad anticipations
+which crowded on his soul.
+
+But he was alone! No eye was upon him! No enthusiastic Jacobite was
+by his side, before whom he might blush to own a thought which had
+reference to self. Each step, as he advanced, was full of the memorials
+of his ancestors. He passed the Tower of Repentance,--a monument of
+the ostentatious remorse of John Lord Herries. In the distance he saw
+the Castle of Hadham, which came into his family by the marriage of
+Sir John Maxwell to Agnes, heiress of the Lord Herries of Terreagles.
+"And the time will come," he thought, "when the Maxwells will be
+forgotten in a country where they have been known and where they have
+been honoured, where they have been feared and where they have been
+loved, for so many centuries! But if remembered, their name shall never
+be coupled with dishonour, with treachery, or with disloyalty:" and
+he spurred his gallant horse, hastening from scenes which, while they
+confirmed him in his devotion to the cause he had espoused, made him
+feel the extent of the sacrifice he was making.
+
+Intelligence little calculated to raise the spirits of the Jacobites
+awaited him upon his arrival at Dilstone Castle, the seat of the Earl
+of Derwentwater. He there found the earl and all his adherents in the
+utmost consternation at the death of Louis the Fourteenth, and the
+refusal of the Regent to assist the Chevalier with arms, men, or money,
+or to do anything which might be considered an infraction of the treaty
+of Utrecht.
+
+The Earl of Mar, although not yet provided with a legal commission as
+general, had set up the standard of King James, and had gathered around
+it at Braemar three hundred of his own followers. They had all advanced
+too far to retreat; but the most sanguine were dismayed and dispirited
+at the unfavourable aspect of affairs.
+
+Lord Nithsdale alone did not appear affected by the intelligence.
+Most of the other insurgent nobles were actuated by motives either of
+ambition, or of revenge, by discontent with their present condition,
+and by the hope, in the changes consequent upon war, to improve the
+estates which they found inadequate to the support of their rank
+and station. But in Lord Nithsdale's mind no personal consideration
+mixed itself with his conscientious belief that honour demanded his
+adherence to the Stuart race, whether it might be for weal or for woe.
+His hopes were not blasted, for he had never entertained any; and on
+the present occasion it was he who sustained the resolution of those
+around, and reminded them that the change in the policy of France did
+not loosen the bonds of allegiance to their sovereign; that in union
+and in perseverance consisted their only chance of success; that to
+themselves alone they must look. "If," said he "the feeling of the
+people is really in favour of their lawful monarch, when once the
+standard is raised, when once the Earl of Mar can show his sovereign's
+commission, they will declare themselves: if, on the contrary, the
+mass of the people is satisfied with the present order of things; if
+Englishmen are indifferent whether a Stuart or a Guelph wear the crown
+of England, provided they may enjoy the comforts of life in security;
+if loyalty no longer survives in the hearts of those who are occupied
+only with selfish considerations, French gold, French arms, will never
+impose upon the British nation the sovereign that nation rejects. In
+that case we are traitors, and we must abide the consequences!"
+
+It was not long, however, before the success which at first attended
+the Earl of Mar's strenuous exertions, elevated the drooping spirits
+of the English Jacobites to as high a pitch of exultation as they had
+before sunk low in despondency.
+
+He had actually raised an army of ten thousand men; he had at length
+received, and read aloud at the head of each regiment, his commission
+as general-in-chief of the Scottish forces; and he had despatched to
+the Chevalier a numerously-signed address, urging the necessity of his
+immediate arrival in Scotland. Mr. Forster and Lord Derwentwater, with
+Lord Nithsdale, had proclaimed King James at Warkworth, Morpeth, and
+Alnwick. They advanced into Scotland as far as Kelso, where they were
+joined by Viscount Kenmure with two hundred horse, and the Earls of
+Carnwarth and Wintoun, who had already set up the Chevalier's standard
+at Moffat.
+
+But these temporary successes could not blind Lord Nithsdale to the
+elements of discord which were found in the very union which gave the
+assembled forces a somewhat imposing aspect; and which, had they with
+one accord proceeded towards Dumfries, made themselves masters of that
+town, thus forcing a communication with the main army under the Earl
+of Mar, might have enabled them to furnish themselves with arms and
+ammunition at Glasgow, and finally to dislodge Argyle from Stirling.
+
+But he saw and deplored, on one side, the obstinate infatuation of the
+English Jacobites, who seemed confident that an immediate and universal
+rising in the northern counties would be the consequence of their
+marching into England; and, on the other, the resolute wilfulness of
+the undisciplined Highlanders, who declared that they would not cross
+the border.
+
+The town of Dumfries continued in the hands of government. The Countess
+of Nithsdale therefore kept herself in strict retirement, nor could
+she often receive direct communication from her husband. A thousand
+vague and unauthenticated rumours daily, nay, hourly, reached her;
+rumours, which, coming through the medium of the royalists, brought
+even exaggerated accounts of the disunion and the want of discipline
+which prevailed among the insurgent forces. Her heart sank within her
+when, through Amy, she heard how the Whigs had exulted at the confusion
+produced among the Jacobites by an incident in itself trifling.
+
+Captain Wogan having mistaken some of their own troops for an advancing
+party of General Carpenter's, inadvertently discharged a pistol, the
+preconcerted signal to warn those behind of an approaching enemy; and,
+until the mistake was discovered, there ensued considerable tumult
+and disorder among the soldiers in the rear. On another occasion,
+the cavalry of the insurgents, which had just entered Jedburgh,
+were hastily marched out again to assist the foot in repelling--a
+party of their own friends who had joined them by another route!
+These, and other occurrences of a similar nature, were subjects of
+mockery and exultation to the Whigs in Dumfries, and failed not to be
+good-naturedly transmitted to the inhabitants of Terreagles. Nor did
+the letters which she occasionally received from her husband tend to
+cheer her. Although, partly from prudential motives, partly to spare
+her the feeling of blank and hopeless self-immolation which pervaded
+his own soul, he refrained from expressing his full conviction of the
+inadequacy of their means, the mismanagement of those means which they
+did possess, the futility of all their endeavours, still she could
+plainly perceive that his fears, rather than his hopes, had gathered
+strength since last they parted.
+
+She was one day seated in the tapestried withdrawing-room, from whose
+large and deep-set windows the Earl had taken his last sad look over
+his vast possessions; her eye was also mechanically following the mazes
+of the Nith as it wound through the valley below; when Amy Evans
+hastily entered, with a joyful countenance, and a thick packet for her
+lady.
+
+"News from my lord!" she exclaimed, all breathless; "and Walter Elliot,
+who is even now from the army, says they are coming to lay siege to
+Dumfries immediately, my lady; and we shall have my lord at home again
+in his own castle. And oh! how glad I shall be to see my lord's own
+noble bearing as he mounts the entrance-steps, and to hear his firm
+tread as he paces his own hall, and to see my own dear lady smile once
+more!"
+
+Lady Nithsdale meanwhile had with trembling hands and a flushed cheek
+opened the packet which Amy hoped would have proved so welcome; but the
+words of gratulation died away on her lips while watching the fallen
+countenance, the blanched cheek of her mistress, as she perused the
+letter.
+
+"Alas! my good Amy, you are a flattering, but most false, prophet.
+The English counsels have prevailed; they are even now withdrawing
+the troops towards the borders, and have sent to recall the horse
+which had advanced as far as Ecclefechan. I never knew my lord write
+so despondingly. How strange it is, Amy, that when he is there to
+tell them what had best be done, to point out to them the advantages
+of occupying all the west of Scotland, of gaining easy possession of
+Dumfries, of Glasgow, and of Stirling, they should persist in their
+infatuation. Oh! if the king were but in Scotland, he would surely know
+who were his true friends! Then my lord's counsels would be attended
+to, as it is fitting they should be."
+
+"Indeed, my lady! And are they not coming to Dumfries after all? Why,
+Walter Elliot said it was the talk of all the army; and that the
+Highlanders said they would fight the enemy to the last in their own
+country, but that they never would be marched across the borders, to
+be kidnapped and made slaves of, as their forefathers had been in
+Cromwell's time! And can it be, my lady, that they will really turn
+back, when my lord says it is more advisable that they should advance?"
+
+"Alas! it is only too true! My dear lord also says that all will be
+leaders, and that none will be led. But he adds at the same time,
+that, whether they follow his counsels or not, he will never desert
+the true cause from any personal pique. Oh! my own true noble lord!"
+she exclaimed, looking up with tearful yet beaming eyes; "there spoke
+your own high soul! The king in all his army has not another spirit,
+disinterested, uncompromising as yours!" Then resuming her letter, she
+continued, "My lord says that, notwithstanding all the Earl of Mar's
+confident hopes and assertions, he cannot find that the Duke of Ormond
+has landed yet. 'Tis strange! it seems as if all aid from foreign
+shores were spell-bound. He loves his cousin of Ormond! methinks if
+he were with them, my lord would have more heart and hope in what he
+undertakes!" Then, as she proceeded in the perusal of the letter:
+"Nay, did I say that there was not another noble spirit in all the
+king's army? Shame on my lips for uttering such treason! for here my
+lord writes that he and the Earl of Derwentwater think and feel alike
+on all things; and that were it not for his friendship, his support,
+he should indeed find himself alone. May Heaven bless the good Earl
+of Derwentwater, if it is only that my lord finds comfort in him! and
+moreover, I know full well that he is as brave and as kind a gentleman
+as ever trod this earth."
+
+"And what is to become of us, madam, if my lord and all the army are
+gone into England?"
+
+"We must e'en wait, as we have done, my good Amy; and abide the result,
+as we have done."
+
+"And must I still see you pine, and pine, and grow thinner and thinner?
+Alas! alas! these are weary times! I almost think it would be best to
+let King George alone upon his throne, and see if we cannot be as happy
+under him as we were under Queen Anne."
+
+"Amy! you would not be a turncoat, would you? You, Rachael Evans's
+daughter!" answered Lady Nithsdale, in a tone of half-playful,
+half-serious reproof.
+
+"Indeed, my lady, I would fain be loyal, for you, and my master are so,
+and my poor mother was loyal also to the last; but I can never love any
+king, whether a Stuart or no, as I love my own dear lady, who has been
+to me as mother, sister, friend, and mistress!" and the warm-hearted
+Amy kissed the countess's hand with devoted affection.
+
+"You are a good girl, dear Amy; and I do not know how I should bear
+my present anxiety, and the sorrows that may await me, did I not feel
+assured I should ever have one true friend to lean upon in every
+exigency. Let what will come to us, Amy, I think I may count on your
+affection as long as I live."
+
+"While there is breath in this body, while the pulses beat in this
+heart, my lady, Amy Evans shall be true to you and yours, through woe
+and through weal, for life and for death!"
+
+Lady Nithsdale wept soft tears of gratitude; they rolled down her
+cheeks, they dropped on Amy's hands as she pressed them in her own, and
+the true-hearted girl wished not for farther assurances of her lady's
+affection.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  There's some say that we wan,
+  Some say that they wan,
+  Some say that none wan
+          At a', man!
+
+  But one thing I'm sure,
+  That at Sherriff Muir,
+  A battle there was
+          Which I saw, man.
+
+  And we ran, and they ran,
+  And they ran, and we ran,
+  And we ran, and they ran,
+          Awa' man.
+
+  _Battle of Sherriff Muir._
+
+The Duke of Argyle had not yet been reinforced by the Irish or the
+Dutch troops. This would indeed have been the moment for the insurgents
+to have made themselves masters of all the west of Scotland; but, as
+Lord Nithsdale informed his wife, the English counsels prevailed.
+
+Letters were confidently asserted to have been received from
+Lancashire, declaring that twenty thousand men would immediately join
+the army upon its appearance in the county; and the various advantages
+attending a speedy march into England were urged with such vehemence,
+that the troops most in advance were suddenly recalled, and appointed
+to meet the main body at Langtown in Cumberland.
+
+But the Highlanders, under the influence of the young Earl of Wintoun,
+who was intimately convinced of the difficulties into which they were
+heedlessly plunging themselves, and the favourable occasion which they
+were now throwing away, halted a second time. Many then deserted, and
+chose rather to surrender themselves prisoners, than to go forward to
+what they looked upon as certain destruction.
+
+The Earl of Wintoun himself, finding that all his efforts to alter the
+destination of the army were fruitless, returned to the main body,
+but from that time he was never called to assist in a council of
+war; indeed, a reckless levity was henceforward visible in his whole
+demeanour, and he seized upon every opportunity of idle amusement which
+chance threw in his way, in a manner scarce befitting one engaged in an
+important and perilous enterprise.
+
+Not so Lord Nithsdale; for having little hope that the most prudent
+course could have brought the undertaking to a successful termination,
+he felt less keen disappointment at the rejection of any of his
+counsels. In sad, but conscientious devotedness, without anger, or
+personal mortification, he patiently strove to smooth ruffled feelings,
+to accommodate jarring interests. It was principally through his
+influence that the ardent and intemperate young Earl of Wintoun had
+been induced to rejoin his companions in arms; and it was he who
+prevailed on some of the Highland troops to accompany them, upon the
+condition of receiving sixpence per day from the time they crossed the
+border.
+
+The task of tracing the progress of the insurgents through Carlisle,
+Penrith, Appleby, Lancaster, &c. is relinquished to those who are
+more capable of describing the military movements and the political
+intrigues of such stirring times. It is enough for us that the next
+advices which the Countess of Nithsdale received from her husband were
+somewhat less gloomy in their tenour. Although the expected risings
+in England had not proved so numerous, or so general as the Scottish
+leaders had been taught to expect, still they had met with no serious
+opposition. They had proclaimed King James at Lancaster; they had
+levied the public revenue in his name, and they were rapidly advancing
+towards Preston.
+
+Mar, meanwhile, had established his head quarters at Perth, and he made
+some attempts to fortify that city, as a place of defence in which the
+Chevalier might be received upon his expected landing.
+
+The decisive morning of the 13th of November approached, the day on
+which the battle of Sherriff Muir was fought in Scotland, and that on
+which the Jacobites surrendered at Preston in Lancashire.
+
+In the battle of Sherriff Muir the Earl of Mar displayed that energy,
+and that decision, which are requisite qualifications for the head of
+an insurrection. His eloquent and animated address to the chieftains
+in the council awakened a corresponding ardour in the bosoms of all,
+except, perhaps, of Huntley and Sinclair; and when he wound up his
+appeal by briefly stating the question in the words, "Fight, or not?"
+the whole assembly answered at once with an universal shout of "Fight!"
+
+This resolution, reaching the lines as they were drawn up in order
+of battle, was welcomed by loud and continued huzzas, and a general
+tossing up of hats and bonnets.
+
+Such demonstrations of eagerness for the onset promised well for the
+result, and for a time the insurgents bore down all before them. But,
+though the left wing of the Duke of Argyle's army was routed, his right
+wing, in its turn, put to flight the left wing of the Earl of Mar's;
+and to the English remained the solid fruits of victory, inasmuch
+as they retained the position by which they defended the Lowlands.
+Both generals, however, claimed the advantage; and to a party which
+had struggled with so many adverse circumstances, the fact of having
+withstood the royal forces in a pitched battle, gave some confidence
+for the future.
+
+To Lady Nithsdale's hopeful heart the battle of Sherriff Muir appeared
+a glorious victory, which was to change the aspect of affairs. With the
+buoyancy of youth and loyalty, she exulted in the idea that her husband
+and the Scottish army were marching triumphantly through England,
+while the English army was sustaining a defeat in Scotland. She dwelt
+with pride and delight on the individual acts of prowess which came
+to her knowledge; and Amy hastened to her lady with every fresh piece
+of intelligence she could collect from chance-comers to the castle
+gates, thus endeavouring to beguile the tedious hours of sickening
+expectation, and hope deferred, in which her mistress wore away her
+days.
+
+"Did you hear, my lady, how the M'Leans with one accord joined their
+old chief the moment he set foot among them? for all the isle of Mull
+belongs now to the Duke of Argyle himself."
+
+"Indeed, Amy! And so the tie of clanship was stronger than interest,
+or than duty to their new landlord. And, moreover, Sir John M'Lean has
+been living for many years in France, and on an allowance too granted
+him by Queen Anne."
+
+"However that may be, he soon raised a regiment of eight hundred men,
+and when they were prepared for battle, all the speech he made them
+was, "Gentlemen, yonder stands Mac Cullummore for King George, and here
+stands M'Lean for King James. God bless M'Lean and King James!--Charge,
+gentlemen!" and on they rushed like wild creatures. It was in that very
+charge the gallant young Clanronald was killed by the heavy fire of the
+regulars. But Glengarry would not give them time to be disheartened,
+but cried out, 'Revenge! revenge!--to-day for revenge, and to-morrow
+for mourning!'"
+
+"Yes, yes! there is some of the true spirit left!" exclaimed Lady
+Nithsdale, exultingly: then, with a changed voice, she added, "But,
+alas! for young Clanronald: he was a brave youth, and, I have heard my
+lord say, a complete soldier; he had been trained in the French guards.
+When he received the Earl of Mar's summons, he replied, 'That his
+family had ever been the first on the field and the last to leave it!'
+and he has proved but too well that he was a worthy scion of that noble
+house!"
+
+"Yes, my lady; and they say that as he fell out of the ranks, after he
+had got his death wound, the Earl of Mar met him, and asked him why he
+was not in front. 'I have had my share,' said the poor young man, and
+dropped dead at the earl's feet. Oh, my lady! a battle is a shocking
+thing! and though one is so glad to hear of a victory, and one thinks
+nothing of hundreds of the enemy being killed, yet when one pictures to
+one's self one fair and gallant youth lying pale and stiff, and cold
+and bloody, on the bare ground, oh! one's heart sickens within one, and
+one wonders how one could ever wish the king should come back among us
+to cause bloodshed and slaughter!"
+
+Lady Nithsdale answered not. The words "pale, and stiff, and cold,
+and bloody, on the bare ground," had conjured up an image to her mind
+which seemed to curdle the very life-blood in her veins. She clasped
+her hands closely, and pressing them tightly on her knee, she sat
+with fixed eyes and lips compressed, striving to exclude from her mind
+thoughts which would rush into it.
+
+"Oh, say no more, dear Amy; I cannot, must not think. Each day, each
+hour, may bring us news of a battle in England. How do we know what
+may be the result? Alas! if it were not for the blood which runs in my
+veins,--if I were not a Herbert,--if I were not married to a Maxwell, I
+too might wish that----But no, I will not utter what would be, in me,
+a dereliction of duty,--treason to the cause my lord upholds. I will
+remember that my lord has done that which he deemed it his duty to do;
+and for the event, we must leave it to Providence. We must submit, and
+only pray for strength to perform the part that may be allotted us,
+whatever that part may be. It is but two days since I received such a
+letter from my dear sister the abbess as should teach me to trust and
+to submit. Oh! if I could but look as she does, on all earthly and
+temporal concerns! but, alas! how can one wean one's self so entirely
+from this world, when it contains one's soul's treasures? Lucy has
+no husband! Lucy has no children! Alas! these ties hold me down so
+tight to earth, that not all her holy counsel, not all Father Albert's
+ghostly advice, are enough to detach my heart from it: I cannot fix my
+thoughts, as they bid me, on Heaven, and Heaven alone."
+
+"Nay, my lady, nor is it fitting you should. It is for priests and nuns
+to be so much better than other people: it would never do for those who
+have to wrestle with the world as it is, not to have their thoughts
+somewhat in it."
+
+"Yes; but Amy, the more our affections are set upon things which are
+not of this world, the more thoroughly we shall be enabled to do our
+duty here."
+
+"I am sure my lady, there is no need for anybody to do their duty
+better than you do; and whichever way your heart is set, it must be the
+right way;" replied Amy, whose devoted attachment was such that she did
+not like to hear it implied, even from her lady's own lips, that she
+was capable of improvement.
+
+"I must not value myself according to your estimate, Amy," replied
+Lady Nithsdale, smiling, "or I shall be sadly lacking in that first of
+Christian virtues--humility."
+
+It was not many days after the battle, or, as the Jacobites termed it,
+the victory, of Sherriff Muir, that vague rumours reached Terreagles of
+disaster and defeat at Preston.
+
+Lady Nithsdale was struck with the pale countenance of Amy when she had
+summoned her, ostensibly to assist in arranging some household matters,
+but more, in fact, that she might hear a friendly voice, and look on an
+affectionate countenance. She was still more struck with the haste in
+which Amy wished to depart, instead of gladly lingering, pleased and
+honoured at being admitted to share the counsels and the feelings of
+her mistress.
+
+"Think you not, Amy, that these damask hangings will make my lord's
+apartment look exceedingly handsome? and to my mind the old pictures
+which adorn his study will show well upon the deep crimson. He will be
+pleased, when Heaven vouchsafes him a safe return, to find we have been
+mindful of his comfort. I would gladly turn these hangings to so good
+account. What think you, Amy?" and Lady Nithsdale gazed inquiringly in
+her face.
+
+"Yes, madam, in sooth they are as good as new," replied Amy with a
+hurried voice; and her eye avoided that of her lady: her fingers
+trembled as she smoothed the fringe, and she kept her head bent low, as
+though examining the texture of the damask.
+
+"Amy, you have heard ill news that you fear to communicate," said Lady
+Nithsdale, laying her hand firmly on Amy's trembling arm, and looking
+at her fixedly. "Speak! I charge you, speak! I can bear anything
+but suspense. Let me know the worst!" and she grasped her almost
+convulsively.
+
+"Oh, my lady, do not look thus at me: truly you fright me. In very
+truth I know nothing, nothing for certain."
+
+"Amy, Amy, this is not like yourself; you are trifling with me!"
+
+"We must not heed every silly report that comes from so far off, my
+lady."
+
+"Then it is of the army in England!" and Lady Nithsdale dropped into a
+seat "Speak! speak! tell me all!"
+
+"Indeed I have but little to tell. They said there had been an
+engagement: but we have often heard that before, my lady; and people
+make so much of a little thing; and the news comes through Dumfries,
+and the people there tell everything their own way."
+
+"And they say, then, that we have been defeated!" continued Lady
+Nithsdale, striving to appear perfectly tranquil. "Tell me, Amy; you
+see I am quite calm."
+
+"Why, yes; I suppose it is as your ladyship says, for they seem
+marvellously well pleased."
+
+"And are King James's forces retreating?"
+
+"Not that I know of, my lady."
+
+"What, do they still hold Preston, then?"
+
+"Why no, my lady. I believe what they call the Royalists have
+possession of it now."
+
+"Then where is our army?"
+
+"Alas! dearest madam, I cannot justly say. Indeed, indeed, my lady,
+those who told me do not seem to know themselves, and I dare swear it
+is not half true."
+
+"Amy, you have heard more; I am sure you have! Is my lord----? Have
+they told you anything? I cannot, cannot ask. Oh, Amy! answer me, and
+answer the truth, or I think I shall die!"
+
+"Nothing, my lady! They never mentioned my lord's name one way nor
+another; indeed, indeed they did not."
+
+"Thank Heaven so far!" and Lady Nithsdale closed her eyes for a moment,
+as if to regain composure and resolution.
+
+"And you know, my lady, ill news travels fast enough, and everybody
+hereabouts would be curious enough about my lord: so pray set your mind
+at rest."
+
+Lady Nithsdale looked at Amy with a sad withering smile. "At rest, Amy!
+at rest!" and pressing her hand upon her bosom, "it is long since this
+heart has been at rest, and I am much mistaken if it will be so for
+many a long day yet. If there is any truth in what the people of this
+country call second-sight, I have much to suffer yet; but I will not
+despair. I place my reliance above; I will confide in Him who will not
+abandon the humble, even when all human succours fail."
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  When the day is gane, an' night is come,
+    An' a' folk bound to sleep,
+  I think on him that's far awa,
+    The lee-lang night, an' weep, my dear,
+    The lee-lang night, an' weep.
+
+  _Jacobite Song._
+
+It is singular how the first vague rumour of a great event travels
+faster than can almost be accounted for by human means, and how
+much time sometimes elapses before the real and authentic account
+is received! Two nights and a day of dread and uncertainty did Lady
+Nithsdale endure before any farther details reached Terreagles.
+
+The honest Amy's face soon betrayed that fresh intelligence had
+arrived, and that intelligence unfavourable. Almost before her lady
+could question her she said,
+
+"My lord is well, madam! my lord is safe!"
+
+"Oh, dearest Amy, thanks!" and her eyes flashed with joy. "But why this
+sad countenance then? Look cheerful, girl, for your face belies your
+words. You are not deceiving me?"
+
+"No, no indeed, madam. He is unhurt: not a wound, nor a scratch, as I
+believe."
+
+"Then why can you not smile? Oh, Amy! at this moment I feel how weak a
+sentiment is loyalty to one's king, when put in the balance with love
+for one's husband! Still no smile! Why, we have changed characters,
+Amy, and you are going to school me into my due allegiance."
+
+"Oh, my sweet lady! I joy to see a smile upon your lips; and I dare not
+finish my tale, for I shall banish it more quickly than I have called
+it up."
+
+"You said he was unhurt; not a scratch, you said?"
+
+"I did, my lady! but oh! can you not guess what other misfortune may
+have befallen him, and all of us?--oh, my lady!"
+
+"I am dull of comprehension; but I cannot picture any great evil now my
+lord is safe!"
+
+"He is safe, now, madam, unhurt, unwounded; but----"
+
+"But what, Amy? Speak; you distract me!"
+
+"But, madam--dear madam--he and all the other lords--are--prisoners,
+madam,--prisoners to King George!"
+
+"Prisoners!" and she seemed to awake as from a trance. "Prisoners to
+King George! then rebels! traitors! Fool that I have been! and my
+thought never glanced towards this! Oh! to whom can I apply for advice
+or for assistance? Alas, alas! what can a poor weak helpless woman do?
+If I had wings to fly to my lord, then he would tell me how I might
+assist him;--then at least I should be near to soothe and to support
+him! But here, alone, and helpless," she added, wringing her hands,
+"what can I hope? what can I effect?--But you know more, Amy; you can
+tell me more?"
+
+"No more, madam, than that the Scots were the last to come to terms and
+to surrender."
+
+"And they surrendered! yielded themselves up to the Whigs! Oh, my dear,
+dear lord, what must thy noble spirit have endured ere it was bowed to
+this! How must thy counsels have been scorned, thy hopes blasted, thy
+heart crushed! I know thy lofty nature well, and truly my woman's soul
+almost refuses itself to picture what thine must have undergone!"
+
+Amy stood for some momenta bewildered, and unable to offer consolations
+which she felt must be unavailing. Then, resuming her self-possession,
+she urged: "Think, madam, how much worse it might have been! you forget
+that my lord is safe in person."
+
+"But, Amy, what he must have suffered in mind! And what are bodily
+sufferings to the tortures such a mind is capable of enduring!"
+
+"There is one thing, my lady, for which we cannot be too grateful. He
+is now safe from the dangers of battle: think how you felt when we were
+talking of young Clanronald, so fresh, so blooming on the bloody sod!"
+
+"True, true!" and she looked up for a moment. "But--" and she lowered
+her voice--"there are other and more inevitable perils than those which
+are met with in battle. If, indeed, the usurper keep the throne,--if
+the new dynasty prevail--then loyalty is treason, and treason, treason,
+Amy!--Even King James spared not his own nephew; can we expect more
+mercy in the soul of a stranger than in one of our own royal blood?--Oh
+Heaven, be pitiful!"
+
+"Nay, madam, but the Duke of Monmouth was the usurper himself. This
+case is quite different! And then there are so many of them. Mr.
+Forster, and the Earl of Derwentwater and his brother, and the Lords
+Wintoun, Carnwarth, Kenmure, Nairne, and many, many more of noble
+and gentle blood. King George, if indeed he is to be our king, must
+show mercy. He could not have the heart----" Amy dared not finish the
+sentence: she could not have uttered, her lady could not have listened
+to, the termination their imaginations but too well supplied.
+
+Lady Nithsdale bowed her head in silence, and Amy feared to break in
+upon the sad solemnity of her thoughts. After a pause, the countess
+slowly rose: "I will to my closet, Amy, and there tell my beads, till
+I have regained composure enough to think. But fail not to let me know
+should farther intelligence reach the castle."
+
+Amy opened the door for her lady, and as she passed, she kissed her
+hand in token of obedience to her injunctions. Lady Nithsdale pressed
+her's, and slowly, steadily withdrew. Amy watched the closing door; and
+then giving a full vent to her own repressed feelings, she wept and
+sobbed in freedom.
+
+Every hour now brought fresh reports, each more distressing than the
+last. One told how fourteen hundred men were inclosed in one of the
+churches, where they suffered both hardships and indignities from the
+soldiery; how they were stripped, not only of every article of value
+which they might have about them, but almost of necessary clothing.
+
+These were principally Scotch, who, having been the last to surrender,
+were treated with the greatest rigour; and Lady Nithsdale shrunk with
+almost equal horror from the idea of her noble husband being exposed to
+the insults of the low-born and the mean, as from the more tremendous
+vengeance of the law.
+
+Another report reached Scotland, that the rebels were to be tried by
+martial law, and shot upon the spot. But the alarm which such a notion
+was calculated to excite, was in some measure allayed, by learning that
+this summary punishment was only to be inflicted upon those who had
+actually held commissions under the government, against which they had
+borne arms. Lady Nithsdale was farther re-assured, when the name of
+Lord Charles Murray was the first mentioned as likely to suffer, for
+she knew well that her husband's could never have been omitted had he
+been in danger of such a fate.
+
+But still she heard not from himself, and these varying and often
+contradictory rumours almost wore away her soul in feverish anxiety.
+
+The town of Dumfries was in the hands of the Royalists, and it was a
+matter of difficulty for the prisoners to transmit any communication
+to their friends, which was not subject to the revision of those who
+were in power. There was time for each hope, in which she had formerly
+indulged, to be successively crushed. That which she had fondly
+imagined to be a victory at Sherriff Muir proved in its consequences to
+be no better than a defeat. Dutch reinforcements joined the royal army;
+while scarcely a day elapsed in which some of the Lowland chieftains
+did not desert the standard of the Earl of Mar.
+
+Still no succours arrived from France. It became known that the regent
+Duke of Orleans had proscribed the Chevalier, and still the Chevalier's
+arrival was delayed.
+
+Lady Nithsdale roamed about the vast and deserted halls; the un-read
+book dropped from her hands; the once loved spinet remained unopened;
+the needle, which she used to ply so rapidly and so dexterously, was
+still resorted to for occupation; but the flowers no longer grew
+under her fairy fingers, and the falling tears would often tarnish
+the colours of the silks before the leaf had yet assumed its form.
+She started at every noise: the changing cheek, the fluttering heart,
+the trembling finger, the faltering voice, all spoke the heart ill at
+ease. The long, long days wore wearily away; it seemed to her that each
+dismal winter evening closed in more slowly than the last.
+
+Her children were far away; she could not visit their couches, listen
+to their tranquil breathing, and beguile the hours in watching their
+unconscious slumbers. Her existence would have been less irksome had
+there been any duty for her to perform, any exertion to be made; but
+in this forced inactivity of body, while the mind was distracted with
+doubts and fears, she endured, not so much the pangs of hope deferred,
+as those of protracted disappointment.
+
+Watching the blazing logs on the hearth, and listening to the incessant
+whistling of the December blast, only varied by the rattling of a dry
+and withered stray leaf against the casement, she had sat through the
+early and lengthened twilight of a Scottish winter's evening. Glad of
+the excuse of fading light to indulge in the idleness of vague, dreamy,
+but most sad meditation, she had allowed the night to steal upon her
+unawares, till all without was darkness that might be felt, and the
+stone mullions of the oriel windows alone shone white in the fitful
+blaze of the wood fire.
+
+She was startled from her reverie by the sound of men's voices, and the
+tread of a strange and heavy foot. The attendants entering, explained
+that a peasant was without, who insisted upon seeing the countess.
+
+"It is the countess herself that my business is with," said the stout
+and rosy boor, who forced his way past the serving-men; "I was to come
+to the speech of the lady herself; and if you can certify to me that
+yonder she is, why I am ready enough to give up my packet; but I shan't
+let it go to any of you. How do I know what sort of jackanapeses you
+may be?" and the peasant grinned good-humouredly, with a twinkling eye,
+which led to the conclusion that he had not journeyed so rapidly, but
+that he had taken time to refresh himself by the way. He held a packet
+in his hand: "If it is true that you are that rebel lord's lawful
+wife, why, here's the letter I was to deliver safe into her own fair
+hands--that was, when she gave me the reward I have earned by a journey
+of some hundred and fifty miles."
+
+"Oh, give it me! in mercy give it me!" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale; and
+starting from her seat, she would have snatched it at once.
+
+"Softly, fair lady," cried the peasant, withholding it; "where is the
+reward the gentleman promised me?"
+
+"Oh! you shall have anything you will, only give it--for pity, give it
+me! Amy!" she cried to Amy Evans, who, never far from her lady's side,
+had by this time made her appearance; "fetch my casket: nay, here,
+take the key, and bring hither my purse; it is in the embossed casket,
+and give the fellow what he will. And now, my friend, the letter--the
+letter."
+
+"I think the lady's one that loves him; but nobody has yet assured me
+that she is his lordship's wife," continued the undaunted boor, with
+a knowing glance round the room: "all wives are not in such a taking
+about their husbands," he added, wishing, with a sort of low craft,
+which he deemed prudence, to delay delivering the letter till he had
+made sure of the money.
+
+"Oh, trifle not with me! Give it me, as you hope to meet with mercy
+yourself!"
+
+"Well, here it is, then; the poor soul shall have the letter any how."
+She snatched it quickly from his hand, and throwing herself upon her
+knees before the fire, she hastened to devour its contents. Her eyes,
+blinded by tears, could not decipher the lines as fast as her wishes
+prompted.
+
+"Bring lights!" she exclaimed; "why are there no lights?"
+
+The servants hastened to fetch the tapers; and the peasant remained
+near the door, watching the lady with an expression half compassionate,
+half comic.
+
+"Sure enough, the poor soul loves that darkbrowed fellow," he muttered;
+"she tucks back her hair, as if she could tear off the curl that falls
+between the fire light and the paper; and she thinks no more of me! But
+I shall not depart without the pay I have been promised, I can tell
+her."
+
+Amy re-entered with the purse at the same moment that the serving-men
+returned with lights; and Amy, showering into the hands of the
+messenger several gold pieces, led the way into the hall, that her lady
+might be left to peruse her packet in privacy.
+
+The peasant clinked the money in his hard palm; then looking cunningly
+at Amy, "Your lady said I should have what I would."
+
+"Well, and have I not rewarded you handsomely?"
+
+"Why, pretty fairly, pretty fairly; but I should not mind another gold
+piece or so. You must bear in mind that my journey has been somewhat
+perilous, all through the royal armies and the loyal inhabitants, with
+a letter in my pouch from a rebel lord to a rebel lady."
+
+"Nay, you are unreasonable, you should not be covetous: but here are a
+couple more, for my dear mistress will not think anything can be too
+much for one who brings her news from her husband."
+
+"Thanks, fair mistress! I am one who always keep the eleventh
+commandment, even if I keep no other."
+
+"The eleventh, fellow! Why, Protestant and Catholic agree there are no
+more than ten!"
+
+"Ah, but I know the eleventh, and I know it best of all, and so do most
+people; and if they all kept the ten others as strictly as they do that
+one, why the world would be a better world than it is, that's all!"
+
+"You speak in riddles, friend; explain yourself."
+
+"'Get all you can, and keep all you get.' Did you never hear that
+before, mistress? if you have not heard it, you have practised it, I
+warrant me. But where's your buttery-hatch? I am spent with hunger, and
+'specially with thirst."
+
+While Dickon, the Lancashire ploughman, was restoring the strength,
+which did not seem to be much impaired, the countess was absorbed in
+the long-wished for epistle.
+
+The letter was sad, almost hopeless; but it was from himself, and
+she gazed with delight on every line traced by that loved hand. The
+first impulse was that of joy; it was not till upon consideration
+and reflection, that she found in it matter for deep sorrow and
+despondency. It ran thus.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ Nor can any men's malice be gratified further by my letters, than to
+ see my constancy to my wife, the laws, and religion. Bees will gather
+ honey where spiders suck poison.--_Eikon Basiliké._
+
+  "Dearest Wife,
+
+ "You will have heard from other hands the ill success of our
+ expedition. My Winifred, who knows what have been my fears from the
+ beginning of this undertaking, also knows that my mind has been
+ prepared for the result, and will therefore be aware that among all
+ his sorrows her husband has not had to endure those of disappointed
+ hope. Let her then be assured that his heart, though grieved, is
+ unsubdued; and that his soul is fully made up to meet with constancy
+ whatever may occur to himself.
+
+ "As my dear wife may well believe, I have suffered much. I have
+ seen counsels which appeared to me the most imprudent, and which
+ the event has proved to be such, invariably prevail. I have seen
+ every opportunity of success neglected. I have seen, without the
+ power of preventing it, rashness, where prudence should have ruled;
+ deliberation, where boldness and decision would have been true
+ discretion.
+
+ "But, as my Winifred knows, it was not with the expectation of
+ ultimate success that I devoted myself to the cause of my king. I
+ obeyed what I believed to be the call of duty, but I may have been
+ mistaken. When I have seen the blood of my countrymen stain their
+ native soil, then indeed I have felt doubts, agonizing doubts, as
+ to the correctness of my judgment. I have looked on death before; I
+ have served in Germany; I have been an eye-witness of assassinations
+ in Italy; I have seen criminals pay the forfeit of their lives; but,
+ in the solitude of a prison, it is the image of the first victim of
+ civil strife that haunts my imagination,--that moment, when I saw one
+ of our own Scots fell with his battle-axe a fellow Scot; when I heard
+ one foeman utter a threat, the other a cry for mercy, in the selfsame
+ tongue! I still see the dying glance of that blue-eyed youth, the
+ life-blood staining his fair crisped curls: in the heat of battle the
+ impression was momentary; but now, in darkness and in silence, that
+ image rises up between me and sleep!
+
+ "It is only to my beloved wife, who has so long read every feeling
+ of this wayward heart, that I dare confess such weakness. To my
+ companions in arms and in misfortune such sentiments would appear the
+ sickly phantasies of a distempered mind: even to her, I will dwell on
+ them no longer.
+
+ "My Winifred will have learned with pride for the land of her husband,
+ that the Scots were the last to yield at the fatal affair of Preston:
+ indeed, all our party fought with unequalled bravery; each several
+ street was obstinately defended. General Willis's troops set fire to
+ the houses betwixt themselves and the barricades; but we still fought
+ all night by the light of the conflagration, and we had the advantage
+ in every several attack. Yet what could be done by a small body of
+ men, cut off from all assistance, and cooped up in a burning town!
+
+ "The English were for submission, while our brave men were for rushing
+ on death, or regaining liberty by one desperate sally. The English
+ accomplished a capitulation; but Forster's life was near becoming the
+ sacrifice! Many of our Scots still loudly accuse him of treachery;
+ and Murray levelled a pistol at his head when he heard what was the
+ mission on which Oxburgh had been sent to the English general. Had
+ not a friendly hand struck the weapon upwards, Forster must then
+ have fallen! But I sincerely believe that he has acted with loyalty
+ and sincerity throughout. When the cause is hopeless, is a commander
+ justified in wasting the blood of those under his command? Each of
+ us, individually, may prefer death to submission; but has a general a
+ right to sport with the lives of others?
+
+ "Should my Winifred have an opportunity of seeing our king,--who,
+ though his coming is now too late, must, I imagine, be by this time
+ in Scotland,--it would be but justice towards a man, who, though
+ unfortunate and perhaps ill-judged, is, I believe, a faithful servant
+ of King James's, to let his majesty know that such is my impression.
+
+ "We have not yet been told our ultimate destination; but we conclude
+ we shall be conveyed to London, there,--let not my dear wife be
+ startled, for she must be aware it is the inevitable consequence of
+ defeat--there to take our trial. Let her rather rejoice that it is
+ in an honourable, though perhaps a mistaken cause, that her husband
+ will appear before the tribunal of his country; and that among his
+ fellow-prisoners he may count the noble Earl of Derwentwater, the good
+ Viscount Kenmure, and many more of unsullied honour.
+
+ "When I make use of the word 'prisoners,' let her not picture to
+ herself handcuffs and irons, a dark and damp dungeon: we are poorly
+ lodged, it is true, but we are not deprived of necessary comforts. If
+ I could see my Winifred----! But that is now impossible.
+
+ "She may rely upon my summoning her when there is a hope of her being
+ allowed to cheer me with her presence. I should think myself unworthy
+ of her true and devoted affection, if I did not place on it the
+ implicit reliance which it deserves. Adieu, my beloved! I know that,
+ next to Heaven, I am ever in your thoughts; neither do you need to be
+ assured that you are loved with equal truth and fervour. Professions
+ are needless between those whose souls are united as ours have ever
+ been! And yet there is a satisfaction in tracing with my own hand the
+ words which I trust will reach my Winifred's eyes,--that whenever,
+ however, death may meet me, my last prayer shall be for her, my last
+ thought on her, and that I firmly believe the affection which fills my
+ soul must survive death itself; that I am, and ever have been, her
+ true and faithful husband,
+
+  "Nithsdale.
+
+ "P.S. I hope I have engaged a countryman of these parts to convey this
+ safely to your hands, under the promise of a handsome reward upon the
+ safe delivery of the letter."
+
+Full many a time did Lady Nithsdale read over the assurance of that
+affection which she never doubted. She laid the precious document next
+her heart; and then she summoned once more the English peasant, who she
+thought had probably beheld her lord with his own eyes.
+
+He was ushered into her presence; and never did two human beings form,
+in their outward appearance, a more striking contrast, than the pale,
+slender, high-born countess, whose anxious countenance bore the traces
+of deep feeling, whose transparent complexion varied with every word
+she uttered, whose shrinking form seemed as if every breath of wind
+might blow it away, while the light which shone from her eye spoke a
+soul capable of withstanding the storms of adverse fortune; and Dickon,
+who with stout and sturdy limbs, and a ruddy countenance, beaming with
+health and good cheer, mixed with a sort of rustic, merry cunning,
+stood unawed before her.
+
+"You saw my lord your own self, did you not, my good friend?" inquired
+Lady Nithsdale, with a degree of timidity and anxiety in her tone.
+
+"An' it please your ladyship," answered Dickon, with a scrape of the
+foot and a pull of the hair, "I saw a many of the rebels, great and
+small, one day, when they were changing their quarters."
+
+"But it was my lord himself, the Earl of Nithsdale, who entrusted you
+with the packet you brought even now?"
+
+"Yes, I take it, it was; for the packet was directed to the Countess
+of Nithsdale, and the gentleman told me to take it to his wife, and to
+be sure and give it into her own hands, without fail, myself; and he
+said, if I did, I should be sure to get a handsome reward; that nothing
+would be too good for me, and such like, he said. He was a civil-spoken
+gentleman, and very free of his promises."
+
+"You have been rewarded for your pains, I hope. I gave orders to my
+waiting-woman to see to your wishes in every respect."
+
+"Oh! she is a smart lass, that, and she behaved very civil to me, and
+I'm no ways dissatisfied. Only perhaps a trifle from your ladyship's
+own fair hand; she is but a waiting-woman after all," added Dickon, not
+forgetting the eleventh commandment, and making another scrape, which
+he meant should savour of gallantry.
+
+Lady Nithsdale slipped some additional gold into his hand. "And did my
+lord look well?" she inquired.
+
+"Yes, very well, my lady, as far as I know. Just as well as the other
+lords he was along with; only a trifle paler. He did not look, my lady,
+as if he had visited his own buttery-hatch quite so lately as I have."
+
+"Alas! was he very pale? Tell me, in pity tell me all the truth."
+
+"Nay, madam! don't put yourself in such a fluster. He looked pale, just
+like all the rest of them."
+
+Lady Nithsdale turned away for a moment. She could scarcely endure to
+commune with one who saw in her noble husband but a man, like other
+men: and yet this peasant had seen him, he had heard his voice; from
+him alone could she hope to learn any particulars. Dickon, who was not
+wanting in natural shrewdness, perceived that his answers did not give
+entire satisfaction; and when Lady Nithsdale again turning towards him
+inquired whether her lord moved with a firm step, or whether his health
+did not appear to have suffered from long confinement, he answered,
+
+"Oh, bless your heart, my lady, he walked as strong, and looked lusty
+and hearty; quite different from the other lords! Oh! he's a fine
+gentleman sure enough, and looked more like a prince than anything
+else."
+
+"He has a noble carriage, in good sooth," rejoined Lady Nithsdale; "and
+sorrow has not yet subdued his lofty bearing?"
+
+"Lord save you, my lady! he was quite of a different sort from the rest
+of them. They seemed like rabble by the side of him: anybody might have
+known him among a thousand!"
+
+"They might, indeed. And when he spoke did his voice sound full and
+mellow as ever?"
+
+"Why, he spoke somewhat low, for he did not wish everybody to hear;
+but methought it was a marvellous good voice, quite different from the
+other rebels."
+
+Lady Nithsdale hung upon his words with delight, and forgot that
+at first she had thought him incapable of estimating her lord's
+superiority over his fellows.
+
+"And can you tell me how my lord was lodged, and how he is attended?"
+
+"Why, as I have heard say, very well lodged; not so handsomely as he
+would be here in such a castle as this, but right well lodged as times
+go; and they say that the rebels they live like fighting-cocks, and
+there is revelry of all kinds going on among them. But that's among the
+young lords," added Dickon, who saw he had not now touched the right
+string; "not my Lord Derwentwater and my Lord Nithsdale, they are quite
+of another sort; but some of the young gallants, and young Bottair
+of Athol--Oh! he's a comely young fellow that!--and they do say that
+pretty Kate Musgrave----"
+
+The countess began to think she had conversed long enough with the
+trusty messenger, especially after his supper at the buttery-hatch;
+and repeating her thanks in the manner most satisfactory to the worthy
+Dickon, she dismissed him to seek the repose he must need after his
+journey.
+
+The Chevalier's arrival, which Lord Nithsdale in his letter had
+considered almost certain, had not yet taken place: and although the
+Earl of Mar was resolved, by keeping possession of Perth, to retain at
+least one town where his master might be sure of an honourable and safe
+reception, the defection of the whole clan of Fraser, the advance of
+the Earl of Sutherland, the reinforcements which strengthened the Duke
+of Argyle's army from the regular troops, whose presence was no longer
+required in England, rendered each day the situation of the Jacobite
+general more desperate.
+
+Still, having formally invited the Chevalier to put himself at the head
+of the insurrectionary army, Mar felt himself under the necessity of
+keeping his remaining troops together, to protect the person of the
+prince when he should effect his landing. In this dilemma, he proposed
+a military oath in the name of King James the Eighth; but the attempt
+to bind together those who were only waiting for an excuse to disperse
+proved as unavailing as his previous proposal of an association. All
+the principal chiefs and leaders complained that they had been deluded
+by promises which had never been fulfilled. They insisted--and there
+was much reason in their arguments--that they had no more grounds for
+now believing the king was on the point of arriving, than that the long
+promised arms, ammunition, and treasure, should be sent from France;
+and from this period a party was established in the very army of the
+Earl of Mar which declared for opening a negotiation with the Duke of
+Argyle.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+          ----Since I parted hence,
+  I have beheld misfortune face to face;
+  Have mark'd the ills of desolating war
+  In all the sad details kings never see.
+  The sun that rises on the peasant's toil
+  In happy lands not visited by war,
+  And gilds their waving harvests with his beams,
+  With barren splendour glares on desert fields
+  Depopulated by the sword.--The gale
+  Sweeps sullen o'er them, loaded with the cries
+  Of frantic widows and of orphan babes,
+  That else had borne upon its gladsome wing
+  The careless carol of the husbandman,
+  Tilling in peace and liberty his field.
+
+  _Gonzalvo of Cordova._
+
+Reports of the indignities to which the noble prisoners had been
+exposed on their journey to London failed not to reach Scotland;
+indignities which, galling enough in themselves, were not likely to be
+softened in the recounting.
+
+Upon their arrival at Barnet, they were all, without distinction
+of persons, pinioned with cords. By some of the younger and more
+hot-headed of the noble rebels this humiliating ceremony was not
+submitted to without remonstrance and resistance. Lord Nithsdale simply
+remarked to the Earl of Wintoun, "Degrade not yourself, my friend, by
+bandying words with those who are appointed to execute the behests of
+their superiors: the disgrace is on them who exult in this unworthy
+triumph; not on us, who are thus triumphed over. Surely, Seaton, you
+would rather endure, than inflict, such insults." Presently, however,
+he added, while he held his hands to have the cords attached, "I grant
+you I should be sorry my wife should witness this. My gentle Winifred!
+thy shrinking, sensitive pride would never brook seeing thy husband
+thus manacled. For the first time I rejoice that thou art far, far
+away."
+
+At Highgate the prisoners were met by a large detachment of horse
+grenadiers and foot-guards, and here a halter was placed around the
+neck of each horse, which was held by a common soldier, walking by its
+side.
+
+In this mode did they make their entrance into the metropolis,
+accompanied by a concourse of people shouting at them and reviling
+them; some loading them with abuse, others singing scurrilous songs,
+and many beating upon warming-pans, in allusion to the popular notion
+concerning the birth of the Chevalier.
+
+With these increased indignities the spirit of Lord Nithsdale was
+excited. As he rode on, his carriage became each moment more lofty;
+his dark brow assumed a more awful gloom; his eye, from beneath its
+shade, flashed defiance on the mob; his nostrils dilated; the curl of
+his contemptuous lip plainly expressed how utterly he despised the
+mean taunts of the senseless rabble! Thus erect, undaunted, he passed
+on through the crowded suburbs; but before they entered the streets, a
+separation took place between those whose destination was different.
+
+General Forster and Brigadier Mackintosh were taken to Newgate, some to
+the Marshalsea, some to the Fleet; while Lords Nithsdale, Derwentwater,
+Kenmure, Widdrington, Nairne, &c. were conveyed to the Tower.
+
+The moment of parting from their companions in misfortune, those with
+whom they had shared hopes and fears, with whom they had enjoyed
+triumph and endured defeat, was one of bitterness; a parting,
+too, which to all might be, and to many proved, an eternal one;
+one which took place under the gaze of an insulting populace, and
+under circumstances which admitted of no word of kindness, no last
+injunction, not even the pressure of the friendly hand!
+
+At that moment all former differences of opinion were forgotten; the
+prudent counsel neglected, the headstrong perseverance in contrary
+measures, the impatient rejection of advice, the contempt of timely
+warnings, all faded from the mind. As the different bands receded from
+each other's view, they saw but the trusted companion in arms, the
+fellow-sufferer, endeared by similar misfortunes.
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale and the other noblemen proceeded towards
+Westminster Bridge, where, according to custom, they were placed in a
+government barge, and were rowed down the river to the Tower. The boat
+shot London Bridge; it was admitted through the Traitor's Gate; and,
+as it darted from the open day-light under the three low and gloomy
+arches, each prisoner cast a lingering look behind him, and as he
+withdrew his eyes, met those of his companions.
+
+There was no need of words to express the feelings of that moment; each
+read his neighbour's but too plainly in his own; each was aware the
+other felt he had taken his last look at the free bright world without
+the prison walls. And, alas! to more than one was it indeed but too
+truly his last glimpse of freedom; more than one was doomed never to
+pass those barriers, but to take his trial at Westminster Hall, and
+then to mount the scaffold upon Tower Hill.
+
+Not a word was spoken. The plash of the waves against the stone stairs,
+as the sudden entrance of the barge into the narrow landing-place
+caused the muddy sullen water to overflow the bottom steps and as
+quickly to recede, the hollow echo of the oars as they were shifted,
+were the only sounds heard.
+
+The barred gates were unlocked, and the prisoners, one by one, mounted
+the dank steps, and emerged into day-light, opposite the Bloody Tower.
+They heard the portals closed and barred behind them; they heard the
+splash of the portcullis as it was let down into the water, and each
+was then delivered over to the warder in whose apartments lodgings were
+assigned to him.
+
+As long as he remained exposed to the observations of others, the
+most acute physiognomist could not have perceived any alteration in
+the countenance of the Earl of Nithsdale. He had, as it were, set his
+features to an expression of calm contempt and stoical endurance, which
+he would allow no circumstances to alter. With a firm step, a lofty
+unembarrassed air, he followed his guide into the small and narrow
+apartment which was destined to his use. He showed no emotion when the
+cords were removed from his wrists, and he replied with punctilious
+politeness to the civilities of the warder.
+
+At length the door was closed upon him, he was left in solitude;
+no eye was upon him, and he was able to relax for a moment from the
+imperturbable composure which he had forced himself to maintain. He hid
+his face in his hands, and allowed the thought of his beloved wife, the
+memory of his innocent children, whom he perhaps was never, never more
+to behold, to rush over his soul!
+
+With what tenderness did the recollection of home over-power him!--the
+thousand every-day enjoyments, which are not prized till they are lost!
+
+The current of these enervating thoughts was checked by the sounds
+of steps upon the stairs, and he had only time to resume the unmoved
+countenance he had before preserved, when the entrance of some menials
+and attendants again forced him to repress the emotions, which, though
+repressed, could not be extinguished.
+
+The bringing in of his few necessary packages, the arrangements for his
+personal accommodation, the preparations for some refreshment, were all
+inexpressibly irksome to him; and he impatiently awaited the welcome
+solitude of night, when he might revel in the luxury of thinking of the
+happy past, the wretched present, the fearful future, without a witness.
+
+It was at this moment of general dismay, when, as we have already
+mentioned, each day saw the gradual diminution of the Earl of Mar's
+army; when the greater proportion of the most zealous Jacobites
+were already in the hands of government; in the midst of increasing
+disaffection among his remaining partisans; that the unfortunate
+descendant of the house of Stuart landed in his native country, at
+Peterhead, on the 22d of December, in the year 1715.
+
+He arrived almost as a fugitive. He had been obliged to traverse
+Normandy in disguise; his retinue consisted but of six gentlemen; and
+when the Earl of Mar, the Earl Marischal, and some others, to the
+number of thirty, went from Perth to kiss the hand of the prince for
+whose cause they were in arms, they found him at Fetteresso, suffering
+with a severe attack of ague.
+
+Neither in body nor mind was he capable of inspiring his adherents with
+the ardour which could alone turn or even arrest the untoward course
+of events. Mutual discouragement was the feeling consequent upon this
+melancholy meeting. The unwelcome news which awaited the Chevalier,
+that, for a month previous to his landing, the resolution had been
+taken to evacuate Perth, did not tend to dispel the despondency natural
+to him; while in the speech which he made to the privy council, whom he
+had immediately proceeded to name, the despairing view which he took of
+his own situation pierced every moment through the words of hope which
+he thought himself bound to utter. He closed his address by saying,
+"That for him it would be no new thing to be unfortunate; his whole
+life, even from his cradle, had shown a constant series of misfortunes;
+and he was prepared, if it so pleased God, to suffer the extent of the
+threats which his enemies threw out against him."
+
+With a spirit thus crushed by repeated disappointments, and a
+constitution impaired by illness, did this ill-fated prince proceed to
+enact the sovereign to a diminished and dispirited party of disunited
+followers.
+
+The intelligence of his arrival was speedily communicated to Seaforth,
+Huntley, and all the other chiefs who had formerly flocked to his
+standard, and who had withdrawn, wearied out by his protracted delay;
+but they were summoned in vain, none of them heeded the notice.
+
+Preparations were made for King James's coronation at Scone; a day of
+thanksgiving was appointed for his safe arrival; prayers were offered
+up for his majesty in all the churches; the currency of foreign coins
+was enjoined; and the convention of the Scottish estates was called
+together.
+
+The Countess of Nithsdale experienced a momentary sensation of hope and
+exultation when she heard that the monarch to whom all belonging to her
+had been so constantly devoted had actually set foot in the realm of
+his ancestors; and her generous heart throbbed with indignation when
+she heard of the nobles who neglected to obey his summons. She thought
+how different would have been the conduct of her own brave lord; and
+she resolved to do as, if he had been at liberty, he would himself have
+done, and as he seemed, by what he said concerning General Forster,
+to expect her to do. She therefore prepared herself for journeying to
+Scone, there to pay the homage she conceived to be due to her lawful
+sovereign.
+
+She travelled privately, not to attract the notice of the royalists;
+but as she passed through the country which lies between Stirling and
+Perth, all was one scene of desolation. By an edict of James's, the
+villages of Auchterarder, Blackford, and Dunning, and other hamlets,
+had been destroyed by fire; houses, corn, and forage had all been laid
+waste, lest they should afford quarters to his enemies.
+
+Helpless women and desolate children had been deprived of their homes;
+the blackened walls of the buildings which had been burnt contrasted
+cheerlessly with the snow which covered the ground.
+
+Lady Nithsdale's journey was one of sorrow and dismay. She thought upon
+the days of her youthful enthusiasm, and she looked into her heart in
+vain to find it there. She remembered how in her Flemish convent her
+girlish heart had beat when she imagined her king actually on British
+land, and herself a witness of the joyous restoration; and her childish
+dream was fulfilled, the king was
+
+  Hame, hame, hame--
+  Hame to his ain countree:
+
+but misfortune, disappointment, time, had worked their effect; and with
+her husband a prisoner, her children banished, her country laid waste,
+she could not work up her feelings to the pitch of loyalty which she
+deemed it her duty to have experienced.
+
+At length the fair town of Perth rose to her view, and the broad Tay
+swept gracefully around it. She saw the ancient palace of Scone, the
+spot where all the Scottish kings had been crowned, and she tried to
+feel assured that "the king would enjoy his own again."
+
+That night she took up her lodgings in Perth; and the following day she
+repaired to the royal palace of Scone, there to kiss the hand of her
+monarch.
+
+She felt an universal trepidation; not so much from the awe which
+majesty inspires, as from the fear of seeing her king in a condition
+so unbecoming his dignity. A noble mind shrinks from seeing nobility
+degraded; and she felt more abashed at the poor attendance around the
+king, and at the want of state in his appointments, than others do at
+all the pomp and ceremony of the most gorgeous and splendid court.
+
+The Chevalier received the Countess of Nithsdale with what he meant to
+be marked attention; but his manner was subdued, his bearing dejected;
+partly through his late illness, and partly from that consciousness of
+being marked out for misfortune, which pervaded his every look, his
+every action. There was a melancholy majesty in his thin person, and
+his handsome but pale features, which (although united with a certain
+stiffness and reserve, little calculated to find favour in the sight
+of the adventurous and the desperate who alone adhered to his cause,)
+interested Lady Nithsdale, while it saddened her.
+
+The Earl of Mar presented her to the Chevalier, whom, upon her
+entrance, she found engaged in conversation with the Earl Marischal in
+one of the windows that overlooked the flat country between the palace
+and the Tay. She dropped upon both her knees, overcome with emotion
+at finding herself in the actual presence of her king, and with grief
+at the desolate appearance of all around him, of all without and all
+within his residence.
+
+He quickly raised her, and imprinting on her marble forehead a royal
+kiss, he professed his satisfaction at becoming personally acquainted
+with one, whose family had ever been faithful servants to his own.
+
+The measured expressions chilled her; she had never before looked upon
+the sacrifices made either by the Herberts or the Maxwells but as the
+performance of a bounden duty, in which they had not failed; but when
+these sacrifices seemed to be considered in the same light by him for
+whom they had been made, their magnitude and their extent increased in
+her eyes. The Chevalier then inquired whether she had received news
+lately from the earl her husband.
+
+Her eyes filled with tears; the inquiry was made in so cold, so formal
+a tone: "But once, sire, since he has been a prisoner;" and had she at
+that moment attempted a longer sentence, her voice would have failed
+her altogether.
+
+"We hope that the worthy lord's health continued unimpaired by
+confinement?"
+
+She struggled with her feelings, and replied, "My lord complained not
+of any personal privation or hardship. His thoughts were all, as they
+have ever been, for his king, his country, and his faith!"
+
+"It is now many years since we once had an interview with the Earl of
+Nithsdale in Flanders; and if our memory does not fail, we were then
+suffering from this same agueish complaint which discomposes us at
+present. Methinks our health is always least fitted for exertion and
+fatigue when circumstances call most imperiously for both! But so it
+has ever been with us!" He sighed, and his eyes instinctively sought
+the ground. Then turning again to the countess, "Is your ladyship's
+seat situated far from hence?" he inquired, for, a stranger to
+Scotland, he knew not the topographical details of the country.
+
+"Please your majesty, I journeyed from my husband's castle of
+Terreagles near Dumfries."
+
+"We hope your journey was prosperous and agreeable, although we fear in
+this weather it must have been somewhat tedious. Dumfries is some days'
+journey hence, I fancy."
+
+Lady Nithsdale thought upon the villages in ashes, the desolated
+fields, and could not find words for her reply, but contented herself
+with bowing assent. When, turning to the Earl of Mar, the Chevalier
+remarked, that if the present severe weather continued, the Tay would
+soon be completely frozen over. "In that case," he continued, "the
+river will no longer be serviceable as a protection and defence."
+
+"Neither will it be any impediment to the design I have been explaining
+to your majesty," replied the earl in a low voice.
+
+Lady Nithsdale soon after retired from the royal interview, discouraged
+and dissatisfied. She had never found the desired opportunity of
+speaking her husband's sentiments concerning General Forster; and she
+now felt intimately convinced how wild and hopeless an enterprise it
+must ever have been, to replace on the throne one who was so little
+calculated to conquer or to win it.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+  Nay, heed them not, fair Margaret; true, they are
+  Untutor'd, and in 'haviour surly, rough;
+  But they have hearts, nor unacquainted are
+  With sturdy charities and strong affections--
+  As oft within the prickly husk lies lapt
+  The sweetest kernel.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+The Countess of Nithsdale had intended to return for the present
+to Terreagles, till she could ascertain what course would be most
+pleasing to her husband, when, upon her return from Scone, she received
+a letter from the Duchess of Montrose, which decided at once what was
+the line of conduct it now became her duty, as well as her inclination,
+to pursue. The duchess's epistle was conceived in the following terms:--
+
+ "Though the late unfortunate events have separated Christian Montrose
+ from her dear Lady Nithsdale, her friend and cousin must not imagine
+ that she has forgotten the happy days she spent at Terreagles, or that
+ the affection she then professed has aught abated. Trust me, dearest
+ cousin, I have felt for you, as I am sure you would have felt for me,
+ had the cause you have espoused proved successful, and had my husband
+ been the sufferer in that which he esteems the just one.
+
+ "At my earnest request, my lord duke has constantly made inquiries
+ concerning the prisoners in the Tower, and your good lord arrived
+ there in health and safety on the 10th. I understand he is not
+ inconveniently lodged, and I do not learn that he is in want of any
+ necessary comforts; indeed, many of your party who have been slack in
+ openly joining the insurrection, make peace with their consciences by
+ supplying the Jacobite prisoners with money and luxuries of all kinds.
+ I have heard say, that when in the streets it has been difficult to
+ procure silver for a guinea, in the various prisons change for large
+ sums might be procured in silver and in gold. They say also, that
+ among the more wild and thoughtless of the prisoners, much mirth and
+ revelry prevail; and, as I hear, they so confidently rely upon the
+ merit of their unconditional surrender at Preston, that they trouble
+ themselves but slightly concerning their approaching trials. It is
+ reported, that the Earl of Derwentwater observed to your good lord,
+ that many of his followers were fitter inhabitants for Bridewell than
+ a state prison.
+
+ "Let not my dear cousin be needlessly alarmed, when I tell her that
+ the lords will be impeached on the 10th of January, and that I have
+ reason to believe my Lord Nithsdale would not now deem it unadvisable
+ that she should repair to London. Indeed, I am informed that his most
+ earnest wish is to see her; and I have no doubt that, supposing the
+ result should not be so favourable as many of the more sanguine are
+ inclined to believe, her presence may prove of service as well as of
+ comfort to her lord.
+
+ "I should advise her to lodge herself privately, as, to my poor way
+ of thinking, any appearance of rank or splendour may not be agreeable
+ to those in power; and I think I am not mistaken when I say that the
+ riotous mode of living of many of those in confinement does not serve
+ to forward their cause.
+
+ "I would myself have visited the good Earl of Nithsdale, that I might
+ have informed you how it fared with him, had it been fitting that I
+ should do so openly; but my lord duke deemed such a measure would not
+ be advisable; and as to visiting him privately, I feared that you
+ and others might have suspected your noble husband of having learned
+ from young Bottair of Athol, that a prisoner may be a very dangerous
+ gallant, that--
+
+  'Stone walls do not a prison make.'
+
+ "'Mad-cap Christian,' as you called me once at Terreagles, is not so
+ void of discretion as to run the risk of being taken for one of the
+ 'divine Altheas' who come 'to whisper at the grate.'
+
+ "Indeed, I am sobered since those days; and these are times which may
+ make the most unthinking reflect. Sad or merry, thoughtful or giddy,
+ my heart is still with my dear cousin, and she may count on my willing
+ services should the time arrive when they may be useful. She will not
+ fail to let me know when she reaches London; and meanwhile she will
+ believe me her faithful and affectionate friend
+
+  and cousin,
+  Christian Montrose."
+
+This letter had followed Lady Nithsdale from Terreagles, which had
+occasioned some delay in its coming to hand. It had been brought by
+Walter Elliot, an old and trusty servant, who had been ever in the
+confidence of his master, and on whom Lady Nithsdale had relied for
+advice and protection since the absence of her husband.
+
+Her resolution was instantly taken; with Amy Evans and Walter Elliot
+she determined at all hazards to set forth upon her journey: but in
+the condition of the country at that period, means of conveyance were
+not easily procured; and it was highly expedient she should escape all
+observation: she therefore gladly availed herself of such steeds as
+Walter Elliot could procure in the exigency of the moment, and although
+totally unaccustomed to horse exercise, proceeded in this manner as far
+as Newcastle.
+
+She there parted with the horses, and took the stage, thinking she
+should thus travel more expeditiously; and trusting that, when quite
+beyond the boundaries of Scotland, she was not so likely to be
+recognised. Such had been the tumult of her feelings, she had scarcely
+had time to be conscious of fatigue or cold, or to be aware of the
+strange and unusual companions with whom she was occasionally brought
+in contact. When, however, she found herself enveloped in her cloak,
+her hood brought low over her face, and ensconced in a corner of the
+heavy and lumbering vehicle, she found leisure to think, to feel, and
+to suffer.
+
+The capacious coach contained several other passengers, but Lady
+Nithsdale heeded them not: their discourse turned chiefly on the
+comparative merits of different breeds of cattle and sheep, on Scottish
+Kyloes and Cheviot mutton, and she knew not what words they uttered,
+till her attention was suddenly arrested by one of them remarking, "The
+last time I journeyed along this road was some six months back; I had
+been as far as Hawick to buy some of those famous north-country sheep,
+and, to be sure, all those parts were in a fine disturbed state. I was
+obliged to come back without the sheep. Some thought their property
+was safer in sheep than in money, for whichsoever side got the upper
+hand, butchers' meat would still be wanted; others thought they should
+be sure of a good price when there were two armies, as it were, in the
+neighbourhood, and they asked twice their worth for the sheep. As for
+me, I would not give much hard money for the creatures, which might
+be taken from me, and killed, and then what should I do? There's no
+telling in troublous times what's justly the value of any thing, so
+I had my journey for my pains! and as I came back, those rebel lords
+were going about proclaiming their mock king, and a pretty penalty they
+are likely to pay for their folly. Why could not they be quiet, and
+enjoy themselves at their own great houses, where they say the Earl of
+Derwentwater lived like a prince, and was beloved by great and small:
+and why could not they let us enjoy ourselves too? Farming went well
+while good Queen Anne lived; crops were pretty fair, and prices held
+steady, and I don't know what folks would have more, not I!"
+
+"Well, it all bids fair to be quiet enough now," replied a
+rough-looking farmer who sat opposite; "they'll settle old scores with
+them all. They have made away with a pretty many of them at once at
+Preston; and I know for certain that the king means to have off the
+heads of every one of those he has got up at London now, so they will
+make no more disturbance!"
+
+Amy turned an uneasy glance upon her lady, whose bosom she could
+perceive heaved rapidly beneath the folds of her cloak; but her face
+was towards the window, and the black hood concealed it from all within
+the coach. She feared to draw attention upon her, and she remained
+tranquil.
+
+"Nay, I can't think the king will have all their heads off either,"
+rejoined the first spokesman. "Why, there are as many as twenty lords,
+to say nothing of knights, and gentlemen, and members of parliament,
+and such."
+
+"I have been informed that such are his most gracious majesty's
+intentions," answered the yeoman, with the importance of a
+privy-councillor.
+
+"For God's sake, what is your authority?" exclaimed the Countess of
+Nithsdale, unable any longer to control her feelings.
+
+"Young mistress, I do not consider myself called upon to give up those
+who tell me a bit of news."
+
+"Well, neighbour, you need not be so touchy about your news; who knows
+but the young woman may have a friend among some of the rebels, and
+she need not be the more of a rebel herself! Brothers and sisters,
+fathers and sons, have taken different sides, but they are not the less
+relations for that. Ah! that's one of the misfortunes of these civil
+wars! They're not like a good war with the French, or the Dutch, or
+the Spanish; when you know for certain that every _parlez-vous_, and
+every mynheer, and every Don, is your enemy. But when people of one
+country take to fighting, why, if you chance to be in a battle, you
+don't know who you may be killing; and if you chance to tell a bit of
+news promiscuously, you don't know whose feelings you may be hurting.
+Folks should not be over free of their speech in these times; and, I
+ask your pardon, neighbour, but you should not be so positive about
+what such as you and I can't know. Don't you look so sad, mistress. How
+should we, any of us, know what the king's thoughts are?"
+
+"But we may know those who do know what the king's thoughts are:
+not that I wish to hurt the gentlewoman's feelings." And the farmer
+relapsed into silence, somewhat offended at the doubt with which his
+annunciation of the sovereign's private sentiments had been received.
+
+"Are you from Scotland, madam?" resumed the good-natured yeoman, whose
+curiosity was somewhat awakened by Lady Nithsdale's evident emotion.
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Amy quickly. "My friend and I come from Scotland
+last, but we are natives of Wales;" which, although strictly true,
+would, she imagined, lead their new acquaintances from suspecting who
+they really were.
+
+"And are ye for London now, my pretty lass?"
+
+"Yes, sir; our friends live in London now."
+
+"If this snow goes on falling at such a rate, why, I think we shall
+never get to York; and as for you, you will never get to London. I'll
+be bound the stage will be stopped to-morrow. I declare there's no
+making out the hedge from the ditch, the snow has drifted so in some
+places. I don't know that I ever remember such a hard winter as this
+has been. My poor ewes!" he continued, shaking his head, "I fear I
+shall have bad luck with them! However, 'tis as the Lord pleases! I
+dare say 'tis all for the best. If we have quiet times, and we have
+nothing to fight against but the seasons, as God sends them to us, we
+shall do well enough. As long as we are in the Lord's hands, and have
+only the troubles He sees fit to try us with, and none of those man
+makes for himself, it will all be right! Is not that true, young woman?"
+
+"Indeed, sir, I am no judge of public matters," replied Lady Nithsdale
+in a faltering voice, for she felt that it had been the Jacobites who
+had disturbed the public tranquillity; and true and reasonable as was
+the sentiment expressed by the yeoman, she could not echo it without
+throwing blame on those she most loved and honoured, or without belying
+the opinions and the feelings of her whole life.
+
+"Humph!" replied the yeoman: "I do not call those public matters. I
+think I have said nothing but what every good Christian should say
+amen to. I don't see how anybody can help saying 'tis better to be in
+the hands of the Lord than of men, not I."
+
+"Nor I, indeed!" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale with fervour. "O Lord, take
+us into thy hands, and deal with us according to thy mercy!"
+
+"Well, that's much what I said, only not in such a way. Verily, if I
+don't believe she is one of the new Dissenters that have sprung up of
+late!"
+
+Amy Evans, anxious to withdraw observation from her lady, asked him
+some question concerning his flock; and, affecting great interest in
+such matters, she was enabled, from her youthful Welsh education, to
+converse with sufficient knowledge of the subject to lead the honest
+unsuspicious farmer into a detail of his own plans and systems, in
+which he readily forgot what had at first excited his surprise in the
+bearing of the silent and serious young gentlewoman.
+
+By the time they reached York, his prediction concerning the weather
+was fully verified: the wheels of the heavy vehicle could scarcely cut
+through the deep snow; and so slow was their progress, that it had long
+been dark before the stage arrived at its destination in one of the
+most dismal streets of the ancient city of York.
+
+The snow continued to fall during the whole of the night, and the next
+morning the roads were found to be so totally impassable, that not only
+were all stage-coaches and carriages of every description arrested in
+their progress, but the post itself was stopped.
+
+Lady Nithsdale's disappointment amounted almost to despair. Every hour
+was precious. The letter which announced her husband's wish to see her
+had already been somewhat delayed on the road, and the duchess said
+that on her exertions might depend the mode in which his case might be
+looked upon. She thought, too, on his desolate, his forlorn condition;
+she judged from her own feelings how intensely he must desire her
+presence; and she deemed any hardship, any suffering, preferable to
+the mental anxiety of being shut up in York, unable to hear of him, to
+communicate with him, to exert herself for him.
+
+The long period of suspense and of forced inactivity which she had
+passed at Terreagles had been almost insupportably irksome; and now,
+when her lord had expressed a wish for her company, when possibly she
+might be of real service to him, to be imprisoned in a dismal room in
+an inn at York:--it was an infliction not to be endured.
+
+She again employed Walter Elliot to procure three saddle-horses; and,
+in spite of his dutiful remonstrances, and all unused as she had
+ever been to brave the inclemencies of the weather, or to encounter
+any bodily fatigue, she set off on horseback, through roads in which
+the snow often came up to the girths of the saddle. To Amy, who had
+been a mountain-bred lass--who had often wandered about her native
+hills on the rough Welsh ponies--the undertaking was not one of such
+difficulty; though she feared the strength of her delicately nurtured
+lady would never stand such hardships; but the soul which animated that
+apparently fragile form was such as to communicate to the frame some
+of its own power and elasticity. As they rode out of the town, the sun
+shone forth in dazzling splendour upon the brilliant whiteness of the
+scene. The roof of each house was clothed with a thick soft covering of
+newly-fallen snow, which the smoke of the town had not yet tarnished,
+though the power of the sun had already melted it in some degree, so
+that each gable was ornamented with a fringe of long pendent icicles.
+As they quitted the town and waded through the obstructed road, still
+the same dazzling whiteness presented itself to their view: the load
+which bent down the branches of the trees was not yet dissolved; and
+when the small birds, twittering in the welcome sunshine, lighted on a
+feathered spray, they shook from it a shower of bright snow-flakes.
+
+To a mind at ease the scene was beautiful and cheerful; and Lady
+Nithsdale in the midst of her sorrows felt grateful for the cheering
+light and for the clear pure atmosphere.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  The drowsy night grows on the world, and now
+  The busy craftsman and o'erlabour'd hind
+  Forget the travail of the day in sleep:
+  Care only wakes, and moping pensiveness.--Rowe.
+
+The sun was now midway through its course, and their progress had been
+but slow. "Is not my dear lady in need of rest?" inquired Amy Evans,
+as they approached a small village, at the entrance of which there was
+a newly-painted gaudy sign of the King's Head.
+
+"No, Amy, no; I need no rest. The consciousness of drawing nearer to my
+lord is rest enough for me."
+
+"But, honoured madam," interposed Walter Elliot, "it were not ower
+wise in us to push our steeds too hard. They dumb creatures are but
+flesh and bluid like our ainselves; and should they chance to knock up,
+what shall we do, I'm thinking. 'Tis weary wark for them lifting their
+hoofs eighteen or twenty inches through the snaw every step they take.
+An' it please your leddyship, we had better gie them a rest at yon
+bra'-looking inn."
+
+"Not there, good Walter, not there. Look at that flaring sign! A little
+farther on there is another place of refreshment; 'tis but an humble
+one I grant, but at this moment any one will be more welcome to me than
+this." And she averted her eyes from the "King George's Head," in large
+and golden letters, which adorned the front of the building. The place
+she had selected was indeed but a wretched ale-house, and they only
+stayed there long enough to allow the animals necessary food. She was
+impatient to be gone; and as they seldom could proceed beyond a foot's
+pace, they were still some miles from their destined resting-place for
+the night when the short day had closed in; the sun had already set
+crimson beyond the cold snowy fields, and the clear deep blue of the
+heavens was spangled with innumerable stars.
+
+The cold was piercing; and her attendants shivered, and wrapped their
+cloaks closer around them. At length they passed a blacksmith's
+forge; and the bright sparks which darted upwards through the chinks
+in the roof, the ruddy light which flared through the open door, the
+clear blaze of the fire itself, looked invitingly warm. Amy could not
+help remarking to Walter Elliot how comfortable and tempting was the
+interior of the forge.
+
+"Art thou cold, my poor girl?" inquired the countess.
+
+"Why, madam, of a surety the wind is very sharp; I should have thought
+your ladyship would have felt it more keenly than myself, who have
+not been so softly reared. I have been regretting all the day that
+we forgot to bring your mantle lined with sable, which her grace of
+Montrose sent you last winter."
+
+"Nay, heed me not, good Amy: I thought not of the cold--But now you
+speak of it, the night is frosty."
+
+"I have been fain to ask you, honoured madam, where your ladyship means
+to abide when you reach London?"
+
+"In truth, Amy, I cannot tell; I thought but of seeing my lord: when
+once in London, I felt I should be near to him; but it is more than
+probable they will not allow me to share his prison, and I suppose
+I must seek lodgings. Her grace of Montrose bade me live privately,
+and advised me not to affect any state in my accommodations: but I am
+little used to the bustle of a crowded city, and scarcely know how I
+must proceed."
+
+"If your ladyship will excuse my boldness, I have been thinking that
+I know of some one who might stand our friend. Does not your ladyship
+recollect, when you were in Wales, just at the entrance of the village,
+about a mile from Poole Castle, a low white house, with a high tiled
+roof composed of many gables and strange angles? Two goodly cypress
+trees grew before the windows on each side of the gravel walk which led
+to the porch, and the trim garden was fenced from the road by a low
+stone wall, and a laurustinus hedge within. Your ladyship must remember
+they were the finest laurustinus' in all the country, and they were
+always the first in bloom in that sheltered spot."
+
+"Yes. I think I remember the white house, Amy; the sun seemed ever to
+shine upon it, and make it gleam white against the green hill which
+rose behind."
+
+"Sure enough, madam, that was it. The mid-day sun shone full upon it,
+just about the hour your ladyship and your honoured mother were used to
+take your customary airing. And do you not remember, madam, a tall pale
+gentleman, who wore his hair parted up the middle of his forehead, and
+hanging long over his ears: it was silver-white, for he was very old?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I recollect him well, for he used to lean over the gate that
+opened upon the road, and watch our carriage as it drove by. He always
+bowed with a respectful yet a stately air to my mother as we passed:
+and I well remember her saying he had been a cavalier in King Charles
+the First's time, and she regretted that his increasing infirmities did
+not allow him to visit her, for she would have been proud to receive
+under her roof one who had been a faithful servant to his master in
+times of trouble. If I mistake not, my mother said that when quite a
+youth he had been one of the gallant cavaliers who rode post, along
+this very road, to carry to the king at York the news of each day's
+proceedings in the parliament. Would we had their steeds, and their
+strength! by this time we might have reached London."
+
+"Well, madam, this old gentleman had a young daughter, who was little
+older than myself. Her mother had died early; and the old gentleman
+had no companion but the merry maiden, and the merry maiden had none
+but her reverend but melancholy father. She made acquaintance with me
+one May morning, when we were gathering cowslips and primroses for our
+garlands. I was to be queen, and she gave me all her posies to help
+adorn my crown; and when we all came round, a troop of laughing girls
+with our garlands, Colonel Hilton gave me a gold piece. After that we
+often met; and as the colonel found that my mother was looked upon more
+as a friend than as a servant by the honoured duchess, and as I was
+somewhat better taught than other maidens of my degree, he would often
+let us pass an afternoon together, and young Mrs. Mellicent Hilton
+would teach me some of her songs, and read to me from her beautiful
+books, and in return I instructed her in many curious stitches and
+rare sorts of embroidery; and thus we whiled away the hours; and she
+promised that we always should be friends, though she was a lady, and
+I but the daughter of a menial. She married a Mr. Morgan a few months
+before your ladyship came into Wales: they said the old cavalier did
+not over well like the match, for Mr. Morgan's family had turned
+against King James the Second; but he was a well-favoured young man,
+and Mrs. Mellicent, poor soul, saw no one else, so it was but natural
+she should incline towards him.
+
+"The poor old colonel died soon after; but before he died he grew quite
+fond of his son-in-law, and he left all he had been able to save of his
+property to him and to Mrs. Mellicent, provided they added his name
+of Hilton to that of Morgan. I have since heard that Mr. Morgan is
+in favour with the new people, and that he has a place about the new
+court, so I think she must have it in her power to serve us; and if
+Amy Evans's old playmate, Mrs. Mellicent, has not quite forgotten the
+pleasures and the pastimes of her youth, I am sure she will have the
+inclination to do so."
+
+"My good and thoughtful Amy! and do you know where Mrs. Morgan now
+resides?"
+
+"Yes, dearest madam. 'Twas only in the last letter I received from
+Wales, that I learned many of these particulars about my old friend,
+and that she was just settled in her new house in Bloomsbury."
+
+"But if her husband is so staunch a Whig, 'tis more than probable she
+will look coldly on me, who am the wife of one whom she thinks a rebel."
+
+"Nay, madam, but she loved her good old father dearly, though she would
+have been loth to give up her sweetheart for what then seemed a by-gone
+matter. She would affect you none the less for being of the same way
+of thinking as the parent to whom she was ever a dutiful child; and,
+moreover, the world may work great changes in the hearts of those who
+live in it, but Mrs. Mellicent Hilton's must be sorely changed indeed
+if she is not one whose eyes will overflow at any tale of woe, and if
+she will stop to calculate the chances of success before she troubles
+herself to assist a fellow-creature in distress. Her old father used
+often to bid her have more discretion in her kindness, and to tell her
+she gave her alms to those who least deserved them: but she never could
+say "no" to any one that asked charity in a piteous tone of voice, and
+the very dogs about the white manor-house were kept so fat by Mrs.
+Mellicent that you might tell them from any others by their good case.
+And then, madam, it seems to my poor judgment, that one who knows
+something of the court, and yet is not so very great as the Duke of
+Montrose, or his lordship's cousin her grace of Buccleugh, or the Earl
+of Pembroke, or any of those nobles, may prove of service in a quiet
+way, when such great people might fear to attract notice."
+
+"There is much truth in what you say. You have a pertinent judgment,
+Amy, and it may be of good avail; we will think more of this. But we
+are drawing near our place of destination. See! by the lights gleaming
+from so many windows, this must be a considerable town. Walter, is it
+not here we are to pass the night?"
+
+"Yes, madam. Your leddyship maun set up here for the night, an' it so
+please you. I weel know, for one, that my puir nag could na' carry me a
+mile farther."
+
+The snow became less deep as they approached the metropolis, the roads
+more beaten, and they were enabled each day to compass longer journeys.
+On the evening of the 23rd of January they entered London.
+
+Lady Nithsdale's first impulse would have led her to the Tower, but
+it was too late to hope for admittance, and she thought that from the
+Duchess of Montrose she was most likely to learn how it fared with her
+husband, and what steps it might be most advisable for her to take.
+
+Leaving Amy, therefore, to make what arrangements were necessary for
+their accommodation, she instantly took coach and proceeded to the
+residence of the Duke of Montrose. She sent word by a servant to the
+duchess, that a person desired to see her grace upon business of
+importance, and with the message she gave a written billet entreating
+to see her in private. She did not sign the paper, not feeling assured
+how far any communication with the wife of a state prisoner might
+compromise the duchess herself. She was certain that the sight of her
+hand writing would procure her instant admission; and yet the few
+moments she passed waiting in the street were spent in a state of
+mental agitation which surprised herself.
+
+It was a painfully new situation for the daughter of the Duke of Powis,
+who was thoroughly imbued with the indelible nobility of aristocratic
+birth, to find herself alone, in a hired coach, as a suitor at the
+door of one with whom she had ever lived on terms of equality and
+intimacy. It was not that she doubted the kindness, the sincerity, the
+generosity, of her good friend and cousin; but she now felt more lost,
+more unprotected, in the busy, noisy, thronged streets of London, than
+she had done in all the difficulties of her perilous journey.
+
+Only a few moments, however, elapsed before the portals were thrown
+open, and she found herself ushered through the rank of powdered
+liveried domestics, who in those days were deemed indispensable
+appendages to the great, into a small ante-room on the ground-floor.
+
+Lady Nithsdale sank on a seat, bewildered, overcome. It all seemed to
+her like a strange dream. What news might await her! Three weeks had
+elapsed since the date of the duchess's letter--what fearful events
+might not have occurred!
+
+The door opened; the duchess appeared, beautiful, brilliant, blooming,
+glittering in diamonds and jewels, and rustling in satins and
+point-lace. "My sweet cousin! my dear Winifred!" exclaimed the duchess.
+
+"Oh, Christian! dearest friend!" and Lady Nithsdale rushed into her
+open arms, and wept upon her neck.
+
+For twelve days body and mind had been upon the stretch, and the words,
+the tones of kindness at this moment of exhaustion, completely unnerved
+her. "How is he?" she inquired, as she sobbed upon the duchess's bosom.
+
+"Well, dear cousin, well. Compose yourself; why is this, my gentle,
+staid, tranquil cousin of Nithsdale? These tears, this trembling, do
+not promise well for the work you have in hand."
+
+"True, true!" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale, "it is over! 'twas but a
+momentary weakness. I have ridden a weary distance to-day," she
+continued, attempting to smile, and hastily pushing her hair off her
+brow; "and with a heart not well at ease," she added, pressing her hand
+upon her bosom, as if to still its throbbings: "but tell me all; I am
+ready now to hear and to endure. On the 10th they were impeached," she
+said firmly and resolutely; "of course, my lord pleaded guilty."
+
+"He did. Last Thursday, the 19th, when the lords sent in their reply to
+the impeachment, your noble husband, with Lord Derwentwater and Lord
+Kenmure, pleaded guilty to the articles exhibited against them. Lord
+Wintoun alone on various pretences petitioned for longer delay."
+
+"I knew my lord would never deny the share he took in this sad
+business," exclaimed Lady Nithsdale, with a confidence and pride in his
+integrity which for a moment over-came her fears for his safety. Then
+she added, in a tone which seemed to ask for reassurement, "Surely this
+plain-dealing, this honesty, cannot indispose the king! His surrender
+at Preston----"
+
+"Yes, yes, we will hope for the best," interrupted the duchess, anxious
+to evade the question, for she was too well aware that the Earl of
+Nithsdale was looked upon with fear and suspicion; and though she
+could not bring herself to crush Lady Nithsdale's hopes, she dared not
+encourage them,--"only be calm and prudent."
+
+"Trust me, I am now firm and resolved: I am ready, even impatient,
+to be stirring in my husband's service. It was the sight of you, dear
+cousin, and the kind tones of your sweet voice----!"
+
+"Well, no more of this: I will see you to-morrow, when we will confer
+more at large: I must not now delay. I am to court to-night, as you
+may perceive by all this gay apparel; my lord duke is there already
+in attendance, and I must not be late. But, before I leave you, let
+me enforce one thing; I fear they will refuse you admittance to your
+husband, unless you consent to share his imprisonment: this must not
+be! You must remain at liberty, or we cannot concert our measures;
+you must yourself see and speak with some I will name to you. I have
+assurances that the king will show mercy to several of the prisoners;
+but still we all know the good Earl of Nithsdale has many enemies, and
+there is the more need you should be in freedom to use your influence
+with them. Remember, that for his sake, you must not preclude yourself
+from serving him far more effectually than you could by sharing his
+prison."
+
+"Trust me, my dear friend, I will obey your injunctions. Whatever it
+may cost me, I will turn back from his prison-door, if it is for his
+good that I should do so. May Heaven bless and reward you, dearest
+cousin!" and she seized the duchess's hand and pressed it to her heart.
+
+"'Pshaw! silly Winifred, you need not thank me yet," replied the
+duchess, half turning away, and brushing off a tear; "you must not
+make me weep before I go to court, or my eyes will make no conquests
+to-night, and my lord duke, who loves to hear me praised, will be angry
+with you, fair cousin. I must stay with you no longer, or I shall play
+the very fool, and not be fit to show myself at St. James's. One kiss,
+dear cousin, and adieu! It would not be wise that I should absent
+myself from the king's presence just now. For your sake I must not
+linger;" and the fair creature moved away in grace and beauty.
+
+She glided through the hall; the splendid coach drove off; the
+running-footmen, bearing torches, preceded and accompanied her.
+
+"How unjust," thought Lady Nithsdale, "is the common accusation that
+pomp and splendour harden the heart! Where could I find more true
+kindness and sympathy than in my dear cousin Christian, whose life has
+been one sunny dream of unclouded brilliancy?" But as she slowly and
+thoughtfully returned in solitude to the temporary lodging which Amy
+had procured for her, she pondered on the duchess's words--"My lord
+has many enemies, she said: how can he have enemies? Surely, if favour
+is to be shown to any, to whom could it be more properly extended than
+to him? Does not the kind duchess alarm herself needlessly? And yet
+she knows the counsels of those in power. She would not wish to excite
+unreasonable fears in my mind. Alas! what can she mean? My lord was not
+one of the first to join the insurgents: Lord Derwentwater was already
+in arms; Forster was at the head of a considerable body of troops; the
+Earl of Mar had set up King James's standard. Neither had he, like the
+Earl of Mar, ever made professions of loyalty to the House of Hanover.
+General Forster is even now a member of King George's parliament. But
+my dear lord is not obnoxious from either of these causes. He has
+never been guilty of treachery, neither has he ever been forward in
+causing disturbances in his native land; but when civil broils became
+inevitable, then--then he was not found wanting to the family for which
+his ancestors have bled and suffered. Oh! would that the morrow were
+arrived! This long tedious night, which must intervene before I can
+see, learn, hear, know, do anything further, how wearisome, how irksome
+is it!"
+
+Upon her return to her lodgings, she found that Amy Evans, on her part,
+had not been idle. She had already sought and obtained an interview
+with her former companion Mrs. Morgan.
+
+Nearly ten years had elapsed since Mellicent Hilton had left the Welsh
+valley of her childhood as the bride of Mr. Morgan, and from that time
+the playfellows had never met; for before Mrs. Morgan returned to
+visit her father in his solitude, Amy had accompanied the Countess of
+Nithsdale into Scotland.
+
+Mrs. Morgan was fortunately alone on the evening in question, when Amy,
+half-alarmed at her own presumption, presented herself at her door.
+
+She did not at first recollect, in the Mrs. Evans who was announced,
+the merry Amy of her childhood; neither would Amy have recognised, in
+the tall, slender, modish lady before her, the buxom, rosy girl who
+had climbed the mountain paths, and pulled the wild flowers with her.
+She hesitated for a moment, while she assured herself that, although
+the complexion was less brilliant, and the full form had fined into a
+marvellous taper waist, still the laughing blue eye was the same, the
+expression of the free hearty smile the same, although the dimples were
+not so visible in the less rounded cheek.
+
+Mrs. Morgan, with an air of courtly breeding, bent herself gracefully
+towards the stranger, waiting till she opened her business; when Amy,
+half abashed at the changes which had taken place in the exterior
+of her former friend, half re-assured by the kindly countenance
+which spoke that the heart remained unchanged, after making a low
+and respectful courtesy, began with some hesitation, "that she could
+scarcely hope Mrs. Morgan would still bear in mind the childish
+playmate of Mrs. Mellicent Hilton,--Amy, the daughter of old Rachael
+Evans, of Poole Castle."
+
+"What, Amy, the Queen of the May! is it you, my old friend?" exclaimed
+Mrs. Morgan, holding out her hand with the frankness she brought from
+the Montgomeryshire valley, unimpaired by the intercourse she had since
+had with the world. "Oh! I have often wished to see you again, and
+often thought what happy hours we have passed together, when we have
+laughed even to tears without knowing wherefore, and sung for very want
+of thought and care. But, my good Amy, your looks speak that, since
+those days, you have been made acquainted with thought and care. Your
+countenance is sorrowful. Is your mother, the good Rachael, well? And
+David?--How comes it you are still Amy Evans? Have you been cruel after
+all?"
+
+"Alas, madam! my poor mother has been dead these two years; she scarce
+survived her mistress more than a few weeks: but they were both in
+years; and the good Duke of Powis allowed her to be buried in his own
+family vault, and she lies near her honoured mistress, the duchess.
+And as to David, my dear Mrs. Mellicent, I have not thought of him
+for many and many a year; I should esteem it beneath me to pine for
+him! He showed the truth of the old saying, 'out of sight, out of
+mind;' and I shall never be the one to prove an old proverb false!"
+answered Amy, with a flash of her former spirit. "But, madam, I have
+other cares, and heavier ones, upon my mind. My dear mistress the good
+Countess of Nithsdale's lord is in prison, with the other lords whom
+they call rebels, and my lady and I have rode to London to attend
+him, and, as I hope, to be of some service to him. But we are nearly
+strangers in London; and I thought, madam, that for old acquaintance
+sake, perhaps, you would stand our friend. I knew Mr. Morgan was much
+about the palace; and they say, madam," she continued, smiling, "there
+is nothing like a friend at court; and so I made bold to come to you at
+once. I thought, also, you could perhaps inform us where we might lodge
+respectably, and yet privately; for her grace the Duchess of Montrose
+warned my lady not to live in state, but to keep private."
+
+"Alas! good Amy, I fear you are come on a sad errand," answered Mrs.
+Morgan, with a serious countenance. "I fear that the Earl of Nithsdale
+is one whose fate is sealed. I hear no talk of mercy being extended
+towards him. So staunch a Catholic!--so influential a man on the
+borders of Scotland and England!--so forward as his family have ever
+been in support of the exiled race! Alas, for your poor mistress! Is
+she much attached to him?"
+
+"Oh, madam!" exclaimed Amy, with a face of consternation, "it will kill
+my mistress if anything happens to my lord! I am sure, quite sure, she
+could not outlive him," she continued, wringing her hands; "you never,
+madam, saw such love as hers; it is not like anything else that ever I
+heard of. I am sure, when I see how she hangs upon my lord's words--how
+she honours and reveres him--how she watches his looks, and lives but
+for him--I cannot think I ever cared anything at all about David. And
+you, madam, you were very partial to Mr. Morgan; and I well remember
+you were resolved to have him" (Mrs. Morgan smiled); "but still your
+love was not like my poor mistress's!"
+
+"Poor soul!" said Mrs. Morgan; "what can I do for her? I would serve
+her, or any one in such distress, if I knew how I could do so. More
+especially, I would gladly serve any one whom you seem to love so
+dearly."
+
+"I do indeed love my dear lady with my whole heart, and no one who
+knows her excellence could do otherwise."
+
+"Well, dear Amy, you may count on my exerting what little influence I
+may possess; and Mr. Morgan is so kind, I am sure he will assist us,
+if he can. In the mean time, I can tell you of a worthy family with
+whom your mistress might be comfortably and respectably lodged. I will
+see Mrs. Mills to-morrow; her house is not far removed from the Tower,
+which would, I think, be a recommendation to the Countess of Nithsdale;
+and she is a gentle, kind soul, who will be ready to weep with your
+lady, and will never wound her by a thoughtless or indiscreet word."
+
+Amy Evans's countenance brightened. "I was right," she exclaimed,
+"when I told the countess the world might work great changes, but it
+would be indeed a great one if Mrs. Mellicent Hilton had not still
+the kindest heart that ever beat. I feared I was making very bold,
+and was presuming too much upon the freedom permitted in childhood,
+when I ventured to come to you; but I thought time could never have
+hardened such feelings as yours, so as to make you resent the liberty
+I was taking. In my honoured lady's name, and my own, receive our most
+grateful thanks, madam;" and Amy kissed the hand which Mrs. Morgan
+cordially extended towards her.
+
+"I will see Mrs. Mills to-morrow morning; and then, with the Countess
+of Nithsdale's permission, I will wait on her, and inform her what
+arrangements I have been able to make."
+
+"Our blessings on you, dear madam!" repeated Amy, as she took her
+leave, and hastened back to meet her lady upon her return from the
+Duchess of Montrose.
+
+Lady Nithsdale listened with gratitude to all that Amy told her; and
+the kindness they had both met with on their several missions proved
+the best cordial which could be administered to feelings so tried as
+hers had been. Exhausted nature, however, claimed its rights, and she
+slept. The bodily fatigue which caused sleep,--
+
+  "Tir'd nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,"
+
+to give a respite to the workings of her mind, may have assisted in
+enabling her to bear all that awaited her.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ The less I may be blest with her company, the more I will retire to
+ God, and my owne heart, whence no malice can banish her. My enemies
+ may envy, but they can never deprive me of the enjoyment of her
+ virtues, while I enjoy myself.--_Eikon Basiliké._
+
+As the day began to dawn, and the grey winter light gradually illumed
+the narrow dirty streets, which the remains of snow rendered more than
+usually dreary, the Countess of Nithsdale wound her way to the Tower.
+
+It was still too early to gain admittance, or even to be allowed to
+speak with the porter. The gates were not yet opened: she stood and
+gazed till her feelings were almost intolerably excited, and then
+she paced up and down with a quick and hurried step, till, abruptly
+stopping, she pressed the arm of her faithful companion, Amy, and
+pointing to the antique building, she cried, in an accent of despair,
+"He is there, Amy, he is there, and I cannot be with him!"
+
+Amy looked with awe and vague fear at the spot, which, from our cradle,
+is united in our minds with the ideas of murder, the scaffold, open
+executions, and secret assassination. She trembled at the certainty
+that her dear master actually lay within its fearful precincts; and she
+turned an eye of commiseration on her lady, to think that she was, in
+sober truth, an actress in one of those tragedies of which we are apt
+to hear and read as of fictitious horrors.
+
+They gazed upon the thick and muddy water of the moat, upon the lofty
+wall which rose on the other side, and in which the inhabitants, of
+whose dwellings it formed a part, had here and there opened windows,
+added gabled roofs, and pieced the ancient rough stone-work with brick
+additions of their own. This patch-work took off from its antiquity and
+solemnity, without imparting to such a building any air of comfort. On
+the contrary, it spoke of long residence within the narrow limits of a
+prison.
+
+At length the clock struck the appointed hour, and she hastened to the
+gates to solicit an interview with the Lieutenant of the Tower.
+
+After some delay, the request was granted, when she received the
+answer the Duchess of Montrose had led her to anticipate. The orders
+were most strict that none should be allowed to visit the prisoners
+before the day appointed for pronouncing sentence upon them; but hopes
+were held out to her that she might obtain permission to share Lord
+Nithsdale's confinement.
+
+Had it not been for the duchess's caution, it is more than probable she
+would gladly have accepted the conditions: for to feel herself so near
+him, and yet to be withheld from seeing him;--to know that he was in
+solitude and sadness, looking only for her company to cheer him, and
+to refuse to share his prison;--to turn away when she had it in her
+power to look upon his face, to hear again that soft, deep, melodious
+voice,--alas! it was a sore trial! But she was firm in adhering to her
+resolution. Such, however, was her agitation, that as she tottered
+from the lieutenant's apartments, some of the soldiers, moved with
+compassion, offered her a seat for a few moments in the guard-room.
+One kindly brought her a cup of water, for which she did not fail to
+show her gratitude by deeds as well as words. He accompanied her to
+the outer gate; and she succeeded so well in working on his feelings
+of kindness and of self-interest, that she obtained from him a promise
+to exert himself in her behalf, and an assurance that when he was on
+guard, he would not watch too narrowly which way she passed.
+
+With many a lingering look towards the dismal edifice, she tore herself
+away, but it was not without a hope of compassing by stealth the
+interview which she had been refused.
+
+She hastened to her appointment with the duchess, when she did not
+fail to tell her how faithfully she had obeyed her injunctions, how
+resolutely she had even turned from his prison gates, when her heart
+burned to rush to her husband; but at the same time she imparted to
+her the hopes she entertained of seeing him through the means of the
+kind-hearted guard.
+
+"If all that is said be true," answered the duchess archly, "it is not
+so difficult to gain access to the prisoners; a golden key is often
+more potent than an iron bar! Meantime, I would advise your exerting
+all the influence you may possess with my Lord Townshend and the Duke
+of Richmond. My husband tells me they are both likely to advocate
+measures of severity; and yet I should hope the Duke of Richmond would
+remember that the Earl of Derwentwater is his kinsman. The Earls of
+Danby and of Nottingham I spoke with last night, and I trust with good
+effect. They both promised they would second any petition from the
+prisoners. Some will certainly be pardoned; but, dearest cousin, we
+must exert ourselves to the utmost, and yet our zeal must be tempered
+with discretion. The earl your husband has, as I told you, many
+enemies; and I should be a false friend did I not confess to you that
+he is not one of those who are likely to be most leniently dealt with."
+Lady Nithsdale clasped her hands with such an expression of anguish
+that the duchess hastened to add, "But I know not, neither can any
+one know, in truth, what will be the sentence of the court. 'Tis all
+conjecture."
+
+"But why, O why, should conjecture be unfavourable to my lord?"
+
+"Nay, I cannot say. It may be--a Catholic,--his property on the very
+borders of the two countries,--his family so long attached to the
+Stuarts;--but all may yet be well. Circumstances may arise in his
+favour. Should the sentence be--be such as to blast our hopes,--they
+speak of a petition to be signed by the prisoners."
+
+"My lord will never put his name to anything that may savour of
+dishonour. I know not what this petition may prove; but if it is
+such as should change any sentence that may have passed, I marvel if
+it can be such as it would become my lord to sign,--or such"--she
+added emphatically,--"or such as I could wish him to sign:" her voice
+broke, and she burst into tears at thus, as it were, with her own lips
+pronouncing his doom. "His life," she continued, as if to justify
+herself for what she had uttered, "must not be preserved at the price
+of honour!" and her delicate form reared itself, and her eye glanced
+upwards, as if to seek from Heaven the strength she so much needed.
+
+The duchess sighed. "What a noble spirit," she thought, "is probably
+destined to be crushed! what a generous heart, in all probability, will
+be condemned to drink the bitter cup of sorrow to the very dregs!" She
+cast her dark bright eyes on the ground to conceal her emotion.
+
+Lady Nithsdale saw the tears glistening in her eye-lashes: "You weep,
+cousin! you are weeping for me! Alas! alas! you know his doom. You
+know the counsels of those in power; and you know that they are his
+inveterate foes. You fear to tell me that you know it!"
+
+"On my honour, I know nothing," repeated the duchess with solemnity;
+"but surely we all suspect and fear enough to draw tears from drier
+eyes and harder hearts than mine. My dear cousin knows of old, that
+a little thing will move me to smile, or to weep; so you must not
+augur ill from my childish weakness, but set it down to the account of
+Christian Montrose's variable temperament:" and she strove to smile
+through the tears which now flowed every moment faster down her cheeks.
+
+After some farther consultation between the friends they parted, and
+at dusk Lady Nithsdale again repaired to the Tower. The accommodating
+guard was in attendance. He quickly and silently admitted her through
+the wicket. As she passed under the first archway, she fancied she
+perceived another muffled female figure who glided quietly on, as
+if accustomed to the way. The sight re-assured her, as it seemed to
+confirm what the duchess had told her of the potency of a golden key.
+In silence she crossed the bridge over the moat: she looked fearfully
+on all sides, dreading lest each form she saw might be that of some
+guard more strict in the performance of his duty; and doubting whether
+in a few moments she might be blessed with the sight of her husband, or
+whether she might be driven forth despairing to her desolate lodging.
+
+When on the bridge, the masts of the vessels lying in the Thames were
+visible over the parapet. She could just distinguish them dark against
+the sky. She cast towards them a lingering look, and thought, "O that
+we were together on board the meanest of those vessels; together, on
+our way to life and liberty!"
+
+They emerged from the gloom of the second archway, and keeping under
+the shadow of the southern wall, they passed, what seemed to her, a
+considerable distance between the lofty buildings. "Those are the
+warders' apartments," whispered the guard, pointing to the high wall
+to the north: "'Tis there that most of the rebels have their lodgings;
+go straight on, till you get to the Traitor's gate,--there, to the
+right,"--she shuddered as the word was uttered, and looked fearfully as
+he directed to the portals which are only opened to admit a prisoner,
+but never to send him forth to freedom;--"when you get there, turn to
+your left through the Bloody Tower,"--a more icy chill ran through her
+veins;--"then to your left again, up the steps, and you will see a girl
+who will lead you where you wish to go. I must not be seen any farther
+than this spot. I shall be on guard just an hour longer. Be sure you
+do not linger beyond that time, or you will never make your way out
+of this dismal place; and as for me! I shall pay a heavy price for my
+good-nature."
+
+"Would I could adequately reward you for your charity!" answered the
+countess, pouring gold into his hand;--"but Heaven will not forget this
+deed of mercy!"
+
+She found the girl upon the steps, as she had been led to expect, and
+she immediately followed her to a door about the centre of the building
+to the south of the court, when, bidding her wait for a moment, the
+girl disappeared. Lady Nithsdale trembled from head to foot: her heart
+seemed almost to stop its pulsations, so agonising was the fear that
+now, on the very threshold, something might occur to disappoint her
+hopes.
+
+Intense as was her anxiety to see her husband, as the moment actually
+approached, a dread came over her at the notion of seeing him under
+such circumstances. Her thoughts were painfully broken in upon by
+the sounds of merriment and revelry which burst from one of the
+neighbouring windows--loud songs and shouts of laughter! They jarred
+upon her ear as something out of tune, unfitting for the place or
+season, and she wondered how gaolers could be so devoid of feeling as
+to indulge in noisy jollity, within hearing of their prisoners.
+
+The young girl quickly returned.
+
+"This is the moment, madam. The guards are all engaged; they are going
+to convey those prisoner lords, whom you may hear carousing within,
+back to their several apartments; and now you can slip up unperceived."
+
+"The axe suspended over their heads," thought Lady Nithsdale, "and this
+unseemly recklessness! and shall such as they find mercy, while my
+lord----"
+
+In a few seconds she had mounted the narrow stairs; passed the outer
+room, which was at that moment vacant; and the young maiden having
+gently unbolted the farther door, she found herself in her husband's
+presence!
+
+He was reading by a dimly burning candle, and started at the sound
+of footsteps; but before he could ascertain the cause of this
+interruption, his wife was on his bosom, her arms were around his neck.
+
+"I am here! I am with you at last! It is your own Winifred!" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"Then Heaven has mercy still in store for me!" he replied.
+
+For a few moments neither could speak. Words seemed all inadequate to
+express the strong emotions of joy, and of grief, which struggled in
+their hearts. The Earl of Nithsdale, whose mind was chastened, whose
+feelings were tempered by long confinement, was the first to recover
+his self-possession. "Now I see you, my love, I am indeed no longer
+comfortless! Oh, Winifred! I have passionately longed for this blessed
+moment! It is five long months since we parted, love;--I have counted
+the days, the hours;--there has not been one in which I have not
+required your gentle strength, your trusting patience, to support me
+or to soothe me. Thanks be to Heaven that has vouchsafed to me once
+more the joy of beholding you!"--and he lifted her gently from his
+shoulder, on which her head had sunk.--"And now let me look upon that
+dear face, and from those pure and holy eyes draw faith, submission,
+and resignation." He gazed upon her for some moments with a tenderness,
+which, as he gazed, increased in intensity. "Alas!" he suddenly
+exclaimed, and flinging his arms upon the table, he hid his face in
+his hands--"Alas! it is not thus I shall learn to submit cheerfully
+to my fate! To see you once again!--to hear that voice--to press that
+beloved form once more to my heart--to feel that if my life were
+spared, it would be to pass that life with you, for you! oh! this does
+not reconcile one to what must be----" Then checking himself, he added,
+in a calmer tone, "But are you well, my love? you have not suffered on
+your journey? And the children?--you hear of them? I know not how it
+has fared with them for many, many weeks. Poor innocents!"--And the
+thought that he should never see them more, made his voice quiver as he
+spoke.
+
+"Oh, they are well, and safe, and happy, in health and freedom, in a
+more favoured land than this!"
+
+He looked up, and a smile illumined his features; but by the dim light
+of the solitary taper his countenance looked wan, and the last few
+months had left deep traces of care upon his brow.
+
+"You are ill!" she exclaimed in affright; "you must be ill."
+
+"Nay," he replied, with gentleness, "my health is unimpaired; and now
+my Winifred is come, my spirits will soon be cheered."
+
+"Alas! I have seen you pale before, and I have seen you sad; but never,
+never did I see you look thus!"
+
+"Time will do its own work, dearest! and I am older by some months than
+when you saw me last. My Winifred must not quarrel with her husband,"
+he added, smiling, "because age steals upon him with no gentle hand.
+Oh! is it not our wish, our most earnest wish, my love," he continued,
+with solemnity and tenderness, "to see each other grow old? And do you
+not think that if we should be spared to each other, years would only
+rivet still closer the bonds which unite us; that for every charm which
+may depart with youth, there would arise a thousand recollections of
+mutual kindnesses, mutual sufferings, ay, and mutual joys, (for we have
+known many days of happiness,) which would still render us more dear,
+one to the other? Methinks that when that delicate form shall have
+lost its roundness," and he passed his arm around her slender waist;
+"and when those eyes shall have lost their brilliancy, and that clear
+forehead its smoothness; when these soft curls," and he pressed to his
+lips one of the two or three long curls which, according to the fashion
+of the time, were suffered to fall on her neck,--"when these soft brown
+curls shall be mixed with grey--that my Winifred would be, if possible,
+more precious to my heart than she is even now; for I should remember
+that those eyes have been dimmed with tears for me, that smooth brow
+care-worn on my account." Lady Nithsdale wept softly, unresistingly;
+she struggled not against her tears, for she was almost unconscious
+that they flowed. "Should those blessed days ever come to us, Winifred,
+the recollection of this hour will be sweet; and should there be no
+future for me----"
+
+"There will be none for me," she quickly interposed; "I feel assured,"
+and she pressed her hand against her heart--"I feel assured, there
+would be none for me!"
+
+"Hush, hush, dearest!--remember the children; they must not be
+orphans:--but we will not unnerve ourselves. I have still much to hear:
+as yet I have thought but of myself,--I blush that private feeling
+should so wholly have engrossed me. Did you see the king? for thus I
+must still call him, though I well see that he is fated never to rule
+over this land. And I begin to think that it might not be for the
+general weal that he should do so. The sight, the actual sight of civil
+war, makes one view matters in a different light."
+
+"Yes, my dearest lord, I waited on his majesty at Scone; for I imagined
+you would have wished me so to do."
+
+"Assuredly, assuredly!"
+
+"Though many whom we believed to be his most faithful adherents heeded
+not the summons to attend him, I thought that my dear lord would be the
+more anxious I should not be backward in my service."
+
+"My Winifred judged of my feelings as she is ever wont. And did the
+king receive you graciously?"
+
+"Yes, graciously; they told me most graciously: but I know not how it
+was; he seemed ill at case, suffering in body and in mind. He said as
+much, I suppose, as is usual and fitting; and yet, methought, under the
+circumstances, there lacked something of that warmth which might have
+relighted the expiring flame of loyalty in one's bosom."
+
+"The expiring flame of loyalty in your bosom, my Winifred? If I had
+spoken so, having seen all I have seen!"
+
+"Oh! but I have seen enough! I passed through the blackened ruins of
+the burned villages,--burned by his own orders. I saw the houseless
+inhabitants of what once were flourishing and happy homes; I saw the
+helpless children perishing in the snow, the old and the infirm without
+a shelter; I saw the desolated fields; and I had heard--oh! I had
+heard how the noblest of the land had been treated on their approach
+to this city, and I felt that it was for his sake that my husband had
+been pinioned, that his hands hail been tied with cords; for his sake
+that he had been exposed to the gibes of the multitude! And there he
+stood, cold and unmoved, and 'hoped my good lord's health continued
+unimpaired!' Oh! at that moment my loyalty died within me! and I
+felt--oh! how agonisingly did I feel--that we had sacrificed all for
+one who was little worthy of the sacrifice!"
+
+"Alas! I have, as you know, long feared that such was the case. His
+spirit has been early crushed, and it does not possess the elasticity
+to spring up again. They still retain Perth. Do they expect to hold it?"
+
+"The proclamation orders that a public thanksgiving for King James's
+safe arrival should take place on the 26th; but there were vague
+rumours that the Earl of Mar had resolved to evacuate the town; still
+these were only rumours."
+
+"A thanksgiving for his safe arrival!" Lord Nithsdale repeated with
+a faint sad smile; "one for his safe departure would be more to the
+purpose, I fear. Did you see the king but once?"
+
+"It was on my return from Scone I received the good duchess's letter,
+and you may well imagine I did not linger on the way."
+
+"Some one told me the roads were impassable from the snow; that all
+carriages were stopped, and that even the post was delayed; so I did
+not look for you to cheer me yet."
+
+"I rode from York," she replied, "with Walter Elliot and our faithful
+Amy Evans."
+
+"You, Winifred, who never could be persuaded to mount the gentlest and
+best-paced palfrey!"
+
+"Oh! I forgot those foolish fears, those fears which were bred of too
+much happiness, and of being too tenderly cared for; I never thought of
+any fear but one--that of being delayed on my journey."
+
+"My own love! that soul of thine will ever have the mastery over that
+fragile form."
+
+"Hark! The clock strikes. I have but a few moments more. The hour is
+wearing away. I have seen the duchess, and she has told me to whom I
+must most strenuously apply; and she has warned me that I must not
+do what, as you may well believe, my heart would prompt,--share your
+prison. I must be at liberty to act in your service: but I have bribed
+a kindly guard, and he will admit me when it is possible. I understand
+others, without the holy claim I have, gain access to some within
+the walls: so trust me, I shall soon be here again; and, as I hope,
+with news to cheer us both." Lord Nithsdale shook his head slightly,
+but then, with an assumed cheerfulness, listened to what she had to
+communicate. "Lord Danby and Lord Nottingham are friendly; the Duke of
+Richmond, though not friendly, cannot be forward in the prosecution,
+related as he is to Lord Derwentwater; and I feel persuaded the next
+news from Scotland will be such as to quiet the fears of government."
+
+"And is the time come when one calculates upon the failure of the cause
+to which oneself and all one's house have ever been devoted?"
+
+"Nay! can I now think of any cause but my own dear lord's? such days
+are past, and gone forever! To accomplish all that may he compassed
+with honour is now my first, my only object!" and she tore herself from
+the husband who, whatever might be her devotion to him, repaid her with
+the love and reverence he might feel for a guardian angel.
+
+She was gone! He remained in his solitude, gazing upon the door through
+which she had disappeared, and almost doubting whether he had been
+blessed with her actual presence, or whether it had not been a cheering
+vision vouchsafed to him in mercy.
+
+How often had he thought that were she near to console and to support
+him, he could meet his fate without a murmur. He fancied that the
+bitterest part of his present condition was the entire separation
+from her who was the partner of all his feelings, the depositary of
+his sorrows, the sharer of his anxieties. But alas! while life was so
+dreary, so joyless, so irksome, it was far less precious to him than
+when the sight of her had brought before him all he was to lose. He was
+sad, hopeless, resigned before. He felt that, if wrong, he had not been
+wilfully so in the course he had pursued; he consoled himself with the
+reflection that no stain could rest on his fair fame; that, though his
+name might be attainted, he left behind him to his children a character
+of unblemished honour. He had deliberately, and with little hope of any
+better result than the present, upheld the pretensions of the prince
+for whom he was now suffering; and he felt it would not become him to
+repine at an event to which he had always looked forward as probable.
+
+An honourable death in battle, a more awful one on the scaffold, or at
+best an eternal banishment, were the alternatives which he had ever
+contemplated; and he thought he had schooled his mind to acquiesce
+calmly in the fulfilment of that which awaited him, although it might
+be the least welcome of the three.
+
+Once more to see his beloved wife, to pour forth all his thoughts
+and feelings into her bosom, to deliver to her his last injunctions
+concerning his children, to arrange with her some plan for her future
+life, to give and to receive the last adieux, and then placidly and
+composedly to lay his head upon the block,--such had been the course in
+which he had guided his feelings and his reflections.
+
+He had seen her! He had felt how dearly he was loved! He had felt what
+charms life still possessed for him! He had also felt how utterly
+impossible it was that she could ever acquiesce as he did in his fate,
+how completely her happiness was bound up in his! And where were
+now the resignation,--the cheerful submission,--the philosophical
+indifference with which he had brought himself to anticipate his
+probable sentence?
+
+Never since the first night he had become an inmate of the Tower, had
+he experienced such a struggle of conflicting feelings! The picture
+which he had himself drawn of the gradual approach of age, of the
+happiness of descending hand in hand into the vale of years, had
+awakened a desire of life which he had hoped no longer lurked within
+his bosom, and it required the aid of prayer to subdue, and all the
+pride of man to conceal, the agitation of his mind.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ It is God's indulgence which gives me the space, but man's cruelty
+ that gives me the sad occasion for these thoughts.--_Eikon Basiliké._
+
+The greater part of the night which succeeded the Earl of Nithsdale's
+interview with his wife, was spent by him in restlessly measuring with
+hasty strides the mean apartment to which he was confined.
+
+In the morning he obtained permission to refresh himself by walking
+on the leads over the warders' lodgings, an indulgence occasionally
+granted to the prisoners.
+
+The fresher air, all chilly as it was, and loaded with London smoke,
+revived him; and as he paced the narrow limits, his eye turned
+involuntarily towards the vessels which crowded the river up to
+London Bridge. As he watched, he saw one who sesails were beginning
+to be unfurled, while all was bustle, hurry, and confusion on board:
+she was getting under weigh, and he sighed to think how impossible to
+be surmounted were the obstacles which interposed between him and the
+vessel which seemed so near.
+
+His eye dropped, and rested on the Traitor's Gate, and he almost
+thought he once more heard the jarring sound of the iron bolts and bars
+which had closed behind him.
+
+As his eye passed on, it was arrested by the Bloody Tower, which, as
+some say, was the spot in which the tragic murder of the young princes
+was enacted. "They knew not the pains of life," he thought, "neither
+knew they its joys! They knew not that mutual affection which so
+painfully yet so sweetly attaches one to existence! But there," and he
+looked upon the stone which marks the place where Lord Guildford Dudley
+and Lady Jane Grey were executed,--"there did two pure creatures, bound
+to each other by every holy tie of faith and love, yield up their
+innocent spirits. They who had scarcely tasted of happiness,--the cup
+was snatched from their lips ere they could fully know its sweetness!
+They would have esteemed themselves most blessed, could they have been
+assured of as many years of mutual affection, of wedded bliss, as I
+have already enjoyed. Alas for ye, innocent victims of the ambition of
+others! when I remember you, I must not repine! And there, again!" as
+his thoughts followed the objects on which his eye dwelt,--"that was
+the prison of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn,--wounded in her affections,
+in her honour,--pampered with flattery, surrounded with pomp, enervated
+by splendour, only to be the more cruelly and suddenly plunged into
+the depths of misery and disgrace. No! no! I must not repine!"--and he
+again schooled his mind to resignation and submission. "I have neither
+met with falsehood nor with ingratitude! my honour is not impeached! I
+must not, will not, repine!"
+
+Lady Nithsdale meanwhile was not inactive. She visited the Countesses
+of Derwentwater and Wintoun; and they agreed that, should the sentence
+not prove favourable, they would together present a petition to
+parliament, and in the intervening space of time that each should exert
+her private influence with those in power, to win as many as possible
+to their interest.
+
+She visited her husband's cousin, the Duchess of Buccleugh, and
+obtained the duke's promise to present a petition should the necessity
+occur; and having taken every measure that prudence could dictate, she
+had but to await in tremulous anxiety the sentence which was to be
+pronounced on the 9th of February.
+
+She frequently contrived to see her lord, though she was always obliged
+to do so by stealth. These visits, although so ardently desired by
+both, were to both hours of bitter anguish.
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale, fully aware of the feeling which prevailed
+against him, anticipated but too justly the sentence which would be
+pronounced, and could not bring himself to echo the hopeful sentiments
+with which his wife buoyed up her spirits; neither had he the heart
+fully to express to her his own more gloomy apprehensions.
+
+He listened to the details of all she had done, and all she projected,
+with a gentle, hopeless gratitude, which saddened and dispirited her;
+although she could not, she would not, adopt his view of the subject.
+
+This produced a certain reserve. She felt he restrained his own
+feelings for her sake, that he smothered the anticipations of which
+she could not endure to hear the utterance; and the open communion
+of thought was at an end! She dared not allude to the future, his
+countenance so plainly expressed there was no future for him; and they
+both shrunk from a recurrence to the joys of that dear home which
+neither hoped again to inhabit.
+
+To a third person it would often have appeared strange that, under such
+circumstances, a wedded pair, so devotedly attached, should be able to
+dwell at such length upon the public affairs of the day, and to discuss
+with so much interest the movements in Scotland.
+
+But the earl could not be indifferent as to what befel the prince to
+whom he had sacrificed himself; while Lady Nithsdale, on the contrary,
+since her interview with the Chevalier, in which her feelings had
+been so little gratified, had looked on him as the unworthy object
+for which her happiness had been wrecked. As her sorrows pressed more
+heavily upon her, she felt more and more that he had seemed careless
+of the sufferings of others. As her fears increased, and as her hopes
+diminished, she more and more resented the cold inquiry after "the
+health of the earl her husband;" and the behaviour, which at the time
+had only seemed measured and unsatisfactory, assumed, as she dwelt upon
+it, the character of selfish hardness.
+
+Alas! the keen edge of sensibility must have been blunted long ere
+this in the heart of the unfortunate Chevalier de St. George! Inured
+to misfortune, he appears to have been stupified by it. With the
+resolution already taken to evacuate Perth, three days after that
+appointed for the general thanksgiving, did the infatuated prince carry
+on the pageant of royalty.
+
+The address then offered up--"O Lord, who hast preserved and brought
+back our dread sovereign King James safely into his own dominions, to
+the comfort of all those who, in obedience to thy holy word, 'fear
+God and honour the king'"--could to none present have appeared a more
+sickening mockery than to the dispirited, despairing descendant of a
+hundred kings.
+
+Surrounded by a scanty train of heart-broken attendants, in the midst
+of those very counsellors who had declared the absolute necessity of
+abandoning the only town of importance which they yet held,--the very
+spot where they were assembled in prayer and thanksgiving,--did he
+listen to the words, "Bow the hearts of all his subjects as one man, so
+that they may only contend who shall be the first to bring the king to
+his own house."
+
+When, upon the approach of the Duke of Argyle, a vague rumour arose,
+that it was purposed to retire before the enemy without striking a
+blow, the indignation of the Highlanders knew no bounds. The love of
+fighting, inherent in that hardy race, had caused them to look forward
+with joy and alacrity to the desperate conflict which they imagined to
+be approaching.
+
+But when they found that the unwelcome report was only too true grief
+and disappointment turned all to rage, and they assailed their officers
+as they passed in the streets with every species of reproach.
+
+"What can we do?" was the answer of one who was supposed to be
+intimately acquainted with the counsels of the Earl of Mar.
+
+"Do!" replied the Highlander. "Let us do that for which we were called
+in arms, which certainly was not to run away."
+
+Nor was the retreat carried into effect without meeting with strenuous
+and vehement opposition, even in the council of the Chevalier;
+although, after much violence of discussion, at length it was agreed by
+the majority, that to attempt the defence of Perth would be an act of
+desperate chivalry.
+
+To appease the feelings of those who appeared most irritated, it was
+given out that a halt was to take place at Aberdeen, where supplies of
+foreign troops were expected.
+
+It was on the 30th of January, the anniversary of his grandfather's
+martyrdom, that the Chevalier's Highland army filed off upon the ice,
+which, as the Earl of Mar had anticipated, rendered the Tay, if of no
+avail as a protection, no impediment to the movement which he even then
+projected.
+
+The town was immediately occupied by a body of the Duke of Argyle's
+dragoons. The Chevalier arrived at the sea-port town of Montrose, from
+whence it was his intention to make his escape by sea. To mask his
+design of thus relinquishing his ill-concerted attempt, and abandoning
+the faithful few who still adhered to him, his equipage and horses
+were brought out before the gate of his lodgings, and his guards were
+mounted as if to proceed on the journey to Aberdeen.
+
+But before the hour appointed for the march, James had secretly gained
+the shore, and, accompanied by the Earl of Mar, had safely reached a
+small vessel which had been prepared for their reception. Thus did
+he for the second time abandon the shores of that land over which so
+many of his ancestors had reigned, and in which so many of them had
+given proofs of personal prowess and manly courage. As some of his
+cotemporaries have observed, the only purpose accomplished by this
+expedition seems to have been that of bringing off in safety his
+general, the Earl of Mar.
+
+On General Gordon devolved the unwelcome and difficult task of leading
+to Aberdeen the remains of the Highland army, who were only restrained
+from acts of insubordination by knowing that the Duke of Argyle's
+forces hung upon their rear. At Aberdeen a sealed letter, which
+had been entrusted to General Gordon, was opened according to the
+Chevalier's instructions. In this, after expressing his thanks for the
+faithful services of his adherents, he gave them full permission to
+treat with the enemy, or to disperse to their several homes, as might
+best suit the exigency of the moment.
+
+Thus ended the rebellion, which proved so fatal to many of the noblest
+houses both of England and Scotland! And the Countess of Nithsdale felt
+almost relieved when each day brought intelligence of the hopeless
+condition of the insurgents; for she judged, not unwisely, that the
+less cause there remained to fear them, the less need would there exist
+of intimidating them by measures of severity.
+
+The 9th of February, on which day the lords were to receive their
+sentence in Westminster Hall, was fast approaching. On the 8th, Lady
+Nithsdale passed some hours with her husband. The hopes to which she
+had so long and so pertinaciously clung had gradually given way before
+the cold and constrained demeanour with which all her inquiries and
+intercessions had been met. Evasive answers, professions of inability
+to be of service to her under the present circumstances, declarations
+that they must not flatter her, were all the satisfaction she could
+procure from those who might be supposed to know the probable decision
+of the court.
+
+The earl, always hopeless, looked upon the worn and anxious countenance
+of his wife, till every feeling for himself was lost in commiseration
+for her wretchedness: "It will be better for you, my love, when it is
+all over."
+
+"What mean you?" she replied quickly, wilfully misapprehending his
+meaning, which it would have been too painful to comprehend, and
+vaguely trusting that he would not dare to explain his thoughts more
+clearly.
+
+"I only mean, this state of suspense, dearest Winifred, has almost worn
+you out. I shall be glad when the morrow is past, for any certainty is
+preferable to suspense; though," he added in a lower tone, "I cannot
+say it is suspense that I feel."
+
+"Spare me, spare me!" she said; "to-morrow is soon enough! But there is
+hope!--There must be hope! Man is not a wild beast that he should find
+pleasure in destruction! When self-preservation no longer impels to
+cruelty, human sympathies will again influence the heart. James's hasty
+retreat must set their fears at rest. I must--I will hope!"
+
+"Against all reason, dearest!" he added, with a smile, taking her
+cold passive hand in his. "My Winifred's firm and well-ordered mind
+has always hitherto been the stay and the support of mine: it has
+been from her gentle lips that I have learned true piety and real
+submission; from her that I have learned, or tried to learn, to bend
+my will to the decrees of Providence! Her support will not now, in my
+utmost need, be withdrawn from me! she will not make my task more hard!
+neither will she say or do aught that shall unsettle my mind, or render
+me unfit for what is to be done to-morrow. She would not have her
+husband appear in Westminster Hall before his assembled peers, before
+the court, and before the people of England, with excited feelings and
+nerves unstrung! And trust me, when I gaze on you, it is no easy task
+to face death with composure, and to brace my mind to hear unmoved the
+sentence which awaits me to-morrow. The love of life, of life with
+you, is only too strong within this bosom. Speak not to me of hope! I
+must not admit the notion; but speak to me of that heaven where we may
+be re-united! Tell me that by unrepining submission I may best make
+myself worthy of once more meeting you, my love; tell me that life is
+short, and that we have already enjoyed many years of happiness; that
+we have already mounted the hill, that we must soon descend it; that
+probably we have known the best years of our existence; that before us
+may be a future of sickness, sorrow, suffering,--the death of friends!
+the loss of children!" He paused; then overcome with pity, he added,
+in a broken voice, "Alas, alas! and shall your gentleness be left to
+meet these sorrows alone? to buffet with fortune alone? Oh, my poor,
+poor Winifred! pardon me for having indulged in such sad anticipations;
+pardon me for having pictured sorrows which can only be alleviated
+by being shared! for sickness would not to me be suffering if tended
+by you! grief would lose half its sting if you were near to whisper
+consolation; and who but the beloved of one's heart can administer
+comfort under the other deprivations to which I so cruelly alluded?
+Alas for you, my poor, poor Winifred!"
+
+And the composure which he had so striven to preserve completely gave
+way when he thus painted to himself the desolation of her whom he
+should leave behind. He pressed the hand he still held to his lips; and
+the tears which he could no longer restrain, fell fast upon it.
+
+"Hush, hush! not another word," she said; "I will speak neither words
+of hope nor fear! my own noble lord shall bear himself in the sight
+of his fellows as it is fitting he should. No weakness of mine shall
+enervate that manly mind; though my heart-strings crack, I will be
+composed and firm. And now we will part for the night; we will each
+to our prisons: prayer and solitude will best strengthen us for the
+morrow. Should your anticipations prove only too correct, there is yet
+much to be done, and I will seek confidence and calmness from that
+Heaven who will, I trust, take thee this night, and ever, into its holy
+keeping!"
+
+"Amen to thy good wishes, love!"
+
+
+END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME THE SECOND.
+
+WINIFRED, COUNTESS OF NITHSDALE.
+
+(CONTINUED.)
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  The heroine assumed the woman's place,
+  Confirm'd her mind, and fortified her face.
+
+  _Dryden._
+
+When Lady Nithsdale arrived at her lodgings, she there found Mrs.
+Morgan, who from the moment she first, through Amy Evans's means,
+became acquainted with her, had proved herself a kind friend, and a
+strenuous and efficient agent.
+
+As the countess entered the apartment, the haggard expression of her
+countenance struck the little party of friends who had been awaiting
+her return. Amy hastened to support her lady, whose steps appeared
+to totter as she advanced. "Thanks, dear Amy; but I need not your
+assistance," she replied, with a forced composure: "I am not ill, my
+good girl; I do not need these attentions; I am well and strong. You do
+not know how strong I am!"
+
+"Would not your ladyship be better near the fire?" inquired Mrs. Mills,
+rising from her chair; "the evening is chilly."
+
+"Disturb not yourself, my good friend; I am well here;" replied Lady
+Nithsdale, sinking into a seat.
+
+"How fares it with my lord, madam?--Is he of good cheer?"
+
+"Well, Amy, right well; he is well in health, and will bear himself
+gallantly to-morrow, as the grandson of the brave defender of
+Caerlaverock castle should bear himself," answered the countess,
+with a forced air of resolution; for she had employed Mrs. Morgan to
+procure for her a seat in some obscure part of Westminster Hall, from
+whence she might be a witness of the trial; and she feared, if she now
+betrayed any weakness or emotion, even the yielding Mrs. Morgan might
+not comply with her wishes.
+
+"And now I must ask my dear Mrs. Morgan, whether her friend the Earl of
+Dorset has been as good as his word;--may we hope for seats in the Hall
+to-morrow?" she inquired, in a tone which she meant should be steady.
+
+"Yes, dearest Lady Nithsdale; he says that if you really are resolved
+upon being present, he can accommodate us; for you must allow me to
+accompany you, and also our faithful Mrs. Evans; I could not allow you
+to stir without her."
+
+"My dear Amy! no; I am too well assured of her affection not to be
+always the better if she is near." Lady Nithsdale's eyes were for a
+moment suffused, for it often happens that a slight emotion draws tears
+which are frozen in their cells by stronger and deeper ones. "The spot
+is a retired one, I trust; not within sight of the prisoners: I would
+not that my lord should guess or suspect that I was present!"--she
+clasped her hands,--"it might unman him; his voice might falter; his
+lips might quiver; and the world might fancy it could be through fear!
+Oh! he must not, must not see me!" she repeated with earnestness.
+
+"I thought of that," replied the considerate Mrs. Morgan, "and the
+seats provided are near the door--a back entrance--through which you
+may easily withdraw whenever you may see fit. But still I doubt whether
+I am a true friend in assisting you in this business. I fear it is
+rather yielding weakness, than true kindness, as my poor father used to
+say.--The scene will be too much for you."
+
+"Did not Lady Russell act as her lord's secretary during his trial?
+Woman's affection in her over-came woman's weakness. She wavered not,
+she trembled not, at the time;--though afterwards she wept herself
+blind!--And was her husband more worthy of a wife's devotion than is
+mine? Did she, could she, love him with more passionate fervour than
+I do my own dear, dear, noble lord?--Oh no! for she had loved before;
+he was not the first and only object of the concentrated affection of
+a whole life! She had been bound by previous ties! She had known joys
+and sorrows unconnected with him; but I--my existence was a blank till
+it was wound up in his! Depend upon it, dear Mrs. Morgan, what woman's
+love has done, what woman's love can do, the love that warms this bosom
+can accomplish! You need not doubt me. I will not expose myself, nor
+you, to observation or remark."
+
+The colour had returned into her pale cheeks, her eye gleamed with a
+holy brilliancy, her brow assumed an air of lofty resolution, and all
+present felt assured that, however strong might be her feelings of
+tenderness, she possessed the courage which could subdue them to her
+will.
+
+The next day she found herself, as had been previously arranged, in
+the seats prepared by the Earl of Dorset, who himself conducted them
+through the crowd. The Earl of Pembroke also, who was nearly related to
+the Powis family, was not wanting in every kindness and attention.
+
+The Countess of Nithsdale's deportment was perfectly collected. The
+dress of the day, which allowed much of the form to be concealed by a
+black silk mantle, and the face to be buried in the hood, enabled her
+to escape all observation.
+
+A considerable time elapsed before those of whom the court was composed
+were seated in their due order, and that the prisoners were summoned.
+She had time to look round with awe upon the innumerable heads with
+which the floor of the Hall seemed, as it were, to be paved.
+
+At one o'clock, the gates at the end of the vast and antique building
+were thrown open, and the lords entered walking two and two. Then
+followed the Garter King at arms, and other officers of the crown, in
+their robes of state. Then the masters in chancery. The Lord Chancellor
+Cowper, Lord High Steward on the occasion, walked alone, his train
+being borne by his attendants to the wool-pack, on which he seated
+himself.
+
+The peers then uncovered themselves; and they, as well as all others
+present, stood uncovered during the time occupied by the reading of the
+commission.
+
+All listened in breathless silence. The moment was awful in itself; but
+the accompaniments of solemnity and state rendered it, if possible,
+more so.
+
+When the commission was gone through, the serjeant-at-arms cried with a
+loud voice, "God save the king!"
+
+These words excited an undefinable sensation in the bosom of Lady
+Nithsdale. She felt in good sooth that he, in whom resided the power to
+call together and to control the imposing assemblage before her, was
+monarch of the realm. She felt that he, for whose sake they were placed
+in their present desperate situation, had proved himself little worthy
+of their devotion;--yet the words grated harshly on her ear,--her heart
+still refused to acknowledge them.
+
+The herald, and gentleman usher of the black rod, after making three
+reverences, kneeling, presented the white staff to his grace, who,
+attended by the herald, black rod, and the seal-bearer, made his
+proper reverences to the throne, and removed from the wool-pack to an
+arm-chair which was placed on the uppermost step but one of the throne,
+when, seating himself, he delivered the staff to the gentleman usher of
+the black rod, who stood on his right hand, while the seal-bearer held
+the purse, standing on the left.
+
+After a proclamation enjoining silence under pain of imprisonment, the
+serjeant-at-arms proceeded: "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Lieutenant of the Tower
+of London, bring forth your prisoners to the bar, according to the
+order of the House of Lords to you directed."
+
+Each of these words fell, as it were, actually, palpably, knocking upon
+Lady Nithsdale's heart. For a moment she wondered how she could have
+willingly placed herself in her present situation; but she remembered
+the strong motives she had to try her powers of self-command, and she
+also remembered her promise to Mrs. Morgan, and she subdued the rising
+tumult of her soul.
+
+Her companions, also breathless with anxiety, stole a fearful glance
+towards her as the prisoners were brought to the bar by the deputy
+governor of the Tower. When the axe, which was brought before them
+by the gentleman jailer, first made its appearance, they saw Lady
+Nithsdale for a moment close her eyes, as if unable to endure the
+sight; but she recovered herself, and when her lord himself made his
+appearance, her looks were so intently fixed upon him, that it may be
+questioned whether her powers of vision took in any other object.
+
+The prisoners, when they approached the bar (after kneeling), bowed
+to his grace the Lord High Steward, and to the House of Peers, which
+compliment was returned to them both by his grace and by the House of
+Peers.
+
+The Lord High Steward then ordered the articles of impeachment to be
+read; after which, he asked them severally what they had to say for
+themselves why judgment should not pass upon them according to law?
+
+Lord Derwentwater spoke at some length; and after him the Earl of
+Nithsdale, and the Viscount Kenmure. They all pleaded guilty; but
+expressed their hope that the assurances of clemency held out to them
+at Preston would not prove fallacious.
+
+Lord Nithsdale concluded with professing, what his wife well knew he
+spoke in sincerity and truth, that if mercy were extended towards him,
+"he should, during the remainder of his life, pay the utmost duty and
+gratitude to his most gracious majesty, and the highest veneration and
+respect to their lordships and the honourable House of Commons."
+
+The Lord High Steward, who did not hear distinctly, inquired whether
+the Earl of Nithsdale had pleaded anything in arrest of judgment; to
+which the earl replied in a clear sonorous voice, whose mellow tones
+seemed to thrill through the whole assembly, "No, my lords, I have not!"
+
+The Lord High Steward then stood up. Every breathing was hushed!
+Such stillness reigned throughout the dense mass of living creatures
+congregated within the spacious hall, that each rain-drop might be
+heard as it pattered against the windows. But there came a singing,
+rushing sound in Lady Nithsdale's ears: at first she could scarcely
+distinguish the awful words which were slowly, clearly, solemnly
+pronounced.
+
+"The sentence of the law must be the same as is usually given
+against the meanest offenders in the like kind. The most ignominious
+and painful parts are usually omitted by the grace of the crown
+to persons of your quality; but the law in this case, being deaf
+to all distinctions of persons, requires I should pronounce, and
+accordingly it is adjudged by this court, that you James Earl
+of Derwentwater,"--the Lord High Steward paused between each
+name,--"William Lord Widdrington,"--her husband's had not yet been
+pronounced; the countess leaned breathlessly forward,--"William Earl of
+Nithsdale,"--she covered her face with her hands, but she spoke not;
+she did not sob, she did not faint; her companions would have led her
+out, but she motioned them to be still. The Lord High Steward meanwhile
+continued in the same clear and unmoved voice,--"Richard Earl of
+Carnwarth, William Viscount Kenmure, and William Lord Nairne, and every
+of you, return to the prison of the Tower, from whence you came; from
+thence you must be drawn to the place of execution: when you come there
+you must be hanged by the neck, but not till you be dead, for you must
+be cut down alive; then your bowels must be taken out, and burnt before
+your faces." They looked again upon the unfortunate countess; but she
+had fainted with her back supported against the wall, and she had not,
+it is hoped, heard the last few words. They feared to excite attention,
+and they sustained her in the position in which she sat, till in the
+general movement of the court breaking up, they might be able to remove
+her quietly from the dreadful scene. Still the same stern and brazen
+voice proceeded:--
+
+"Then your heads must be severed from your bodies, divided each into
+four quarters, and these must be at the king's disposal. And God
+Almighty be merciful to your souls!"
+
+The sergeant-at-arms then repeated: "Oyez! Our sovereign lord the king
+strictly charges and commands all manner of persons to keep silence
+upon pain of imprisonment." After which the Lord High Steward stood up
+uncovered, and declaring there was nothing more to be done by virtue of
+the present commission, broke the staff, and pronounced it dissolved.
+
+For some moments after the whole was concluded, the silence which had
+been so strictly but so needlessly enjoined continued unbroken. The
+prisoners, the peers, and all the court, then retired in order as they
+entered, and an universal buzz of voices and general movement took
+place.
+
+There were sounds of sorrow; feelings long repressed found vent; and in
+the confusion, Mrs. Morgan and Amy Evans removed Lady Nithsdale into
+the freer air. She gradually revived, but at first she looked wildly
+around.
+
+"Alas!" said Mrs. Morgan, "I have been to blame in yielding to your
+wishes. How could I permit you to expose yourself to such a scene? and
+all the while I felt assured that you miscalculated your own strength.
+Oh! it was too dreadful!"
+
+"Hush!" answered the countess; "I know all--you need not tell me; I
+heard enough; I knew it, I expected it. And now I must remember all I
+had previously resolved upon."
+
+At this moment the Lords Pembroke and Dorset approached, with
+countenances expressive of deep commiseration. She pressed both their
+hands in silence. They conducted her down the steps to the coach which
+awaited her. Before she entered it, she turned to them:--
+
+"You have each promised me your good offices in case of need. That hour
+of need is fast approaching; you will not forget your promises!"
+
+They bowed assent upon her hand; and having respectfully, nay almost
+reverently, placed her in the carriage, they turned hastily away to
+conceal the emotion which overpowered them.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are
+ incensed, or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but
+ adversity doth best discover virtue.--_Lord Bacon's Essays._
+
+Mrs. Morgan and Amy Evans expected that the control which the
+unfortunate Countess of Nithsdale had as yet exercised over her
+feelings would have completely given way when no longer exposed to the
+gaze of indifferent persons: they prepared themselves for tears and
+fainting; and were surprised when Lady Nithsdale, although silent,
+remained firm and collected.
+
+Reared in a foreign convent, from which she had only been removed to a
+retired Welsh castle, and from thence to a life of domestic privacy in
+Scotland, or, if she occasionally mingled in the busy world, accustomed
+to look up to her lord for advice, to hang upon him for support, to
+rely on his judgment for the guidance of her own, it seems wonderful
+that under such trying circumstances as those in which she was placed,
+she should have possessed the worldly wisdom, the courage, the
+discretion, and the decision, to act for herself and for her husband,
+and to proceed, without wavering or irresolution, to take every measure
+that prudence could dictate.
+
+When they reached Lady Nithsdale's lodgings, the kind-hearted Mrs.
+Morgan took her leave, after having given Amy and Mrs. Mills a
+thousand directions and injunctions as to the tenderness with which the
+countess should be treated, the possets which she hoped might compose
+her to sleep, and the julap which should be placed by her bed-side.
+
+Lady Nithsdale listened to all her good-natured counsels with a
+placidity which astonished and almost alarmed Amy Evans, although to
+Mrs. Morgan it appeared but the effect of exhaustion, and, as she
+trusted, only augured that she might be restored by some calm and
+refreshing sleep.
+
+Amy, who better knew her mistress, and knew that with increased danger
+and distress her strength and courage proportionably rose, was not
+surprised when, upon Mrs. Morgan's departure, and Mrs. Mills's leaving
+them to prepare the posset so earnestly recommended, Lady Nithsdale
+laid her hand upon her arm.
+
+"Now, Amy, your true affection, in which I have the utmost
+confidence,--I rely on it almost as on my own to my lord,--now it is
+going to be put to the test. He must not die! and we must save him!
+you and I, Amy, must save him! You start, and look as though you
+feared that all I have heard and seen this day" (she pressed her hand
+over her eyes) "had turned my brain, but it is not so; for many weeks
+I have considered the plan, which is now almost matured within my
+head. Prisoners have made their escape from places as strong and as
+well guarded, before now! If others have succeeded in rescuing those
+most dear to them, why should not we succeed? Promise me, my good and
+faithful Amy, that you will assist me to the utmost of your power; and,
+above all, promise that you will offer no argument to dissuade me from
+my purpose. I tell you before-hand it will be of no avail: should you
+refuse to serve me, it will only drive me to confide in others who will
+not deserve my confidence so well."
+
+"Oh, madam! do you doubt me? and do you think Amy Evans would leave
+undone what others could be found to do? I started, for I remembered
+those high walls, that broad deep moat, those guards who pace about
+each avenue to the Tower, and I thought what could we hope to effect?
+But, madam, command me, and I will diligently execute your behests, and
+scrupulously keep your counsel."
+
+"Thanks, dear Amy; I was fully assured you would prove true, and I
+know not why I spoke for a moment as if I could doubt your devotion.
+Forgive me! but the necessity is so absolute that all who meddle in
+this undertaking should be able to answer for themselves under all
+circumstances, that I would not have you enter into it thoughtlessly,
+or unadvisedly. Even myself, to-day, I thought I could have heard
+unmoved, or at least without betraying emotion, the horrible, horrible
+words that were uttered; but I misjudged my own strength, my woman's
+nerves failed! And yet I bore a great deal, Amy, and wavered not. I
+saw the axe, the glittering axe; and I saw my lord, and I heard his
+voice; and I heard part of that sentence! I bore much without betraying
+myself; and, at last, I was only stunned, confused, for a time. Yes,
+I think I may rely on my own fortitude; and you, Amy, you never for a
+moment lost your self-command,--and you have always had a ready wit;
+oh, we shall succeed, I am sure we shall!"
+
+"Heaven grant we may, my honoured lady! If zeal and perseverance can
+effect my lord's preservation, we shall succeed."
+
+"Then listen:--You must purchase at various shops, and on various
+occasions, not to excite suspicion, all that is necessary for female
+dress, and we must make it up, complete, the size to fit my lord. I
+have one in my thoughts whom he may personate: she is very tall; and
+though slender, her present condition makes her appear more stout than
+usual, when wrapt in a loose cloak. She suspects not my design,--nor
+must she;--for she is timid, and might betray all by her fears. She
+must not know till too far engaged to retreat.--And now, Amy, send
+Walter Elliot to the Tower to inquire of the lieutenant at what hour
+to-morrow the Countess of Nithsdale may be admitted to visit her lord.
+I am informed that, after the sentence, we are to be allowed to see the
+prisoners freely; and it will be best we should do this openly. Alas!
+the hardest task of all will be to work on my lord to consent."
+
+"And, madam, think you I also shall be admitted to see my lord?"
+
+"Assuredly, I hope so; I trust we shall procure admission for many of
+his friends: it is upon that understanding I build my hopes. I have
+been informed that when sentence is once passed, such has usually
+been the custom. And now away; let us be stirring. I would there were
+something to be done every hour in the day. It is in solitude and
+inaction that my sorrows press upon me most heavily. But to-night there
+is no more I can effect; I must even wait for the morrow!"
+
+Soon after the Earl of Nithsdale had been reconducted to his lodgings
+in the Tower, he heard the striking of the chapel-clock: "It is now
+more than an hour," he thought, "since the court broke up. By this time
+the news has reached her. By this time my dear wife knows my sentence,
+and those hopes which she was resolved to cherish, and which she never
+would allow me gradually to undermine, have been destroyed at one rude
+blow. Would I could know how it fares with her, how she supports the
+shock! To-morrow I shall see her; and strange is it, but I dread to
+see her--I dread the sight of her despair. Oh! were it not better to
+pass unloved into the grave, than to feel that one's fate inflicts such
+exquisite anguish on her, to spare whom a pang such as she now suffers,
+one would willingly endure any lengthened torture. Yet could I wish to
+lose one particle of that affection which alone suffices to make life
+so precious? It may be cruel,--it may be selfish;--but no! I cannot
+wish her love to be less! After all, we part but for a time! I do not
+doubt that we shall meet where the weary are at rest. And now that
+all hope is over, my Winifred will assist me to prepare my soul for
+the great change; and she will bear to speak placidly and composedly
+of those happy regions where the fear of parting will never embitter
+the enjoyment of each other's presence! and I shall be able calmly and
+cheerfully to fulfil my destiny, if I can see her resigned!"
+
+But when the morrow came, and Lady Nithsdale was admitted, he found
+her far indeed from placidly acquiescing in the fate which he esteemed
+unavoidable; but neither was she bewildered with despair, nor
+dissolved in tears: she was altogether different from anything he had
+anticipated. Her cheeks were flushed, her eye was brilliant, her manner
+resolved. He was surprised; but he rejoiced that his own fortitude was
+not put to the trial he had dreaded.
+
+"My Winifred will assist her husband to bear himself as becomes a man
+and a good Catholic: I see she will avoid unnerving me by her grief;
+and among my many causes of gratitude to her, I may still add this,
+that she will smooth my passage to a better world. Thanks, my own love,
+thanks!"
+
+"And does my lord imagine I could speak, stand, look, move, as I now
+do, if I believed it would be carried into effect--that sentence, that
+horrible sentence! For I was there--I was in Westminster Hall--I heard
+it; I saw the axe! and I saw you, my own dear husband,--I saw you, and
+I heard your voice,--that voice which thrilled through all the court,
+which must have penetrated to the inmost recesses of every heart!"
+
+"Oh, Winifred! I could almost chide my best beloved for having
+wantonly, without any adequate motive, exposed her feelings to so
+needless a trial!"
+
+"It was not needlessly; it was not without a motive that I did so: I
+had the strongest earthly motive. It was with a view of ascertaining
+my own strength, my fortitude, that I courted what I should otherwise
+have shrunk from. It was with a view to the accomplishment of that
+plan which I have long been forming, and which not all the arguments
+you can adduce shall prevent me from pursuing. It was with a view to
+self-preservation,--for is not my life wound up in yours? Think you, in
+honest truth, think you, I can exist without you? Do you not believe
+that if you perish, I shall not survive?"
+
+"Nay, nay, my love," he replied, almost smiling at her vehemence, "I
+do believe your affection for me is as strong as ever warmed the pure
+soul of devoted woman; still I cannot but think and hope that you will
+live many, many years, to be a guide and a protectress to our children.
+Remember, you but share the fate of many other fond and loving wives!
+Have not the other condemned lords wives, fond and loving wives; and
+must not they endure----?"
+
+"No, no, no! Speak not of them! they do not, cannot love their husbands
+as I love you; for have they husbands so worthy of their love? What is
+the wild Lord Wintoun, the Lord Kenmure, or the good old Lord Nairne?
+The Lord Derwentwater, I grant you, is a worthy gentleman;--but what
+are they, any of them, when compared with you?"
+
+"But, my sweet Winifred, to die is the doom of all created beings.
+Many have loved before; and of all who have ever loved, one must
+survive. It is a sad, it is a painful truth; but it is a most plain
+and undeniable one. Then why should not this be borne as patiently as
+the same bereavement by any other means? A long illness would reconcile
+you to the event! and yet would you wish me to endure lengthened
+bodily ills? Should you not rather rejoice that I shall thus be spared
+all the protracted sufferings of sickness, and that, comparatively
+speaking, I shall thus be exempted from the pains of death; that I
+shall pass from earth with all my intellects unimpaired, in the full
+enjoyment of my faculties! Could there be any satisfaction in marking
+the decaying mind, the enfeebled spirit, the soul waxing weak, as the
+body sinks under the effects of some wasting malady? Yet how often has
+the most devoted affection watched all these humiliating and painful
+harbingers of death, till the mourner has been brought to look upon the
+dreaded bereavement almost in the light of a blessing? But is there any
+consolation in this? Would one not rather choose that the memory of the
+departed should be undimmed, unpolluted by the recollection of mortal
+decay?"
+
+"Your words are beautiful! I love to hear your voice! it thrills like
+music through my heart! The thoughts are noble, lofty, pure, and holy;
+but they persuade me not! As I gaze on you, as I listen to you, I only
+feel the more, that life without you is not life: it is a blank!--a
+dark and dreary chasm into which I dare not look: that I must, must
+save you; and that if you love me, you will give heed to me, and that
+you will agree to what I shall propose."
+
+"Oh, Winifred! this is cruel kindness. It is cruel to wean me from the
+thoughts of death, which I have almost taught myself to love, to lure
+me back to those of life, which, alas! possesses only too many charms
+for me!"
+
+There was a tenderness in the tone and the manner which gave her hope
+that she had worked upon him. She felt that love for her, and pity for
+her sorrows, might at this moment induce him to listen; and she opened
+to him the plan she had formed for his escape.
+
+But she had scarcely detailed her proposed measures, when he vehemently
+refused to engage in what he thought could not be carried into
+execution without compromising others. Desperate at the ill-success
+which attended her efforts, she abandoned herself to grief: she strove
+not to control her feelings; she wrung her hands, she wept in hopeless
+agony.
+
+Meanwhile he paced the apartment in anguish not less acute. He accused
+himself of cruelty towards her when he witnessed her desperation; and
+yet he could not bring himself to agree to measures which he deemed
+degrading, and in the success of which he placed little reliance.
+
+Such moments comprise a greater sum of suffering than is spread over
+many a common life. At length he stopped before her.
+
+"Winifred, my wife, my honoured wife! Urge me not to anything unworthy.
+Call up that noble spirit, which has ever deserved my respect, my
+admiration, as much as your beauty and your tenderness have won my
+love! Now listen to me in return!"
+
+In a moment her attention was riveted. She scarcely breathed; she
+listened as though she would devour each word that fell from his lips,
+in ardent hope that he might himself have struck out some plan which
+she might execute.
+
+"I have ever been unwilling to present petitions to the king, or to the
+government. All that I could in honour urge in self-defence, all that
+I could in honesty profess for the future, has been already stated in
+my answer to the impeachment, and in my address to my peers yesterday.
+I have been, and still am, unwilling to crave mercy at the hands of
+one who owes me nothing; from whom I have no right to expect it;--but
+that you should not reproach me with wilfully neglecting any means of
+safety, I will consent to a petition being presented to King George
+by you yourself. If anything can move him, it must be the sight of
+distress such as yours,--and in such a form as that!" he added, looking
+upon her, as, like a marble statue, she sat with lips apart, her
+slender throat bent forward, and her eyes fixed upon him. "He cannot
+behold thee unmoved! It may avail thee something in future, if it serve
+not me!" he murmured in a low voice.
+
+"Oh! do not trust to the pity of those who have already proved
+themselves so ruthless: trust rather to the zeal of your own wife, and
+our faithful Amy Evans!"
+
+"I will trust to your zeal, my love, but let it be employed in such a
+manner as befits us both; and doubly precious will life be to me if
+'tis to you I owe it!"
+
+"And if, as I expect, the king is obdurate? for he fears you; he fears
+the unconquerable fidelity of your family to the Stuarts, and he fears
+the influence of your high character: he fears,--therefore, will not
+pardon you!"
+
+"There is the general petition to parliament, to which I have agreed to
+put my name."
+
+"And if that should fail?"
+
+"Then, my love, you must prove that you are a Christian, and a
+Catholic, and that you have not forgotten the exhortations to faith,
+submission and patience, which good Father Albert gave you in your
+youth, and which you tell me he has so often repeated by letter."
+
+"Nay, nay. If all these fail, then promise me that you will not reject
+the means I will offer you; that you will not be more merciless than
+the king himself; that you will not obstinately refuse to save from
+despair one who has ever loved you with most true faith!"
+
+"Oh, Winifred!"
+
+"Promise that you will listen to my plans; that you will maturely
+consider them; that, if practicable, you will not reject them; and I
+will present the petition, I will cling to the knees of the king, I
+will wring mercy from him if it be possible; and if he pardons you, I
+will honour him, I will love him, and I will ever esteem him worthy to
+be the monarch of these fair realms by the qualities of the heart, as
+I already believe him to be so by those of the head! Only promise me
+that, if all this should fail, you will not condemn me always to plead
+in vain, that you, at least, will not turn away from my prayer, that
+you will listen."
+
+"If all other means should fail, then--then, my love, I will listen
+attentively, calmly, to all you may urge."
+
+"Thanks, I am satisfied," replied Lady Nithsdale, resolved to interpret
+his measured expressions into an implied assent to all her wishes: "and
+now prepare the petition, my dearest lord, and I will lose no time in
+taking measures that it should reach the king himself. These hands
+shall give it him. I know how I may gain access to his presence. I will
+see him with my own eyes; and he shall refuse me with his own lips, if
+he cannot be worked upon to mercy. When will it be ready?"
+
+"Patience, my love. I must consult with those who can assist me in so
+wording it that I may not risk giving offence. In some days it shall be
+drawn up."
+
+"Why such delay? Time is precious. Talk not of days. To-morrow, or, at
+farthest, the day after,--the twelfth. Tell me when, that I may seek
+the kind Mrs. Morgan, and with her arrange all for my admission to St.
+James's."
+
+"Gently, gently, dearest Winifred. We must do nothing rashly. By
+the thirteenth the petition shall be ready, and we will hope it may
+find such grace as shall spare you all further fears on my account.
+Meantime, compose yourself."
+
+"Nay, am I not composed? Surely I think I must be a stock, a stone,
+thus to preserve my senses, and move, act, speak, like other people. I
+sometimes fancy I must lack natural feeling; for it is not grief that
+possesses my soul, but hope and fear so strangely blended that there is
+no space left for grief!"
+
+"My Winifred need not tax herself with coldness!" replied the earl
+tenderly, but sadly, smiling as he looked upon her. Then, resuming a
+calm and business-like tone, he added, "The Lord Nairne's lady, as I
+understand, is also to present an address to the king, and there seems
+good hope that hers may be graciously received. If you could accompany
+her it might be well; for she is a staid and discreet person, and has
+been much used to courts. She was for some years in great favour with
+Queen Anne. She may support and guide you; and, indeed, Winifred, you
+must not overtask yourself!"
+
+He was half alarmed at the reliance she seemed to place on her own
+strength, and feared it might proceed from a feverish state of
+excitement.
+
+"I will wait upon the Lady Nairne to-day," resumed Lady Nithsdale. "I
+will do anything, everything, you suggest, now you have promised in
+return to listen to my arguments."
+
+She instinctively worded his promise as vaguely as he had done himself,
+fearing to alarm him into a declaration that he had only promised
+to listen to, not to comply with, her wishes. Without being exactly
+conscious that she was endeavouring to cheat him into attending to his
+own safety, she hoped to accustom him to the idea, that if she adopted
+every plan he proposed, he was thereby pledged to follow hers upon the
+failure of his own.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  Thy bosom hath been sear'd by pride of state,
+  Hard, cold, and dead to nature's sympathies;
+  Nor know'st thou virtue's awe--nor gentleness,
+  How sovereign 'tis! Nor hast thou felt
+  The nameless fear and humbleness of mind
+  'Gender'd by sight of others' misery.
+
+  _MS. Play._
+
+When the Countess of Nithsdale quitted the Tower, she lost no time in
+despatching to her lord the lawyer in whose discretion he had most
+confidence, and who had previously assisted him in drawing up his
+written answer to the impeachment.
+
+She then waited on the Lady Nairne, whom she found surrounded by her
+family; a quiet and sober matron, upon whose composed countenance,
+and in whose well-ordered deportment, it would have been difficult to
+detect the passions that might, or might not, affect the soul within.
+
+The countess was introduced with all the form of those more ceremonious
+times, and the Lady Nairne received her with due attention. It was not
+till Lady Nithsdale had made many apologies for so sudden a visit to
+one with whose acquaintance she had not previously been honoured, and
+had begun to explain the cause of her intrusion, that the vehemence
+of her emotion made her break through the trammels imposed by custom;
+and she adjured her, by her own hope of saving her husband's life, by
+her own hope of preserving a father to her children, to give her the
+support of her company and countenance to the king's presence.
+
+The Lady Nairne at first hesitated, for she was not, like the Duchess
+of Montrose, the ardent, devoted friend, nor, like Mrs. Morgan, the
+creature of impulse; but a sober and prudent lady, past the age of
+enthusiasm, occupied with her own interests, and discreetly intent on
+availing herself of every means calculated to preserve a father to her
+numerous family.
+
+After some moments spent in consideration, she came to the conclusion
+that in all probability the king would be loth, in the very outset of
+his reign, to reject at once the prayers of two disconsolate wives; and
+that, of the two, there was every reason to believe that her lord was
+likely to be more favourably looked upon than the Earl of Nithsdale;
+and that, consequently, his countess's presence might rather advance,
+than mar, her own chance of success.
+
+Having thus reflected, she politely acquiesced in the Lady Nithsdale's
+wishes; nor need we imagine she felt no sympathy for a fellow-creature
+in distress so similar to her own. On the contrary, she was happy
+to afford her any assistance that did not tend to injure her own
+cause; but bred in courts, and accustomed to repress all outward
+demonstrations of unusual feeling, she replied in so measured, though
+not unkind a tone, that the glowing expressions of gratitude, which
+were ready to overflow from the countess's heart, were frozen on her
+lips, and her thanks were couched in terms scarcely less measured than
+the Lady Nairne's consent.
+
+Having, however, arranged that when the petitions of their lords were
+ready they would again meet, and that meanwhile Lady Nithsdale should
+procure the assistance of a friend who was well acquainted with the
+king's person, (for his outward appearance was equally unknown to both
+the Jacobite ladies,) the Lady Nairne accompanied the countess to the
+head of the stairs, and, with all the courtly forms of good breeding,
+dismissed her guest.
+
+Lady Nithsdale then hastened to the warm-hearted Mrs. Morgan, and,
+explaining to her the nature of the service she required, obtained her
+cordial assurance that she would be in readiness to accompany Lady
+Nairne and herself to St. James's on the evening of the 13th, when
+she had no doubt she should be able so to place them as that they
+might personally present their petitions to his majesty. The expansion
+of heart, the melting sympathy of Mrs. Morgan, were a balm to Lady
+Nithsdale's feelings, after the coldness and prudence of the Lady
+Nairne. But deep grief is in its nature selfish.
+
+It may be true, that unclouded prosperity sometimes hardens the
+heart, or, at least, renders the impressions made by sorrows which
+have never been felt, and are consequently ill understood, but slight
+and transient; and it is also true, that the having once known grief
+opens the heart to the full comprehension of the feelings of one's
+fellows,--but then it must be a grief that is past. While writhing
+under present anxiety, while smarting under present agony, the warmest,
+the most capacious heart is unable to take in the sufferings of others.
+Human nature, in all things limited, can feel but to a certain extent;
+and when every faculty of the soul is absorbed by present, actual
+evil, there is no power left to feel that which is not personal. Mrs.
+Morgan, happy and prosperous herself, had leisure to give herself to
+the sufferings of Lady Nithsdale; she adopted them as her own--she
+entered into them heart and soul! While Lady Nairne, with all most dear
+to herself at stake, could not but consider the concerns of another as
+of very secondary interest, and would not have felt herself justified
+in allowing compassion for a person, in no way connected with her,
+to interfere in the slightest degree with her duties as a wife and a
+mother. Lady Nithsdale would have been the first to admit such views
+to be most just and fitting; but still the expressions of gratitude,
+which had before been chilled, poured forth in eloquent profusion when
+addressing Mrs. Morgan.
+
+Upon her return to her own lodgings, she perceived that Amy Evans
+learned with satisfaction, that a petition was to be presented to
+the king, before the attempt was made to effect her lord's evasion.
+Although resolved to assist to the utmost in carrying her lady's
+plan into execution, she felt that escape from the Tower must be
+impracticable; while, on the contrary, it seemed to her impossible that
+any being with human affections could resist the voice, the words, the
+pleading looks of her dear mistress!
+
+The 13th arrived. Lady Nithsdale attired herself in deep mourning,
+considering such a habit most suitable to a person under her
+circumstances; but Amy gave an involuntary shudder as she looked upon
+her lady in this ominous garb. The expression of her countenance did
+not escape Lady Nithsdale's observation: "Start not, dear Amy, at this
+sad-coloured dress. If it betokens anything, 'tis but the failure of
+my this day's business. But it is not on the result of this day that I
+rest my hopes. I wait on the king, for my lord wishes me to do so, and
+I cannot choose but execute his behests; but I have slender hope of
+moving him by my entreaties. It is to ourselves that we must look; to
+our own efforts, Amy, aided by that Divine Providence, who deserts not
+the humble in their need. I feel hope, strong hope, within my bosom;
+but it is not of finding favour at the court. No! it is to a higher
+power I look for salvation,--on Heaven that I place my reliance!"
+
+"Assuredly, most honoured madam. But it is right to try every means
+that Providence places within our reach."
+
+"Yes, Amy, and I will leave none untried."
+
+Mrs. Morgan and the Lady Nairne were now announced, and the Countess of
+Nithsdale entered the coach to proceed with them to St. James's.
+
+Mrs. Morgan found no difficulty in procuring their admission to the
+antechamber through which the king must necessarily pass in his
+way from his own apartments to the drawing-room. The ladies placed
+themselves in the recess of the middle window of the three, which
+occupied one side of the apartment; and, somewhat concealed by the
+curtains, they there awaited the coming of the king.
+
+Upon the most trifling occasions expectation makes the heart beat:
+the watching the opening of a door, the entrance of any particular
+individual, excites a certain emotion. What must then have been
+the feelings of the countess as, with her eyes riveted upon the
+folding-doors through which his majesty was to enter, she fancied every
+moment she saw them move! And when they unfolded, and some of the lords
+of the bed-chamber passed forth, she each time turned an anxious,
+inquiring glance on Mrs. Morgan, to know if this might be the king.
+
+While she was thus in breathless expectation, the Duke of Montrose
+approached to cheer her, by a few words of kindly encouragement; but
+she made him a sign not to claim her acquaintance; for the Earl of
+Pembroke having, at the time he promised to interest himself in her
+favour, desired her not to address him in public, she deemed that any
+exertion the duke might subsequently make for her, would come with the
+more effect from one who did not appear in the light of a personal
+friend.
+
+Every moment seemed to Lady Nithsdale an age. Even the composed Lady
+Nairne changed colour: and Mrs. Morgan looked from one to the other,
+and frequently pressed Lady Nithsdale's hand, and bade her be of good
+cheer and not lose courage. She assured her the king would not long
+tarry; that he was usually most punctual in his habits; and, in an
+agitated tone, uttered all the consoling nothings, which are poured
+into the ear of those, whose highly-wrought nerves are expected to give
+way at the moment it is most needful they should be collected.
+
+At length the door again opened: there was a general stillness. Every
+one who could command a view of the persons approaching, arranged his
+countenance, composed his demeanour; the court gossip, which had been
+buzzed around, was suddenly hushed, the lounging attitude relinquished,
+the droll anecdote suspended, and the laugh silenced.
+
+A pale man, with a good, rather than a dignified aspect, entered the
+apartment. He wore a tie-wig. His dress was plain, and all of one sober
+colour, with stockings of the same hue.
+
+Lady Nithsdale read in Mrs. Morgan's glance that it was the king, and
+she hastened from the recess of the window. She threw herself on her
+knees before him, as he reached the middle of the room, telling him
+she was the unfortunate Countess of Nithsdale, who implored mercy for
+her husband. She spoke in French, as the king's knowledge of English
+was very imperfect. She held up the petition with both her hands,
+entreating him to read it; but the king waved her off, and attempted to
+proceed.
+
+The Lady Nairne also was not backward in pressing her petition, and the
+king impatiently thrust them both from him, and passed on towards the
+opposite door; but the Lady Nithsdale clung to the skirts of his coat.
+
+As she pleaded, and pleaded in vain, she grew desperate,--almost
+maddened. Still in vain! The king listened not to her prayers. She
+would not let go her hold, and was actually dragged in her agony from
+the middle of the antechamber to the door of the drawing-room, when one
+of the lords in attendance forcibly wrested the king's dress from her
+hands, while another took her round the waist and raised her from the
+ground.
+
+No sooner did she feel the touch of a stranger than all her dignity and
+self-possession returned. Quickly disengaging herself from his grasp,
+she stood for a moment looking on the door by which the monarch had
+retired. Her bosom swelled with indignation--the blood of all her noble
+ancestors mantled in her face. That she, the daughter of the Duke of
+Powis, should thus be treated! rejected!--cast off like the scum of
+the earth! when it was well-known the king received the petitions of
+the meanest of his subjects!--that she should be dragged on the very
+ground--that she should be spurned from his feet--that she should be
+forcibly seized by rude hands!
+
+All around seemed to swim before her eyes; and had it not been for Mrs.
+Morgan's kindly help, she must have fallen on the floor. Her friend
+gently assisted her to a seat, and then a flood of tears came to her
+relief.
+
+Meanwhile, the petition which she had attempted to thrust into the
+king's pocket had fallen to the ground, and one of the gentlemen in
+waiting brought it to her. The Lady Nairne had already succeeded in
+delivering her's to one who promised it should reach the king; and the
+Lady Nithsdale, when somewhat recovered from the agitation of this
+strange scene, hastily wrote a few lines in pencil, addressed to the
+Earl of Dorset, who was the lord of the bed-chamber then in waiting,
+and entrusted it, with the petition, to Mrs. Morgan.
+
+Her friend left the countess for a while, and entered the drawing-room;
+but to one so zealous, so devoted, so warm-hearted, the brilliant
+circle seemed for a moment a confused and bewildering scene. She had
+just parted from a fellow-creature, whose soul was harrowed by the most
+agonising emotions, her face pale and haggard, her dress disordered;
+she had just been witnessing grief,--desperation in its most touching
+form; and in one moment she found herself among gay and thoughtless
+creatures, all intent on their own objects of vanity and amusement! The
+studied attire, the conscious simper, the pretty blush, the down-cast
+lid, the bewitching smile, the graceful turn of the swan-like throat,
+the brilliant flash of the sparkling eye, the affected flutter of the
+fan, the thousand varied attractions, were all put in requisition
+to charm, to dazzle, or to subdue. She heard around her the playful
+banter, the witty repartee, the implied compliment, the softened
+whisper, the politely turned attack, the sharp retort; and she wondered
+for the moment how such frivolities could possess so absorbing an
+interest!
+
+She was threading her way through the gay and dazzling throng, when her
+progress was arrested by the circle around the king himself. She was
+compelled to wait with outward composure, although she was secretly all
+impatience to execute the commission entrusted to her, and to return
+quickly to Lady Nithsdale. As she stood watching for an opportunity
+of slipping past unperceived, she found herself within sight, though
+scarcely within hearing, of the Duchess of Montrose.
+
+Two young men were evidently paying her the sort of homage permitted
+by the gallantry of the day. She was answering each with animation and
+spirit. There was the passing frown, the lightening smile, the assumed
+air of absence if anything was said which she wished not to hear.
+
+The attention of one of the gentlemen being presently withdrawn by
+some of his acquaintance, it appeared to Mrs. Morgan that the other
+continued the conversation in a more earnest tone than before. She
+fancied she saw a blush mantle on the cheek of the duchess,--for a
+moment she appeared distressed. The duke, who was near, and was engaged
+in deep and serious discourse with the Earl of Pembroke, had taken no
+part in the playful conversation which was passing behind him. But
+the duchess, making some light evasive answer, suddenly tapped her
+husband's arm with her fan, and caused him to turn round. She then
+seemed to be detailing to him the point in dispute, and applying to
+him as umpire. Mrs. Morgan watched all these little manœuvres; for
+she could not help wondering how one who professed friendship for the
+Countess of Nithsdale could thus give herself up to worldly vanities
+and interests. When first she caught a view of the Duke of Montrose's
+countenance, it bore the traces of sadness; but as he listened to his
+graceful and lively wife, it brightened into a bland expression of
+amusement. Upon the duke's being thus called to join in the discourse,
+the young gallant seemed discomposed but for an instant, and apparently
+recovering himself, at once entered into the spirit of the duchess's
+bantering; and Mrs. Morgan again thought of the countess's despair, and
+mentally exclaimed, "If she could see how gaily her friend, the lively
+duchess, can smile even now!" But she did not long feel thus. In a few
+moments the duke, in a low voice, made some communication to his wife,
+which had the effect of chasing the roses from her cheeks, and dimming
+the brilliancy of her smile. The dark and laughing eyes no longer
+sparkled with the gay consciousness of charming, but were fixed on her
+husband's face with an expression of dismay and woe.
+
+She looked round as if wishing to make her escape; then, perceiving
+Mrs. Morgan, she rushed to her:--
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Morgan!" she exclaimed, "is this all true? You were with her,
+were you not?"
+
+"Yes, your grace; I was with the Countess of Nithsdale, even now, in
+the antechamber."
+
+"Is she still there? I must go to her; I must go instantly to my poor
+cousin Winifred!"
+
+"Stay, dearest Christian!" interposed the duke; "Lady Nithsdale
+herself, this very evening, motioned me not to speak to her; and the
+Earl of Pembroke says, the less we put ourselves forward unnecessarily,
+the more effectually we may be able to serve her. Be not so rash and
+thoughtless. That warm heart of yours carries you beyond the bounds of
+prudence, dear Christian!"--but the duke looked at her with pleasure
+and kindness while he checked her.
+
+"Alas! and is it true that the king dragged her all across the room,
+and would not give heed to her petition?"
+
+"Most true, your grace!"
+
+"Oh, my lord duke! but indeed this was not kind and right in his
+majesty," said the duchess, turning once more towards her husband an
+appealing glance.
+
+"We must not speak treason, dearest Christian, here, in the royal
+presence!"
+
+"Nay! I cannot but think this was cruel:--and may I not go to her? Is
+she still in the antechamber, Mrs. Morgan?"
+
+"Yes, but she will be gone in a few moments; and your grace may rest
+assured that the countess shall meet with every kindness and attention."
+
+"You are a good, kind soul," said the duchess; "and my poor cousin has
+many times told me how much she owes to your friendly sympathy."
+
+The king had changed his position, and the passage was now free. Mrs.
+Morgan, after briefly explaining her errand to the duchess, passed on
+to where the Earl of Dorset was engaged at cards with the Prince. She
+contrived, however, to give him the packet; and received his assurance,
+that when the game was over, he would peruse and attend to its contents.
+
+As she wound her way back, she found that the king's rejection of the
+Ladies Nithsdale's and Nairne's petitions had been rapidly communicated
+from mouth to mouth; and that, except in the immediate hearing of the
+king, no other subject was discussed. She could scarcely make her way
+through the crowd, so anxious was every one to learn from her each
+detail of what had really passed. All were eager, some indignant; but
+some urged, that if his majesty once received a wife's petition, it
+would be most difficult then to refuse, and that unless he had made up
+his mind to pardon treason--proved and acknowledged treason--he had
+no other course to pursue than to avoid witnessing grief he could not
+alleviate; that his sudden, though somewhat undignified flight, did
+not by any means bear the character of hardness, but, on the contrary,
+might lead a candid mind to believe he durst not trust himself to
+witness the desperation of two disconsolate wives.
+
+It was with difficulty that Mrs. Morgan regained the door, and hastened
+back to the friend who stood so much in need of her consoling sympathy.
+Slowly and drearily did they retrace their steps.
+
+The Lady Nairne, who had secret information that her application
+was likely to be successful, was comparatively composed, and bore
+what should have seemed an equal disappointment with equanimity and
+resignation.
+
+The Countess of Nithsdale, exhausted, humbled, indignant, mortified,
+grieved, was for the time more thoroughly subdued than she had ever
+been before.
+
+And yet she had not been sanguine as to the result of this petition;
+those means on which she most relied were still available; but to her
+lofty spirit, the contempt with which she had been treated, in sight of
+all the court, gave her a painful sensation of degradation. It was some
+slight consolation to her to learn from Mrs. Morgan, what the Duchess
+of Montrose the next day confirmed still more strongly, that when the
+circumstances which had occurred without became generally whispered
+through the drawing-room, the harshness of the king had been the topic
+of conversation the whole evening.
+
+With her gentleness there was blended a certain degree of pride, a
+consciousness of being the scion of an ancient stock, which would
+have rendered it impossible for a mean thought even to pass through
+her mind, and which ever enabled her to entrench herself in dignified
+reserve, should others neglect to pay that respect due to noble birth,
+which, unless forgotten by them, would never be remembered by herself.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+ Distress is virtue's opportunity.--_Southern._
+
+The Earl of Nithsdale felt even more keenly than did the countess the
+indignity with which she had been treated in her interview with the
+king.
+
+His dark eye flashed, he bit his compressed lip till the blood almost
+started; he paced the apartment with hasty strides, as he pictured to
+himself his graceful, his delicate, his shrinking Winifred, on whose
+fair form he would scarcely allow the winds to blow too roughly,
+dragged along the floor, the rude hands of strangers round that slender
+waist; and it was then he felt indeed that he was a prisoner, powerless
+to defend her whom he had sworn to cherish! The bars, the bolts, the
+high walls, the moat, the guards! oh, how his soul rebelled against
+them all! How agonising was the impotent indignation which possessed
+his every faculty.
+
+Lady Nithsdale grieved to see his agitation, and yet from his very
+agitation she gathered hope that she might eventually work him to her
+wishes.
+
+Meanwhile, with the assistance of Amy, she had procured most of the
+articles necessary for the disguise of her husband; and although
+resolved that every other means of safety should be tried, she still
+kept her mind fixed upon this last resource. The consciousness of
+having still a point to look to, something still to rest upon when all
+else failed, sustained her courage; but at the same time it prevented
+her attempting to submit to an event, which, in the judgment of others,
+was now inevitable. She could not even think of resignation; on the
+contrary, with this secret hope in her heart, and this plan in her
+mind, she would have been alarmed at her own want of reliance in that
+plan, had she tried to school her feelings to acquiesce in the fatal
+doom.
+
+A few days after the countess's unsuccessful application to the king,
+the resolution was taken in council that the sentence passed upon the
+rebel lords should be carried into execution without delay, and on the
+18th the necessary warrants and orders were despatched, both to the
+Lieutenant of the Tower, and to the Sheriffs of the city of London and
+Middlesex.
+
+There was a startling reality in these measures that for the moment
+shook her inmost soul; yet she would not allow herself to dwell upon
+the intelligence; she scarcely gave herself time to reflect, but all
+the more strenuously busied herself in seeing that her preparations
+were complete; and she strove to interest herself in the attempt made
+the following day by the Countess of Derwentwater to move the king to
+mercy. Accompanied by the Duchesses of Cleveland and of Bolton, and
+by many other ladies of rank, she was introduced by the Dukes of St.
+Albans and of Richmond, to the king's presence, and humbly implored his
+clemency; but her application met with no better success than the Lady
+Nithsdale's more passionate appeal.
+
+It was therefore arranged by the wives of all the condemned lords,
+that two days afterwards, on February the 21st, they should repair to
+the lobby of the House of Peers, and there implore the intercession of
+their lordships with the king.
+
+More than twenty other ladies of the very first distinction accompanied
+them. It might have moved the most unfeeling to behold so many of
+the fairest and the noblest of the realm in such deep and unfeigned
+distress. But though among the mourning group there were many
+countenances which bore the traces of intense anxiety, many whose
+expression of grief amounted almost to despair, some perhaps who might
+boast of greater positive beauty of feature, on none did sorrow sit
+with so touching a grace as on the Countess of Nithsdale. The wan
+transparency of her naturally pale complexion, the refined cast of
+her features, which seemed moulded only to express the highest and
+purest affections of the soul, assorted well with the situation of deep
+interest in which she was placed.
+
+But on this occasion the hearts of all seemed steeled against them.
+Their application met with little attention: no measures were taken, no
+motion made, in consequence of their petition. In blank disappointment
+each sought again her disconsolate, her widowed home.
+
+Dispirited, but not utterly hopeless, they on the following day, the
+22d, repaired again to Westminster Hall, and with them a still greater
+attendance of the first, and the noblest, of the ladies who adorned
+the British court; and with still more passionate earnestness they
+appealed to both houses of parliament.
+
+In the Commons their petitions met with no success. Notwithstanding an
+eloquent address on the part of Sir Richard Steele, the court party
+moved that the discussion should be adjourned to the 1st of March, and
+carried it by a majority of seven voices.
+
+With the Lords they found more favour. Although the Duke of Richmond,
+even when presenting the Earl of Derwentwater's petition, declared
+that he would himself vote against it, yet others spoke warmly and
+eloquently in behalf of men, who, though mistaken, had still acted from
+conscientious motives.
+
+The Earl of Danby, moved with pity for the Lord Nairne's numerous
+family, urged strongly that the petitions of the several lords should
+be received and read. The Lord Townshend and several others, who
+upon all occasions had given undoubted proofs of their attachment to
+the present government, supported the contrary opinion; when, to the
+surprise of many, the Earl of Nottingham declared in favour of the
+petitions being read. As president of the council he drew with him many
+peers, and the motion was carried by nine or ten voices.
+
+Then came the question whether in the case of an impeachment the king
+possessed the power to reprieve. It was now that the Earl of Pembroke
+redeemed his pledge of exerting himself in Lady Nithsdale's favour. His
+animated and eloquent address carried with him the sense of the house;
+and, with the assistance of the Duke of Montrose, the king's power to
+pardon was carried in the affirmative.
+
+This was followed by a motion for an address to the king that, as he
+had the power to do so, he would be pleased to grant a reprieve to the
+lords who lay under sentence of death, which, although opposed by the
+firmest friends of government, was also carried.
+
+Lady Nithsdale's heart bounded within her; hope for a moment danced
+in her bosom, and lighted up her cheek with a passing bloom. Her joy
+was however doomed to be evanescent, for another lord represented that
+"though clemency was one of the brightest virtues which adorn and
+support a crown, yet in his opinion the same should be exercised only
+on proper objects;" and he therefore moved, "that they should address
+the king to reprieve such of the condemned lords as deserved his mercy,
+and approved themselves worthy of this intercession, and not all
+indiscriminately."
+
+The amendment was carried by two voices only, but it was carried;--and
+her heart once more sank within her. This salvo blasted all her hopes.
+She was assured it was aimed at the exclusion of those who would
+not subscribe such a petition as some of the peers had themselves
+prepared,--a thing she knew her husband would never submit to; nor, as
+she herself declared, would she have wished to preserve his life on
+such terms.
+
+Still, however, the address to the king had passed generally, and she
+thought she might turn this circumstance to account in lulling the
+vigilance of the guards. She lost no time in quitting the House of
+Lords, and hastening to the Tower; where, affecting an air of joy and
+security, she told the soldiers as she passed, that she brought joyful
+tidings to the prisoners, for that the petition had passed in their
+favour. She then gave them some money to drink to the lords and his
+majesty; but she prudently made it but a trifling sum, hoping thereby
+to secure their good-will, without awakening in them any suspicion of
+design on her part.
+
+And now there remained but the one last resource. She trembled as
+she thought that, though all was in her own mind prepared, the most
+difficult point remained yet to be accomplished,--her husband had
+not yet consented to the disguise she proposed; and although he had
+not retracted his promise of giving her proposal a fair and patient
+hearing, she had in fact extracted from him nothing more. If he should
+now pertinaciously refuse to accede to it! Oh, no, it was impossible.
+He could not doom her to such hopeless, unutterable misery!
+
+Trembling, agitated, yet worked up to the utmost pitch of courage and
+resolution, she reached his apartment. She staggered into the room; and
+flinging herself into his arms, she sobbed convulsively on his bosom.
+She could not speak: but after a few moments he said, with hopeless
+composure and tenderness,--
+
+"So, my poor Winifred, both houses have then rejected our prayers!
+Alas for you, my love! would I were able to give you consolation! would
+I could alleviate your sorrows!"
+
+"You can! you can! You, and you alone, can now save me from despair!"
+she exclaimed with passion. Her eyes were dry, her cheek was flushed,
+her whole countenance seemed suddenly inspired: "My life, my existence,
+are in your hands! You have but to will it, to make me the happiest
+of wives, of mothers! If I am doomed to the early death of the
+heart-broken," she continued almost in a threatening tone, "or if I am
+doomed to drag on a weary, joyless existence, a lingering death-like
+life, in which the welfare of my soul--yes, the salvation of a precious
+soul, is in peril, for I shall murmur, I shall repine--there is no
+resignation here--I feel I shall not submit as it would be my duty to
+do:--if such is the fate before me, it will be _you_ who doom me to it!
+I can save you--I am sure I can! If you refuse to lend yourself to the
+measures I propose, it will be _you_ who destroy my happiness in this
+world, _you_ who peril my salvation in the next!"
+
+There was a restless fire in her eye, an energy in her manner, a
+fearful inspiration about her, that awed, while it touched him. He
+could not but think what must be the strength of those feelings which
+could so transport her out of herself; which could change the mild,
+timid, shrinking wife, into the inspired threatening Sibyl!
+
+"Hush, hush, my love! you know not what you say!"
+
+She looked wildly and doubtingly around her; then bursting into
+tears,--"Alas! alas! what have I uttered?"--and falling on her knees,
+with clasped hands raised to heaven,--"Pardon, O most merciful Being;
+pardon for my wild and wicked words! O Thou on whom my reliance is
+placed, Thou in whose providence I trust,--cast me not off for these
+hasty words, wrung from me by insufferable anguish! And thou, my lord,
+my love, my husband, urge me not to despair! This brain may become
+unsettled, reason may give way, I may again be hurried into impious
+ravings!--Oh, take pity upon me, dearest, dearest husband!" She clung
+to his knees; she stretched her beseeching arms towards him.
+
+"Do with me what thou wilt, Winifred. If this is weakness, I am weak!
+If this is cowardice, I am no longer brave! Command me! guide me!--I
+am but the instrument in thy hands, my wife! I would sacrifice my life
+to honour; but if there is dishonour in my attempt to escape, I will
+sacrifice honour itself to you, my love!"
+
+"It is not the sacrifice of your honour I demand; yourself cannot value
+it more highly than does your wife. They carried the address to the
+king, but it was coupled with an amendment that it should only apply
+to those who would sign a petition of their own framing. I knew you
+would not--I do not ask you to do so. Your honour is precious to me as
+your life--more precious than your life!--but there is no dishonour in
+escaping from a cruel and an ignominious death!"
+
+"Not ignominious, Winifred; an honourable death!"
+
+"From a cruel and an unjust death!--a treacherous death! Was it not
+upon the understanding that your lives were to be spared that you all
+surrendered at Preston? Was it not to avoid useless effusion of blood
+that you yielded? and that you advised others to yield? Would it not
+have been easier and sweeter to have perished in battle, than to die on
+the scaffold, as your fellow prisoners must? No! there is no dishonour
+in escaping from tyranny!" She spoke with energy, for the first time
+uttering the words of "death" and "scaffold," which had never before
+found their way to her lips.
+
+"Have I not said it, my love? I am ready to follow your injunctions. Do
+with me what you will."
+
+"You have promised it, you have sworn it!"--and her face was radiant
+with joy. "My own love! you are mine once more! We shall not be
+parted;--we shall live and die together,--we shall grow old together!
+Oh, thanks! thanks!" and her imagination had overleaped all the bars
+and bolts, the dreary boundaries of the prison. She felt they were
+at large to roam over the wide world together. He gave her one sad
+and grateful kiss, and walked to the window to conceal his emotion;
+but she saw the expression of his countenance as he slowly surveyed
+the court-yard, and his eye rested on each sentry as he paced in his
+appointed spot.
+
+She perceived the almost mocking smile which passed transiently over
+his lips; and she plainly read how vain he thought her hopes, how
+unavailing would prove the consent she had extorted from him.
+
+"You think my schemes all visionary!--you think me scarcely in my right
+senses!--you deem me already crazed with grief!"
+
+"Nay, my love, I think your wishes run beyond your judgment, and I fear
+you are only preparing for yourself a more bitter disappointment. The
+blow will fall the heavier for coming upon you in your present state
+of excitement. It would tend more to your future peace of mind if,
+discarding all worldly thoughts, you would fix your hopes, and would
+assist me in fixing mine, on heaven, and heaven alone."
+
+"And think you it could tend to my future peace of mind, the reflection
+that one hour of bold prudence, one hour of steady perseverance in the
+execution of the scheme already formed, might have led to a reunion for
+life?--perhaps a long and happy life! You would not surely retract the
+vow so solemnly made, even now?" she added in a reproachful tone.
+
+"No! I have promised; and I will keep my promise!"
+
+She pressed his hand in token of gratitude. "Then I must away. There
+are still some with whom I have need to communicate. Do not look for
+me early to-morrow: I shall not be with you till towards dusk,--and
+then----"
+
+"Not till evening? The last day must I be deprived of your presence
+till evening?"
+
+"The first day of your deliverance, my love!--the first of many days of
+liberty and happiness!"
+
+He dropped his eyes. He would not sadden her by his own forebodings.
+And yet he felt he should be permitted to look on her for so short a
+space, that it was with difficulty he could bring himself to lose sight
+of her for a moment.
+
+It was already night; but he watched her from his prison window, and
+fancied he could detect her beloved form as she glided down the steps
+leading to the archway. He stood gazing at the spot till tears suffused
+his eyes; and he flung himself upon a seat, determined to wrestle with
+his emotions.
+
+When alone,--when not exposed to the influence of her tenderness,--he
+looked on death with perfect composure, and almost wished his course
+was run, and that the inevitable moment was arrived. The hopes with
+which she strove to inspire him unsettled and distracted him; and then
+he reproached himself for such weakness. Yet how collect his thoughts?
+how temper them down to a tranquil, firm, unmoved acquiescence in his
+doom, when all his energies would be required for the enterprise which
+was to restore him to life, to love, and to liberty? He strove to
+forget the plan in agitation. He tried to abstract himself in prayer;
+but when most he hoped to have spiritualised his meditations, visions
+of the future would flash across his mind, painful anticipations of
+what would be his Winifred's desperation upon the failure of her
+attempt, agonising shame at the idea of being discovered and caught
+in the act of evasion, dread of appearing in the undignified position
+of a reclaimed fugitive, dragged unwillingly to the block, instead of
+the loyal martyr, boldly, firmly, with an unconstrained step, mounting
+the scaffold, to consummate the sacrifice he had of his own free will
+chosen to make.
+
+He almost repented the promise he had given; he longed for the repose
+of hopelessness.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  Methinks my soul is rous'd to her last work,
+  Has much to do, and little time to spare.
+
+  Dryden.
+
+The Countess of Nithsdale had quitted her husband. She wound her
+solitary way through the dreary purlieus which had become only too
+familiar to her. She had gained the long-wished-for consent; she had
+extracted a vow, a solemn vow, from her lord, and she feared not that
+he would break it: but never did the difficulties of her undertaking
+appear to her so appalling as at the present moment; the sentries so
+innumerable, the guards so alert, the way so long, the walls so lofty,
+the moat so broad!
+
+While his consent was to be gained, all else seemed easy, but now the
+dangers rose up in fearful array before her!
+
+But this was not the time to waver. Where could she look for support
+but to her own unshrinking soul? Amy, she knew, considered her plan
+impracticable. To no one else had she imparted it.
+
+During the short time which intervened before she reached her home, she
+had recovered her confident reliance on the protection of Providence,
+and on the strength which that Providence would vouchsafe to her; and
+with a firm countenance she informed Amy that her lord's consent was
+obtained, that every difficulty was smoothing itself before her, and
+that they had but to go on and prosper.
+
+"Thank Heaven that my lord has consented," answered Amy; "but, dearest
+madam, is this, in truth, the only hope now left? Here is a packet
+which arrived even now from the Duchess of Montrose. Who knows but it
+may contain good news?"
+
+With trembling hands the countess tore it open; but Amy saw with a
+glance that there was no hope administered by its contents. "No worse
+news, I trust, madam?"
+
+"No worse than I expected; but read yourself, good Amy. I have nor
+voice nor eye-sight," as she brushed off a tear, "nor strength. All the
+strength I possess must be reserved for to-morrow."
+
+The duchess's letter told her that the petition from the Lords had
+received no more favourable answer from the king than "that on this,
+and all other occasions, he would do what he thought most consistent
+with the dignity of his crown and the safety of his people." The
+duchess added, that this answer would next morning be formally
+announced to the public, but that meanwhile she had hastened to
+communicate it to her friend, thinking she might deem it advisable to
+adopt some farther measures, although she scarcely knew what measures
+to recommend.
+
+In consequence of this information, Lady Nithsdale resolved, as a last
+resource, in the event of her scheme proving unsuccessful, to prepare
+for still presenting one more private petition to the king. To this end
+she appointed Mr. M'Kenzie, an old friend of her lord's, and, through
+her sister Lady Seaforth, a connexion of her own, to await her on the
+following evening, at her lodgings. She felt secure of his friendly
+support in any emergency. She also applied to the Duchess of Buccleugh;
+who promised, if Lady Nithsdale called upon her to do so, she would be
+in readiness to accompany her to court.
+
+She passed what remained of that evening, and the early part of the
+following morning, in completing every arrangement in case of either
+contingency. Even had not these manifold cares occupied her time,
+she could scarcely have trusted herself with her husband. Constant,
+incessant business was absolutely necessary to her. If she had sat down
+to think, to calculate the chances, it would have been impossible to
+her to have preserved the self-command so indispensable to the success
+of her undertaking.
+
+It was not till towards the afternoon of this trying day, the 23rd,
+that she desired Amy to request Mrs. Mills would favour her with her
+company for a few moments.
+
+The compassionate Mrs. Mills instantly obeyed her summons, though
+almost dreading to find herself in the presence of one whose grief she
+feared to witness. But Lady Nithsdale was perfectly calm and collected.
+After thanking her for her constant kindness and hospitality, she at
+once entered upon the subject; and telling her that having had such
+experience of the goodness of her heart, she did not doubt but she
+would continue to prove herself the kind friend she had ever found her;
+and that she would not refuse to accompany her that day to the Tower,
+in order that, as she was not personally known to the guards and those
+in attendance, her lord might the more easily pass for her. She then
+detailed to her the whole plan for his escape, and urged that as this
+was the very evening preceding the execution, there was no time for
+doubt and hesitation. She told her all other hope was now at an end.
+Reprieves had been despatched for the Lords Wintoun, Widdrington, and
+Nairne; but at the same time orders had been given for the execution,
+the next morning, of Lord Derwentwater, Lord Kenmure, and of her
+husband! She spoke with a firm voice; and such was her excited state of
+hope and resolution, that the words which struck through Amy's heart,
+which made Mrs. Mills shrink and tremble, seemed as if they were to her
+but a matter of business.
+
+Mrs. Mills, all agitated and confused, promised to assist to the best
+of her ability, and Lady Nithsdale instantly overwhelmed her with
+thanks; and having despatched Walter Elliot to Mrs. Morgan, to request
+she also would instantly visit her, she then occupied herself in
+ascertaining from Amy Evans the exact situation of the house where they
+were to meet, when she should have succeeded in placing her husband
+beyond the precincts of the Tower.
+
+Mrs. Morgan delayed not to wait on the countess, who found little
+difficulty in gaining her consent to any plan which might serve one
+whom she had quickly learned to love with all the warmth of her
+enthusiastic heart. Indeed, both she and Mrs. Mills were so taken by
+surprise, the case was so pressing, the plan to be so instantly carried
+into execution, that there was no time for indecision or reflection.
+They must either doom the Earl of Nithsdale to certain death on the
+morrow, and his wife to utter despair; or they must lend themselves to
+the scheme so warily, so judiciously, so discreetly contrived.
+
+Lady Nithsdale begged Mrs. Morgan, who was of a peculiarly slender
+make, to put under her own riding-hood that which she had prepared for
+Mrs. Mills, who was to leave hers in the prison for the earl.
+
+She then hurried them both into the coach; and repeating her
+directions, enforcing her counsels, she allowed no pause in the
+conversation, during which they might have leisure to reflect and to
+repent.
+
+In their hurry and their astonishment, they thought not of the possible
+consequences, but submitted to obey Lady Nithsdale in all things, who
+guided them with the overawing mastery which, at the moment of trial,
+the stronger mind invariably exercises over those of a more feeble and
+yielding temperament.
+
+The coach stopped at the Tower. Lady Nithsdale had permission to
+introduce but one person at a time; and leaving Mrs. Mills in the
+carriage, she took Mrs. Morgan with her.
+
+She had not seen her husband since the preceding night, and this was
+the eve of execution! If she failed, the morrow would see her a widow!
+But she drove such thoughts from her mind;--she hurried Mrs. Morgan
+along,--she almost pushed her into the apartment.
+
+Lord Nithsdale rushed to his wife, and pressed her to his bosom. "Oh,
+Winifred!" he exclaimed, half reproachfully; "this long, long, weary
+day, and I have not seen you!"
+
+She disengaged herself from him.
+
+"I must not look on you," she said; "I must not listen to you--I must
+not think--we must now act, and not a word must be uttered that is not
+to the purpose! Here is my good, kind, dear Mrs. Morgan! She is, and
+has been from the first, a true and faithful friend; and now, dear Mrs.
+Morgan, we must lose no time in speech or compliment."
+
+Mrs. Morgan took off the hood, and soon disencumbered herself of the
+dress, which had been put on over her own.
+
+Lord Nithsdale meanwhile stood by, passive, but miserable. The long
+morning had appeared to him interminable. The early February twilight
+had seemed as if it never would arrive. He still looked upon this day
+as his last on earth; and his feelings, though not his reason, were
+almost disposed to murmur at his wife for not being with him during
+the few remaining hours which they might have passed together. He had
+to remind himself that she was toiling in his service, not to feel
+abandoned by her. It was with a strange and mixed sensation that he had
+watched the waning light. He was impatient for the shades of evening,
+which he trusted would bring to him the beloved of his soul; and yet,
+as he dwelt upon the last rays of sunshine, he felt loth to part with
+them for ever,--to think that he should never again see that glorious
+luminary fulfil its course in splendour, and shed its brilliancy on
+all around; hateful to him as was the dreary prospect from his prison
+windows, he now thought with regret that he should never again see its
+western beams gild the square turrets of the White Tower. At moments he
+felt life was worth one desperate effort; but more frequently he hoped,
+when his Winifred did come, it would be to tell him that her scheme was
+impracticable, to release him from his vow, and to allow him to meet
+his fate with dignity and resignation.
+
+She came, and all was turmoil and confusion within his bosom. He
+was pledged to obey her. Indeed there was no time for argument or
+remonstrance. She would have listened to none.
+
+Those who stand upon the threshold of the grave--those to whom in a few
+hours the mysteries of a future existence may all be unfolded--seem as
+it were a link between the living and the dead, and are ever regarded
+with a certain awe, as Mrs. Morgan experienced when looking on him of
+whom she had heard so much--on him for whom, though unknown, she had
+felt so keenly--on the stranger for whom she was now incurring, what
+might prove to herself, no inconsiderable peril.
+
+That pensive countenance, that noble brow, those lofty features, all
+spoke a soul within, which might well justify his wife's devotion, and
+she felt that such a creature must not perish. She repented not of her
+consent; but gladly, willingly, incurred the present risk.
+
+When the change in her dress was effected, Lady Nithsdale conducted
+her back to the staircase; begging her, in the hearing of the guards,
+to lose no time in sending her maid to dress her, and expressing the
+greatest fear lest, if she did not come immediately, she should be too
+late to present the last petition that night.
+
+She presently afterwards descended the stairs to meet Mrs. Mills, who,
+according to their previous arrangement, concealed her face with her
+handkerchief, as if in tears. When the door was closed she made her
+take off her own hood, and put on that which Mrs. Morgan had left for
+her; and then bidding her assume a more cheerful countenance (in order
+that when her lord appeared in her dress, he might the more easily
+personate the lady who had entered weeping and afflicted), she took her
+by the hand, and led her out of the earl's chamber. In passing through
+the next room, she said with all the concern imaginable,
+
+"My dear Mrs. Catherine, go in all haste, and send me my waiting-maid.
+She certainly cannot reflect how late it is. I am to present my
+petition to-night; and if I let slip this opportunity, I am undone, for
+to-morrow will be too late; hasten her as much as possible, for I shall
+be on thorns till she comes."
+
+The guards, to whom the countess's liberality the preceding day had
+endeared her, disturbed her not, but allowed her to pass and repass
+with her company: the more freely also, as, having been told by her
+that the imprisoned lords were likely to obtain their liberty, they
+were not so strictly on the watch as they had hitherto been. All in the
+outer room, who were chiefly the guards' wives and daughters, seemed to
+compassionate her exceedingly; and the sentinel himself opened the door
+for them. There was nothing in the appearance of the fair and florid
+Mrs. Mills which could excite the slightest suspicion.
+
+Having seen her safe out, Lady Nithsdale returned to finish dressing
+her lord. She had prepared false hair of a fair colour; the more to
+resemble Mrs. Mills, whose hair was inclined to be flaxen. She coloured
+his dark eye-brows with light paint; and she also painted his face
+with red and white, for there was no time to shave his dark beard. She
+dressed him in some of her own petticoats, and in the hood Mrs. Mills
+had worn. As the evening had by this time closed in, and she feared
+that the light of candles might betray them, she hastened him from the
+apartment. She led him by the hand, whilst he held his handkerchief
+to his eyes; and being dressed in the same dress, and his hair and
+complexion being made somewhat to resemble those of Mrs. Mills, he
+easily passed for the weeping young lady whose affliction at having
+parted for the last time from a dear friend might very naturally be
+even more over-whelming than when she entered a short time before.
+
+Lady Nithsdale spoke to him in the most piteous tone of voice, bitterly
+bewailing the negligence of her maid Evans, who had ruined her by her
+delay. Yet, while she spoke, it almost went against her to accuse of
+negligence the devoted Amy! Still, addressing the earl, she continued:--
+
+"My dear Mrs. Betty, for the love of God run quickly, and bring
+her with you. You know my lodging, and if ever you made despatch
+in your life, do it at present. I am almost distracted with this
+disappointment."
+
+The guards opened the door. She was permitted to pass with one friend
+at a time: they had not kept exact account of the number who had
+entered, satisfied that all was right while she was accompanied by only
+one female, and one also whom they believed to have seen so lately
+enter the chamber within. She went down with him, still conjuring him
+to make all possible haste.
+
+As soon as he had cleared the door, she made him walk before, lest the
+sentinel should take notice of his walk; and she still continued to
+press him to make despatch. At the bottom of the last outer step, she
+met the faithful Amy Evans, and into her hands she committed him.
+
+She had before engaged Mr. Mills to be in readiness before the Tower,
+to conduct him to a place of safety, which at that period might be
+the more easily effected, as, instead of a clear and open space
+without the walls, the purlieus were choked with mean habitations,
+with close and narrow alleys. The gates were no sooner passed, than
+they found themselves in the throng of the most dense and busy part of
+the London population; but Mr. Mills had looked upon the affair as so
+very unlikely to succeed, and his astonishment threw him into such a
+consternation when he actually beheld them, that he was bewildered and
+quite out of himself.
+
+Amy Evans perceived his confusion, and with that presence of mind which
+had so justly entitled her to her lady's confidence, instantly decided
+on her own line of conduct. She took no notice of his agitation, lest
+she might attract the attention of the passers-by; and she feared that
+possibly the earl might mistrust them, if he should perceive wavering
+and uncertainty in those to whom he was confided. She therefore at once
+took him to some friends of her own, on whom she felt certain she might
+rely; and leaving him with them, immediately returned in search of Mr.
+Mills.
+
+Meanwhile the Lady Nithsdale had in safety regained her lord's
+apartment. As she passed, all sympathised in her distress, and pitied
+her for the disappointment she had met with.
+
+She closed the door, and then kept up a conversation as if her lord
+had been really present. She answered her own questions in his voice,
+as nearly as she could imitate it. She walked up and down the room, as
+though they had been conversing together, till at length she imagined
+the earl and Amy must have thoroughly cleared themselves of the guards.
+
+During all this time she had not allowed herself once to pause or
+to reflect. She had contemplated nothing but success--she had not
+permitted herself to anticipate failure--she had not suffered her mind
+to glance towards the fatal morrow. Still calm and collected, she now
+calculated that she might with safety depart herself. She neglected
+no possible precaution: she opened the door, and standing half within
+it, so that those without might not have an opportunity of commanding
+a view of the interior, she bade her lord a formal farewell for the
+night, saying, "That something more than usual must have occurred to
+make Evans negligent on this important occasion, who had always been so
+punctual in the smallest trifles;"--she added, "there was no remedy;
+but that she should go in person; that if the Tower was still open when
+she had finished her business, she would return that night; but bade
+him be assured she would be with him as early in the morning as she
+could gain admittance, and, as she flattered herself, should bring him
+favourable news."
+
+Then, before she shut the door, she pulled through the string of the
+latch, so that it could only be opened from within; she closed it with
+some force, to make sure that it was well fastened; and as she passed
+she told the servant he need not carry candles to his master till his
+lord sent for them, as he desired to finish some prayers.
+
+She descended the stairs. She found herself in the open air; for a
+moment all seemed to reel around her; she scarcely dared trust her
+senses that he was really free. She trembled as she passed on. She
+thought each sight, each sound, might be that he had been discovered,
+overtaken, and that they were now leading him back to captivity and
+certain death.
+
+She feared to excite suspicion by looking too eagerly and curiously
+about her, and yet she fancied every moment she heard hurrying
+footsteps in pursuit of her. She reached the outer gates at last--she
+passed them! There were several coaches on the stand: she called one,
+she threw herself into it, and drove to her own lodgings.
+
+It was all true! He was free! She had saved him! The joy seemed too
+great for endurance--her heart felt bursting! But there was still much
+to be done, she must not yet relax.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  And all extremes how link'd! Do we not weep
+  For joy?--and laugh, ay, laugh, for anguish?
+  A hideous laugh, that tells of sorrow, more
+  Than tears and sighs!
+
+  _MS. Play._
+
+When Lady Nithsdale arrived at her lodgings, she found poor Mr.
+M'Kenzie in waiting to accompany her to present her last hopeless
+petition, had the attempt, in the success of which she had so
+confidently, and, as it proved, so justly relied, proved ineffectual.
+
+She told him, with exultation, there was no need now of any petition,
+as her husband was safe out of the Tower, and out of the hands of his
+enemies, as she supposed; although, she added with truth, she knew not
+where he was.
+
+It was also necessary to inform the Duchess of Buccleugh that she
+should not require her good offices that evening, but at the same
+time she was unwilling to spread the news of her lord's escape. She
+had discharged the coach which had conveyed her from the Tower; but,
+sending for a sedan-chair, she resolved to go immediately to the
+Duchess of Buccleugh's. She inquired if she was at home; and being
+answered in the affirmative, and that she was in expectation of the
+countess's arrival, but was at that moment engaged with another
+duchess.[A] Lady Nithsdale declined going up stairs, but desired to be
+shown into a chamber below, begging at the same time that the duchess's
+maid might be sent to her.
+
+She was glad to escape being questioned by the duchess herself, and
+bade the maid acquaint her grace that her only reason for not waiting
+upon her was her having been informed she was engaged with company.
+She charged the maid with her most sincere thanks for her grace's kind
+offer of accompanying her to court, but desired her to say, she might
+spare herself any further trouble, as it was judged more advisable to
+present one general petition in the name of all: still, she should
+never be unmindful of her particular obligation to her grace, which she
+hoped soon to acknowledge in person.
+
+She had dismissed the chair which brought her to the Duchess of
+Buccleugh's, lest she should be pursued and watched; and she therefore
+now desired one of the servants to call another, in which she proceeded
+to the Duchess of Montrose's.
+
+Upon hearing of Lady Nithsdale's arrival, the duchess was seized
+with such a panic,--she so dreaded the notion of witnessing her
+despair,--that she suddenly quitted the apartment, and hastened to
+deny herself. Her husband, seeing her abruptly break from her company,
+anxiously followed to inquire the cause of her evident agitation.
+
+"I cannot see her," she exclaimed: "I could not bear to behold my poor
+cousin of Nithsdale's anguish. I have no power to save her, and I have
+not courage to contemplate the agony I cannot alleviate. Oh! make some
+excuse for me! I am weak and helpless; I cannot preach resignation.
+Alas! alas!" she continued, wringing her hands, "I know too well
+what must be her feelings; I am too well aware of what a nature is
+her devotion to her lord; it would be mockery in me to bid her be
+patient,--to tell her time will temper her despair. I know it will not:
+I could but feed her grief! It must be some stronger, firmer mind than
+mine that dare face such agony as hers!"
+
+Even while she spoke, the servants, who had not understood the order to
+deny their mistress, and who were accustomed at all hours to admit Lady
+Nithsdale, entered the apartment to inform her grace that the countess
+was below.
+
+"What shall I do?" exclaimed the duchess, in dismay.
+
+"Go to her, dear Christian," answered the duke; "though you may not
+be able to inspire her with firmness to bear such affliction, your
+sympathy must soothe."
+
+"Oh, that is true! Yes, I will go to her, poor soul! Assuredly I would
+rather die than be unkind; and have I not promised she should always
+find a friend in Christian Montrose. But if you knew how fearful her
+grief is when she is so resolutely calm, you would not wonder that I
+shrink from seeing her under her present circumstances."
+
+The duchess slowly, hesitatingly, descended, and fearfully entered the
+apartment where Lady Nithsdale awaited her.
+
+Instead of the harrowing image of despair, which the duchess had
+pictured to herself, she saw the countess with glowing cheeks and a
+countenance brilliant with joy, who rushed into her arms in her ecstasy
+of delight. The duchess stood appalled. She apprehended that her
+cousin's troubles had, indeed, unsettled her reason, and that it was
+the light of madness which flashed from her eye. She shrank in fear and
+amazement.
+
+"He is safe!" exclaimed the countess. "My husband is in freedom!--he is
+restored to me!"
+
+"My gentle cousin, my sweet Winifred!--Alas! you are not well; be
+seated, and let me entreat you to compose yourself!"
+
+"You do not rejoice with me!" she cried, seizing both the duchess's
+hands. "Why do you not congratulate me? I am the happiest creature in
+the whole world!" she exclaimed, bursting into a flood of tears. The
+duchess's alarm increased every moment. "I tell you, Christian, he is
+out of prison!--he has escaped them all!--he is, I trust, safe from all
+discovery. Oh! Heaven has been very merciful to me!" she continued,
+bowing her head with a meek fervour, which somewhat re-assured her
+friend, and made her hope the countess's words were not all the
+hallucinations of a maniac.
+
+By degrees she became more composed, and gave some account of how her
+lord's escape had been effected: then, indeed, did the duchess mingle
+tears of joy with hers, and smile to think how she had misconstrued her
+friend's expression of happiness.
+
+When they had sufficiently recovered themselves to converse with some
+composure, the duchess informed Lady Nithsdale that the king was so
+much incensed against her for attempting to force her petition upon
+him, that she advised her to keep herself as closely concealed as
+possible. She told her she would herself go to court that evening,
+that she might the better judge how the intelligence of the Earl of
+Nithsdale's evasion was there received: and the friends once more
+parted.
+
+The countess, as before, had discharged her chair, and now procured
+another, in which she proceeded to the house at which she had appointed
+to meet Amy Evans.
+
+The duchess repaired to St. James's, where she found the king much
+irritated, and declaring that such a thing could not have been effected
+without a conspiracy: he that night despatched two persons to the
+Tower, to ascertain that the other prisoners were well secured: and on
+all sides the duchess heard different surmises as to the mode in which
+the earl's evasion could have been accomplished. Some threw the blame
+in one, some in another quarter,--none glanced at the true mode.
+
+The duchess alone was acquainted with the countess's part in it; and
+if she had not still felt too deep an anxiety for the ultimate fate
+of such dear friends, she could almost have smiled at the confident
+assertions, the contradictory reports, the consequential hints, which
+were either loudly spoken or mysteriously whispered in all directions.
+
+Indeed it has been a singular circumstance that an event of
+considerable importance, and one of such recent occurrence, should for
+many years have been enveloped in such mystery!
+
+Meanwhile Lady Nithsdale had been the first to reach the appointed
+spot; but Amy Evans soon joined her. She told her how, after having
+placed the earl in temporary security, she had returned in search
+of Mr. Mills; how she had traced him to his own home, which he had
+regained when he recovered from his astonishment; and how they had
+then removed her lord to the house of a poor woman, directly opposite
+the guard-house. They imagined that, having changed the disguise in
+which he had made his escape, all means of tracing him would become
+difficult; and that the last place which would be searched would be one
+so near the Tower itself.
+
+The poor woman had but a single small room to spare, up one pair of
+stairs, and which was almost destitute of furniture. Guided by Amy,
+the countess hastened to this humble abode, and there she had the
+inexpressible happiness of finding herself re-united to her husband.
+
+There are moments of agony too intense to bear description; there are
+also moments of bliss which baffle the power of language to paint.
+And if it is sometimes a relief to think the woes that excite our
+sympathies too acutely are fictitious woes, there ought to be pleasure
+in reflecting that the happiness which these two devoted spirits then
+enjoyed was real;--that this is no fiction, but a plain and simple
+narrative of what has actually occurred.
+
+[Footnote A: These details are from Lady Nithsdale's letter.]
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  But I, that knew what harbour'd in that head,
+    What virtues rare were temper'd in that breast,
+  Honour the place that such a jewel bred,
+    And kiss the ground whereas the corpse doth rest!
+
+  _Lord Surrey on the Death of Sir Thomas Wyatt._
+
+When Lady Nithsdale, after all the varied sufferings of many weeks, the
+painful excitement of the few preceding days, the agonising violence
+she had done to her feelings for the last twelve hours, at length found
+herself pressed to her husband's bosom, when she knew that she was
+supported by his arms, over-wrought nature gave way, and she fainted.
+
+With the assistance of Amy, however, she soon revived, and in a state
+of blissful exhaustion she wept freely on his shoulder. Few words were
+spoken.
+
+When her lady seemed more composed, Amy stole away, for she feared to
+excite the notice of the other lodgers.
+
+"Let us pray, my love!" said Lady Nithsdale when the door was closed:
+"let us together pour forth our souls to that Providence who has this
+day extended over us so special a mercy. It will relieve my bursting
+soul to give utterance to the gratitude which almost oppresses it;" and
+they both sunk on their knees in humble adoration.
+
+For a time, nor doubt nor fear disturbed the full security of their
+gratitude and their joy! It was not till the first grey light began to
+dawn, and that the twitter of the sparrows on the house-tops, and the
+discordant sounds of London streets, again broke the stillness which
+had reigned, that the difficulties and dangers that still surrounded
+them recurred to their minds.
+
+The earl sighed when first he saw the rays of the sun shine on the
+taller chimneys of the adjacent buildings, and that the tiled roofs of
+the surrounding houses became visible from their narrow window, for
+he remembered his own feelings as he had mentally bidden adieu the
+preceding evening to the sunbeams; and, mixed with gratulation and
+thankfulness for the different circumstances under which he now hailed
+the cheering light, came the recollection of his fellow-prisoners. He
+thought on the good Earl of Derwentwater, and on his old friend Lord
+Kenmure.
+
+His wife watched the expression of his countenance. She read what
+passed within. "Alas!" she said, "I have been a very egotist in my joy.
+I have not been able to think of those who are now marking in agony and
+desperation the dawning of this fatal day, who turn from its glorious
+light in sickening, loathing despair. Alas for them! The extremes of
+grief, and of happiness, both make us selfish creatures. And yet can I
+really think of aught but you? How can I grieve, when I can gaze as now
+upon you, rescued from that dismal place, restored to me and to your
+children? Oh! we shall together hear their clear young voices; we shall
+together, with delighted eyes, follow them in their graceful sports;
+we shall both feel their twining arms around our necks; we shall
+together guide and direct their young minds; we shall watch the opening
+intellect develope itself, and ripen into all that is noble in man, all
+that is lovely in woman! Oh, my love! my husband! what happiness is
+there in store for us!"
+
+Lord Nithsdale listened in deep-felt rapture: he hung upon her words;
+he let his soul go to the delightful picture she drew; he drank in the
+musical sounds of her soft voice; he looked with love and tenderness
+upon the sweet though wan countenance, which, in its delicate paleness,
+bore the traces of past suffering.
+
+"What happiness indeed!" he echoed. "What unutterable happiness!"
+
+"And how tall our noble boy will be! We shall scarcely know him, except
+by those clustering fair curls which contrast so prettily with the dark
+brows, which are all your own, my love! Oh, those blue eyes! how they
+used to dance from beneath the shady brow! And Anne, my darling Annie!
+she will not have forgotten us, I trust; she will not have forgotten
+to climb your knee, and nestle into your bosom, as she was used to do,
+while you still remained absorbed in meditation."
+
+A smile, a pleased, a tranquil, tender smile, played over his lips as
+he said, "My own sweet children, I dare think of you now! Yesterday
+it was with such painful regret that the image of your innocent
+endearments rose before my mind, that I strove to banish you from
+my thoughts. My gallant, stout boy! my pretty Annie!" and a silent
+but sweet tear stole down his manly cheek. "And yet, my love, are we
+not almost presumptuous in looking forward thus confidently? Though
+no longer within a prison's walls, we must not deem ourselves too
+secure----"
+
+As he spoke, one loud, deep, sonorous toll of a bell was heard. Lady
+Nithsdale started. The colour, which the joyous picture she had drawn
+had summoned to her cheeks, gave way to a ghastly paleness. Lord
+Nithsdale did not finish the broken sentence: both sat in mute horror.
+Several moments elapsed; they heard no more. They began to fancy some
+accidental sound had startled them, when again the clear, deep sound
+struck on their ears--their hearts! She looked upon him with a fearful
+inquiring glance.
+
+"It must be so," he said; "this is the very hour!" He clasped his hands
+firmly together; and, dropping his head, he pressed them against his
+bosom. "My friends, my noble, my true-hearted friends!" he ejaculated
+in a low and smothered voice.
+
+"O God! and is it over?" she exclaimed, and she wound her arms around
+him; she clung to him with desperate energy; she pressed him closely to
+her, while she gazed wildly at the closed door, as if she every moment
+expected to see it burst open, and the ministers of the law rush in to
+bereave her of the loved being she had rescued.
+
+"They shall not tear thee from me! No, no! I feel this woman's arm
+could hold thee with so firm a grasp, that no earthly power could
+sever us. They shall not, they cannot wrest thee from these arms!"
+
+Again the awful toll of the minute-bell rung upon their ears! "Does it
+mean all is over?" she again slowly whispered in trembling horror.
+
+"No, no! not so! they are even now on their way to the scaffold," he
+said. "He breathes yet! my friend, my noble Derwentwater yet breathes
+this vital air! The healthful blood still flows through his veins! That
+gallant heart still throbs in its mortal clothing! He is yet alive; and
+on this vast globe there does not beat a heart more gallant,--a spirit
+more undaunted dwells not on this earth!"
+
+Again that toll struck on their hearts,--that toll for which they
+listened, till they almost fancied each must have been the last; when,
+no! the next awful sound struck their very frame, jarred on their every
+nerve, even more painfully than that which preceded it. They were half
+tempted to stop their ears to exclude the torturing clang, but a power
+which they could not resist compelled them to listen with redoubled
+intensity.
+
+"By this time they must have reached Tower Hill!" he murmured. If
+he had seen the fearful expression of her countenance while he thus
+pictured what would have been, what still might be, his fate, he would
+in pity have been silent; but his thoughts were at that moment all upon
+his friends, his companions, his fellow-prisoners. Though he pressed
+her to his heart, he looked not upon her, and was still absorbed by the
+scene which he knew was enacting.
+
+"Hush! all is silent! the bell has ceased!" No: it came again! its
+brazen clang again sounded. They still listened in breathless silence!
+At length it really ceased.
+
+"What means this stillness?" she faintly asked.
+
+"It is even now," he replied, in a smothered tone, "they must have
+reached the spot!" He pressed his hand upon his eyes: "My friends! my
+friends!--my dear, my noble friends!--I should not have abandoned ye;
+I should be there to share your fate; I ought to be with ye now!" he
+exclaimed in passion.
+
+"My husband! my life! my love?" she softly whispered, in an appealing,
+a deprecating tone.
+
+"Oh! no, no! I did not mean to say so! This is my home! here is my
+resting-place!" and his head dropped upon her shoulder.
+
+Minutes elapsed: neither could keep count of time; it might be moments,
+it might be hours!
+
+Again the awful, the horrible bell resounded; it seemed to crack his
+heart-strings. He started up; he shook her from him: he paced the room
+with hasty strides.
+
+"It is all over!" he exclaimed,--"it is consummated! They are now
+bloody corpses! head-less trunks!"
+
+She seized him by the arm: "Hush, hush; in mercy hush! speak not with
+such ungoverned earnestness. Did not Amy forbid us to stir for our
+lives?--did she not bid us converse in subdued tones?--did she not
+bid us avoid every movement that might betray that this apartment was
+occupied? Are there not other lodgers in the house? If you do not value
+life yourself, take pity on me. Spare me! oh, spare me the horrors
+you have just brought so vividly before me! Be still, I implore, I
+command,--by all I have done, all I have ventured, all I have endured!"
+and she dragged him to the wretched bed on which they had been seated,
+and which was the only article of furniture the chamber contained. He
+unresistingly yielded to her gentle force, and re-seated himself.
+
+The dreadful certainty that the fate of his companions in misfortune
+was sealed completely dispelled the gleam of secure happiness which had
+shone through the hearts of both.
+
+Lady Nithsdale thought on the Countess of Derwentwater; on the Lady
+Kenmure; and while she closely clung to her husband's arm, to assure
+herself in very truth that he was safe, and to prevent his making any
+movement which might betray him, she pictured to herself the unavailing
+agonies of the other ladies, till her very brain went round!
+
+It now seemed to her she had as yet accomplished but little. She felt
+there was no security in their freedom; the fact that they were still
+within so short a distance of the fatal spot, which had this moment
+been brought only too forcibly home to the feelings of both, made her
+impatiently await further intelligence from her faithful friends--made
+her feel that nought was done till the seas rolled between him and his
+enemies!
+
+She listened breathlessly, hoping each step might be Amy's, or Mrs.
+Mills's; and yet she dreaded each sound that reached her, lest it might
+prove the approach of guards, who, having traced his steps, might have
+succeeded in discovering his retreat.
+
+Lord Nithsdale, on the other hand, thought not of himself; his feelings
+were all for the departed. His imagination rapidly ran over his former
+intercourse with his friend.
+
+"I never saw him from that day," he murmured thoughtfully; "we parted
+at the second gateway when we returned from Westminster Hall, on the
+9th. As we were in the coach, on our way home, he regretted having
+pleaded guilty; 'for,' he said, 'it is not treason that we have
+committed! it would have been treason in us to have acted otherwise
+than we have done. Yes,' he continued; 'all, save the prisoners, all
+the multitudes who crowded the vast Hall--all, all were traitors,
+except ourselves!' And when I urged that the expression thus used was
+but the form in which we conveyed that we denied not our share in the
+business, 'But I am not a traitor to my lawful king, and I should not
+have allowed the word,' he replied with earnestness. We were then led
+from the coach to our separate lodgings," continued the earl, following
+the current of his own melancholy thoughts, "and as we parted,--for
+the last time parted,--he pressed my hand, and said, 'Nithsdale, we
+have been friends through life, should we be parted in death? (which I
+do not think we shall be, we shall probably share the same doom!) but
+should one survive, let me live in your remembrance, as, I promise, you
+shall in mine!' And so he shall! never, never will I forget you, my
+noble Ratcliffe; here shall your memory dwell," he added, striking his
+bosom,--"here, while the life-blood throbs through this heart!"
+
+He paused, and Lady Nithsdale for a while feared to disturb the sad
+recollections in which he so naturally indulged; but at length she
+gently ventured to whisper:--
+
+"And if you thus feel for him who was your friend, think what would
+have been my condition had the husband of my love shared his fate!
+Control your voice! Speak but in whispers. Think should you now be
+dragged from me!" she continued in a meek and supplicating tone.
+
+"True, true, my gentle love!" he softly answered. "I will be
+prudent,--calm and prudent; I owe it in gratitude to my deliverer."
+
+She had scarcely thus tempered down his emotions, when they were both
+startled by the sound of footsteps; but they were soft and stealthy.
+There was no heavy tramp, no sound of arms, no rough voices.
+
+There came three gentle taps upon the door; Lady Nithsdale hastened to
+it; Amy gave the preconcerted sign, and she admitted her.
+
+Her face was pale, almost livid; her eyes seemed starting from her
+head; she staggered into the room, but she failed not carefully to
+close and double-lock the door behind her.
+
+"I came to tell you all that we have arranged," she said, in a broken
+voice; "and----I will speak in a moment...."
+
+"Oh, merciful Heaven! Do they suspect? Have they traced him?" cried
+Lady Nithsdale, in tremulous agony.
+
+"Oh, no! it is not that: my dear lord is safe,--I trust,--I hope; safe
+from that dreadful doom!" and Amy closed her eyes for a moment.
+
+"For pity's sake explain yourself,--dear, dear Amy!"
+
+"'Tis nothing,--it will pass. 'Tis nothing more than we all know.
+We knew this was the fatal morning; and I waited till all was over,
+for I dared not willingly risk seeing anything dreadful. I thought I
+might now venture here, for Mr. Mills, who was there, told me all was
+accomplished. I came to tell you we have hopes for my lord's speedy
+departure. But oh! I did not wait long enough! The scaffold is still
+up," she continued, shuddering at the recollection, "all hung with
+black cloth; and the block, the huge--bloody--wooden block,--and the
+saw-dust! Oh! my soul sickens!"
+
+Deep as was her anxiety for her lord's escape, the countess herself
+could not command words to inquire what were the hopes of accomplishing
+it, to which Amy alluded. All remained for some moments speechless,
+with eyes fixed on the ground, fearful to meet those of the other.
+
+At length Lady Nithsdale stole a glance towards her husband to see how
+he bore what Amy had just uttered. His face was concealed by both his
+hands.
+
+Amy was the first to recover herself: "The Venetian ambassador sends
+his coach next week to meet his brother at Dover; and we hope to
+persuade his excellency's servant, M. Michel, to take charge of my
+lord. He is one on whom we may depend. He is under great obligations
+to Mr. and Mrs. Mills, and would do anything to repay them; and when
+once he is safe away, he is not responsible to those in power here.
+Yes, dearest madam, I have good hope that all will turn out right,"
+continued Amy, striving to shake off the horror which had overpowered
+her when first she entered.
+
+"Thanks, my faithful, true friend!" and Lady Nithsdale tenderly
+embraced her.
+
+Lord Nithsdale appeared not to heed what they had said; but, in a low,
+hollow voice, inquired, with his face averted,--for he shrunk from
+showing to any eye but his own Winifred's, the traces of deep emotion
+which he could not master,--"Did Mr. Mills mention any particulars?"
+
+"Nothing very particular," answered Amy, shuddering at the question.
+
+"Did the lords address the people?" he again asked, his face still
+averted, and with a forced calmness in his tone.
+
+"I believe they did, my lord."
+
+"Was Mr. Mills within hearing?"
+
+"Yes, my dear master; but why harrow your feelings by listening to
+these details? Surely it were better to think of the future, and bend
+your mind to all that there remains to do?"
+
+"Nay, I must hear; I must learn all I can of my lost, lost friends!" he
+exclaimed, turning upon them a face so awful in its noble grief that
+none dared for a moment to resist his wishes. "Tell me all; let me hear
+everything!"
+
+Unable to oppose, or to resist, his firm and solemn command, Amy began
+her tale: "They were taken, my lord, in a hackney-coach from the Tower
+to the Transport Office. It was a little before ten o'clock."
+
+"I know it," he answered. "We heard the bell!" he added in a sepulchral
+inward voice.
+
+"The Earl of Derwentwater was the first; and though he seemed somewhat
+pale, his bearing was resolute and sedate, Mr. Mills said."
+
+"Assuredly it was!" said the earl, almost angry that it should be
+deemed possible his friend could have borne himself otherwise.
+
+"After some time spent in prayer he obtained the sheriff's leave to
+read a paper. He came forward to the rails, and he asked pardon of
+those whom he might have scandalized by pleading guilty at his trial."
+
+"I knew that weighed upon his mind," murmured the earl.
+
+"He said he was sensible he had by this made bold with his loyalty to
+King James; but that he had been told it was merely a form, and that
+there was nothing of moment in so doing."
+
+"They told us all so;--that, having been undeniably in arms, pleading
+guilty was but the consequence of submitting to mercy."
+
+"He said he died a Roman Catholic, and was in perfect charity with
+all the world; and he added, that if the prince, who now governs, had
+spared his life, he should have thought himself obliged never more to
+take up arms against him." Amy was silent Lord Nithsdale, after a pause
+of some moments, said, in a voice scarcely audible,
+
+"Did he suffer? Was it quickly over?"
+
+"At one blow, my lord," answered Amy, shuddering as she spoke.
+
+"Pardon me, good Amy,--I pain you; but I must know. And Lord Kenmure?"
+
+"He did not speak to the people; but in his devotions he prayed for
+King James. He apologised for his dress; saying, he had so little
+thought of dying so soon, he had not provided a black suit. Mr. Mills
+says he showed great resolution and firmness in his carriage, though,
+to his mind, he was not so calm within as the Earl of Derwentwater."
+
+"I can endure no more!" at length exclaimed Lady Nithsdale, as all
+these details so horribly pictured the scene: "I cannot, cannot bear
+it! Amy, in mercy cease!"
+
+"I crave your pardon, dearest wife; but they were my friends--my best
+friends,--and they are gone! But we will hear no more!" And he again
+buried his face in his hands.
+
+Amy told her lady that Mrs. Mills would soon be with them, and bring
+the answer of M. Michel. She was even now at the Venetian ambassador's,
+and hoped to have arranged everything according to their wishes.
+
+The countess pressed Amy's hand, and they silently awaited Mrs. Mills's
+coming.
+
+It was late before she arrived; but she told them that on the following
+day, the Saturday, Lord Nithsdale might remove to the ambassador's,
+where M. Michel undertook to conceal him in his own chamber; that on
+the Wednesday in the following week, his excellency's coach-and-six
+was to go to Dover to meet his brother, when M. Michel could easily
+take Lord Nithsdale in his master's livery as one of his retinue.
+
+All seemed to promise well, and the countess breathed more freely.
+
+Mrs. Mills had considerately brought with her some bread, which, with a
+loaf and a bottle of wine which had been provided the evening before,
+was all they had to subsist upon for the two days and nights they spent
+in their present lurking-place.
+
+On the Saturday they parted, according to this arrangement. To both,
+such a parting was a severe trial!
+
+The countess feared every possible and every impossible danger must
+beset his path when she could no longer see him with her own eyes.
+He found the task a hard one to tear himself again from her, when
+so lately re-united; but he also felt how incumbent it was on him
+to accept with gratitude so favourable an opportunity of escaping.
+They were both aware that to linger in England was risking all their
+hardly-earned happiness. In trembling hope, they parted.
+
+"It would be sinful in us to mistrust Providence," he said; "we have
+been so mercifully dealt with, we ought to feel confidence that we
+shall be preserved to a safe and joyful meeting!"
+
+"True, true, my love. I would not detain you one moment in this fatal
+land! I wish you gone! And yet--and yet--it is so painful, so very
+painful, to part! But you shall go--even now,--this moment! It is not
+for me to doubt the mercy of Heaven."
+
+She gently disengaged herself from him: he pressed her once more to
+his bosom, and then followed Mrs. Mills to the door. He there paused
+to take one more look at her as she stood half supported by Amy. She
+watched him through the doorway,--she listened to his step as he
+descended the stairs,--she heard the street-door shut:--"He is gone!"
+she said; "but I must not repine. Oh, what a parting it might have
+been! When I think of Lady Derwentwater and of Lady Kenmure, I feel
+how blessed I am! I will not weep--I will not grieve: I must allow no
+feeling but that of gratitude to find a place within this bosom!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  La nef qui déjoint mes amours
+  N'a cy de moi que la moitié.
+  Une parte te reste, elle est tienne.
+
+  _Mary Queen of Scots._
+
+The Countess of Nithsdale lost no time in quitting her present retreat,
+and she took up her abode at the house of a quiet honest man in Drury
+Lane, where, in the utmost privacy, she awaited the news of her
+husband's safe arrival on the Continent.
+
+After the intense agitation of the foregoing week, she experienced a
+kind of listless stupefaction; she was totally incapable of employing
+herself. Although her mind was comparatively at ease, yet a thousand
+vague horrors shot across it. The inaction was oppressive and irksome
+to her. She wished every hour, every moment, to know how it fared with
+her lord; and yet she was fully aware that the only prudent course
+to pursue, both for his sake and her own, was to keep herself quite
+retired, and to avoid being seen by any.
+
+On the Wednesday the Earl of Nithsdale, as had been previously
+concerted, accompanied the Venetian ambassador's coach to Dover, where
+he arrived without detection or danger.
+
+When there, M. Michel hired a small vessel, and immediately set sail
+for Calais.
+
+Was it a moment of unmixed joy to Lord Nithsdale when he set foot upon
+the vessel which was to bear him from the land in which his life was
+forfeited to the laws,--from the land in which he was proscribed, to
+seek one which held out to him all the charms of life and liberty?
+
+It was not so:--for that land was the land of his birth,--that land
+contained her to whom he was bound by stronger ties than ever attached
+man to woman!
+
+As the swift bark bounded over the deep, he gazed upon the receding
+shores with tenderness and regret. The breeze was favourable, the ship
+skimmed the waters, the passage was performed in so short a time that
+the captain remarked, "the wind could not have served better if his
+passengers had been flying for their lives."
+
+Until the countess received assured intelligence of his safe arrival
+at Calais, she had been able to turn her thoughts to no other subject.
+She felt he might at any moment be discovered; it was still possible
+that all the horrors and the sufferings with which she was only too
+well acquainted might still be in store for her. At moments she accused
+herself of wanting that reliance she ought to feel in Heaven; at
+others, she thought she was presumptuous in fancying herself too secure.
+
+But when once she knew he was safe from all pursuit, other cares beset
+her mind.
+
+The feelings of the mother rose strong within her. Every paper, every
+document, which might secure to themselves, or to their children after
+them, any means of existence, had been left at Terreagles. While
+fearing for his life, all other considerations had been forgotten; but
+now that all-absorbing interest was at rest, anxiety for the fate of
+her children took possession of her soul.
+
+She resolved, if possible, to revisit Terreagles. If she had exposed
+her life for the father, she thought she could do no less than hazard
+it once more to save her son from beggary.
+
+After the great events of the last month, her mind seemed to stand in
+need of some strong excitement; she was almost glad to feel called upon
+by duty for a fresh exertion.
+
+She hoped, through the means of the Duchess of Buccleugh, she might
+obtain leave openly to visit Terreagles; and she wrote to her, telling
+her that she understood some suspected her of having contrived her
+lord's escape, but that she imagined a bare suspicion, destitute of
+proof, would never be held sufficient ground for her being punished
+for a supposed offence, although it had been motive enough for her to
+remain in concealment. She entreated her grace to procure permission
+for her to depart freely upon her business.
+
+But her application, far from being granted, rather roused in
+the government the desire to secure her; and she owed to the
+Solicitor-General (who, though an utter stranger to her, had the
+humanity to plead her cause,) the decision, that as long as she evinced
+such respect to government as not to appear in public, no search should
+be made for her; but that, if she showed herself in England or in
+Scotland, she should be forthwith secured.
+
+This was but poor satisfaction. Having been so suddenly summoned from
+Scotland, she had not been able to arrange any thing at Terreagles;
+but before she repaired to Scone to wait upon the Chevalier, not
+knowing in such uncertain times what might occur during her absence,
+she had taken the precaution of burying in the ground the family
+papers, which her husband had committed to her charge, and other
+articles of most value.
+
+It was fortunate she had done so, for the house had been searched after
+her departure; and, as the countess herself expresses it, "God only
+knows what might have transpired from those papers!"
+
+If these documents were to be preserved, it seemed absolutely necessary
+she should repair to Terreagles, and that she should do so without
+delay, and as privately as possible.
+
+For this purpose she again provided herself, Amy and Walter Elliot,
+with saddle-horses, and retraced her way to Scotland.
+
+It was no longer the inclemency of the season which constituted the
+danger of the journey, but the fear of being discovered. On this
+occasion, however, it was but for herself she feared: after her long
+seclusion in the most confined parts of London, as she rode forward,
+inhaling the clear country air, with the delightful certainty that her
+husband was in safety and in freedom, instead of being a prisoner,
+in danger, distress, and loneliness, within the Tower walls, she
+contrasted the buoyant spirit with which she looked upon this merely
+personal risk, with the horrible oppressive weight which lay at her
+bosom as, two months before, she had traversed the same road.
+
+Her spirits almost rose with the danger; and she gladly yielded herself
+up to the enjoyment of the early spring.
+
+The hedges were already beginning to be partially clothed in their
+green livery; the meadows in the neighbourhood of London were fresh
+and bright; the birds twittered, and sprang from twig to twig; the
+primroses and wild violets already peeped forth on the more sunny
+banks. The unusually hard winter had been followed by the rapid
+bursting forth, the flush, of an early spring. As she advanced, the
+new-cut copses were spangled with wood anemones and the blue harebell;
+cowslips, and daffodils painted the fields. All nature seemed to smile
+before her. Her journey was one of positive enjoyment, notwithstanding
+the degree of fear which induced her prudently to avoid the large
+towns, and the considerable inns, at which she was likely to be known,
+and to put up only at the smallest and humblest resting-places.
+
+To Amy, the naturally light-hearted Amy, the joyous laugh was no
+longer a stranger. Her eye danced once more with gaiety, and she even
+occasionally trilled a snatch of one of her old Welsh ditties.
+
+Her lady smiled kindly upon her: "I scarcely thought ever to have heard
+that sound again, Amy. It does me good to hear it; and yet," she said,
+"there is much pain mingled with the pleasure it affords. It brings
+back with over-whelming tenderness past days of happiness;--past, never
+to return!" and her eyes filled with tears.
+
+"My dearest madam, I could chide myself for my silly song if it makes
+you weep."
+
+"No, dear Amy, sing on. I love to hear the melody, although it draws
+tears: they are not bitter ones."
+
+"Nay, madam, I can sing no more; my voice is gone:" and they rode on in
+silence.
+
+After several more days of continued journeying, Lady Nithsdale
+ventured to repose herself for two nights at Traquhair; where, with her
+sister-in-law, and Lord Traquhair, she enjoyed the happiness of a free
+outpouring of the soul, and where, to willing ears and open hearts, she
+gave every detail of their brother's escape.
+
+The lieutenant of the county being an old and tried friend of her
+lord's, she felt assured that he would allow no search to be made for
+her without forwarding to her due warning to abscond.
+
+She did not send any notice of her return to Terreagles, that the
+magistrates of Dumfries might not be prepared to make inquiries about
+her; but she suddenly made her appearance there, feigning that she had
+the leave of government to do so. The better to persuade them that
+it was with permission she was there, she sent to her neighbours and
+invited them to visit her; while in the interim she busied herself in
+securing the papers.
+
+The gardener alone knew where they had been buried, and with the
+assistance of the faithful old Hugh she recovered them. They were as
+yet unhurt; but, although in the highest state of preservation after
+one very severe winter, they could not have remained much longer in the
+ground without prejudice.
+
+It was, as Lady Nithsdale herself says, a particular stroke of
+Providence that she made the despatch she did, for the magistrates of
+Dumfries soon suspected her.
+
+The indefatigable Amy, whose ears were always open, whose discretion
+was never slumbering, learned by a fortunate accident that one of them
+was heard to say, he should, the next day, insist upon seeing the
+Countess of Nithsdale's leave from government.
+
+There was not a moment to be lost: Lady Nithsdale resolved to depart
+before daybreak. She forwarded the rescued documents by a safe hand to
+Traquhair, and on the following morning set forth again for London.
+
+It was now that she bade a fond, lingering, last adieu to her home: she
+knew that it was for ever she quitted it! When all were at rest, she
+gently visited each well-known apartment. She repaired to that which
+her children had usually inhabited: she looked with sadness upon the
+vacant room. She thought how often she had there heard their prattling
+voices--there bent over their quiet slumbers. She paused at the door,
+and the tears gushed from her eyes. A thousand trifling incidents
+crowded on her mind: there was not a spot that was not alive with
+recollections.
+
+"Truly," she thought, "did my dear lord say, as he parted hence, 'Our
+castles will be desolate, our name extinct!'" She looked upon the
+motto, 'Reviresco:' "Truly did he say, 'Not here will any Earl of
+Nithsdale flourish again!'--but he is safe; our children are safe; and
+we shall be happy, in all the charities of domestic life. 'Twere sinful
+to allow such regrets to stifle for a moment the gratitude which ought
+to over-power all other emotions."
+
+But when, ere the early dawn appeared, they prepared to mount their
+horses, and she saw the faithful old gardener, with his blue bonnet
+in his hand, respectfully hold the bridle rein, enacting the part of
+'squire, the tears would flow unbidden: "Thanks, my good Hugh! I am
+glad to see you once more; for, alas! Hugh, I shall never, never,
+return to this dear home again! Heaven bless you, and all, all, who
+dwell around!" she continued, looking around her at the scattered
+cottages on the hill-sides; "may you and yours be well and happy!"
+
+"I feared how it was, my leddy; I fancied, if I was not here betimes,
+I should never look on your leddyship's fair face again. Eh! madam,'tis
+an awful thing when the head of an ancient house flits for ever from
+the home of his ancestors. 'Tis an awsome thing for a' the puir folks
+about! and as for me and my gude wife, why, I think it will go nigh
+to break our hearts! But that's neither here nor there: what maun be,
+maun be; and I dinna' mean to make your leddyship down-hearted! I only
+thought I would see the last o' ye;" and the old man brushed away a
+tear. "I just made bold, my leddy, to bring wi' me a little o' the seed
+of our famous kale, which my lord used always to praise. I thought, in
+the outlandish countries my lord is like to abide in now, he might not
+meet with any such; and I guessed 'twas next to impossible that, with
+so much upon your mind, your leddyship should give it a thought."
+
+"Give it me, good Hugh; and depend upon it your kind recollection of my
+lord shall not be forgotten. I will tell him that his old friends here
+have not put him from their minds yet!"
+
+"Nor ever will, my leddy; that's not the way with a true Scot. We shall
+keep the Maxwells in mind as long as you and yours remember Scotland,
+and, may be, longer too. But yonder's the grey light in the east; I
+must not be keeping your leddyship."
+
+Lady Nithsdale could not speak; but she pressed the old man's hard
+weather-beaten hand in her own soft delicate fingers, and she hurried
+from the castle. It was in vain to struggle longer with her tears; she
+yielded to the natural impulse, and suffered them to flow.
+
+As on their former journey, they only stopped at the poorest inns; and
+at one of these they were compelled to take their evening meal in the
+room where the other travellers were also accommodated. They remarked
+a sturdy farmer who looked hard at them, and by the blaze of the fire
+they recognised the yeoman with whom they had conversed on their way to
+York. He soon renewed acquaintance.
+
+"Why, is it you, my demure puritan? What brings you this road again so
+soon? Did you not find a hearty welcome, that you are so soon for the
+north country again? How fared it with your friends in London?"
+
+"It fares well with some of our dearest friends, I thank you; far
+better than when last we met," answered the countess.
+
+"There have been great doings going on in London since you went this
+road; and what my companion said, though it was roughly said, has come
+out pretty true: they have made away with a good many of the rebel
+lords."
+
+Lady Nithsdale shuddered.
+
+"But the king did spare some of them, and they say would have spared
+more if his ministers would have let him; but a good many took French
+leave. There was half a dozen broke out of Newgate at once, they say;
+and though some were taken again, there was one Hepburn found out where
+his wife and children were abiding, by spying his own family tankard,
+the Keith tankard, as they call it, which they had stuck in the window
+just for that very purpose: he was a lucky fellow! And Forster, he is
+safe in France, they say. And pray, young woman, you can't tell me how
+'twas the Earl of Nithsdale got away?"
+
+Lady Nithsdale started. "Nay, sir! how should I know?"
+
+"Why, you have been in London, and I thought folks must have talked
+enough about it there; for, to my mind, 'twas a strange thing, and
+that's the truth. Do you think the guards were in the secret?"
+
+"Oh, no, no! they knew nothing!" exclaimed the countess, anxious to
+exculpate them from such a charge.
+
+"Why, I thought you knew nothing!" answered the yeoman, with a cunning
+glance; "but if you do, you need not stand in fear of me; I should
+never wish to say anything of anybody to their prejudice."
+
+"I never heard any suspicion of infidelity thrown out against the
+guards," answered Lady Nithsdale, in a more composed manner; "but
+I have left London some time, and other circumstances may have
+transpired."
+
+"Then you don't know that 'twas the earl's mother that brought him the
+clothes in which he disguised himself?"
+
+"No! indeed I did not," answered the countess, with a glance at Amy,
+which she could not control.
+
+"They say that's a positive fact!" proceeded the farmer: "and perhaps,
+then, you have not heard, what they tell me is equally true, that on
+the 24th,--yes, it was the 24th, was it not, that the rebels had their
+heads off?"
+
+Lady Nithsdale bowed assent.
+
+"On the 24th of last month, the very day the Earl of Derwentwater was
+beheaded, the water in the moat round Dillstone Castle turned as red as
+blood! That was very singular, was it not?"
+
+"Strange indeed!" ejaculated Amy, with a countenance in which awe and
+wonder were honestly visible; "on the very day he suffered!"--and
+the thought of the scaffold, and the blood, of which she had caught,
+or fancied she caught, a sight, flashed across her mind. She turned
+so pale, that the countess, now the most self-possessed of the two,
+hastened to withdraw attention from Amy, lest her emotion should become
+too apparent.
+
+The feminine horror of blood, and the superstitious terror with which
+she listened to so unnatural a portent, had thrown her more off her
+guard than circumstances of real peril would have done.
+
+Lady Nithsdale inquired whether the Earl of Wintoun's trial had yet
+come on, and the yeoman, proud of his superior information, told her
+that it had, and that he had received sentence of death; but he added,
+"he seemed so wild and strange that half the world thought he was not
+in his right senses."
+
+Meanwhile Amy Evans had recovered herself, and the countess was glad to
+seize the first opportunity of retiring, and of avoiding any further
+observation.
+
+Upon her arrival in London, she found from her friends, the Duchess
+of Montrose and Mrs. Morgan, that the king was even more than ever
+incensed against her, for having, against his prohibition, made her
+appearance in Scotland; and that if he should succeed in securing her,
+there was every reason to fear that she would be proceeded against
+according to the utmost rigour of the law. And this, she heard from
+some of the best law authorities, would be no other than, in a case of
+high treason, to make the head of the wife answerable for that of the
+husband.
+
+It therefore became necessary that she should take measures for her own
+speedy departure. But, before she left her native land for ever, she
+ventured to have one more interview with her good cousin, Christian of
+Montrose. It was, however, by stealth that the duchess visited her, and
+in sorrow that she bade her farewell.
+
+"I fear to injure you by my visit, dear cousin," she said; "and yet I
+longed to bid Heaven prosper you on your journey. You will let me know
+when you are really restored to your husband and your children. Though
+we may never meet again, it will be sweet to me to fancy you enjoying
+perfect happiness with those who are so dear to you."
+
+"I shall indeed be happy; but, alas! dear Christian, this heart will
+ever yearn towards its island home. I love the very soil of England;
+and, as I pass along, I look with fond regret at every house, at every
+tree, and think with sorrow that I am henceforth to be an exile; that I
+can never, never, look on them again. As for my friends--such friends
+as you, dear Christian!----But think you in very truth there is no hope
+of our being ever allowed to revisit our dear England?"
+
+"Alas! the king is still so angry with you individually. He has granted
+the Viscountess Kenmure 150_l._ per annum for the education of her
+children; the Lady Nairne too has met with favour; but, dear cousin,"
+she added, smiling, "he says you have given him more trouble than
+any other woman in Europe; and although I verily believe many of the
+other prisoners who have made their escape have not been over-strictly
+guarded, yet both the warders who had charge of the earl your husband,
+and only they, are likely to be punished for neglect of their duty."
+
+"They deserve no punishment on that score," replied the countess.
+"Neither do I owe them gratitude, nor need the government visit upon
+them the good deed in which they did not participate."
+
+"But from all I tell you, dearest Winifred, it is plain you should not
+linger here!"
+
+"I shall be gone to-morrow, Heaven favouring me," replied the countess.
+"This evening I bid farewell to two dear friends, and to-morrow I
+am gone!" And with many tears, and last farewells, and promises of
+communicating by letter, the cousins parted.
+
+The friends to whom Lady Nithsdale alluded were Mrs. Morgan and Mrs.
+Mills, whose names she did not care to mention even to the duchess,
+lest it might ever transpire that they had assisted in her lord's
+escape.
+
+To them she scarcely knew in what terms sufficiently to express her
+gratitude; and it cast a gloom over the prospect of speedy reunion to
+the objects of her dearest affections, to think that she should never
+more see the persons to whom, under Providence, she was indebted for
+that happy prospect.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+  But I wad rather see him roam
+    An outcast on a foreign strand,
+  And wi' his master beg his bread,
+    Nae mair to see his native land,
+  Than bow a hair o' his brave head
+    To base usurper's tyrannye,
+  Than cringe for mercy to a knave
+    That ne'er was owned by him or me.
+
+  _Jacobite Song._
+
+Lady Nithsdale's voyage was performed in safety; and at Paris she
+joined her husband and her children, whom he had conveyed thither from
+Bruges to await her coming.
+
+The happiness which they had almost feared to picture was at length
+realised. They together gazed upon their noble boy;--she saw the little
+Lady Anne nestled in her father's bosom,--she gave herself up to the
+joy of gazing on them, with no fear that this joy should be snatched
+from her by any power except the immediate will of Heaven.
+
+On the 4th of May they reached Avignon, where all his adherents flocked
+around the Pretender,--the Earl, or, as he was there styled, the Duke
+of Mar, the Duke of Ormond, and many others, to the number of thirty
+lords.
+
+But the petty broils, the dissensions, and the jealousies of this mock
+court assorted but ill with the feelings and habits of Lord and Lady
+Nithsdale. They soon left Avignon, and proceeded to Italy, where they
+lived in privacy, with no wish beyond each other's society and the
+company of their children.
+
+After all which they had endured, it was enough to be together; and for
+weeks, nay, months, the delightful certainty of being restored to each
+other, stood in lieu of all things else.
+
+But human nature is so constituted that the continued possession of
+that which we have long enjoyed, and that which we no longer fear to
+lose, will not alone be productive of lively, positive happiness; other
+thoughts, other desires, find room within the heart.
+
+As their children advanced in years, they could not but feel that they
+were doomed to vegetate in a foreign soil,--they could not but feel
+that their position in life was very different from that to which they
+had been born.
+
+The remembrance of home, the images of absent friends, the memory of
+departed ones, were treasured up in their minds: and Lady Nithsdale
+would, unperceived, dwell on the pale sad brow of her lord as, hanging
+on his arm, she paced with him the shores of the Mediterranean; and she
+could easily read that his thoughts had leaped over intervening time
+and space, over years gone by, and over the mountains, plains, and seas
+that interposed between them and their home, and were sadly fixed upon
+the past, and the distant. He caught her eye, as tearfully, fondly, it
+was turned on him.
+
+"Yes," he said, "my thoughts were far from hence. The clear pure heaven
+above us is unbroken by a cloud, but dearer to my eyes the misty sky
+of Scotland; the deep blue of the unruffled sea is beautiful, but to
+my feelings the dusky waves that dash against the ruined walls of our
+own Caerlaverock are more sublime in their wild grandeur. The distinct,
+defined outline of yon purple mountains may be more brilliant, but my
+heart yearns for the softened hazy outline of our own Scotch hills,
+melting into the pearly hues of our watery sky!"
+
+As he spoke, a light bark glided rapidly by, and the boatmen kept time
+with their oars as they chanted, in their musical tongue, Italian
+poetry to Italian melody.
+
+"And dearer to my ears," said Lady Nithsdale, "the simple ballad of a
+Scottish maiden, than even these sweet sounds as they are wafted to us
+over the waters!"
+
+They stopped to listen to the song as it died away; and, as they
+listened, another and more awful sound struck upon their ears.
+
+The bell of one of the small chapels, often constructed on the shores
+of Catholic countries, was tolled for the soul of a departed mariner.
+As it happened, the tone was not unlike one of which they both retained
+only too vivid and painful a recollection.
+
+The countess felt her husband's frame quiver beneath the stroke. There
+was no need of words. With a mutual pressure of the arm, they returned
+upon their steps and sought their home.
+
+Unconsciously their pace quickened. They seemed to fly before the
+stroke of that bell! Such suffering as they had both experienced leaves
+traces in the soul which time itself can never wholly efface.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To those who may have been interested in the fate of the two persons
+who form the subject of the foregoing memoir, it may be satisfactory
+to know, that the Lady Nithsdale was not parted by death from her
+beloved husband till many years afterwards, when, in the year 1744,
+he died, in his exile, at Rome. She survived him five years: but she
+had the comfort of knowing that, by her exertions in her last visit to
+Terreagles, she had succeeded in securing a competency to her son, who
+married his cousin the Lady Catherine Stewart, daughter to the Earl and
+Countess of Traquhair. Her daughter, the Lady Anne Maxwell, became the
+wife of Lord Bellew.
+
+
+
+
+THE HAMPSHIRE COTTAGE.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  And still it was her nightly prayer
+    To live to close his sightless eyes;
+  For this her torturing pains to bear,
+    Then sink in death ere morning rise.
+  Who, were she gone, the staff would guide
+    With which he feels, amiss, his way?
+  Who, careful, lay the stone aside,
+    That might his tottering footstep stay?
+  Who lead him to the shelter'd stile
+    That fronts the sun at noontide hour,
+  And watch the western clouds the while
+    To warn him of the gathering shower?
+
+  _Unpublished Ballad from Nature._
+
+
+In one of the last cottages of the village of Overhurst, dwelt Nicholas
+and Sarah Foster. There, in their accustomed seats, did the neighbours
+for many years find old Nicholas, still bending over the embers of his
+humble hearth, and Sarah still gazing through the casement window, in
+patient endurance of the evils with which each was visited.
+
+They rest now in their quiet graves; but those who have known that
+ancient couple will not easily forget their appearance, or that of all
+around them: they will remember the well-polished wooden chair in which
+the old woman sat, both her hands pressed tightly against her right
+side, as if to quell the tortures of an agonizing and mortal complaint
+which had long preyed upon her: they will remember the very dress she
+wore,--such as is rarely seen of late years. But Sarah was an English
+peasant of the olden time, and she changed not with the fashion of the
+day. Her cap had a narrow, close, stiff border; the crown was high
+and well-starched; and round it was tightly pinned a broad piece of
+dark-purple ribbon. Her grey hair was turned back over a roll,--one of
+the last remaining specimens of that mode of dressing the hair. Her
+waist reached to her hips; her sleeves were tight, and ended at the
+elbow. The gown was open in front; and the apron, which was of spotless
+white, always seemed to be just out of the folds.
+
+Her usual seat, by the long casement of their clean and decent kitchen,
+commanded a view down the village street; before her was a clean deal
+table, which ran the whole length of the window, and upon it lay her
+spectacles and a book of prayer.
+
+Her countenance bore the traces of extreme suffering, and her brows
+were always contracted; but on her lips dwelt a patient smile. She
+swayed her body incessantly backwards and forwards, as if to allay her
+pain; but her voice was invariably cheerful, and even lively,--for
+Nicholas was blind;--and to cheer his days of darkness was her constant
+task of love.
+
+Nicholas in his youth had been a hedger, and he still wore the
+brown leather coat peculiar to his calling. His place was in the
+chimney-corner; his back towards the light, his two hands resting on
+his staff, his chin upon his hands, and his sightless eyes fixed on
+vacancy.
+
+Tempted by the beauty of the sunset, the 'squire's family one evening
+extended their walk to the village, and, as they frequently did, paid
+a visit to Master Foster and his dame. Sarah's face lighted up with
+a momentary expression of joy as they trooped in, filling the humble
+dwelling; and the old man smiled upon them the patient placid smile of
+blindness.
+
+There was the 'squire's lady, the gentle and kind Mrs. Mowbray; and
+her blooming daughter, the young Alice, in the full flush of maiden
+loveliness; and the tall, slender, merry Fanny, just verging on
+womanhood; and two stout schoolboys; and the rosy little Emma, who had
+quickly gained possession of the tortoiseshell cat, and was trying high
+its powers of endurance by her childish mode of fondling it. Besides
+this, the usual party, there was also a dark and handsome youth, who
+appeared to be all attention to Mrs. Mowbray; while the young Alice's
+cheeks were more brilliant even than usual, her smile more animated,
+and her eyes more down-cast.
+
+Old Sarah Foster soon perceived that the village report, which said the
+'squire's eldest daughter was likely to be early settled, was better
+founded than is usually the case with such reports.
+
+"Where is Susan this evening?" inquired Mrs. Mowbray.
+
+"'Tis Freshfield fair to-day, madam," answered the dame, "and all the
+young people hereabouts are gone to see the humours of it: and so
+her father and I thought poor Susan should take a little amusement
+for once. She has but a dull life with us, so poorly as I am, and so
+helpless as my good man is!"
+
+"I think you look rather better this evening, Dame Foster," said Alice,
+who was in that happy frame of mind when it is painful to be obliged
+to believe others less fortunate than one's-self, and when one had far
+rather be called upon to sympathise in their joys than in their sorrows.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Alice," replied the old woman, while a sudden pain
+caused the smile, with which she tried to receive Alice's kind words,
+to die away on her lips, and her brows involuntarily to become more
+contracted.--"Thank you, my dear young lady, I am much as usual; but I
+do not mind my pains as long as I am able to do for my poor Nicholas. I
+know his ways so well. Susan, herself, could not guess all his thoughts
+as I can. Blindness is a heavy affliction, ladies. He wants some one
+who can speak comfort to him at times, when he gets thinking his sad
+thoughts; some one who can talk of by-gone days, when we had every
+thing to make us happy; and one who can remind him of that better place
+where we shall be happier than even the happiest are in this world.
+Morning and night I pray to be spared as long as my poor Nicholas
+lives, however hard my pains may be to bear; and morning and night I
+pray that, when he is gone, I may never see another sun rise."
+
+A silence of some moments ensued. All were touched by the pure and
+devoted affection so unconsciously expressed by the old woman. Alice's
+eyes had filled with tears; for one instant they were raised to those
+of the youth to whom she was betrothed, but they as quickly fell again.
+
+"I am sure, dame, you are a pattern for all wives," at length added
+Mrs. Mowbray.
+
+At this moment, the sound of distant merriment was heard; and parties
+of young folks, the slant western sun shining on their holiday apparel,
+were seen trooping down the head-land of the opposite hill, under the
+shelter of the hazel copse.
+
+"My Susan will soon be at home," said the dame, "for I told her to be
+sure and not stay late at these merry-makings. I always hold that no
+good comes of too much pleasure, madam; and, in my young days, girls
+had not half the liberty they take now. I can't say, however, but that
+Susan is a good girl, and minds what we old folks say to her: but she
+is light-hearted, poor thing, and has not known trouble yet--God grant
+it may be long before she does! There she comes, poor girl! Ah! time
+was when I could move as nimbly as she does, and laugh as heartily. You
+must excuse her, ladies: she little thinks what visitors we have in our
+cottage, or she would know better than to be so free of her jokes,"
+added the dame, as Susan and her lover reached the garden gate, and she
+laughingly shut it against him, and ran into the cottage.
+
+Upon finding herself in the presence of the 'squire's family, she
+stopped suddenly, while the blood rushed over her face; and she dropped
+a court'sy, graceful in its awkwardness, and took refuge close to her
+mother's chair. George Wells meanwhile had followed; and, threatening
+that he would steal a kiss in revenge for the trick she had played him,
+burst into the cottage after her. His shame-faced look of dismay when
+he perceived the company assembled was irresistibly comic: Mrs. Mowbray
+smiled, Fanny tried to be serious, the two boys laughed outright,
+while Alice and Captain Harcourt each maintained a countenance of
+imperturbable unconsciousness.
+
+The visit was now speedily brought to a conclusion; and Susan and her
+lover were left to settle their little quarrel, relieved from the awe
+inspired by "the gentlefolks."
+
+They had already kept company, as it is termed, two years. George had
+saved enough to furnish a cottage decently; and Susan had already
+provided the linen, blankets, and counterpane, which, among the better
+sort of poor people, and those who think it necessary to make any
+provision before they enter into the marriage state, is reckoned the
+proper dowry of the bride. They only waited to hear of a cottage which
+they might rent, before they were asked in church.
+
+George Wells was invited to stay supper, and the quick and lively Susan
+had soon arranged the humble meal. The rashers of bacon were fried,
+the smoking potatoes were on the table: she had placed her father's
+chair, and she gently led him from his chimney-nook, and settled him
+comfortably to his supper; then, gaily kissing him on the forehead, she
+began to tell him of the wonders they had seen at the fair. The old
+man turned his sightless eyes towards her, and, leaning forward as he
+listened, smiled placidly to hear of all the brilliant things which he
+might never gaze on again; and the dame forgot her pains for a while,
+rejoicing in the happiness of her child. "But, mother, you do not know
+why I am so overjoyed to-day! I have such a piece of news for you!
+I think you will be as pleased as I am; and father too! Won't they,
+George?"
+
+"Maybe they will, if it comes true."
+
+"Well, mother, guess."
+
+"I never was a good guesser, Susan, not in my best days; and I shall
+never begin now."
+
+"Well, father, do you guess, then."
+
+"Lord save you, child! how should I know? Maybe 'tis that the 'squire
+will give away coals gratis to the poor this Christmas?"
+
+"No, 't an't that; 'tis something that will make us happy at Christmas
+and at Lady-day, at Midsummer and at Michaelmas, and all the year
+round, as long as we all live."
+
+"If so be that it comes true; but we are not sure yet, Susan,"
+interposed the more steady George, who did not run away with a notion
+so quickly as the light-hearted Susan.
+
+"Oh, George! I know they will give up the cottage; you will see if
+they don't. They say, father, that Master Mumford is going to set up
+carpenter, and that he is to move to Mr. Peters's shop, and Mr. Peters
+is to be a great cabinet-maker at Turnholme; and then what should
+hinder us taking Master Mumford's cottage, and living next door to you?
+I should not mind marrying if I was to go no farther than that from
+you and mother; for then I could do for you as well as I can now, and
+mother need only just trouble herself with little odd jobs that will be
+rather a pleasure than a trouble to her."
+
+"But, Susan, we don't know, even if Master Mumford should set up at Mr.
+Peters's, whether the 'squire will let the cottage to us. If you run
+off so at score, maybe you'll only meet with a disappointment. However,
+I am willing to go to the 'squire's to-morrow morning, and see what I
+can do."
+
+"That's right, George!" exclaimed the eager Susan; "that's what I have
+been wanting all along!"
+
+"Well, I never said I was against trying; only I a'nt for making too
+sure of a thing before we have got it. You have heard, maybe, Susan, of
+counting your chickens before they are hatched!"
+
+"Don't you make game of me, George! I'll answer for it, the 'squire
+is not the man to say no to us; he has always been a kind friend to
+father:" while the suspicion that he seldom missed an opportunity of
+asking her how she did, and taking a look at her sparkling black eyes,
+may have increased her reliance on his kindness to her blind father.
+
+"I shall be glad enough if we are so lucky as to get the refusal of
+it," replied George; "for I see little chance of our finding any other
+place hereabouts; and I would never be the man to take you into another
+parish, with your parents such poor afflicted creatures as they are!
+I'm not one of your high-flown, flighty folks; and I've never read any
+of such fine books as you and your school-fellows sometimes get hold
+of, Susan; but I can read my Bible pretty middling, and I know what
+is the duty we owe to our parents, who took care of us when we could
+do nothing for ourselves, and I would never wish my wife not to be a
+dutiful child."
+
+Old Sarah Foster looked approvingly at her future son-in-law; and
+Nicholas said, "You are a young man with good principles, and it will
+be a pleasure to give our Susan to such a one as you. When I die, I
+shall rest quiet in my grave if I know she is married to you."
+
+"They did not always speak so of you, George!" answered the merry girl.
+"You used to say I was a wilful girl, did not you, father, when I said
+I would have George, or nobody? So, after all, I have got an old head
+on young shoulders, though nobody has given me credit for it yet!"
+
+It was not many weeks after Freshfield fair, when the village of
+Overhurst was all alive with another and a greater jubilee. The church
+bells rang a merry peal from the very sunrise; the village maidens,
+in their most trim apparel, were in waiting to strew flowers on the
+path of Alice Mowbray and Captain Harcourt; an ox was roasted whole
+in Overhurst Park, and the beer flowed as beer should flow on such
+occasions.
+
+The 'squire had promised Master Mumford's house to George Wells, and
+he had obtained Susan's consent that they should soon be asked in
+church. Susan was all blushes and smiles, as among the other maidens
+she scattered flowers on the path; and she court'sied with a pretty
+confusion when the bride gave her a nod of recognition, as she hurried
+past into the travelling carriage at the gate.
+
+Hitherto, all had seemed to smile on Susan; for, having been
+accustomed to them from her youth, her father's blindness and her
+mother's ill-health did not dwell upon her mind as misfortunes; while
+the wish to enliven her parents, and the pleasure they took in her
+sprightliness, had rather tended to increase the natural gaiety of her
+disposition. But on this, the happiest day of her life, a change came
+over the destiny of Susan Foster.
+
+The festivities of Overhurst Park concluded with a dance on the green;
+and Susan, gay, blooming, and thoughtless, seemed to be the reigning
+village belle.
+
+The scene was one which could not be looked upon without interest.
+There the good-natured Mrs. Mowbray might be seen, moving about among
+her humble guests, with a kind word for each. She was flushed and
+agitated, breathless and tearful; but she had given her daughter to
+a son-in-law whom she thought perfection, and she was as happy as
+a mother can be who has for the first time parted from her child.
+The simple congratulations of the poor people over-came, while they
+pleased, her. The tears started into her eyes when she heard the
+hearty "God bless Miss Alice!"--"May the captain make her a good
+husband!"--"May Miss Alice be as happy as she deserves to be!" which
+greeted her on all sides.
+
+Half ashamed of her own emotion, she turned away to a demure and staid
+matron, who sat somewhat apart, watching the young ones as they footed
+it merrily on the grass to the music of the village band: "Well,
+Dame Dixon, I hope you have enjoyed yourself, and that you have had
+everything you wished for?"
+
+"Everything was beautiful, I am sure, madam," replied Mrs. Dixon,
+rising respectfully from her seat: "his honour has treated us with the
+best of everything."
+
+"Is your daughter among the dancers?" inquired Mrs. Mowbray, as she saw
+Mrs. Dixon's eye glance frequently towards the country-dance.
+
+"Yes, madam; Jane is very partial to dancing--almost too partial," she
+continued, as a bouncing couple came flying by beyond the double hedge
+of dancers. "Jane," said the mother, as she clutched the maiden's red
+elbow, "don't you see that madam is here? Where's your manners, girl?"
+
+Jane stopped short, dropped a sort of court'sy, and composed her
+laughing countenance, while the partner disappeared among the crowd,
+with the sheepish bashfulness which characterises an English clown,
+especially in his youth.
+
+"I am afraid we have stopped their dancing," said Mrs. Mowbray. "Pray
+do not mind me, Jane. I hope I have not frightened away your partner;"
+and the kind hostess glided on.
+
+"What is become of Will Smith?" asked Dame Dixon.
+
+"I don't know," replied Jane; "and what's more, I don't care. I'm
+very tired," she continued, as she let herself drop on the bench by
+her mother's side; while her countenance relaxed into as decided an
+expression of sadness, as it had previously worn that of uncontrolled
+merriment.
+
+"Then I am sure, Jane, I wish you would not make so free with him, nor
+with half-a-dozen other young men. You have too much to say to them by
+half."
+
+"It won't do to sit and mope," cried Jane, starting up, as George Wells
+and Susan Foster were slowly advancing to join the dancers, with a
+lingering step, as though they were loth to have their conversation
+broken in upon. Jane was off like a startled deer; and in a few moments
+Dame Dixon saw her dancing away with more spirit than ever, having
+already provided herself with another partner.
+
+Mr. Mowbray meantime had stopped Susan Foster to speak to her, and she
+was blushing and court'sying under the compliments he was paying her on
+her bright skin and her black eyes, and George was shifting from leg to
+leg under the compliments he was paying him upon his good taste and his
+good fortune.
+
+Mr. Mowbray had an eye for beauty, and certainly felt the glow
+of charity more strongly in his bosom towards the young and the
+good-looking of his parishioners, than towards the old and the
+ill-favoured: at least he was apt to think Mrs. Mowbray understood the
+wants and the sorrows of the latter better than he did.
+
+"And who is that buxom lass?" said he to his wife, who was looking on
+upon the scene; "she is a light-hearted one. How indefatigable she is!"
+
+"That is old Dixon's daughter, Jane, to whom you always used to give a
+shilling for opening the gate, because her eyes were so blue."
+
+"So she is! Faith, she has turned out a fine creature! But, bless me,
+who is this pretty woman? Quite an _élégante_, I declare! Where can she
+come from?"
+
+"Why, from our own farm of Holmy-bank, to be sure. Do you not see
+Farmer Otley close behind her? and do you not know he has been married
+this year, though they are only lately come to the farm?"
+
+"Why you know, my dear, I have a taste for the beautiful, and not for
+the sublime; and I quite overlook everything else when there is such a
+pretty woman as this to be seen."
+
+"I am sure, if you are thinking of beauty, Mr. Otley is almost the
+handsomest man I ever saw in my life; and if she looks like a lady with
+her smart dress, he looks ten times more really distinguished, with
+those fine features, and his head like an antique gem, though he is
+dressed as befits his station in life."
+
+"Well, my dear, you may admire Mr. Otley if you like it: it is only
+fair to allow me to admire his wife. I have just recollected, I have a
+great deal to say to Farmer Otley," continued Mr. Mowbray, laughing;
+and he was soon in deep conversation with his tenant about his course
+of cropping and his stock: while Mrs. Mowbray secretly reflected, "Mr.
+Mowbray is growing too old to talk so much about beauty. I feel quite
+uncomfortable when he goes on so before the children."
+
+"Well, mamma!" interposed Fanny; "don't you think Susan Foster is much
+prettier than Mrs. Otley? Her eyes are much larger, in the first place;
+and then she is so quiet, and does not look up and down so; and then,
+as for her nose----"
+
+"My dear, Susan Foster is a very respectable, worthy young woman, and
+very good-looking; and now do not let us hear any more about beauty. I
+am really sick of the subject."
+
+It was not that Mrs. Mowbray was jealous, for Mr. Mowbray was a kind
+husband, and she knew it was only "his way." She knew that his foible
+was not to "affect a virtue though he had it not;" but rather to talk,
+as if he were far less scrupulous than he really was. It was only
+before the children, or in the hearing of strangers, who did not know
+"his way," that Mrs. Mowbray felt seriously annoyed.
+
+Mr. Otley was of course gratified when his landlord wished to be
+introduced to his wife; and Mr. Mowbray, with twinkling eyes and gay
+smile, was soon inquiring into the condition of her pigs, her poultry,
+and her dairy.
+
+"Oh, sir!" she replied, with a tender look at her husband; "you must
+not ask me about the pigs: Mr. O. says I am a sad fine lady;" (and she
+looked up for applause;) "but I never could bear the smell of those
+creatures," (and she looked down with a refined cast of countenance:)
+"but I am very fond of my dairy; am I not, Mr. O.? and I slip on my
+clogs every morning, and step into my dairy; don't I, Mr. O.?"
+
+"Why, yes, Lizzy, you do that, to be sure; but my mother used to see to
+the scouring of the milk-pans herself, and would never let father have
+any peace if there was not always plenty of wood-ashes to clean them
+with, every morning."
+
+"Oh dear, Mr. Otley! don't you go off now about that dear good old
+soul, your poor dear mother. I am sure Mr. Mowbray will not care to
+hear what she did twenty years ago."
+
+"I had always rather hear about a pretty young woman of the present
+day, than about an old one, be she ever so good, of the past day,"
+replied Mr. Mowbray, with a bow; and Mrs. Otley simpered, and blushed,
+and looked down, and removed a curl which fell a little too much over
+her eyes, and then added, turning to her husband,--
+
+"You know, Mr. Otley, I have promised to be very good about the
+poultry, and to look after the eggs every morning, as soon as you have
+made a raised path across the farm-yard to the hen-house. But really,
+sir, the farm-yard is in such a pickle, that nobody but the labouring
+men could think of crossing it."
+
+"Impossible that Mr. Otley can have so little gallantry as to wish
+those pretty little feet should step into the farm-yard! He would not
+be such a Goth!"
+
+"That's just what I am always telling Mr. O.," added Mrs. Otley,
+turning round exultingly; "I am always telling him he is a Goth and a
+Vandal; and then he says he does not know who the Goths and the Vandals
+are; and then I laugh, and tell him he is more of a Goth and a Vandal
+than ever."
+
+"Ah, Lizzy! you must not mind everything his honour says; he is
+pleased to joke sometimes. But he knows well enough that a farmer has
+need of his head, and both his hands too, and that a farmer's wife
+should be a stirring body: he knows well enough they are the sort who
+pay their rent to the day, and keep their land in good condition."
+
+"You, and your father before you, have been very good tenants, Master
+Otley; no landlord need wish for better: but here comes Mrs. Mowbray.
+My dear, you must allow me to have the pleasure of presenting you to
+our new neighbour, our friend Mr. Otley's pretty wife."
+
+Mrs. Otley simpered, "Mrs. Mowbray had already done her the honour----"
+
+"You need not introduce us, Mr. Mowbray," answered Mrs. Mowbray, with
+a shade of asperity in her tone, which amused her husband; "I have
+already had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Otley's pretty farm, and her
+sweet little boy: Emma and I walked to Holmy-bank a few days ago, and
+Mr. Otley showed us all about the place."
+
+"How are the dear little calves, Mr. Otley," exclaimed Emma, "that
+Fanny and I were feeding?"
+
+"They are growing nicely, thank you, young ladies," replied the farmer;
+"and I shall be proud to show them to you again, if you would favour us
+with a call."
+
+"Oh! Mrs. Otley, what a pleasure the calves must be to you! I dare say
+you pass half the day feeding them: I am sure I should!"
+
+"They are pretty innocent creatures, indeed, miss; and if our old
+Daniel would keep the pens a little cleaner, I should have no objection
+to looking at them oftener than I do. But, if Mrs. Mowbray should
+honour us with another visit, I think I could show you something that
+would please young ladies more than such common, every-day creatures
+as calves. I have got two beautiful green parrots, that can chatter,
+and will repeat anything. And I am sure it would please you to see the
+curious Gothic castle, all made of shells, and the lady at the window
+playing on the guitar!"
+
+"Oh! I should like another walk to Holmy-bank of all things; but it
+would be to see the dear calves: I like them much better than parrots."
+
+"My girls are very homely in their tastes, Mrs. Otley; they are quite
+country lasses;" and Mrs. Mowbray glided on, a little provoked that
+her husband should find so much to say to such a would-be fine lady as
+the farmer's pretty wife: "and he has never remembered to speak once to
+good old Mrs. Williams, our own steward's mother," she thought, as she
+proceeded towards Mrs. Williams, in order to make up for his omission.
+
+The evening was now beginning to close: the cockchafers were humming
+under the beech-trees, and were flying into the faces and among the
+hair of those who had taken refuge under their shade. Much was the
+merriment they gave rise to, and many a rustic coquette affected a
+little more fear than she really felt of their harmless, though sticky,
+claws; while Jane Dixon laughed rather longer and louder than the
+occasion seemed to require.
+
+The sun had quite sunk below the horizon; and the vapours, which had
+been rising during the heat of the sultry day, were suddenly condensed,
+and hung on the lower grounds, looking silvery-white under the light of
+the summer moon.
+
+Susan and some other village girls, tired with dancing and the
+excitement of the day, mounted an empty waggon which was returning
+homewards, and the merry group of thoughtless young creatures thus
+made their entry into the quiet village street. Susan had, in the
+exuberance of her spirits, danced the longest and the latest; the day
+had been oppressively hot, but with the evening came a heavy dew, and
+the air was chilly. When Susan arrived at home, her mother thought she
+looked pale; and scolded George for having allowed her to return in the
+waggon, after having heated herself with dancing.
+
+"Time enough for me to mind him, mother, when once we are married,"
+answered the joyous girl; "I have but a little while longer to be my
+own mistress, and I must use my liberty now, or never!" and the gay
+creature laughed, conscious of her power over father, mother, and lover.
+
+"Oh, mother, we have been so happy! I never was so happy before, and,
+maybe, never shall again! never, at least, if you teach George that I
+am not to have my own way!" and she turned her beaming eyes from her
+mother to her lover, while old Sarah hoped she had many days in store
+for her of more true happiness, if not of such flighty gaiety. Alas! it
+was well for them they could not look into futurity.
+
+The next morning Susan woke with a heavy cold, and an unusual pain in
+her eyes; they were bloodshot and inflamed. The dame reproached her
+with her imprudence: and doctored her with that degree of discretion
+which is usual among the poor people. Her eyes became hourly more
+painful.
+
+As he returned from work, George paid her his accustomed visit. He
+wished she would see the doctor; but she laughingly replied she should
+be well to-morrow, for old Dame Jones had given her an infallible
+remedy for all complaints of the eyes.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  O dolce Amor che di riso t' ammanti
+  Quanto parevi ardente in que' favilli
+  Ch' aveano spirto sol di pensier santi.
+
+  Dante, _Paradiso, cant._ 20mo.
+
+Dame Jones's infallible remedy rather increased than diminished the
+evil; and Susan's spirits began to fail her at the continued suffering,
+the enforced idleness, and also in some degree at the disfigurement
+occasioned by the dimming of her brilliant eyes; for she was not
+without a share of female vanity,--vanity which is indulged as almost
+a laudable feeling when it is for the sake of another that personal
+attractions are valued.
+
+The Sunday on which Susan and her lover were to be asked in church was
+fast approaching, when she half sadly, half sportively, thus addressed
+him: "You had better go to Mr. Sandford, George, and tell him not to
+say any thing about us in church. It would never do to be a bride
+with such eyes as these;" and she tried to smile, though she was more
+inclined to weep.
+
+"There will be plenty of time for your eyes to get quite well, Susan,
+before we are out-asked."
+
+"They must begin to mend, George, before we need talk of their getting
+well," replied Susan with a sigh; and then she playfully added, "Do you
+remember your telling me when Miss Alice, that was, walked down the
+church-yard, looking so blushing and beautiful, that you would show
+them a prettier bride before long; and that, though she would not have
+such a smart lace-veil to hang over her face, she would have a pair of
+brighter eyes to shine out of her bonnet. You must wait a bit, George,
+before your words can come true."
+
+"Not long, Susan, not long; I am sure you will be well before three
+weeks are over; that's a long time."
+
+"So it is, George,--a long, long time to be as I am! But the folks
+shan't laugh at you for having such a homely half-blind bride. I should
+not like you to be ashamed of your wife, upon the wedding-day at all
+events;" and she tried to carry off her sadness and her mortification
+by an assumed air of sprightliness.
+
+Still poor Susan's eyes did not mend; her mother's applications, and
+Dame Jones's wonderful remedy, proved equally unavailing. Susan's
+spirits quite gave way: she often sat and wept when her mother's back
+was towards her, and her sightless father could not perceive how sad
+his once light-hearted girl was now become. After Alice's marriage, the
+family of the Mowbrays had left home for some time, and Mr. Sandford
+was old and had been ill, or Susan's sufferings would never have been
+allowed to continue so long, without her having been provided with
+better medical attendance. The old couple themselves had derived so
+little benefit from the advice of doctors, that they, as is frequently
+the case among the poor, reposed more confidence in the doctoring
+of Mr. Sandford, or of any other gentleman or lady, than in that of
+the first physician in the land. They all felt anxious that the good
+minister should recover his health, and visit them; and they flattered
+themselves he would soon afford Susan some relief. When he did call,
+he was shocked at the alteration in the poor girl's appearance, and he
+instantly sent for the best medical practitioner in the neighbourhood,
+deeming the case much too important a one for his own unassisted advice.
+
+Mr. Sandford's countenance first excited alarm, serious alarm, in
+Susan's mind: for the first time she trembled for her eye-sight; and an
+icy chill ran through her when she thought of her future fate.
+
+George called as he returned home from work; and, on hearing that Mr.
+Sandford had visited the cottage, his countenance brightened: "Then now
+we shall see you begin to mend! What has our good minister told you
+to do, Susan? Am I to go to his house to-night to fetch any stuff for
+you?"
+
+"No, George, no. He says I must see the real doctor. He says he can't
+do any thing for me himself." George looked amazed and confounded. "He
+says he does not understand such things himself;" and she added, in a
+tone which she tried to make perfectly calm and composed, "he says he
+is afraid I shall not be well for a long time."
+
+George was in despair. He thought, if Mr. Sandford could not cure a
+complaint, it must indeed be a bad one! He turned his eyes towards the
+old dame: she sat, as usual, rocking herself backwards and forwards,
+with her hands pressed to her side, in mental as well as bodily
+suffering, for she too had been struck by the manner of their pastor.
+"We shall hear what the doctor says to-morrow, George! I am sorry now
+that we kept waiting and waiting for Mr. Sandford to get well; but I
+have had enough of doctors in my time, and I was loth to begin again
+with them. We must hope for the best, and not be down-hearted."
+
+"She is young, poor thing!" added old Nicholas; "and 'tis to be hoped
+she won't be afflicted at her age as I am. I was near three-score when
+I lost my eye-sight, and I thought it a heavy affliction. It would be a
+deal worse for a young thing just turned her one-and-twenty," continued
+the father, at once uttering in plain English the utmost extent of
+their fears, in the simple straightforward manner common among the poor
+people, but which would sound harsh and unfeeling to the sensibilities
+of the more refined.
+
+"I only hope I may be able to bear my trials as well as you do, father,
+if I am to be so afflicted," exclaimed Susan, as she burst into an
+agony of tears, rendered the more violent by her having previously
+attempted to control herself.
+
+"Susan, Susan, you must not take on so," said George, anxious to soothe
+her.
+
+"You'll do your poor eyes more harm if you cry, Susan," said her
+mother, "than the doctor can cure in a week. You must try not to give
+way, Susan dear!"
+
+"Cheer up, my child," added Nicholas. "We do not know yet what the
+doctor will say; perhaps it may not be so bad after all."
+
+Susan dried her tears, and tried to be composed; but the inmates of
+Nicholas Foster's humble cottage retired to rest that night with
+sadness in their hearts, which was not destined to be much alleviated
+by the doctor's visit the next day. He talked of time and patience,
+of a cooling diet and soothing applications, a tranquil mind and the
+necessity of not fretting,--of all injunctions the most difficult to
+obey! He gave them hope certainly, which, though not enough to relieve
+Susan's mind, was eagerly caught at by George, and he was beginning to
+urge that it could do no harm if they were asked in church.
+
+"Not yet, George, not yet. Wait till I begin to mend. I should be but a
+useless wife to you at present. I have given up the thought of making
+a pretty bride," she continued in a tone almost of bitterness; "but I
+must be able to do for you, and to keep your house tidy: so there's no
+use in talking about being asked in church, George."
+
+George desisted, for her manner was so resolved he felt it impossible
+to oppose her.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  E l'aspettar del male è mal peggiore
+  Forse, che non parrebbe il mal presente.
+
+  Tasso.
+
+Susan was a good-hearted girl, but she had a high spirit. She had a
+generous temper, but it was not always under control. Of all qualities
+a sweet temper is perhaps the one least cultivated in the lower ranks
+of life. The peculiar disposition is not watched; care is not taken to
+distinguish between the passionate child, the sulky, the obstinate, and
+the timid. The children of the poor are allowed a latitude of speech
+unknown among the higher orders, and they are free from the salutary
+restraint imposed by what is termed "company."
+
+When in the enjoyment of full health and strength, the ungoverned
+temper of the poor is one of their most striking faults, while their
+resignation under affliction, whether mental or bodily, is the point of
+all others in which the rich might with advantage study to imitate them.
+
+Susan's spirit was not yet tamed by affliction. There were moments when
+she could not bear, without impatience, the pain her eyes occasioned
+her, and the weight of care which oppressed her mind.
+
+It was towards George that she most frequently evinced any signs of
+captiousness; and yet it was on his account that she most poignantly
+felt her present affliction, and her future prospects. She was more
+unhappy than she quite ventured to own to herself, or to him; more
+apprehensive of what might be the result. She feared he would not
+always continue to be as kind as he now was. She could not expect it;
+and she sometimes received his simple attentions as if she was more
+surprised, than touched by them.
+
+One evening he brought her some flowers from his father's garden.
+
+"Well! I shall be able to smell," she said, "even when I shall not
+be able to see; but perhaps, George, you will not go on bringing me
+flowers then! What beautiful double-stocks these are! we can't get any
+to grow like these in our little bit of garden."
+
+"I raised them for father myself, Susan; so I don't see why we should
+not have some, just as fine, and finer, when we have a garden of our
+own!" And poor George looked pleased at her praise of his pet flower.
+
+"I dare say you will never get any to come so thick and so double
+another time,--even if you should try," answered Susan despondingly;
+for she thought, "when could she hope to have a home of her own?"
+
+"And do you think I shall not try, Susan, to make my wife's home as
+nice as father's?"
+
+"Maybe you will,--and I may not be there to see it."
+
+"Why, Susan, I do not know what is come over you; there is no pleasing
+you. I thought you would like my flowers!"
+
+"And so I do, George; and I am very much obliged to you for them," she
+continued in a tone of gratitude almost beyond what the occasion called
+for. Presently she added, in a sad, low voice, "You are very good to
+me, very good indeed."
+
+Just at this moment Nicholas and his dame were seen approaching the
+garden-gate. She was leading him from the stile over which he loved
+to lean, and to feel the warm sun on his eyes, and turn his face in
+the direction of the setting orb. Sarah was hobbling back, guiding the
+blind old man, whose firmer step assisted in supporting her suffering
+frame. George opened the cottage-door to admit them, and the slant
+beams of the sun glanced through the opening upon poor Susan's eyes.
+
+The sudden light pained her; and although she had one moment before
+reproached herself with not being sufficiently grateful for the
+kindness shown her, she exclaimed somewhat pettishly, "Don't you know,
+George, how it hurts my eyes to have the light glare upon them all
+at once?" at the same time pushing back her chair with an impatient
+movement, which was accounted for, but not justified, by the pain which
+she suffered.
+
+The sight of her poor blind father, and of his meek expression of
+countenance, recalled her to herself. She hastened to him and helped
+him to his chimney-nook, and then assisted her mother to her usual
+chair. They each thanked her in a kind and gentle voice, and she felt
+inwardly rebuked by their patience and their submission.
+
+George had stood aloof, awkward and mortified. She drew near him. "I
+beg your pardon, George," she murmured: "George, I do not know what is
+come to me;" and she burst into tears.
+
+"Never fret, Susan; I don't mind. 'Tis very natural, I dare say, that
+you should be a little testy or so: don't cry, your mother says 'tis so
+bad for you. I don't mind, though, to be sure, you do sometimes hurt my
+feelings a little." Dame Forster thought she saw him brush off a tear
+with the back of his hand.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Susan? Sure you and George have not been
+falling out, have you?"
+
+"Oh, no! not a bit of it, dame!"
+
+"George is very good to me, mother; but I don't know how it is, I
+believe sometimes I am hard to please;" and she strove to smile.
+
+"Ah, my poor girl," said Nicholas, "trouble is hard to bear when first
+it comes; but the back gets used to the burden. If you are a good girl,
+and say your prayers as should be, God will give you strength to bear
+what it is his pleasure to lay upon you. Won't He, dame? I am sure we
+have found it so. He is very merciful; and if He gives us trouble, He
+sends us comfort to make up for it. If it has pleased Him to afflict me
+with blindness, He has given me a good wife--ay, the best of wives;
+and if she is afflicted with her side, poor soul! why He has given
+her, and me too, dutiful children, and children who, some of them, are
+likely to do very well. There are our two boys, though they are settled
+in distant counties, they are very good to us, and have never let us
+want for anything, but have kept us off the parish as yet; and that's
+what few people can say for their sons. If we do but look the right way
+for them, we shall all find we have our comforts; though we may not be
+so sharp to find them out, as we are to find our troubles."
+
+Among Susan's causes of uneasiness there was one which she did not like
+to dwell upon to her parents. She had been used to assist towards the
+maintenance of the family, by taking in needle-work. She had now for
+many weeks been obliged to give up her occupation; and she felt that,
+though her brothers provided for the comfort of their parents, it was
+hard upon them to have a helpless sister also to support.
+
+She was allowed to be much in the air if she wore a shade over her
+eyes; and she frequently made use of this liberty to visit an old
+neighbour, who had long been bedridden, and who earned herself a decent
+livelihood by knitting stockings for the poor, and muffettees and
+handkerchiefs for the gentry, who admired the intricate and curious
+stitches with which she adorned her work.
+
+Susan, who already contemplated the probability of being eventually
+condemned to blindness, thought it would prove useful if, while she
+still retained some eye-sight, she was to make herself acquainted with
+old Nelly's art; and accordingly she applied herself diligently to
+acquire the requisite proficiency. She would sometimes close her eyes
+and try whether she could thus accomplish the difficult stitch; and
+then, when she opened them for the purpose of ascertaining where lay
+her mistake, she would sigh to think the time might soon arrive when
+the darkness would be eternal.
+
+Susan's visits to Nelly Warner had a considerable and not unfavourable
+influence upon her future character.
+
+The old woman was naturally of a querulous disposition, and was more
+inclined to dwell on the many privations to which her complaint
+condemned her, than on the superior comforts which fell to her lot
+beyond others who were equally afflicted. She had an attentive
+grand-daughter, who was devoted to her; and she was not in want of
+what might in her line of life be deemed comforts, for the neighbouring
+gentry showed her much kindness.
+
+Susan could not but compare the patient endurance of her mother,
+the placid submission of her father, with the fretfulness of Nelly
+Warner; and when she answered her complaints with such arguments for
+resignation as naturally occurred to her mind, she could not but apply
+the words she uttered to her own case.
+
+"So you are come at last, Susan," said old Nelly, in a reproachful
+tone; "I have been expecting you this half-hour. The church clock
+has gone three, I do not know how long. Young people should not keep
+old folks waiting, more especially when they want them to do them a
+kindness."
+
+"It is only ten minutes past three, Nelly; I looked as I came by; but
+I am sorry I was not quite to my time. The bright sun dazzled my eyes,
+and I went back to get mother to alter my green shade."
+
+"Ah! young folks always have some excuse or another which they
+think mighty good themselves. It fidgets a poor body like me to lie
+wondering, and expecting, and listening to hear the door open! When one
+is helpless and ailing, as I am, folks should take care not to worry
+one. It is bad enough to bear one's own miseries. Here I lie, and what
+pleasure have I from one week's end to another?"
+
+"Little enough of pleasure, indeed, dear Nelly, except the pleasure
+of doing a kindness by me," said Susan, as she took out her knitting
+needles. "Then you have little Patty to help you, and to bring you all
+you want, and she is a good child. Some people, Nelly, have not the
+comfort of such a good little girl to attend to them: sure you have
+much to be grateful for."
+
+"I can't tell what I have to be grateful for. There's Master Thompson,
+he is two years older than I am, and he is hearty and well, and goes to
+his work regularly, and earns as much as a young man. And there's my
+own sister Pratt, why she's ten years older than I am, and she can walk
+to market."
+
+"Oh, but, Nelly, the way to be contented is to compare our condition
+with those who are worse off than ourselves. You want for nothing; you
+are able to earn a good deal yourself. Now, I can't earn anything yet:"
+she added in a very low voice; "and people are very good to you."
+
+"They like my warm muffettees well enough; but I need not thank them,
+but myself, for that."
+
+Susan felt shocked at Nelly's ill-temper and ingratitude, and she
+thought what a hard task it must be for Patty to study the humours of
+such a discontented old woman.
+
+She remembered how kind her mother had always been to her, she
+remembered how patiently George had borne with her, and she resolved
+she would not put him to such trials any more.
+
+The uncertainty in which she remained concerning her future fate,
+sometimes appeared to her harder to bear than the knowledge of the
+truth would be, and she made up her mind she would some day ask the
+doctor what was his real opinion of her case. But many a visit passed
+over without her summoning the requisite courage. If he should destroy
+all the hopes she still indulged, what should she do? How ought she to
+conduct herself towards George? Could she wish him to be 'cumbered with
+a blind wife?
+
+While all these contending feelings were working in her mind, she found
+it difficult to be always gentle and placid, and yet she was ashamed
+before her good resigned parents to give way to impatience. They never
+tutored her, they never gave her advice; but
+
+ 'Example more than precept weighs,'
+
+and their whole lives were one continued moral lesson.
+
+Susan was one day sitting at home, with her back towards the light,
+diligently plying her long needles, when she suddenly addressed her
+mother: "Mother, do you think I shall ever get well?"
+
+"There's no saying, my dear Susan; such things are in the hands of
+Providence!"
+
+"Mother, has the doctor ever told you anything?" she asked, with a
+great effort.
+
+"No, my child, he has never said anything for certain: but how do you
+feel your eyes yourself?"
+
+"No better, mother, no better; I don't think they will last long, and
+that's the truth of it," she said, relieved by giving utterance to what
+had been so long preying on her mind.
+
+"My poor Susan! The Lord have mercy upon you, and bear you up under
+this affliction!--and He will, my child,--depend upon it, He will. But
+it goes harder with me, Susan, to see you so, than it has to bear all
+the other troubles I have ever been visited with."
+
+"Well, mother, don't fret; we will hope," said Susan, alarmed
+herself at the alarm she had excited in her mother's bosom, and half
+disappointed at not meeting with more reassurement; but Sarah had
+long perceived with grief that her daughter made no progress towards
+amendment, and the melancholy truth had gradually forced itself upon
+her mind.
+
+The doctor called one day, when the dame was leading her good man to
+his usual stile, and Susan was therefore alone. She determined to put
+the question to him, and to be assured whether she ought, or ought not,
+to relinquish all hope. Having thus armed herself with resolution to
+hear the worst, she framed her question with such apparent composure,
+and as if she entertained so little expectation of recovery, that
+the doctor thought there was no occasion to deceive her, and did not
+attempt to deny that her fears were only too well grounded. She dropped
+him a respectful court'sy, and only said, "Thank you, sir." He praised
+her for her strength of mind, advised her to seek fortitude whence
+alone it was to be found, and recommended her being as much as possible
+in the open air, that her general health might not suffer.
+
+When he had taken his leave,--when poor Susan found herself quite
+alone,--then all her strength of mind forsook her. She relieved her
+bursting heart by floods of tears; and had scarcely recovered any
+composure, when her father and mother returned from their evening
+stroll to the neighbouring stile. That night Susan could not sleep, but
+she pondered deeply on the future.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  But not to understand a treasure's worth
+  Till time has stolen away the slighted good,
+  Is cause of half the poverty we feel,
+  And makes the world the wilderness it is.
+
+  Cowper.
+
+After her conversation with the doctor, Susan applied herself more
+diligently than ever to her knitting, and succeeded in acquiring
+such dexterity, that she nearly equalled her mistress. She took every
+opportunity of walking in the fields, for she thought she should
+like to see the beautiful face of nature as long as it was permitted
+her to do so. George found that all peevishness had disappeared; his
+kindnesses were received with gratitude, and any little omission on
+his part did not seem to be perceived. The days had become so much
+shorter that she could no longer take a walk with him each evening when
+he returned from work, but on Sundays they still wandered through the
+fields together. He one day remarked how long the oaks had kept their
+leaves this year.
+
+"I can see that the woods look thick," she replied; "but I cannot well
+distinguish their colour. However, I am glad the leaves last late this
+autumn, for I shall never see them again; before spring I shall be
+quite dark, George. I shall be very sorry not to see the young lambs:
+I used to like to watch them skip about upon the head-lands, when the
+sun shone out on a spring morning; and I shall be sorry not to see
+the primroses in the dell by Fairmead Shaw. O dear! I shall tie up no
+more bunches of violets in Oldash Lane, where the banks are always
+so blue with them! I did not know at the time how much I enjoyed all
+those sights. And the pretty young shoots of the sallow, that we used
+to gather for Palm Sunday! Oh! we are all giddy thoughtless creatures,
+George, and do not half value the common blessings of life while we
+have them. I think sometimes of such things till my heart seems ready
+to burst; and then I remember poor father, how patient and contented
+he is; and I know how mother bears all her pains, and I remember that
+I have not much pain to bear; for I do not suffer now, except, to be
+sure, in my poor mind. I feel a great deal sometimes, George,--more
+than I like to talk about; and I think a great deal; and the time must
+come when you must think too. I know this is not the way for a young
+man to wear away his life; I know it all, and I do not mean to hold you
+to your word; only, as long as I can walk about and see the old places
+at all, I should like to walk with you, and see them with you."
+
+"Oh, Susan! you go near to break my heart when you talk so beautifully.
+But you know I wanted long ago that we should be married, and you know
+I am ready to work night and day to keep you; and there will be Master
+Mumford's house at liberty by the spring. I am ready and willing to do
+my best for you."
+
+"No, George, it won't do; such a poor helpless creature as I shall be
+by the spring must not think of taking care of a family. Hark how that
+robin is singing! There is one comfort: I shall be able to hear the
+birds sing, and I shall know when the spring comes by hearing them;
+and listening to their songs will put me in mind of all the pretty
+sights there are in spring time. I will tell you what is worst of all,
+George,--that I shall never be able to see the faces of those I love
+again. I cannot justly discern the favour of any one now; that is what
+I miss most. I cannot be sure now when you look at me, except by a kind
+of guess. Oh, George! sometimes I think how vain and foolish I used to
+be, and how much I prided myself upon looking pretty of a Sunday, when
+I thought I should meet you, and it all seems to me now to have been
+such vanity; and I am sorry now I did not read my Bible more when I
+could read. It would be a comfort to me to have more texts by heart, to
+repeat to myself when I feel as sad as I often do."
+
+They walked on in silence till they passed under a large holly which
+grew on the steep bank of the road. "Is not that the old holly from
+which we used to gather the branches to stick in our windows at
+Christmas? I think it looks black against the sky."
+
+"Yes, dear Susan, that is the very holly."
+
+"Are there many red berries upon it this autumn?"
+
+"Yes, there's quite a sight of berries."
+
+"I wish I could see them!--but that can't be. As I was saying George,
+about the Bible,--be sure you read a chapter every Sunday: it will do
+you good: as poor Mr. Sandford used to say, the Bible is the poor man's
+best friend. Poor Mr. Sandford! I am sorry he is so bad. It would have
+been a good thing for me if he had been able to go about as usual, and
+to talk to me, and give me good advice. Perhaps I should never have
+been so pettish as I was for a little while; but I have got over that
+now. He will be very much missed in the parish when he is gone; but
+he is a great age, and we all must go when our time comes. The place
+won't seem like itself when he is in his grave, and 'Squire Mowbray
+in foreign parts; for they say he is not coming back, but is going
+somewhere for Miss Fanny's health, and to finish the young ladies'
+education, now Miss Alice is married. Poor Miss Alice! To be sure, how
+well I remember her wedding! and truly enough did I say I should never
+spend so happy a day again; but I did not think so when I said it.
+I thought I should spend many and many much happier days when I was
+married to you, George, for all I was so flighty that evening." And
+Susan smiled, and then sighed to think how light-hearted she had been.
+
+"Ah, that was a happy day!" said George; and he shook his head
+sorrowfully, as he led poor Susan home to her father's cottage.
+
+Each succeeding week saw Susan's blindness gradually increase; and as
+her sight became more and more dim, she became more than ever gentle
+and uncomplaining. Of all the visitations with which human nature is
+afflicted, none assuredly has such a tendency to calm, to purify, and
+to refine the heart, as blindness. The absence of all external objects
+to distract the attention, forces the soul to look back into itself,
+to subdue its passions, to control its emotions, to chasten all its
+feelings. It is seldom that the countenance of a blind person does not
+bear the stamp of a meek and resigned spirit within.
+
+Old Mr. Sandford died, and was replaced by a worthy common-place
+clergyman, who did the duty in a respectable common-place manner; who
+attended the schools, and visited the poor people, and was sorry for
+the blind young woman; but, not having known her previously, took no
+particular interest in her case. Susan and her father lamented the
+death of Mr. Sandford. To them the loss of the voice to which they had
+been accustomed was a deprivation far greater than to others, for to
+them a voice was everything.
+
+Susan was one day seated at her usual hour with her knitting by Nelly's
+side, when Mr. and Mrs. Otley paid the old woman a visit.
+
+"Ah!" said Nelly, "I warrant me, they are coming for some job of their
+own. It's seldom any one opens my door to keep me company, or to cheer
+my lonesome days: that's the way of the world,--every one for himself."
+Then addressing Mrs. Otley as she entered: "Well, ma'am, and what queer
+new-fangled piece of work do you want to set me about now?"
+
+"I have brought you a new pattern, Nelly," replied the good-humoured
+Mrs. Otley; "these knit boas are quite the fashion at Turnholme; and I
+thought if you got some done before they grow common, it would be such
+a good thing for you!"
+
+"And can you tell me how I am to set about making such an
+out-of-the-way thing as this?" said Nelly, as she held up the boa with
+a disdainful air.
+
+"No, I cannot tell you how to do it; but you are so clever at such
+matters, I thought you would know directly."
+
+"Perhaps I may find out, as there are few stitches I do not know,"
+replied Nelly, her temper a little soothed through the medium of her
+vanity; "but when I have made them, I do not see who there is to buy
+them, now Mrs. Mowbray and her family are gone."
+
+"Oh! in the first place, I will take one; and then Miss Mincing will be
+glad to take any number, if you let her have them a trifle under the
+usual price."
+
+Nelly nodded, with a half-pleased, half-cunning air, as if she had
+proved right, and Mrs. Otley had her own ends to answer in her apparent
+good-nature. "And, perhaps," continued Mrs. Otley, "the Mowbrays may be
+at home before next winter."
+
+"No," said Nelly, "not a bit of it. That's all a pretence about the
+young ladies' education. They have had some losses out, there away, in
+them sugar-mines, and they won't be at home these two years," replied
+Nelly, with the dogmatical air of one whose superior information could
+not be doubted.
+
+"That's sad news, Mrs. Nelly," interposed Mr. Otley; "'tis a wonder Mr.
+Williams did not say a word about it yesterday, when I called, about
+stocking up that hedge."
+
+"The news only came this morning; but I believe you will find it's true
+enough; though people think an old woman can know nothing."
+
+"I'm loth to credit such bad news about such good people," answered Mr.
+Otley.
+
+"They may be good, for aught I know to the contrary; but I am sure it
+is little enough I have profited by their goodness."
+
+"Oh, Nelly!" exclaimed Susan, "did not they keep you always in
+employment; and if you had nothing else to do, did they not bid you
+always be knitting stockings for them, which they afterwards gave to
+the poor?"
+
+"And much good that did me! I was none the warmer. They paid me for my
+work, sure enough; and what thanks do I owe them for that? It would be
+a pretty thing indeed, if gentlefolks ordered goods of poor people, and
+then cheated them out of their money."
+
+"Oh, Nelly!" cried Susan, and she longed to add, "how ungrateful!" but
+she remembered she was old and sick, and she restrained herself.
+
+"I always thought it would come to this. I always thought the 'squire
+would run himself into debt with the warm house he kept, and his dances
+on the green to giddy boys and girls;"--(Susan sighed)--"and then the
+grand company that visited at the Park! I am sure it has kept me awake
+many a night to hear the carriages rolling by after a dinner-party. It
+won't do to burn the candle at both ends. I have always said so; but
+nobody minds me."
+
+"I am sure, Nelly," interposed Mrs. Otley, "Mr. Mowbray saw no more
+company than was proper and becoming for a gentleman of his birth and
+connexions: and it would have been a sin and a shame if he had let his
+daughters mope at home without allowing them to see a little of the
+world; and as for his losses in his West India property, he could not
+foresee that his crop of sugar-canes would fail, or that a hurricane
+would ruin his plantations."
+
+"I know nothing about sugar-canes, nor hurricanes, not I; but I know
+that if they are things that pay one year, and don't pay the next, you
+should reckon accordingly, and not live as if sugar-mines paid every
+year as regular as sheep or corn."
+
+"Not sugar-mines, Nelly. Sugar grows in plantations."
+
+"Sugar-mines, or salt-mines, it is all one to me; that's no business of
+mine," replied Nelly doggedly, "and it makes little difference to me.
+If them losses out, there away, hinder the 'squire's family from coming
+home, and I have no regular sale for my stockings, it matters little
+what keeps them in foreign parts."
+
+"Well, Mrs. Nelly," said Mr. Otley, "you are not the only person who
+will miss Mr. and Mrs. Mowbray. All who are willing to work will wish
+for the 'squire back again, and all who are sick or sorry, will miss
+Mrs. Mowbray's kind words, and kind deeds; and I am sure I shall miss
+those sweet young ladies, with their smiling faces, and their affable
+manners, running about my yard, and playing with the dogs, and the
+cats, and the calves, and all the dumb animals."
+
+"And I am sure I shall miss Mr. Mowbray's elegant manners and agreeable
+conversation, though I own it struck me there was something rather high
+about Mrs. Mowbray's ways, though she was such a dowdy in her dress.
+Well, Nelly, you do not seem to like the idea of knitting boas, so I
+will take away the pattern."
+
+"And if I don't get employment from Miss Mincing, who am I to look to
+now?--but if you are against leaving it with me for a day or two, why I
+don't wish to be beholden to anybody."
+
+"I borrowed it on purpose from Mrs. Knotaway, and if you succeed in
+making them, I shall be very glad to buy one," added Mrs. Otley, as she
+took her leave.
+
+Almost before the door was closed, "There," said Nelly, "I told you
+how it was. She thinks she can get her flaunting boa a trifle cheaper
+than if she bought it at Miss Mincing's. I know her well enough. People
+think I can't see through them, because I am old and helpless; but I
+have not lost my senses."
+
+"Indeed, Nelly," said Susan, "Mrs. Otley ordered one, out of
+good-nature."
+
+"And do you think, if my work was dearer than the shop-price, she would
+think so much of being good-natured?"
+
+"Oh, Nelly! we should not be looking out for bad motives to kind
+actions. It will be a great advantage to you to find a market for your
+goods at Miss Mincing's, and I am sure Mrs. Otley meant to do you a
+service; and if it had not been for your good, Mr. Otley would never
+have let her propose it."
+
+"Mr. Otley, indeed!--He just lets his flighty wife take her own way."
+
+"He is very kind; but my cousin, Sophy Foster, who lived with them
+half-a-year, says he can be firm enough when there is need for it,
+and that he rules in all great things, though he does not like to be
+jarring about trifles."
+
+"I don't know how it is, Susan, you are always contradicting one. You
+always have something to say in defence of everybody. It is a very
+disagreeable trick in a young woman to be contradicting her elders."
+
+The spring had now stolen on; Master Mumford's house was free; and
+Susan thought it her duty to tell George that she released him from
+his engagement. She was quite blind. No hope was held out to her of
+recovery. Her becoming the wife of a poor man, the mother of a poor
+man's children, was absolutely out of the question. She took the
+opportunity one day, when her father and mother were both present,
+to say to him, "The time is come, George, when I must give you up.
+You have been very good to me, and I shall feel your goodness as long
+as I live; but I cannot make you such a wife as a poor man ought to
+have: and now, George, here, before my father and mother, I give you
+back your word. The house next door is free, and you must give the
+'squire's steward your answer; and so you had better go to Mr. Williams
+and give it up at once. I can never live there with you; and if--if
+you should--if you should marry another girl, George," she continued
+resolutely, though with a choking voice, "I could not bear to have
+her live there--no more could you, I am sure you could not; so you
+had better go to the 'squire's steward and tell him how it is!" She
+stopped, exhausted with the effort she had made.
+
+George stood by, grieved, distressed, uncertain how to act, or what to
+say. He loved Susan dearly, as dearly as ever; but it was true, she
+could not take care of a poor man's house. He was but a labourer; it
+was impossible he should earn enough to support her, and a person to
+do for her and the family they might have. It would be bringing her
+into a state of hopeless poverty and distress. He had no arguments to
+adduce, and yet he could not bear to break off his engagement. "What is
+to be done, dame?" at length he said, with the tears in his eyes. "I
+love your Susan, there, as dearly as ever I did, and I can't bear the
+thoughts of giving her up; and yet I have nothing to say against the
+reasons she has been bringing up against me. I am fairly puzzled what
+to do," he continued, rubbing his forehead. "I would not mind, if I
+thought I could keep her creditably; but if she and her children were
+to be brought to want, and I not able to earn a decent maintenance for
+them, why, I do think that would be worst of all."
+
+"There is nothing to be done, dear George, but what I tell you. We
+must break off with one another, and you must try to forget by-gone
+days: that will soon be easy enough for you. As for me, I do not see
+there is any need for me to try to forget, for I may as well think over
+everything that is pleasant; and it will always be a pleasure to me to
+think how kind you have been to me, and how true you have been to me!"
+and she held out her hand in the direction where he stood, moving it
+slowly towards him as blind people do. He took her hand, he grasped it
+firmly; he pressed it between his own hard palms, occasionally patting
+it, in silence for some minutes, till at length he let it fall, and
+dropping his head upon the deal dresser, he burst into an agony of
+uncontrollable sobs.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  These orbs, that Heaven's gay light no longer know,
+    Nor meet with kindred beam affection's eye,
+    (Long, long denied each grateful ministry!)
+  Still own the tear that flows for others' woe!
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+Susan sat dissolved in silent tears. The dame had clasped her hands
+in prayer. Old Nicholas's head rested on his staff, while tears also
+rolled from his sightless eyes. It is not a new remark, but it is
+always a touching reflection, that eyes which have long forgotten to
+minister to pleasurable objects should still retain the faculty of
+weeping.
+
+Few more words were spoken that evening by the party assembled in
+Master Foster's house. It was necessary that George Wells should
+decide whether he meant to take the neighbouring cottage. There was no
+alternative, and he was obliged to give it up. But he still continued
+to visit Susan.
+
+The summer came on, and he often led her carefully forth to walk in
+their accustomed paths. He thought in his heart that he should never
+marry, and he was sure he could never like any girl as well as Susan.
+He sometimes told her so, and she gladly believed him; and she
+found herself, when thus convinced of his continued affection, less
+unhappy than she had imagined it possible to be under her melancholy
+deprivation. Her skill in knitting almost exceeded that of her old
+mistress; and although she could not earn as much as she formerly had
+by needle-work, still the farmers' wives patronized her; some of the
+gentry in the nearest country town bought her muffettees as fast as she
+could make them; and she was able to assist her parents in some degree.
+The household cares fell heavier on old Sarah, but she had a willing
+spirit, and grudged no labour for those she loved.
+
+One of Susan's most constant customers for her worsted manufactures
+was Mrs. Otley, who thought, in the absence of the Mowbrays, it was
+incumbent upon her to patronise their favourites. Though her husband
+rented but a small farm not exceeding a hundred acres, she was not, in
+her own estimation, a personage of small importance. She was possessed
+with that desire of aping her betters, which is the misfortune of many
+in her condition.
+
+Because a man with a capital of ten or twelve thousand pounds chooses
+to invest that capital in a large farm, and consequently lives himself,
+and brings up his family, as he would be entitled to do if the same
+fortune was invested in any other speculation or profession; why should
+the small farmer, who can barely stock his forty or fifty acres, and
+by the utmost industry ought not to expect a profit much beyond the
+earnings of a good labourer, think himself called upon to emulate his
+richer neighbour? Like him he keeps his greyhounds to go coursing, or
+his nag to ride hunting; while his wife and daughters appear at church
+attired in the extreme of the fashion, and at home display in their
+best parlour the elegancies of a drawing-room; such as diminutive
+cupids bearing gigantic candlesticks, _petits objets_ on a small table,
+a flower-glass containing an artificial bouquet, and not unfrequently
+a piano-forte. Farmer Otley himself was not one to whom these remarks
+were applicable, but he had married a woman who was the very type of a
+fashionable farmeress. She had received a boarding-school education,
+could play on the piano-forte, spoke French, wrote a delicate hand
+with a steel pen, embroidered muslin, was really a pretty and not a
+vulgar-looking woman, and having brought him a decent fortune, felt
+herself entitled to be as refined as books and backboards could make
+her.
+
+She had been struck by Mr. Otley's personal beauty, and had fallen
+in love with him as being more fitted by his appearance to enact the
+hero than any one else with whom she associated. He was certainly a
+singularly handsome man; and although (after marriage) she sometimes
+reproved him for allowing his voice to go beyond what she thought the
+true pitch of romance, and his laugh to become too hearty, she consoled
+herself by finding many examples in novels and poems, where strength,
+manliness, and courage are the requisite attributes of the lover, and
+the delicacy and refinement are only indispensable in the lady-love.
+
+When she married him she imagined all farmers must move in the same
+sphere of gentility; and as Mr. Glover, who rented and cultivated
+highly a thousand acres in her native parish, drove his wife and
+daughters to church in a phaeton with two pretty ponies; as the
+Miss Glovers were dressed as well, or nearly as well, as the Lady
+Larkingtons; as Mrs. Glover frequently dined with the clergyman's wife,
+and Mr. Glover occasionally at Larkington Hall, she concluded that when
+she also was united to a farmer, Mrs. Otley would be as great and as
+genteel a personage as Mrs. Glover.
+
+Much has been said, and much has been written, both against the farmers
+of the present day, and in their defence. Surely the condemnation and
+the approbation have both been too general. It is often urged that
+all the distress among that class of people is owing to their altered
+notions, their finery, and their ambition. It has also been urged with
+truth, that there is no reason why a large capitalist who invests his
+money in agricultural speculations should be condemned to eat bread and
+cheese, and to wear a smock-frock; and his wife to churn, bake, and
+feed her chickens.
+
+The fault appears to be that sufficient regard is not paid to the
+difference of capital requisite for a large and a small farm. The
+small shop-keeper in a narrow alley does not feel himself called upon
+to make the same appearance, or to indulge in the same luxuries, as
+the proprietor of one of the brilliant magazines in Regent Street, or
+Bond Street; but the small farmer strives to vie with the large one,
+and would be ashamed to see his family appear at church less well
+dressed, than that of a man whom he considers in the same rank of life
+as himself.
+
+Dame Foster was, as usual, one afternoon sitting at her cottage window,
+whence she commanded a view down the village street, which enabled her
+to beguile the tedious hours by reporting to her blind companions each
+little village incident. She saw Mrs. Otley draw near, accompanied by
+her children, and a girl who attended upon them. Old Sarah could not
+help remarking that Mrs. Otley was more dressed out than ever Mrs.
+Mowbray used to be. "It is a pity folks do not know their own places. I
+remember the time when Mr. Otley's mother--old Mrs. Otley that's dead
+and gone--used to wear her black satin bonnet and her red cloak just as
+I did; only her cloak was handsomer, and the satin was a richer satin,
+and she was never forced to wear them till they were shabby. She looked
+respectable at all times; and she kept as warm a house as anybody in
+the parish--plenty for her own family and for anybody who was in want.
+When you were courting me, Nicholas, you used to work with old Farmer
+Otley, and I dare say, if you had gone on with him, you would not have
+married for some years longer. I don't justly mind how it was, but you
+and he came to words, and you went off to Farmer Lightfoot, and he did
+not board nor lodge his men; and I remember well you said 'twas all so
+different from old Mrs. Otley's comfortable hot suppers, and her good
+clean bed, and her warm fire-side to sit by of an evening, that you
+resolved you would have a home of your own, and you said it would not
+cost you much more to have a cottage to yourself than to hire a single
+room. Ah! it was all very well, and we got on pretty middling; but it
+was a good while before we gathered things comfortable about us. We
+often used to say that if we had waited another two or three years we
+should have begun quite before-hand with the world. Do you remember,
+Nicholas, how pleased we were when we got our nice clock at last? It
+was a hard matter to save up enough for the clock, with a growing
+family coming on!"
+
+When old Sarah had advanced thus far in her reminiscences, she
+perceived that Mrs. Otley crossed the road and directed her steps to
+their cottage. She entered the humble apartment with a graceful slide,
+and her silk gown rustled, as Nicholas said, till he almost thought she
+must be the minister's lady. Her little boy was dressed in a Polish
+coat, with a cap from which dangled a smart tassel. The little girl,
+who was just able to toddle, had a boa round her neck; and the brawny
+country-girl who enacted nursery-maid, seemed to have been tutored into
+taking as mincing steps as her mistress. Mrs. Otley came to bespeak
+some handkerchiefs and muffettees like those which Mrs. Parkins, the
+oracle of fashion in the town of Turnholme, had ordered; and she begged
+Mrs. Foster's permission to wait at her house till Mr. Otley passed by
+from market, and would drive her home in "his chaise,"--a term which
+serves some people to designate every gradation of one-horsed vehicle,
+from a stanhope to a tax-cart.
+
+It was not long before Mr. Otley was seen approaching in the
+market-cart, which Mrs. Otley denominated his chaise; and she sent
+the girl to the garden-gate to stop him on his way. The good-natured
+husband quickly dismounted from his cart, and entered the cottage,
+fearing something might be the matter. "Why, what's this, Lizzy? You're
+not ill, to be sure?"
+
+"No, my love," answered the lady; "only fatigued with my walk: but do
+not speak so loud, if you please, my love; you forget my nerves."
+
+"Lord bless you, Lizzy, I can't remember those things I know nothing
+about: but I am sorry you are so troubled with them. I am sure if they
+are a trouble to you, they are a trouble to me too; for they won't let
+you do any of the jobs that want doing about a farmhouse. Why, what's
+this queer bit of a rat's tail you've twisted round little Lizzy's
+neck?" he continued, laughing, as he held up the child's Lilliputian
+boa.
+
+"Take care, dear Mr. Otley; the poor child will take cold if she is
+without her boa. Mrs. Foster will think you quite a savage," she
+continued, in a mincing half-tender tone, to carry off his rough
+manners.
+
+"No, no, she won't," he replied! "Dame Foster knows me of old; and
+Nicholas, he was the first that taught me how to take a wasp's nest. Do
+you remember, Nicholas? You had left working for father then; but you
+were always partial to me, and I remember well you used sometimes to
+come at after-hours, and help me wasp-nesting, or bat-fowling, or such
+like."
+
+"Ah, Master Otley! you were a smart sprig of a lad, and I always had
+a liking for you. You always were sharp and active; and when you were
+quite a child, you would be helping your poor mother when she was busy
+at her dairy, or her poultry-yard, or when she was particular busy on
+baking-days."
+
+"There, Lizzy; you see I always told you how mother used to set her
+hand to everything, and never thought any useful work was beneath her.
+That's the way to make farming answer. 'Tis the small profits and the
+small savings we must look to, if we mean to get on in these hard
+times."
+
+"Dear Mr. Otley, I do not like to hear you talk so. Anybody would think
+you quite mean and niggardly to hear you. I am often telling you you do
+not do yourself justice."
+
+"Ah, wife! that's all very well; but it is just because I want to do
+myself justice that I talk so. But come along. Up with you into the
+cart, and we'll be jogging home. The more the merrier," he added, as he
+took the little girl in his arms.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Otley! when will you get me a little pony-chaise, or something
+decent, to go about in? I have never been used to such a shabby
+conveyance."
+
+"I am sorry for it, my dear! When I have the money, you shall have
+just such a chay as you may fancy; but mean time you must put up with
+this. Good night to you, Master Foster!" he continued, as he left the
+cottage. "Good night, dame! good night, Susan! I saw some rare fine
+worsted in a shop-window at Turnholme to-day. You shall have some, next
+time I go to market. I did think about bringing some to-day. It would
+be just the thing for your work."
+
+"Thank you kindly, sir. You are very good," answered Susan.
+
+"Well to be sure, she looks too much of a lady to be getting up
+into that common cart," remarked Sarah, as she watched Farmer Otley
+carefully assisting his wife into the "chaise," and dutifully saving
+the silk gown from coming into contact with the wheel. "There's no
+particular harm in the woman if she was married to some one who only
+wanted a wife to look at; but how she is to keep everything going
+about a farm, is more than I can tell! She needs somebody to look
+after her, instead of her being able to look after others. There's
+her veil flying, and her bit of fur that she calls a boa slipping off
+among the spokes of the wheel, and her smart shawl almost shaken off
+her shoulders as the cart rattles down the street. Now the wind takes
+her bonnet, and it is blown quite back! Old Mrs. Otley used to look so
+decent and respectable as she came home from market by her husband's
+side, with her warm red cloak held tight round her, and her close black
+bonnet fitting to her face, it was a pleasure to see her. Well! after
+all, this young woman's a good-natured soul, and gives you a good price
+for your work, Susan; and for all she is so fine herself, she is not
+proud nor haughty to others," added the kind-hearted Sarah; for though
+the habit of sitting at her window, watching all that took place in
+the village, and making her remarks and her calculations thereon, had
+unavoidably caused her to be something of a gossip, her heart was so
+good, that she always qualified any fault she might find with her
+neighbours, by discovering some counterbalancing merit.
+
+It is almost impossible that those whose lives are passed in
+ministering to the mental cravings and the amusement of the infirm and
+the unoccupied, should avoid talking too freely of others. However
+amiable their intentions and their feelings may be, so many words
+cannot be uttered without sometimes doing mischief, if it were only by
+magnifying trifles into matters of importance.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  When Love's afraid, do not that fear despise;
+  Flames tremble most, when they the highest rise.
+
+  _D'Avenant._
+
+George Wells still took his Sunday walk with Susan; and Susan, having
+once told him distinctly that she should never marry, and that she
+gave him back his troth, having even alluded to the probability of his
+marrying another woman, felt she had done her duty, and that they might
+still be, and ever might remain, friends. But friendship between man
+and woman seldom exists without an admixture of love, past, present,
+or to come. The feeling that begins in friendship often leads on to
+love; often, too often, love is indulged under the garb of friendship;
+and sometimes, but more rarely, love leaves behind it a regard which
+subsides into friendship. Such, as Susan flattered herself, was the
+case with George; and she therefore hoped that she should always
+experience from him the same kindness and the same attention. But it
+was not friendship, it was still love, that George felt for Susan: and
+it was a touching sight to mark the young man leading his once plighted
+wife, the blind Susan, on her way from church; tenderly watching that
+the merry urchins who were playing in the path did not run against her
+in their sport, or carefully pushing aside with his foot any loose
+stone which might cause her to stumble. He would often bring her a
+nosegay too; and Susan might generally be seen with a bowpot placed
+near her, containing the common flowers of the season, backed up with
+southern-wood and marjoram enough to drown the scent of all the roses
+and pinks of which the foreground was composed. George loved to see
+the smile with which his present was greeted; and still looked with
+admiration at the silken eye-lashes which shaded the eyes that could no
+longer beam upon him.
+
+The summer thus glided by; the autumn was equally tranquil; and Susan
+learned to listen for the accustomed step; to know, without attending
+to the village chimes, the very hour at which he usually dropped in,
+and to recognise his hand upon the latch. But as the winter advanced,
+and the days became short and the weather severe, when they could no
+longer walk together in the fields, and that his visits were as much
+to the old people as to Susan, he did not call so regularly; and Susan
+listened in vain for the sound of his step on the gravel, or the turn
+of his hand on the latch. In vain did she now count the hours and the
+quarters most accurately. The usual time had long elapsed when he did
+call, and sometimes he omitted to do so altogether. She could not
+wonder; she told herself she ought to be grateful for all the kindness
+she had met with; she was aware she had no right to reproach him, but
+yet she felt her sorrows more acutely than before.
+
+Old Nicholas was the first to remark upon George's frequent absence.
+Some rumours had reached Susan's ears that George was not so steady as
+he had formerly been; but she hastened to defend him and to account for
+the manner in which his time was occupied. Though she might feel hurt
+herself, it was painful to hear him blamed, and she dreaded hearing
+herself pitied.
+
+"Why, is not that seven o'clock?--five, six, seven,--yes, sure enough
+it is seven o'clock," said old Nicholas, one Sunday evening just after
+Christmas,--"and no George! He was not here last Sunday neither. I am
+got so used to the young man, it seems quite dull when so many days go
+by without his giving us a call."
+
+"Young men must take a little pleasure sometimes, father! 'Tis always
+the same thing here, and I dare say he likes a little change."
+
+"That's quite true, Susan. I've been young in my day, and have had my
+pleasure; and Sarah, she has known what it is to be light-hearted; and
+we must not grudge young people what's natural at their age;"--then,
+after a little while, he added, "but you, my poor girl, trouble is come
+upon you before its time. It is all as it should be for us to bear our
+trials and wait patiently till it pleases God to take us; but you, not
+yet turned your two-and-twenty"----
+
+"Don't pity me, father! that's just what I can't bear. I do very well
+when I'm not pitied," exclaimed Susan, with a little touch of her
+former petulance: "Thank you all the same, father, for thinking so
+much about me," she added, in a few moments, with a subdued manner.
+"But, hark! I hear his step! I know the sound of his nailed shoes on
+the gravel;" and her head was raised, and her face turned to the door,
+while a smile almost angelic in its sweetness played around her mouth.
+"I am glad you are come, George," she said, "for father missed you so
+much. Come in, and sit down by him, and tell him all the news."
+
+This was just what suited George; for he felt conscious that he had
+been somewhat neglectful of late, and he found it easier to entertain
+old Nicholas with the village news, than to sit by Susan and explain to
+her how his evenings had been occupied.
+
+"I heard plenty of news, and bad news too, at the Cart and Horses
+t'other night."
+
+"Oh, George! you have not taken to going to the public-house, sure? You
+never used to do such a thing!"
+
+"Bless you, Susan, a man can't work all day, and take no amusement
+when his work is over. What can a man do that has not got a home
+to go to?" This went to Susan's heart, but she said nothing. "As I
+was telling you, they said at the Cart and Horses--no, 'twas at the
+Chequers--Tuesday evening."----
+
+"So he frequents both public-houses!" thought Susan.
+
+George continued: "Master Smith said there was a talk of breaking up
+the benefit club."
+
+"The benefit club!" exclaimed Sarah; "why, what will my good man do if
+the benefit club should go! His half-pay is almost all we have had to
+live upon for many a long year!"
+
+"That will fall heavy upon us, indeed," said Nicholas. "Why, what's the
+meaning of this? I never heard any talk of the club being so low."
+
+"Why, they say the members are all growing old, and so many of them
+keep coming upon it that it can't hold out, unless they consent to take
+less pay."
+
+"Ah!" cried Nicholas; "I always was afraid how 'twould be, and I was
+very sorry to be such a burthen to it myself. That was why I agreed
+that, as my affliction was not like a common illness, of which one
+might hope to be cured, but as I must look for no other than being on
+the club as long as I lived, I would take only half-pay, walking-pay,
+as they call it. My two sons are very good, they always make up the
+money to me out of their earnings. I am sure I would not wish to be too
+covetous, and to break my club."
+
+"I hope 'tis only talk: it will do well enough, I dare say, if we can
+get some new young members into it that are not likely to be any drain
+upon it yet. Well! I have put in for four years, and never drawn a
+farthing yet."
+
+"I am sure, George, you should be very grateful to think what a
+blessing God has granted you, in giving you such good health all these
+years."
+
+"True enough, Susan: in that sense I should be glad never to have any
+of my money back again. And I am sure, Master Foster, I am glad enough
+to be in the club, and help to keep it going, if it is only for your
+sake."
+
+"Thank you, George; that's kindly said," answered Susan, while a tear
+trembled in her eye-lashes.
+
+"Well, Master Foster," said George, "I must be going; for I promised to
+meet Will Dixon at the Chequers this evening."
+
+"Oh, George! you are not going to pass your Sunday evening at the
+public-house!"
+
+"Come, don't scold, Susan; I promised to meet Will Dixon; and though
+we want to have a bit of talk together, we need not make too free
+with the beer, you know;" and George was gone. Susan remained
+with an indefinite sensation of uneasiness for which she could not
+satisfactorily have accounted to herself.
+
+The following week they saw no more of George, neither did they on
+the Sunday; but in the succeeding week he again called. The alarm
+concerning the benefit club seemed to have subsided: Nicholas's mind
+was set at ease upon the subject; and Susan timidly asked George
+whether he and Will Dixon had had a merry bout of it at the Chequers.
+
+"Come, come, Susan, you want to get me to tell tales out of school!
+we drank no more beer than was good for us, and then I went home with
+Will Dixon to supper." Did these few words re-assure Susan that George
+was not likely to fall into the habit of frequenting the ale-house,
+and did they consequently restore her mind to its usual tranquillity?
+On the contrary, a sensation shot through her which she had hitherto
+been spared. She remembered that Will Dixon's sister Jane was a pretty
+girl with bright blue eyes, and one who had for a short time divided
+George's attentions with herself, before she had finally fixed them.
+She remembered thinking that Jane Dixon was very partial to George,
+and she remembered that the neighbours had joked Jane Dixon about
+wearing the willow. Jealousy for the first time darted through her
+heart, and she was alarmed and roused by the keenness of the pang. With
+the rapidity of lightning she pictured to herself George in love with
+Jane,--George, Jane's accepted lover,--George her bridegroom,--George
+her kind and affectionate husband! It was with difficulty she
+could bear her part in the conversation, and her smile was sad and
+constrained.
+
+"I do not think you seem right well, Susan. Are you ill, Susan?"
+inquired George kindly and affectionately.
+
+"No, thank you, dear George; I am quite well--only I feel a little
+dull--I think 'tis the weather. Mother said she felt heavy this
+morning."
+
+"Maybe it is. Jane Dixon was saying, Sunday, that this mild weather
+was not seasonable, and that she liked a good sharp frost, and a good
+long walk." Susan quivered as the name came from George's lips. But
+George was not yet in love with Jane, and no consciousness prevented
+his uttering the name freely. Susan had almost said, "So, you were
+walking with Jane Dixon, Sunday!" but she checked the remark, mentally
+saying, "and why should he not walk with Jane? and why should he not
+marry Jane? Why should I fret? I ought to hope Jane may draw him away
+from idle companions and bad company. I fretted when I thought he was
+taking to such courses; surely I ought to be glad if anybody else gets
+the power I have lost to lure him from evil ways. Poor fellow! he would
+never have thought of such things if I had not been afflicted as I am.
+If he had married, and had a comfortable home, he would have gone on
+being steady. Yes, I ought to hope he may marry Jane Dixon, and make
+her a good husband." But, school herself as she would, she did fret;
+and all the placidity of mind which she had laboured to acquire was
+gone. Night and day did she think of George and Jane, and constantly
+did she fancy them walking through the same lanes, strolling up the
+same field-paths, loitering along the same head-lands, where she had
+so often wandered with George. Long before such things did occur, had
+she imagined them. But in the course of a few months, that which her
+reason wished, but her feelings dreaded, came to pass. George's visits
+became more and more rare; and when he did look in, Jane Dixon's name
+was never breathed.
+
+There was an awkwardness in his manner, and he almost exclusively
+addressed himself to Nicholas. Susan was all gentleness, and
+invariably, when he took leave, thanked him for calling, in a subdued
+manner, which showed how entirely she felt it was from motives of
+charity, and not from preference, that he now visited them. George,
+without decyphering what caused the change in her tone, was aware that
+she read his mind, and he became ill at ease in her presence.
+
+Jane Dixon had originally liked George; and now that he was free again,
+and that Susan Foster had, as it was well known, refused to marry
+him, she saw no reason why she should not put forth all her store of
+rustic allurements to win back her first love. George was by nature
+steady and domestic: he had for two years been engaged to Susan, and
+had therefore been in the habit of considering a wife, a family, a
+home, as the enjoyments to which a poor man should look forward; and
+although he had latterly been led to mix more with companions of loose
+character, though he had loitered away many an evening at bowls or in
+the ale-house, he was not happy while leading such a life. At first,
+it was for the loss of Susan herself that he grieved; but in time
+his regrets became less sentimental. He pined for a fire-side of his
+own, his own chimney-nook, his hot rasher of bacon for supper, and
+the kind attentions of a wife, even though that wife were not Susan
+Foster. He was in a state of mind which laid him peculiarly open to
+such attractions as Jane Dixon possessed; a tolerable share of beauty,
+extreme good-humour, and, above all, a very decided predilection for
+him, which she was at no pains to conceal. No wonder, then, if after
+two years of hopeless attendance upon poor Susan, he should now find
+himself engaged to Jane Dixon, and that the only difficulty which
+remained, was to break the event to Susan.
+
+Every time George entered their cottage, to bid them a hurrying good
+morning, or to wish them a hasty good-night, Susan thought the moment
+was arrived when he was going to announce to them the step he had
+taken;--for she felt that he would not allow them to learn it only from
+common report; and she judged rightly. Once, or twice, after having
+wished them good night, he had lingered with his hand upon the latch
+of the door, or had returned to ask some trifling question, and then
+had hurried suddenly away. Each time she felt that the decisive moment
+was come, and she worked herself up to receive the intelligence as she
+ought. She thought she wished it over, and her mind at rest; and yet
+she felt relieved when the door was closed, and she heard his step
+receding along the little gravel path, and she might still think of him
+as her George, and not as the promised husband of another.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  Behold the herbage rich, in pride of June,
+    Pranked with gay flowrets dancing merrily
+  Beneath the sunbeams of the sultry noon,
+    While slumbering in their cells their perfumes lie.
+  But when the scythe sweeps on right sturdily,
+    Laying their sweet heads low, their spirits fling
+  Pure incense on the breeze ere yet they die;
+    So doth the chastening hand of sorrow bring
+    Virtues and graces forth, by joy left slumbering.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+
+It was rather more than two years from Alice Mowbray's wedding-day,
+when George Wells lifted the latch of Master Foster's door, and,
+closing it after him, walked into the house, seated himself on the
+polished wooden chair opposite old Sarah's, and said in a hurried
+voice, "I am come, neighbours,--I am come to tell you a piece of news
+which I should be loth you should hear from anybody but myself."
+
+Susan's heart died away within her--her head drooped more than ever
+over her knitting; Dame Foster took off her spectacles, and, wiping
+them, laid them within the sacred book from which she had been reading
+some texts to her husband and her child; old Nicholas half turned
+himself upon his settle: but none spoke. Susan felt that the silence
+must be distressing to George; and exerting herself the first, she
+replied, "If it is any news, George, that concerns yourself, you may be
+sure there are no friends who will be more rejoiced to hear of any good
+likely to befall you, or more grieved to hear of any misfortune. You
+have scarce any older friends than father, and mother, and myself; so
+you need not be afraid to speak."
+
+"Thank you, Susan, thank you; that's just like you. I was sure you
+would take it so. And yet, after all that has passed between us, I
+felt--I don't know how I felt. But it seems strange I should marry
+anybody else."
+
+"I gave you back your word, George, and this is what I have long
+expected; and long tried to make up my mind to," she added, with some
+effort. "I could not expect you to go on always tending upon a poor
+blind girl like me. 'Tis better, much better, than getting any ways
+unsteady. God knows, I have not a word to say against your marrying
+Jane Dixon."
+
+"Thank you, Susan, thank you," he repeated; "I feel easier now! Susan,
+this has been a great trouble to me; for I could not bear deceiving you
+like, and yet I did not know how to tell you there was any courting
+going on between me and Jane."
+
+"You know, George, I gave you back your word from the first."
+
+"Yes, yes, so you did; but for a long time I did not believe I should
+ever think of any girl but you: but I do not know how it is, a man
+wants a home--does he not, Master Foster?--and he wants a wife to see
+to him. And then, Jane Dixon, she's a tight lass; and I don't know how
+it was, I never came home from work without meeting her going of an
+errand somewhere; and then she is a bustling girl, and one who will
+keep things nice and tidy in a poor man's house."
+
+"Her mother was a thrifty, bustling body, and I hope she will make
+you a good wife, George," said Dame Foster, in a tone which she meant
+should be very kind; but her thoughts were so much occupied with Susan,
+that she had no feeling to spare for any one else.
+
+"I wish you happiness, George," said Nicholas; "you have behaved very
+well by my poor girl; and, if it had not been for her affliction, you
+would have married her, and made her a good husband, I warrant. It is
+the will of God it should all be as it is."
+
+"Thank you kindly, Master Foster."
+
+Meanwhile Susan had been feeling upon the little shelf on the wall
+close to where she sat, for a small book, which at length she found.
+"George," she said, "I have a book here which I ought to give you back.
+'Tis those Watts's Hymns which you gave to me a few days before Miss
+Alice's wedding;" she could not repress a sigh. "If you remember, you
+wrote both our Christian names upon it,--and then said you would add
+the surname when one name would do for both. I don't think it is right
+I should keep that book, and you the husband of another; and yet I
+could never find it in my heart to destroy it. Besides, I can't read
+all the beautiful hymns that are in it; but you can, and sometimes it
+may do you good perhaps to read them."
+
+George indeed remembered giving Susan the little book: he had that day
+obtained the promise of Master Mumford's house, and he had that day
+gained her consent to their being speedily asked in church. They had
+then written their names in the manner described by Susan, and had
+talked over their future prospects, with the assurance of soon being
+indissolubly united.
+
+As George took the book from Susan's hands, he felt them tremble.
+He was scarcely more composed himself. The appearance of the little
+volume, the sight of the writing, annihilated for a moment the
+intervening two years; and he saw Susan as she then stood beside him,
+radiant with health, joy, and tenderness.
+
+Jane Dixon would not have been pleased had she known with what pain he
+received this present, with what regret he looked back upon the image
+thus conjured up to his mind. The tears were in his eyes as he held it.
+"If it is not right for you to keep the book, Susan, I do not think it
+is right I should; for I am sure I shall never look upon it without
+wishing,--without remembering----Oh! Susan, how happy we were when I
+gave you that book!" His voice broke, and he passed the back of his
+hand several times over his eyes.
+
+Strong emotion in a stout and sturdy peasant, whose feelings we are
+sure are thoroughly genuine, and in which we are satisfied there is no
+touch of sickly, morbid sensibility, is always an affecting subject
+of contemplation. It was almost too much for old Sarah, who now wept
+like a child; while Susan experienced among the poignant regrets which
+overpowered her, a mixture of satisfaction to find she was so tenderly
+recollected. "I did not think you would have minded it, George; but if
+it makes you think too much of by-gone days, why, perhaps, 'twill be
+best you should give the book to mother to keep. I would not wish you
+to think any more about me now; it would be no ways right." But it was
+a comfort to Susan, though she was not aware of it, that she had to
+tell him not to think about her.
+
+George still held the book, awkwardly shifting it from hand to hand:
+at length he held it out; "Take it, dame," he said, "take it; for
+I'm going to be married to Jane Dixon, and I must not think any more
+about Susan, nor about the days that are passed and gone; it won't
+do," and he pushed the book towards Dame Foster, and abruptly opened
+the door. "God bless you, George," and Susan held out her hand. He had
+closed the latch, and was gone. Her hand dropped to her side, but she
+was not mortified. She scarcely knew how it was that she felt so much
+less miserable than she expected she would have done, when George was
+about to be married to another,--when an eternal barrier was about to
+be placed between them,--when she had broken the last link that bound
+them to each other. Alas! it must be confessed that if the causes of
+her more resigned frame of mind were accurately analyzed, there might
+be discovered, among better feelings, a slight admixture of vanity,
+which had been soothed by finding George still remembered her with
+affection, and by feeling that he did not love Jane Dixon so well as he
+had once loved her.
+
+Susan was a good and a generous girl; but in her nature there was a
+portion of that quality which, although subdued and chastened by heavy
+affliction, is seldom entirely rooted out of the human heart. She did
+not wish George to be unhappy on her account; she heartily hoped Jane
+would prove a good wife to him; and yet, after having experienced
+considerable mortification in the course of his unavoidable neglect of
+her, it was a balm to poor frail human nature to feel that she was not
+relinquished without a pang.
+
+"My poor girl," said Sarah, after she had watched George's hurried
+steps along the road, over the stile, and into the fields beyond the
+village,--"my poor girl! I must no longer pray, as I have done, never
+to see another sun rise when once my poor Nicholas is in his grave, for
+what will you do without me? As long as George was single, I felt you
+would never want a friend; but now I must hope to be spared still for
+your sake! I once thought, when you were George's wife, and my good man
+was at rest, that old Sarah Foster's task would be finished, and that
+she might pray the Almighty to release her from these pains. But God's
+will be done!" and she bowed her head in meek submission.
+
+George Wells had instinctively avoided the village; he dreaded to meet
+his betrothed. Susan had risen up to his mind as she had been in her
+best days: those days once more became so present to him, that all his
+former love seemed to return with fresh force, and he wondered how he
+had become entangled with Jane Dixon. But a few weeks more, and she
+would be his wife; and among the lower orders that name is more sacred
+than among the higher, where the gradations between virtue and vice
+are softened down, and the line of demarcation not so absolute. He
+remembered that he had promised to walk with Jane that very evening,
+and he somewhat slowly and unwillingly returned towards the village
+by a path which led nearer the dwelling of his new love. He had not
+advanced far when he met her gaily approaching in search of him. He was
+scarcely yet in a frame of mind to meet her gladly, and he wished she
+had not been quite so affectionate in her disposition towards him. She
+certainly was not coy. He had never been called upon to sue; he had
+but to receive the advances she was disposed to make. "Poor girl!" he
+thought, "it is not her fault, if I once liked Susan so much. She has
+always been partial to me: I must make her a good husband. It would
+never do to be anywise unkind to her now; besides, the parish begins
+to talk, and the best thing we can do is to be married out of hand."
+And the result was that they agreed he should wait on the minister, and
+inform him they wished to be asked in church.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  Let fowk bode weel, and strive to do their best,
+  Nae mair's required; let Heav'n make out the rest.
+
+  Allan Ramsay's _Gentle Shepherd_.
+
+
+Susan was somewhat agitated and perplexed the next Sunday morning,
+debating in her own mind whether George and Jane were likely to be
+asked that very day, and whether she could hear their names called over
+with the composure which befitted so holy a place. She did not like
+to absent herself from church on that account; for to those who have
+acquired the habit of never failing in their attendance, the omission
+appears a dereliction of duty. She therefore summoned up her courage;
+her mother, as usual, arranged her bonnet, and pinned her shawl with
+due attention to neatness. The dame, as usual, turned the key of the
+door, and placed it in her pocket; then, taking Nicholas's arm with
+one hand, she guided him safely on his way, while with the other
+she supported her own feebler steps with her polished staff. Susan
+followed, led by a neighbour's little girl, who always came to attend
+her to church.
+
+This afflicted family, so decent in their apparel, so respectable in
+their behaviour, were never seen drawing near the house of worship
+without exciting a feeling of pity and veneration in all whose souls
+were not callous to every good emotion. They had arranged themselves as
+usual in their pew. The service had begun; and when the close of the
+second lesson drew near, poor Susan's heart beat almost audibly. Her
+head was held low, and her face was partly concealed by her bonnet: but
+she strove to maintain as unmoved a countenance as possible; for she
+knew that the opposite seat was occupied by gay young girls who would
+feel a curiosity about her, and she was unable to tell when, or when
+not, her countenance might be the subject of remark to others.
+
+The last words of the lesson were read; the large Bible was closed with
+a heavy noise; there was a moment's pause, but the clergyman proceeded
+with the service, and Susan was spared for that Sunday. A sort of hope
+shot through her mind; and yet what did she hope? She had herself
+relinquished George, she had herself anticipated his marriage, she knew
+he was engaged, she knew he could not with honour break off with Jane
+Dixon; if he did, was not she as unfit for a poor labourer's wife as
+when she first gave him back his troth? It was all so, and yet she felt
+relieved.
+
+The following Sunday she was again seated in her accustomed place, and
+she again listened as the clergyman read the service. This time the
+names were read,--"George Wells, bachelor, and Jane Dixon, spinster,
+both of this parish." The girls opposite might have seen her lips
+quiver; and the hands which were habitually meekly clasped upon her
+knee, were slightly raised, and fell again immediately.
+
+That day Sarah herself led Susan from church, and gave up the guidance
+of Nicholas to the little girl. They reached their home; and before old
+Sarah busied herself in the preparation for their humble repast, she
+sat down to rest herself. Susan heard her mother sigh.
+
+"Mother!" she said, "you are fretting about me!"
+
+"Not to say fretting, Susan, for we heard no more than what we expected
+to hear; but I thought it was a great trial to you to hear their
+names in church. I was afraid whether it might not be almost too much
+for you. And then I sighed to think, when we were gone, what a poor
+desolate creature you would be; and I was wishing we could any way
+provide for you. I should not like you to come on the parish, and yet I
+don't see how we can save any thing,--we, that can't earn a shilling.
+Next time Farmer Otley calls, I will ask him about the Friendly Society
+he was mentioning; and I have heard talk of insuring one life against
+another, and perhaps we might get your brothers to help," continued the
+old woman, her thoughts gradually led from the wound Susan's affections
+had received, to the blasting of her worldly prospects.
+
+When, as among the lower orders, the provision necessary for existence
+is at stake, the most tender regrets must often be mixed up with other
+considerations; but Susan could not yet comprehend any sorrow but that
+of losing the lover of her youth. "Never trouble your head about me in
+that way, mother; I don't care nor think anything about such matters."
+
+"That's all very well for young folks who have always had their
+fathers' roof over their heads," interposed Nicholas, "and a bit to eat
+as long as their parents had it; but it is the duty of parents to look
+forward for their children. You will find it very different when we
+are in our graves, and you have to find yourself board and lodging and
+everything. It frets me so, sometimes, I can't go to sleep! I and my
+old woman used often to say we should be at rest when we were beneath
+the sod, and we did not care how soon our time came; but now I quite
+dread to think we may be taken any day."
+
+"And so may I, father, be taken any day. It often happens that the
+youngest goes first; and as 'tis all in the hands of Providence, there
+is no need for you to make yourself unhappy about me in that way.
+Besides, who knows but God may raise me up friends if my time of need
+should ever come?--It is not my board nor my lodging that troubles me,"
+she could not help adding with an irrepressible expression of grief.
+
+"Ah! I know what 'tis that troubles you. 'Tis just what I am often
+thinking of. In my affliction I have a kind helpmate to cheer me, and
+keep up my spirits, and save me from ever feeling lonesome; and I have
+you, Susan, and I love to listen to your voice, though it has not its
+cheerful tone, and though I never hear the laugh that used to make
+my heart glad within me. You, my poor girl, you can never have these
+comforts, and that weighs upon my mind, though I do not like to say
+much about it."
+
+"It can't be helped, father, and I hope I submit as I should. It has
+pleased God to visit me as He has done, and I am sure I have done no
+more than my duty in not letting George burthen himself with me for a
+wife."
+
+"Yes, yes, it is all right; you have done your duty, that's certain."
+
+"And when we have done that, we must leave the rest to Providence."
+
+Mr. Otley called soon afterwards with some of the worsted which he was
+now in the constant habit of procuring for Susan. Dame Foster took
+the opportunity of getting her mind enlightened concerning annuities,
+and friendly societies, and all the other modes of provision for the
+poor which were established at Turnholme. But all required a larger
+monthly sum, or a more considerable deposit, than they could possibly
+contrive to pay. "I wish, Mr. Otley," said Susan, "you could persuade
+father and mother not to think so much about me; if 'tis anything about
+themselves, they always say we should rely on Providence: tell them
+they should do so for me, as well as for themselves."
+
+"It is quite right, Susan, you should speak as you do, and feel as you
+do; but it is quite right too that your parents should be willing to do
+the best they can for you. I am sure I wish I could put them in the way
+of making some provision for you; but when people get to be in years,
+all the insurances are so high: that is a thing people should think of
+when they are young and in health."
+
+"That is quite just, Master Otley, and so I did when I was young; for
+I put into my club as soon as I was turned nineteen,--as soon as I got
+anything like man's wages; and a good job it has been for me that I did
+so: but, you see, one could not reckon upon such an affliction as poor
+Susan's."
+
+"And that's quite just too, Master Foster; and I'll be bound that if
+ever she should be in want, the gentry, ay, and the farmers too, would
+not grudge her some help,--such a good girl, and such a patient girl
+as she is! and so young too, and so well-favoured as she is! I often
+tell my mistress I don't care how many warm handkerchiefs she buys of
+Susan, 'tis all money well spent; though I will say I wish she would
+not always be making me drive her over to Turnholme, that she may learn
+the new fashions. What do the fashions signify? say I; where is your
+red cloak? say I; and where is your checked apron? say I: and then she
+is so mad with me! But she is a good-natured soul, and always comes
+round after I've laughed a bit. And then then she is not so hearty and
+strong as I am, and she can't bustle about. Well, good night, Nicholas!
+I must be off. I must not forget this package though: Miss Mincing, at
+the shop, told me I must be sure and carry it very carefully, for the
+least touch would spoil it." And away went the good-natured farmer,
+carrying the parcel very carefully to the cart, but then putting it at
+the bottom of the vehicle among many other articles of great size and
+weight, where it was jumbled in a manner which would have agonised Miss
+Mincing had she witnessed it, and which did agonise Mrs. Otley when she
+extracted it from among its travelling companions, and upon examination
+found the beautiful cap, with its wires, and its bows, more fit to
+adorn a May-day chimney-sweeper, than the head of so refined a lady as
+she was.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Otley, how could you!" she exclaimed, in an accusing voice to
+her husband.
+
+"How could I do what, Lizzy, dear?"
+
+"Look at my cap!" she said; "I am sure Miss Mincing must have told you
+to take care of it."
+
+"So I did, Lizzy; I held it up between my finger and thumb, as tenderly
+as if it was a plum with the bloom on it, till I laid it quite light at
+the top of everything else in the cart."
+
+"And then you went rattling away as hard as you could drive, without
+once looking behind you to see how all the articles rode in the chaise!
+I do think you must have been a little too gay at market, Mr. Otley,"
+she said, in a small voice; "you must have made a little too free with
+some of your coarse drinking companions:" and she drew herself up.
+
+"Not a bit of it, Lizzy; none of your insinuations! I just wetted my
+bargain, as everybody should, and that was all. I'm sorry your cap is
+tumbled."
+
+"Crushed, spoiled, _abeemy_," (query _abîmé_?) "as Miss Mincing says."
+
+"But I'll tell you what: it is a sort of a flashy thing I can't abide,
+and I had rather by half see you in such a cap as old Dame Foster
+wears."
+
+"My love, you are quite uncivil: you have quite lost your manners. I am
+sure you are saying what you do not think, and I am sure that all the
+while you like to see your wife look neat and genteel."
+
+"Neat, I do, and neatness is gentility enough for me. Come, I'll buy
+you a new cap after my own fashion; and then if you take half the bows,
+and all the flowers, off this queer thing," and he held the cap up
+aloft, dangling by one of its strings, "you will have two decent caps,
+instead of one out-of-the-way concern."
+
+"You have no taste, dear Mr. Otley!" said poor Mrs. Otley, as she
+pinched, and pulled, and tried to squeeze the unfortunate cap into its
+pristine shape. Mr. Otley watched her as she put her head first on this
+side, then on that, looking distressfully on the cap, and every now and
+then giving it a masterly twitch.
+
+"Now, what puzzles me, Lizzy, is, when you look to wearing this cap:
+you can't go to church in it, and you can't drive out in the cart in
+it; and hang me if I know when you mean to put it on."
+
+"Surely, Mr. Otley, every woman should have something decent to wear if
+visitors should come."
+
+"I'm sure Farmer Dobson will never know what sort of a cap you have on
+your head, and Mr. Higgins is quite a plain sort of a man; and 'tis but
+seldom they call in, except just in the way of business."
+
+"But Mr. Dobson has a wife, and daughters too," answered Mrs. Otley
+triumphantly; "and Mrs. Higgins's lace-veil, last Sunday, was quite the
+talk of the whole church. I am sure I heard of it three times before
+I could get down the church-yard and into our chaise; and I saw all
+the bonnets moving in all the pews as she came up the aisle with her
+beautiful veil hanging down almost to her knees."
+
+Mr. Otley had nothing to reply, and Mrs. Otley remained in possession
+of the field.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+          Cancel all our vows;
+  And, when we meet at any time again,
+  Be it not seen in either of our brows
+  That we one jot of former love retain.
+
+  Michael Drayton.
+
+
+George Wells and Jane Dixon had been asked for the last time, and the
+wedding was fixed for the Wednesday following. George Wells had not
+again visited the family of the Fosters. His mind was more at ease
+since he had spoken to Susan; but he found that the sight of her meek
+countenance, the sound of her gentle voice, and the recollection of
+former days, unsettled him. Neither did Susan desire that he should
+call any more. She was never again to consider him but as the husband
+of another, and she wished for time to accustom herself to this idea
+before she again heard his voice: she wished to school and calm her
+feelings, so as to be sure her heart would not beat when she heard his
+step and recognised his hand upon the latch.
+
+The sun rose in the full effulgence of a September morning, and all
+seemed gay in the village of Overhurst: the children were all sporting
+in and out of every cottage-door: the bells began to ring a merry peal
+while the Fosters were yet at breakfast; and Betsey Smith, who was
+Jane's particular friend, was seen by old Sarah, in her white gown and
+her new shawl and ribands, carefully picking her way across the road,
+as she came from her home, in the outskirts of the parish, to join the
+rest of the party at the Dixons. Susan and her father did not see the
+bridesmaid in her gala dress; but they heard the merry chimes of the
+bells, and Susan with difficulty swallowed the cup of tea her mother
+had prepared for her. The chime of church bells is of all sounds that
+which conveys the most melancholy, or the most joyous impressions to
+the heart, according to the circumstances under which it is heard, and
+the associations with which it is connected. If the feelings are not
+in accordance with their peal, there is no sound so unutterably, so
+unaccountably sad as that of a merry chime. It may well be imagined
+that to Susan, that morning, it was more sad than a funereal toll, and
+it was a relief when the ringers relaxed from their exertions. Dame
+Foster's eyes were frequently turned upon her daughter with increased
+tenderness.
+
+The countenances of the mother and of the daughter formed a singular
+contrast. The old woman, who bore her bodily sufferings without
+uttering a complaint,--who never allowed her voice to fall into a
+cadence, which could express pain, or peevishness, or vexation,
+lest she should grieve the two objects of her love,--had, from the
+knowledge that they could not read her looks, allowed her features to
+set themselves into a form expressive of intense agony, and constant
+anxiety. Those of the daughter, on the contrary, who was aware that
+her feelings might be the subject of observation to others if suffered
+to show themselves on her face, seldom, if ever, varied in their
+placidity. She knew not when her mother might be gazing upon her; and,
+from the fear of grieving her, she had learned to wear a gentle smile,
+whatever might be her mental sufferings.
+
+The village noises gradually subsided. Susan felt that the wedding
+had drawn off the idle children and the village loungers in another
+direction. Neither Nicholas nor Sarah spoke. There was no sound except
+the incessant and buzzing hum of the autumn flies in the sunny window.
+
+"It is a beautiful day, is not it, mother?" at length inquired Susan.
+
+"Yes, my dear; a beautiful sunshiny day," answered the dame, with a
+deep-drawn sigh.
+
+"I thought it was, for the flies buzz so. I am glad of it. It is a pity
+when a wedding comes on a bad day. I hope 'tis a good omen for poor
+George!"
+
+"I have heard say, that the duller the day, the brighter the marriage;
+not but what I wish well to George and his wife."
+
+"It would be very wrong in us not to pray for his happiness, mother;
+for I have not a word to say against his behaviour to me from first to
+last."
+
+"Jane Dixon is a lucky girl. He's sure to make a good husband, for he
+has good principles."
+
+"And he her first lover and all, too!" replied Susan. "She _is_ a lucky
+girl! I used to feel sorry for her, when first George slighted her for
+me; for I saw she did not laugh and joke with him as she did with the
+other men. Now 'tis her turn to be sorry for me, and perhaps she is,
+though she has given up calling to see me almost ever since I have been
+afflicted. But it was not to be wondered at, when she began to think of
+George again. That was one thing made me almost sure what would come to
+pass at last."
+
+"Why 'twas to be expected that things should fall out much as they
+have done. But I do not know how it was, when I found George seem so
+attentive and so constant for such a long time, I thought, mayhap,
+he would always go on as he did then. I believe it is the way with
+parents, they can't help fancying their own children something beyond
+other people's; and so I began to count George would never be looking
+out for any body else. However, 'tis my belief he will never love Jane
+Dixon, as he has loved my Susan."
+
+"If he does not yet, mother, he will soon. George will be sure to love
+his wife, and he will grow to love her better and better every day,
+and then he will quite forget me; but that is all as it should be. Do
+you think, mother, I shall ever forget him? I mean to try hard to do
+so; and I don't mean to talk over what has gone before, even with you,
+mother; and then do you think at last, mother, I shall quite forget to
+think of him, except as a friend?"
+
+"I hope you may, my child; but it is always harder for a woman to
+forget than it is for a man: and 'tis harder still for you, who have
+nothing to draw off your mind. I have often heard old folks say, that
+scarce anybody marries their first love; and, if that is true, many and
+many must have got over such things. But I can't justly say myself, for
+I never kept company with anybody but your father, and we have been
+married so long that I can't frame to myself a notion of anything but
+being his wife."
+
+Susan sighed. "And that's just what I used to feel about George; and I
+always thought he and I should be just such another couple as you and
+father."
+
+Susan had indulged herself in thinking and speaking of George as
+her lover till the images of the past had usurped the place of the
+realities of the present. The growing hum of voices struck her quick
+ear. The village was all alive again. The shouts of children and the
+steps of passers-by recalled her to herself, and painfully dispelled
+the recollections which had taken possession of her mind. It was over,
+and he was now the husband of another; and she felt wicked in having
+given way to such thoughts.
+
+"Mother, we must not say any more: the time is come when it is not
+enough for me to put a guard upon my words and my actions; I must
+now set a watch over my thoughts. I do not often talk as I have done
+to-day; and I felt as if it would do me good to speak of him once
+more:--but there's an end now."
+
+Towards the afternoon the bridal party paraded the humble street,
+as is the custom among the peasantry. The bride and bridegroom, and
+the bride's-maids and bride's-men, dressed in their holiday apparel,
+and paired for the day, perambulated the most frequented parts of
+Overhurst; the laughing blushing bride received the hearty, if not
+refined, congratulations of her neighbours; and, probably, among some
+of the wedding guests the foundations were laid for another festival of
+the same kind.
+
+George had as much as possible curtailed the usual march of the little
+procession, and had contrived that only once did they pass before
+Master Foster's cottage. He was ashamed on his wedding-day to say he
+wished to avoid that part of the village, and yet his heart sunk within
+him as he approached it. He almost rejoiced for a moment that Susan
+could not _see_ the merry troop; and, as he passed, he dared not raise
+his eyes in that direction.
+
+Many remarked that day, that Jane was all joy and smiles as would have
+befitted the bridegroom, while George's down-cast looks would better
+have suited the bride.
+
+Dame Foster was at her window, and saw the party advancing. Susan
+heard them almost before her mother perceived them, and inquired if
+the wedding procession was not passing. Her mother answered in the
+affirmative; and could not help adding, that she had not believed
+George would have been so unfeeling.
+
+"Do you see him, mother?"
+
+"Yes, there he is, Susan, sure enough!"
+
+"Oh, mother, how does he look? I gave him a handkerchief two years ago
+last summer, and he said he should keep it for his wedding-day. He has
+not got that on, sure?"
+
+"'Tis a checked brown and yellow he wears round his neck."
+
+"No! 'twas a spotted blue I gave him."
+
+"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the dame, in a more kindly tone; "he holds
+down his head, and now he looks the other way,--quite away from his
+bride, up the hill. Poor fellow! he can't bear to turn this way after
+all. I'll be bound he does feel it!"
+
+"Jane must know all that has been between him and me," said Susan with
+some bitterness; "and I do think she need not have led him this way
+neither! But I am glad you have seen him, mother. I like to know how he
+looks; for I may still wish him well." Susan's fingers resumed their
+knitting, and the dame proceeded with her darning.
+
+George would have silenced their merriment had he had the presence of
+mind to do so; but a peasant bridegroom is of all creatures the most
+awkward, the most shame-faced: far from bearing himself as the man who
+has won the prize he sought, he has the air of one who has been fairly
+caught in the snare, and has no longer a chance of escape.
+
+George, however, felt it impossible to again march, as it were in
+triumph, by Susan's door; he led Jane the back way into the village: it
+was nearly the same path he had taken the day he had told Susan of his
+marriage: and it is to be feared that Jane did not find her George the
+more gay or the more tender for being removed from the observation of
+others. Presently the sounds of gay voices once more grew upon the ear
+as the party returned on their steps.
+
+Dame Foster again put down her spectacles, and gazed through the
+window: "God bless him!" she exclaimed; "he could not stand it again,
+and he is not with the rest."
+
+"Not gone away and left Jane?" inquired Susan in a tone of
+alarm,--"that would not be right."
+
+"No, no, she's gone too. I warrant me, they've taken the back way round
+to Master Dixon's, and I like him all the better." The dame felt more
+in charity with him than she had done a few minutes before; and Susan
+was gratified, and yet grieved, that George should not be thoroughly
+happy. "He will be so soon!" she thought, however;--and so he was.
+
+He enjoyed the comforts of a tidy home, a blazing fire, a warm supper,
+and a smiling wife to greet him on his return from work. His days were
+occupied in his accustomed labour; his after-hours were filled up by
+cultivating his garden; and the helpmate who received him kindly, and
+provided him with comforts, became daily more endeared to him. The
+birth of a child gave him a fresh object of interest, and George was a
+happy man.
+
+Susan also was calm, if not happy. He was another woman's husband--he
+was a married man--and all was over for her. The barrier was so
+entirely insuperable that her feelings did change, that she did learn
+to think of him, merely as of a kind friend, and that the past did at
+length appear to her only as a dream.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+        ----And now, their wanderings o'er,
+  They, 'mid embowering trees, descry their home once more.
+  Home, thrilling sound! To the time-sobered breast,
+    Thronged with remembrances, not sweet alone
+  But sacred, and with sadder thoughts imprest
+    Of cherished sorrows, and dear hopes o'erthrown;
+  While to young hearts, that yet have only known
+    The hey-day joys, and buoyancy of spring,
+  It speaks of happiness again their own:
+    Of throbbing bosoms, bright eyes glistening,
+    And laughter's merry peal, that through the hall shall ring.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+
+Three years had elapsed since the Mowbrays had left Overhurst, and all
+the parish was now joyfully expecting their return. Again the village
+bells rang a joyful peal, again the village children shouted, and all
+was animation in Overhurst and at the Park.
+
+Susan was the first to hear the carriage-wheels. "Yes, sure enough,
+here they are!" said her mother; "three carriages full: and such a
+load, and the horses so jaded, poor things! And there's Mrs. Mowbray
+nodding as she goes along; and there's Miss Fanny--no--why, I declare
+if it is not Miss Emma, with her head quite out of the window. Well,
+I'm glad enough to see them all come home again. And there's the
+'squire on the box; he turns round to speak to Mrs. Mowbray; he looks
+hearty still. And there is such a queer foreigner behind, with such
+black whiskers. And sure that can never be Jenny Simpson? Her very face
+seems Frenchified! I'll be bound her own mother will hardly know Jenny
+when she sees her." Not long afterwards the dame's eyes were again
+attracted to the window. "Why, sure, there can't be another carriage
+full of them! Why, if it is not Captain and Mrs. Harcourt! And there
+is the baby! May the Lord bless them all! It will be a happy evening
+at Overhurst Park!" And Dame Foster sighed while she rejoiced in their
+happiness.
+
+And heart-felt joy and social gaiety did reign in Overhurst Park. The
+delight of finding themselves again in Old England, the joy of meeting
+after a long separation, the raptures of Mrs. Mowbray over her first
+grandchild, the pleasure of visiting their old haunts, occupied the
+ladies for the first day or two; but Mr. Mowbray had been looking
+about him, and had made himself acquainted with all the village gossip.
+
+On the third day after their return, he bustled into the drawing-room,
+where his wife and daughters were eagerly displaying to Alice and
+Captain Harcourt their relics from the various places they had visited
+in their travels, and were explaining the exact point of view from
+which such a drawing had been made, or directing their attention to
+an invisible dot in a pencil sketch, which stood for 'imperial Rome'
+in the distance, or helping out by descriptions _vivâ voce_ the tints
+which did not express the roseate hues of evening upon the glaciers.
+
+"I do not know what all the pretty women in the parish have been
+thinking of while we have been away," interrupted Mr. Mowbray. "There's
+poor Susan Foster! Have you heard, my dear, about poor Susan Foster?"
+
+"No, indeed. I have been so occupied with Alice and her baby, and so
+full of our own travels, I have not had time to go into the village.
+What has happened? You quite alarm me."
+
+"Why, I really am put out about it myself. She is gone blind! Pretty
+Susan, with the bright eyes! I am quite vexed. If it had been any
+other girl in the village, I should not have felt it so much. Those
+soft brilliant eyes, that could sparkle so merrily too. And then, that
+pretty Mrs. Otley! she is going into a consumption."
+
+"Susan--Susan Foster blind!" exclaimed the ladies all together.
+
+"Impossible!" cried Mrs. Harcourt; the hopeful, happy, Mrs. Harcourt.
+
+"It is quite true, my dear Alice: she is blind! and what's more, George
+Wells has jilted her, and has married Jane Dixon. The fellow has some
+taste, I will say that for him. She was as fine a girl as ever I saw,
+though hers is not such a high style of beauty as Susan Foster's. Susan
+Foster, if she had been a lady, would have looked well anywhere; now,
+Jane Dixon would never have told in a ball-room: and then, she is so
+altered; she is grown coarse; and blue eyes soon lose their blueness
+and turn grey, while black eyes retain their brilliancy----"
+
+Mr. Mowbray might have proceeded at greater length in discussing the
+comparative merits of black eyes and blue, but neither filial piety,
+nor conjugal devotion, could enable the listeners to keep silence any
+longer. "Oh, papa!" exclaimed Alice, "George Wells married to another
+girl! and Susan Foster blind, and jilted! and I had fancied her so
+happy in that cottage close to her parents! I remember begging you so
+to let them have it, because I thought how I should have liked to live
+close to you and mamma!"
+
+"Yes, my dear Alice! I have seen Susan myself; and there she sits
+knitting, by the side of her blind father. I declare it was almost too
+much for me. I got away as quickly as I could, for I hate seeing sad
+sights when one can do no good; I always make it a rule to get out of
+the way."
+
+"But do you think it impossible we should be able to do her any good?
+Let us go and see them, mamma; perhaps we may think of something. I
+always was so fond of Susan, and we were to have been married the same
+month! Poor dear Susan!"
+
+"Oh, yes!" cried Emma; "at all events it will please them. Old Nicholas
+used to be so fond of me. How well I remember he used to put his hand
+upon my head to feel how much I was grown! Do let us go directly, and
+pay them a visit, dear mamma."
+
+Mrs. Mowbray was shocked and grieved at Mr. Mowbray's intelligence, and
+the whole party was soon in motion along the well-known paths.
+
+"I wonder how Susan looks!" said Emma, in a low voice, while a
+sensation of awe stole over her youthful mind at the prospect of an
+interview with a person who had undergone a great misfortune since she
+had seen her last.
+
+Dame Foster soon recognised the visitors she had been watching for.
+"Here they are!" she exclaimed; "I was sure Mrs. Mowbray would come
+and ask after us before long. And there's Miss Alice--Mrs. Harcourt I
+should say--looks prettier than ever;--and Miss Fanny! I'm sure she
+does not seem as if anything had ever been the matter with her;--and
+Miss Emma, why she is almost a woman now." Susan sighed, and thought
+what sad changes had taken place in her fate since last they had
+received a visit from the 'squire's family.
+
+As they approached the little garden-gate, the bearing of all the party
+became subdued and saddened; and they gently opened the door, and
+followed each other quietly into the cottage. The dame and Susan both
+rose, and Susan court'sied, but not exactly in the direction in which
+Mrs. Mowbray stood. She soon made them resume their seats, and then
+inquired after old Sarah's health.
+
+"Thank you kindly, madam, I am still able to get about, though
+sometimes I think my pains make me grow weaker; but I must try to the
+last to do for these poor afflicted creatures, madam. You have heard, I
+dare say, madam, of all our misfortunes. And there's my poor girl now,
+no better off than her old father. But 'tis as pleases God, and it is
+not for us to murmur."
+
+The old dame had at once entered upon the subject in the plain, direct
+manner usual to the poor, and the restraint which might have rendered
+such a meeting distressing among the higher orders was soon dispelled.
+
+"My poor Susan!" said Mrs. Mowbray, going up to Susan, and taking her
+by the hand, "I have only this moment heard of your afflictions, or I
+should have been here sooner. I wonder such sad news should not have
+reached me abroad, but the death of poor Mr. Sandford has been a loss
+to us all. He knew my village friends, and he would have told me about
+you. And you, Nicholas, how are you? How do you bear up against these
+trials?"
+
+"Pretty middling, madam; pretty middling: I am quite used to my own,
+and I don't think anything at all about them; but I can't say I have
+rightly got over hearing my poor girl ask her mother whether 'tis a
+fine day or not, or who it is going by the door, and whether her shawl
+is pinned straight, or her cap as it should be. Them things go hard
+with me. But, as my good woman says, 'tis as it pleases the Lord! Are
+all the young ladies with you, madam?" he added, after a short pause.
+"I warrant me they are grown very tall," and he stretched out his hand:
+"I should like to put my hand on Miss Emma's head once more, bless her
+heart!"
+
+"You must put it a good deal higher," said Emma, as the old man was
+feeling at the same height he had been used to feel, three years
+before; and she took his brown withered hand and lifted it to the crown
+of her head.
+
+"Sure!" he exclaimed in almost childish wonderment.
+
+Alice meanwhile had been talking to Susan, and had extracted from her
+some account of the mode in which her eyes had been attacked, although
+it was with pain she was brought to allude to anything connected with
+Alice's wedding-day and the happiness which at that time was hers.
+She could not help an inward shudder when she heard Captain Harcourt
+address his wife: "Alice, my love, I think you should return home to
+the baby; I would not have you out too late." The picture of home
+happiness, wedded love, maternal affection, all the visions in which
+she had indulged as almost realities on that day, rushed over her mind;
+but she remembered that George was the husband of another, that another
+was the mother of his child!
+
+When they returned home, Alice eagerly recounted to Mr. Mowbray an
+instance of a person, whose blindness had been described as somewhat
+resembling Susan's, having been restored to sight by an oculist with
+whom Captain Harcourt was acquainted. With the sanguine disposition of
+youth, she felt convinced that something might be done; that Susan need
+not be condemned to perpetual blindness.
+
+The more sober part of the company did not enter quite so warmly into
+Alice's hopes, but all were equally ardent in their wishes that Susan
+might recover her sight. Captain Harcourt's friend had the care of an
+eye-hospital; so that Alice declared it would be the easiest thing in
+the world to secure Susan's admission, and the most certain thing in
+the world that she would be immediately cured. The only difficulty that
+remained was to get over the prejudice entertained by many of the poor
+against hospitals in general, and the horror they had of parting from
+their friends.
+
+"But Dame Foster is so reasonable!" exclaimed Alice; "and Nicholas is
+so quiet, he will never oppose it; and as for Susan, what would one not
+do to recover one's sight? To be sure, her lover is married now, and
+even the restoration of her sight cannot restore her to happiness, poor
+thing! But still! think of the joy of seeing the blue heavens and the
+green fields again!"
+
+"Oh, yes, dear Alice," answered Mrs. Mowbray, "if we could indeed
+restore to Susan her eye-sight, she might look forward to many happy
+years. She is still young, and she is so pretty, that I dare say she
+may yet marry comfortably."
+
+"Oh, mamma!" exclaimed Alice reproachfully.
+
+"I am sorry to have shocked you, my love! and if you wish it so much,
+we will suppose that Susan shall never marry."
+
+"Mamma, you speak as if marrying was marrying, and as if it did not
+signify whom one married."
+
+"Not exactly, my dear! but I do imagine it just possible that after
+a certain number of years have elapsed, a woman may be happy with a
+man who was not her first love. But now we will not disturb ourselves
+concerning the use Susan may make of her eyes when they are restored
+to her. We will first adopt all possible means to accomplish this most
+desirable, but, I fear, improbable event."
+
+"She has had no advice yet but that ignorant man's at Turnholme.
+Captain Harcourt shall write to-day, and the moment we get the answer,
+I will undertake to persuade Susan and her parents to consent to our
+proposal."
+
+All prospered according to Alice's wishes. Her _protégée_ was to be
+admitted into the hospital, where she was to meet with every kindness
+and attention. Susan gladly agreed to any plan which might possibly
+enable her to assist her parents more effectually than she could at
+present; old Nicholas thought it so "against nature" that the young
+should be afflicted like the old, that he was pleased and hopeful,
+while Sarah assented, but assented despondingly.
+
+"If it is God's will our poor child should be blind, why there is no
+use in man's fighting against Providence. Howsoever, there's no saying
+these may not be the means by which God has ordained she is to be
+cured; so it is not for us poor mortals to say any thing against it: we
+will try, and hope for the best; but it is an awful thing to have our
+blind child go quite away from us to that great town."
+
+"But we will send somebody with her, dame, who shall see her safe into
+the hospital."
+
+"Thank you, madam, you are very good; and let it turn out which way it
+will, we shall always be grateful."
+
+The evening before Susan's departure, Farmer Otley called: "I thought
+I would just look in and wish you good luck, Susan; we shall all be
+heartily glad to hear of your doing well, though my good woman will
+miss your nice worsted-work. She would have come down to see you too,
+but that she is not quite as she should be. She has got a nasty cough
+that keeps plaguing her. I tell her 'tis because she will wear such
+smart thin shawls, instead of a good warm cloak; but young women they
+will have their own way: I dare say you have a way of your own too,
+Susan, though I don't know what it is."
+
+Susan smiled. "I believe I was as headstrong as other young folks once;
+but a poor helpless creature like me, who is quite dependent upon
+mother's goodness, has no business with any fancies now."
+
+"Well, Susan, I hope you will come back with a will of your own, that's
+all: and I dare say, dame, you won't mind."
+
+"My poor Susan! I should be glad enough, indeed, to see her her
+own sprightly self again; and 'tis our duty not to throw away any
+opportunity that God puts in our way."
+
+Susan was safely conveyed to the hospital, and from thence the
+reports, which were received by Mrs. Harcourt, and duly transmitted to
+Nicholas and Sarah Foster, were satisfactory. The hopeful Alice was
+not disappointed in her eager desire to serve Susan; and before six
+weeks had elapsed, she was able to run breathless to the cottage of
+the Fosters, with the surgeon's letter in her hand, announcing that
+Susan's sight was safe, and that in another month she might return to
+her friends, in health and happiness.
+
+Old Sarah clasped her hands in speechless joy; the tears rolled in
+torrents unheeded down her face: her soul was absorbed in prayer. Old
+Nicholas groped about till he found Mrs. Harcourt's hand; and seizing
+it, the old man suddenly fell on his trembling knees before her.
+
+"God bless you, my dear young lady, and God reward you! I know it
+is to God we first owe our gratitude; but you have been the blessed
+instrument in his hands. God bless you!" and the old man sobbed aloud.
+Alice, inexpressibly distressed and affected, assisted him to rise,
+replaced him in his seat, extricated her hand from his grasp, and
+hastened away from a scene which, although delightful, was almost too
+overcoming.
+
+At length Susan herself wrote to them: it was the first act of her
+restored sight: and the dame placed the letter before her on the deal
+table, with her prayer-book and her spectacles, and every day did
+she look at it, and every day did she read it over, word by word, to
+Nicholas, and every day did Nicholas say "God bless Miss Alice that
+was!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  Wise Nature is less partial in her love
+  Than ye do judge withal.   When lavishly
+  She pours her gifts profuse, satiety
+  Doth blunt the sense: when sparingly dispensed,
+  A keener relish doth supply the measure;
+  And but to live and see the blessed skies
+  (A good unmarked, unheeded, till 'tis lost,)
+  Is rapture all too big for utterance
+  To one long shut from heaven's light.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+
+It was a joyful day in Overhurst when Susan Foster returned to her
+home. The old man and his wife had toddled up to the village inn,
+where the coach stopped; and there they stood, Sarah to catch the
+first glimpse of her, Nicholas to hear the first sound of her voice.
+Many a head was popped out of a casement window, and many a doorway
+was thronged with its inhabitants, at the hour when the coach usually
+arrived. George Wells was lingering in a field hard by, occasionally
+looking over the stile. He had twice called upon the Fosters during
+Susan's absence, and had inquired, in an awkward, hurried manner, how
+she was. The inquiry was meant kindly, and it was taken kindly.
+
+The coach drove up to the little inn, and out sprang Susan, blooming
+and lovely as ever. The old woman nearly fainted; and the neighbours
+assisted her and the trembling Nicholas into the little parlour of the
+inn.
+
+In about half an hour, Susan was seen supporting the feeble steps of
+her mother on one side, and on the other those of her father, down the
+village street, to her own dear home. George Wells had disappeared; and
+the other neighbours did not intrude upon the sacred joy of that family
+party.
+
+"Oh, mother, did we ever expect to be so happy!" exclaimed Susan,
+as they entered the little garden: "And there is my own moss-rose
+blowing!"--a slight pang shot through her, for George had given her the
+tree: but she was too happy, too grateful, to allow any but feelings of
+thankfulness to find a place in her heart.
+
+With what eagerness did Susan hasten to busy herself about the
+household duties! with what pleasure did she resume her former
+privilege of settling her father in his seat, of preparing the supper,
+of assisting her father up stairs! She had thought the first sight of
+the heavens glorious, she had gazed with rapture on the face of Nature,
+she had recognised with tenderness each well-known spot of her youthful
+home; but all these had been but lesser joys in comparison with that
+of once more ministering to the comfort of her parents, after having
+so long been a burthen to them. Never were prayers of more heart-felt
+gratitude offered up to the throne of Grace than those of the Foster
+family that night.
+
+Early the next morning, Susan repaired to Overhurst Park, to make her
+acknowledgments to her benefactors; and as she walked alone through
+those paths where she had so often wandered with George, which she
+had never beheld since she had seen them with him, did not the memory
+of former days come over her with almost over-whelming power? She
+thought of him certainly, but she thought of him as the contented
+husband of another; and after having drunk so deeply of the bitter cup
+of affliction, her present comparative happiness seemed as great as
+mortals might dare to hope for in this world. She looked with kindly
+feelings on all around her. There was no touch of bitterness in her
+emotions.
+
+Farmer Otley was one of the first to welcome Susan home again. He
+told her his wife was still very poorly, "and that she would take it
+very kind" if Susan would step up and pay her a visit some evening at
+Holmy-bank.
+
+"Well, Susan," he said, "I need not be fetching you any more worsted
+from Turnholme now. You won't send me to market any more. Those eyes of
+yours can see to take up your old trade again. I dare say my mistress
+will have some needle-work for you, for she is a rare bad hand at
+plain-work herself."
+
+A few days after Susan's return, she was employed in tying up some
+straggling flowers, and in winding the honeysuckle round the porch,
+enjoying the long untasted pleasure of attending to her little garden,
+when, on looking round, she saw George Wells loitering under the hedge
+of the field which we have often described as being opposite Master
+Foster's house.
+
+Upon finding himself observed, George made a sudden effort, and leaping
+the stile, he crossed the road, came straight up to Susan, and, before
+she had time to collect herself, he had taken her hand, shaken it, and
+had hastily uttered,--
+
+"I just came to tell you I was heartily glad you had got your eye-sight
+back again, Susan; and to wish you health and happiness, Susan: that's
+all:" and he was gone.
+
+Susan trembled all over; she tottered back into the cottage, and sat
+down.
+
+"I have just seen him, mother, for the first time these three years!
+But it was not so much the seeing him, as the hearing his voice again.
+It has put me quite in a tremble; but I shan't mind it another time. I
+_must_ not mind it, you know, mother; and I am so happy, oh! so very
+happy, to be able to do for you and father, that I do not feel as if I
+had any thing left to wish for!"
+
+In a few days Susan paid her promised visit to Mrs. Otley, and she
+found her indeed sadly altered. She passed through the kitchen, where
+all bore the marks of the mistress's eye being wanted: a servant-girl,
+in greasy _papillotes_, the children in smart frocks, but with unwashed
+faces; the copper vessels, instead of being the pride of the housewife
+and of her assistants, all out of their places; the floor, as if it had
+not been swept and sanded for a week. The slip-shod maid, with a dirty
+apron, ushered Susan into the parlour within, where Mrs. Otley sat in
+a shabby-genteel arm-chair, cowering over the fire, although it was in
+June.
+
+Her cheeks were sunk, and there was a hectic flush upon them which
+alarmed Susan; her voice sounded hollow. The smart cap, of which we
+have already made mention, had now fallen from being a "dress cap"
+into being an "every-day cap," a purpose for which it was peculiarly
+unfitted. Its weak wires, and its heavy ribands, shook in a most
+unseemly manner as the sick woman restlessly moved her head. She laid
+down the well-thumbed novel she was reading:--"I am glad to see you,
+Susan," she said. "Why you look surprisingly well, as blooming as a
+rose. Mr. Otley told me how well you were, and he said your eyes were
+as black as sloes: I was quite curious to see you. Sit down, Susan,
+and tell me all about it." But before Susan could begin to speak, Mrs.
+Otley continued;--"I am such a poor creature--this cough fidgets me so;
+but I am a great deal better, only the weather is so unseasonable, and
+the cold winds always affect my nerves. Do you think I look ill?"
+
+"You are something thinner than you were, ma'am," answered Susan; "but
+it is three years since I saw you last, and three years is a long time."
+
+"So it is a long time, Susan; but now tell me, what did they do to you
+in London? I am so curious! Did you stay in the hospital all the time?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, I never left it, except to come home."
+
+"What! did you not see any of the sights? Not the King's palace, nor
+the theatres, nor anything?"
+
+"No, ma'am, 'tis against the rules for people to go out visiting; and
+sure, as soon as I was well, I wanted to see nothing so much as father,
+and mother, and home. As soon as I was able, they set me to work,
+cleaning the place, and helping to wait on other poor creatures who
+were worse than myself."
+
+"Poor girl, that was very hard!"
+
+"Oh no, ma'am; I was very glad to be useful, and I was a deal happier
+than being idle. I missed my worsted-work sadly at first; the time
+seems so very long when one has nothing to do--nothing but to think,
+think, think!"
+
+Just then Farmer Otley entered.
+
+"I say, Lizzy, where are the keys of the cellar? I want to get
+something to drink for Mr. Hawkins, who is waiting at the door."
+
+"Dear Mr. Otley, don't speak so quick; you hurry one. The keys are in
+my reticule; it is up stairs. Tell Hetty to fetch it."
+
+Mr. Otley went after Hetty, and Mrs. Otley remarked, "Poor dear Mr.
+Otley! his manner is so abrupt! He is not used to an invalid!"
+
+"Lizzy, I can't find your bag anywhere. The keys should be in your
+pocket: feel for them there."
+
+"Dear Mr. Otley, you know I do not wear pockets; a reticule is so much
+more convenient."
+
+"Well! but where are the keys? Mr. Hawkins will think I grudge him a
+glass of ale."
+
+"Oh! my love, be patient; you quite make me shake!" and she began in a
+really nervous trepidation to hunt for the reticule, which was found in
+her chair.
+
+Mrs. Otley and Susan resumed their conversation, when presently the
+farmer returned.
+
+"Lizzy, you have not got a needle and thread handy, have you? I told
+you I thought this button would soon be off, and so it is."
+
+"Oh, dear Mr. Otley, I thought you had told Hetty to sew it on
+yesterday. Do call her, and tell her to bring my work-box here." The
+good-natured husband called Hetty, and after some time the needle and
+thread were found.
+
+"Come, look sharp; I must be at the Vestry at three o'clock; and I
+don't like to be seen with my waistcoat all any how."
+
+Mrs. Otley's fingers really trembled as she was sewing on the button.
+"Why, Lizzy, I have hurried you! I am sorry for that. There, never
+mind; don't fluster yourself."
+
+"You never think of one's nerves, Mr. Otley."
+
+"I'll tell you what, Lizzy, if you did not talk about them, or if you
+did not call them nerves, I should think about them. I see you are
+not well, and you have got a bad cough, and I must take care of you;
+so don't fret yourself, but keep quiet. I'll try to see to the things
+myself, though in-door matters are not in my way: but we must make a
+shift."
+
+"I am sure Mrs. Glover never did all the drudgery poor dear Mr. Otley
+expects me to do," said Mrs. Otley, when her husband had left them: "I
+do not think a wife is to be a servant," she continued, with a toss of
+her head.
+
+Susan thought that a wife ought to see that all was well regulated in
+her household; but poor Mrs. Otley was evidently ill and suffering,
+and she pitied her. As Susan went away, she saw the little girl crying
+because the maid had slapped her, and the little boy slapping the
+maid because she would not let him put his fingers into the pie she
+was preparing. She retraced her steps to her humble home, in the full
+persuasion that she was happier than any of the inmates of Holmy-bank
+farm.
+
+Poor Mrs. Otley became rapidly worse; and before many months had
+elapsed, her troubles and her finery were alike brought to a final
+close, and she was laid in the quiet grave.
+
+Mr. Otley remained a widower with two young children. He was a
+sincere mourner. The natural kindness of his heart had caused him to
+become truly attached to the woman whose preference for him had at
+first been her principal attraction; and her sufferings latterly had
+still farther endeared her. But when the freshness of his grief had
+subsided; when he found that a bustling old body, whom he took as
+housekeeper, kept all things around him far more neat and trim than
+they had formerly been; when he found his kitchen clean, his buttons
+sewed on, his shirts mended; and, above all, when everything he asked
+for was always forthcoming from that compendious receptacle, the old
+woman's pockets,--his spirits gradually revived. His children were
+less fretful, their faces were cleaner; and he only lamented that the
+old woman could not read, and that he had not much leisure himself to
+attend to their morals, or their education. By degrees he began to
+think that a younger woman might perhaps attend to the dairy and to the
+chickens as effectually as old Goody Thompson; that a younger woman
+might make the new servant-girl (for Mrs. Thompson had dismissed the
+slip-shod maiden) scour the pots and pans as perseveringly; and he also
+began to think it would be more agreeable to have a younger face and a
+brighter smile welcome him home, after his labours of the day. And whom
+could he find who would be more active and useful than Susan Foster?
+Who was calculated to train his children's minds to duty, submission,
+and religious resignation, more practically than Susan Foster? And
+where could he find a brighter smile, or more sparkling eyes, than
+Susan Foster's.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  Bairns, and their bairns, make sure a firmer tie
+  Than aught in love the like of us can spy.
+  See yon twa elms that grow up side by side:
+  Suppose them, some years syne, bridegroom and bride;
+  Nearer and nearer ilka year they've pressed,
+  Till wide their spreading branches have increased.
+  This shields the other frae the eastlin blast,
+  That in return defends it frae the west.
+
+  Allan Ramsay.
+
+
+Although Mr. Otley had no longer any commissions to perform at
+Turnholme for Susan, her worsted-work having given place to her former
+occupation of needle-work, still he found many an excuse for calling.
+Sometimes he would send the old man a rabbit for his supper; sometimes
+a cheese, the handy-work of Dame Thompson. At another time, he gave
+Susan a hive of young bees which had just swarmed, as the dame had
+said she was fond of honey. By degrees he greatly won upon the esteem
+of Susan by his attentions to her parents. He was in a situation
+comparatively so much superior to theirs, that he had the opportunity
+of appearing to them almost in the light of a benefactor. Some time,
+however, elapsed before he ventured to express his feelings in any
+mode but by kindness to her parents. The sorrows she had known, the
+trials she had gone through, and the composed resignation to which
+she had trained her mind during her affliction, had left a sedate
+self-possession in her cheerfulness. He was aware of her previous
+attachment, and he did not feel sure whether an offer of marriage would
+be received, in the manner probable, from the relative situation of the
+parties.
+
+At length his little presents became more pointedly addressed to her.
+His basket of ripest gooseberries was given to her. He would invite
+her to take a walk to look at his garden and gather herself a nosegay.
+He sometimes lamented to her that his children were not sufficiently
+attended to. "He did not wish to bring them up to over-gentility, but
+he wished them to have a good plain education. He should like his girl
+to be as good a scholar as Susan was; that would do for him: plain
+useful learning, plain useful good sense, and plain useful work. He
+wished Susan would step up and see how little Lizzy went on." But this
+Susan did not like to do.
+
+The neighbours already began to talk, and the old dame already began
+to hope her girl was likely to be well settled in life; "and then,"
+as she said to Nicholas one evening, when Susan was gone out to carry
+home some work,--"and then, Nicholas, it does not signify how soon it
+pleases the Lord to take us: then I may pray, as I used to do, that I
+may never see another sun rise when once it has pleased God to call you
+to himself."
+
+Susan herself had no pride of romance about her. She esteemed Mr.
+Otley, and she was aware that he became every day more particular in
+his manner to her; she knew that the home he could offer her would be
+comfortable beyond what she had any right to expect; his plain manners
+appeared to her neither rough, nor homely, and she felt sorry for the
+little children, who were deprived of a mother's tenderness. Such being
+the state of mind of the parties in question, the sequel may easily
+be guessed. Mr. Otley stopped one evening on his way from market, as
+it was now grown his custom to do, and good-naturedly reproached Susan
+for not having been to see his garden or his children. She was ashamed
+to give the true reason, and said she had been very busy with a job of
+needle-work.
+
+"I don't like you to work so hard, Susan: it is not good for her, is
+it, dame? Young folks should take a little pleasure sometimes. I know I
+should like to see Susan in a home of her own, with a servant-girl to
+do her work for her. She is too good by half to be always drudging."
+
+"Thank you kindly for your good wishes, Master Otley," answered old
+Nicholas. "I should like to know my poor girl had a good home over her
+head when I am dead and gone."
+
+"Ah! that's what a good father is sure to think of. You would
+rest easier, Master Nicholas, if you knew Susan was mistress of a
+comfortable place of her own, and was never likely to come to want as
+long as she lived."
+
+"Ah, sure! should I," replied the simple old man, who was in great
+hopes Mr. Otley was coming straight to the point. And he wished no
+better than to come to the point: but it is not easy to propose in
+company; and, straightforward as Mr. Otley was, he began to feel as shy
+as others do in this predicament.
+
+"I should like to see Susan in a home of her own very much," repeated
+Mr. Otley, slowly and awkwardly, and looking out of the window when he
+had spoken.
+
+The dame, who plainly perceived what was in the farmer's mind, thought
+that if Susan was out of the way he might speak openly to them, or
+if Susan was alone, he might find courage to declare himself to her.
+She therefore, with feminine resource, told Susan to go to the shop
+and buy her a pennyworth of ginger to put in her tea. Susan had left
+the cottage in a moment, for she found herself becoming confused and
+uncomfortable. Mr. Otley lingered a short time, and said nothing; but
+when he left the cottage he watched for Susan's return, and their
+conversation was prolonged till the dame began to doubt whether she
+should ever have any ginger at all.
+
+When Susan re-appeared, Mr. Otley was with her. She looked blushing,
+but happy; the farmer confused, but glorious, as he told Nicholas
+he "hoped he would rest soundly that night; that is, if he thought
+Holmy-bank farm was a place where Susan might make herself comfortable,
+and if he could trust to him to see she never wanted for anything as
+long as he lived."
+
+The old people did not attempt to conceal their satisfaction, and never
+was son-in-law more cordially received.
+
+We have already celebrated two weddings in this short tale, and it was
+not long before a third took place in the village of Overhurst. Mr.
+and Mrs. Otley ate their wedding-dinner in the Fosters' cottage; for
+Mr. Otley had had enough of finery and fine folks, and he enjoyed the
+heart-felt happiness of those whom he felt he rendered happy. When he
+took his bride home in the evening, he left the old couple in a state
+of blissful composure of mind which they had once thought could never
+again be theirs on this side the grave; and when they retired to rest,
+they returned their fervent thanks to Heaven for having been allowed to
+see this day: and now they felt their task was ended, their duties were
+fulfilled.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  Then be it still my nightly prayer
+    To live to close his sightless eyes,
+  For this my torturing pains to bear,
+    Then sink in death ere morning rise!
+
+  With steadfast hope, and faith serene,
+    The humble prayer of duteous love,
+  Pour'd ardent forth in anguish keen,
+    Was heard where mercy rules above!
+
+  _Unpublished Ballad from Nature._
+
+
+Susan Foster's unexpected prosperity was not regarded without envy by
+some of her neighbours; and old Nelly, her former mistress in the art
+of knitting, whose temper had not grown more gentle with increasing
+years and infirmities, failed not to remark to her grand-daughter that
+"she could not see, for her part, what there was about Susan Foster
+that people should always make such a fuss with her. Other poor souls
+had their afflictions, but the gentlefolks did not send them to all the
+great London doctors to be cured; other girls had had bad eyes before
+now, but they did not get a good husband a bit the more. And if Susan
+Foster was so lucky as to marry so much above her station, she thought
+she ought to do something for her poor old father and mother, who had
+taken care of her when she was blind. Folks might talk of Susan being
+such a dutiful daughter, and all that; but for her part she did not see
+what the old people were the better for having a farmer's wife for a
+daughter."
+
+"I am sure," answered Patty, "I cannot see anything particular about
+Susan, grandmother; I think there are many girls in Overhurst who are
+quite fit to be her match. And many a time since I have grown big,
+I have wondered why I used to be so pleased when Susan Foster spoke
+kindly to me, and told me I was a good girl. I think she took upon her
+very much; for though she may be quite a great lady, and may ride in
+her one-horse chay now, she was no better than myself then!"
+
+"Ah, my dear Patty! 'tis the way of those people who seem to have
+such a respect for themselves, to make themselves somehow respected
+by others. However, Susan is but a labourer's daughter after all, and
+I don't see why you should demean yourself to her: I have no patience
+with your upstarts. A poor girl that could not have earned a farthing,
+and must have gone into the workhouse, if I had not taught her how to
+knit! and now she goes driving by with her husband, and has called
+upon me but once, though she has been married a fortnight; and has
+never sent me anything but a basket of apples out of her orchard, which
+don't cost her a farthing." Just at this moment a boy knocked at the
+door, and Patty lifted the latch to admit him. "Mrs. Otley's respects,
+ma'am, and she sends you a goose, and a bottle of Farmer Otley's elder
+wine, that you may drink her health on old Michaelmas day." Nelly was
+a little at a loss what to reply; but after contemplating the present
+with a satisfaction which she could not quite controul, she consoled
+herself by saying to Patty as soon as the boy was gone: "Mrs. Otley's
+respects, indeed! I think it would have been more respectful if Madam
+Otley had called herself with her present, instead of sending it by a
+scrubby boy."
+
+It may well be imagined that if Susan did not forget old Nelly, she
+took care that her parents should never want any comfort which her
+affection could provide for them, and her kind-hearted husband seconded
+her wishes to the uttermost. He would willingly have had them remove
+to Holmy-bank; but the old man had learned to grope his way about his
+own cottage, and he would have missed his accustomed walk to his own
+stile, and they found it was kinder not to break in upon his habits.
+
+Mrs. Thompson had resigned her charge to Susan; and Mr. Otley found
+that not only were the dairy and poultry-yard as efficiently attended
+to, but that his children became orderly and submissive, and that his
+house soon acquired that air of home comfort, of tasteful neatness,
+that a wife only can give it. In her dress Susan took old Mrs. Otley,
+the mother, as her model, although she somewhat accommodated herself
+to the fashion. She was a goodly sight to look upon as she sat by her
+husband's side in the market-cart, once denominated a chaise, her black
+hair parted on her white forehead, her smooth, rounded, blooming cheek
+enclosed in her snowy cap, and black velvet bonnet, with her brilliant
+eyes glancing gaily as she stopped at her father's door on her way to
+market. More than a year had thus glided by in sober and respectable
+happiness, when old Nicholas began to droop: he could no longer reach
+his favourite stile. He was obliged to content himself with leaning in
+his accustomed attitude over the wicket of his own little garden. After
+a while he could do no more than take his seat at the cottage-door,
+there to feel the rays of the setting sun. Susan now devoted herself
+to her parents, and all other considerations sank before the paramount
+duty she owed to them. One evening she had brought him his tea to the
+door, where Mr. Otley had settled him on his own chair, and she asked
+him if he felt the warmth of the sun. "I don't seem to have any warmth
+in my bones," he said; "but I like to know the sun is shining upon me."
+
+"Ah, the sun is a glorious thing," said Sarah, "as it sets there in
+its golden bed; but when my poor Nicholas is at rest, I never wish to
+see its bright face again. You have got a good husband, Susan, and a
+comfortable home, and you will not want me now; my pains have almost
+worn me out: there's no taking pleasure even in the works of God, when
+one is so racked by pain."
+
+"How well you do bear your sufferings, mother, 'tis very seldom you
+make any complaints."
+
+"There's no good murmuring, my dear Susan; and it is my duty to bear
+what 'tis God's pleasure to send."
+
+They looked round, and the old man's head had dropped back upon the
+chair; they thought he was asleep; but he did not breathe: life was
+extinct. His wife was the first to understand the truth. "My husband's
+spirit has passed," she said. "My poor Nicholas is at rest,--he is in
+heaven! He is happy! Look at that smile,--yes, he is happy. God's will
+be done!" and she bowed her head.
+
+In tears and trepidation Farmer Otley and Susan moved him within
+doors. He carried the lifeless body, and laid it on the bed upstairs;
+while Susan held her mother's hands, kissed them, and wept over them.
+"He is gone, Susan! my poor husband is gone! He has left me--my poor
+Nicholas!" and she rocked herself backwards and forwards, her hands
+clasped upon her knee.
+
+The neighbours soon assembled; the last sad duties were performed; and
+the aged woman, whose melancholy province it was to lay out the dead,
+and to keep her dreary vigil by the corpse, attended as usual. But
+old Sarah would not allow her to remain. She said, "she had done for
+Nicholas to the last while he was living, and she did not see what need
+there was of any one else to tend him now. She thanked the neighbours
+kindly, but she could watch by her husband now, as then; and she would
+not trouble any of them." She settled herself in her chair at the head
+of the bed, and sat there silent, meek, and patient.
+
+Susan, who was a nurse, had her baby brought from the farm, and
+established it in what had formerly been her own little bed-room. She
+and her husband then took their station in the chamber of death, and
+together looked upon the decent corpse of the old man.
+
+The brilliant sunset had been followed by a stormy night. The wind
+howled, and the rain beat against the casement. The rush-candle burned
+fitfully, and shone with an uncertain light upon the sunk but placid
+features of the old man. Susan could scarcely defend herself from
+the vague and superstitious terrors which assail the uneducated on
+such occasions. The furniture creaked; noises, which in the day are
+unnoticed, sound startlingly acute in the stillness and darkness of the
+night. Susan frequently crept into the adjoining apartment to see how
+it fared with her baby; she bent over it as it slumbered, she listened
+to its respiration till she fancied it drew its breath painfully. When
+suffering under one calamity, the human heart is tremblingly alive to
+the apprehension of others. She imagined the infant was pale; she stole
+back to beckon her husband to look upon it with her. He attempted to
+re-assure her; but Susan's heart was oppressed with the foreboding
+of some fresh ill, and it required all Mr. Otley's patience and
+good-nature to soothe fears which appeared so unreasonable.
+
+It was an inexpressible relief when the grey dawn began to appear. The
+rain all cleared away, and the sun shone forth in all its splendour;
+every leaf was glittering in the sunshine, the rain-drops hung on every
+spray, the birds sang as if to strain their little throats, the flowers
+were beginning to expand to the welcome rays. Susan placed her baby in
+her husband's arms while she returned to share her mother's melancholy
+watch.
+
+When she entered the low room, the sun almost dazzled her: its beams
+streamed in upon the slanting, white-washed ceiling: they shone full
+upon her mother's face, as she sat in the same attitude in which she
+had left her,--her head supported by the high back of the upright
+chair, her hands slightly clasped as they had fallen on her knee, and
+her eyes closed.
+
+Susan drew near; her mother spoke not, moved not: she knelt by her--she
+listened in breathless agony--no sound, no sign of recognition. The
+sunbeams glared upon her eyelids, but she heeded them not.
+
+A nameless chill ran through poor Susan's frame. She dared not touch
+her mother's hand. She rose from her knees, and tottered back to her
+husband. "I wish you would come to mother," she said; "she is very
+still. Mother is very still and very pale," she added, in a voice
+scarcely audible. Susan's looks were ghastly. Mr. Otley hastily placed
+the sleeping infant on the bed, and followed Susan. The truth was at
+once evident! "Your mother's prayers have been heard, dear Susan; she
+has not seen another sun rise, she has not seen the sun which now
+shines upon her. Her troubles are over, and we should thank God for his
+mercy to her!"
+
+And the time did come when Susan was able thus to feel; when she was
+able to rejoice that her mother's humble prayer had thus been granted;
+when she learned to look upon its accomplishment as an earnest that
+the spirits of her parents were enjoying the reward of their piety,
+and their submission. But, at first, nature had its course, and she
+could but weep for that dear mother who had supported her under her
+heavy affliction, consoled her in her sorrows, tended her in her
+helplessness. Nor did her husband oppose the grief which was so
+natural: he wept with her; and she felt the holy tie which bound them
+together for weal and for woe, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in
+health, become more closely riveted as she clung to him for support, as
+she turned to him as her only earthly comforter.
+
+The neighbours again assembled. The two corpses were decently laid out
+in the same chamber which for so many years they had inhabited; and all
+who had known them in life, came to have one last sight of Nicholas and
+Sarah Foster.
+
+Susan was soothed by this mark of respect to those whom she had loved
+so well; and she was gratified when, among the rest, George Wells
+mounted the narrow stairs to look once more upon the well-known faces
+of the departed. She wept when she heard him sob, as he came down
+again, and when he wrung her hand as he hurried by through the little
+kitchen where she sat in deep but gentle grief. She wished not that
+he should cherish the recollection of herself; but any slight to the
+memory of her parents would have been bitter, coming from him whom they
+had once treated as a son.
+
+One funeral service was performed over the venerable couple; one grave
+received their mortal remains; one stone still marks the spot where
+they repose; and together, we may well believe their spirits mounted to
+those regions where suffering and sorrow are unknown.
+
+
+END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME THE THIRD.
+
+BLANCHE.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  The hidden traynes I know, and secret snares of love;
+  How soon a look will prynte a thoughte, that never may remove.
+
+  Lord Surrey.
+
+
+At the period when our story commences, Lord and Lady Westhope had
+been married sixteen years. Theirs had been a love-match. The love had
+lasted on the part of the lady at least seven years and three months;
+but on that of her lord not quite seven months and three weeks, from
+the wedding-day.
+
+Lord Westhope had then been thrown with the handsome but designing Lady
+Bassingham, who made an easy conquest of his heart; which conquest
+she retained till the rustic bloom of Lucy Meadows, his wife's new
+maid, eclipsed the somewhat faded charms of the lady of fashion. When
+weary of Lucy Meadows, he became deeply smitten with the Honourable
+Miss Asterby, the young beauty of the day, who indulged her vanity
+in listening to the compliments of a married man, and allowed him to
+monopolise more of her conversation than was either judicious, or
+prudent.
+
+To these succeeded another and another object, selected from every rank
+and condition of life.
+
+During the six years, seven months, and one week, which Lady Westhope's
+love survived that of her husband, she had undergone tortures of
+jealousy, anger, indignation, and mortification. At the end of this
+time she made up her mind to her fate, and bore his infidelities
+with tolerable composure. Henceforward their domestic life was very
+peaceable. The wife no longer reproached and wept; and the husband was
+exceedingly gay and good-humoured.
+
+But now began trials of another sort to Lady Westhope. She was
+extremely handsome: her beauty was of a sort to be more striking
+at twenty-five, than at eighteen. Her husband was known to be
+faithless--she was soon found to be indifferent. All vain and idle
+young men consequently aspired to her favour. It need not be added,
+that the number was prodigious!
+
+But though she had been disappointed in her hopes of being loved, she
+resolved to pass through life admired and respected. She would set
+the world the example of a beautiful and neglected wife, defying the
+breath of slander, repressing every sign of admiration, and pursuing
+her course uncontaminated by the profligacy around her. A word, a look
+of encouragement, would have brought any of these aspiring youths to
+sigh at her feet; but on none did she deign to bestow a glance--firmly
+and calmly did she check the first symptom of preference which might be
+evinced towards her.
+
+She was not blessed with children, but she had many female friends;
+and to her cousin, Lady Blanche De Vaux, she was warmly attached. Lady
+Blanche was fifteen years younger than herself, and her affection for
+her young cousin combined something of a maternal character, with the
+ease and companionship of two women who were both in the perfection of
+womanhood; for Lady Westhope at thirty-four had scarcely lost any of
+her beauty, and Lady Blanche at nineteen was in the fulness of hers.
+
+The Westhopes were going to Paris; and Lady Westhope proposed to
+Lord and Lady Falkingham, that their daughter, Lady Blanche, should
+accompany them. Lady Falkingham had gone through the toilsome duties of
+chaperonage for a series of years, during which she had successfully
+disposed of her elder daughters in marriage. She was not sorry,
+therefore, to repose from her labours, and to entrust the youngest to
+the care of so unexceptionable a person as her niece, Lady Westhope.
+
+To Paris went Lady Blanche, in all the buoyancy of youth; escaped
+for the first time from the trammels of an education in which no
+possible accomplishment had been neglected, and the vigilance of
+the most correct of mothers. She was enchanted with the Louvre, full
+of admiration at the beauties and grandeur of Paris; amused with the
+theatres, the Champs Elysées, with Tivoli--with everything; and entered
+with spirit and gaiety into the agreeable society which is nowhere to
+be found in greater perfection than at Paris.
+
+Lady Westhope was also amused and interested; and, for the sake of
+Blanche, mixed more generally with the world than it was her custom to
+do.
+
+Lord Westhope also amused himself very much; but how, we do not exactly
+know.
+
+Independently of their rank and their situation, the beauty of our two
+cousins would have rendered them no inconsiderable personages among
+the English at Paris. Lady Westhope's skin was whiter than snow,--her
+hair blacker than the raven's wing,--her form full and graceful,--her
+manner calm and self-possessed: had she been unmarried, it might have
+been thought cold, perhaps haughty;--as a matron, it was dignified.
+Lady Blanche's clustering curls, and hazel eyes of the same rich dark
+brown as her hair, the mantling glow of her blooming cheek, her slender
+form and elastic step, possessed all the graces of youth, while her
+countenance beamed with animation, joy, tenderness, and each emotion
+that rapidly succeeded the other in her bosom.
+
+Among the many slight preferences, incipient flirtations, and positive
+love-makings, which took place in the set to which Lady Westhope
+belonged, none was more decided than that between the beautiful Lady
+Blanche and Captain De Molton. She was a romantic, enthusiastic girl,
+peculiarly calculated to feel the attractions of a man who was formed
+to figure as a _héros de roman_. He was very tall,--he was pale,--his
+features were marked, but they bore an expression of melancholy and
+of feeling. The qualities of his mind corresponded with his exterior.
+Lofty, uncompromising rectitude, was combined with acute feelings,
+which, as his appearance indicated, were more calculated to work him
+woe than weal. A look of sentiment, though to the old and wary it may
+portend no happiness either to the possessor or to those connected with
+him, is often to the young and gay more attractive than the most joyous
+liveliness.
+
+Captain De Molton was in love--desperately in love with Lady Blanche.
+But he knew he was poor: he knew that if he was to offer her all he
+had--_i.e._ his whole undivided affections, Lord and Lady Falkingham
+could not in conscience allow their daughter to accept him. He
+therefore confined himself to watching her while she was talking to
+others; he did not allow himself to occupy the seat by her side. If
+by chance he was betrayed into any expression of his feelings, he
+studiously avoided her for the next twenty-four hours; and, by so
+doing, he flattered himself he was playing the part of a martyr. He
+fancied he was only endangering his own peace of mind; he believed he
+so completely concealed what was passing within, that hers could run no
+risk. He had not the self-sufficiency to imagine he could win a heart
+he did not attempt to gain. But these very starts of passion, these
+inconsistencies, these uncertainties, the air of intense melancholy
+which at times overspread his countenance, were more dangerous to a
+person of Lady Blanche's disposition than the most open and decided
+attentions.
+
+She could not think he was indifferent towards her; yet she was piqued
+by his occasional avoidance, touched by his air of intense melancholy,
+delighted with the fire which gleamed from his eye when she addressed
+him, and with the smile which, when it did light up his countenance,
+was bright and dazzling as the sunbeam after a summer-storm.
+
+In short, while intending to preserve her heart from the sentiment
+which possessed his own, he unconsciously acted with the most
+consummate coquetry--
+
+ "Piqued her and soothed by turns."
+
+Things were in this state, when Captain De Molton's particular friend,
+Lord Glenrith, arrived at Paris. He was immediately struck with Lady
+Blanche's beauty, and fascinated by her manners. He was an eldest
+son, and heir to a fine property. He was extremely good-looking--his
+character was excellent--as a _parti_ he was unexceptionable.
+
+De Molton, with a lover's quickness of perception, read Lord Glenrith's
+feelings almost before he was aware of them himself; and he thought
+it would be a crime to stand in the way of an union which would be
+advantageous to Lady Blanche, and which must indeed make the happiness
+of his best and earliest friend. Although it was almost agony to see
+Glenrith constantly occupy at dinner the place he resolutely did not
+take, and to see him whisper soft nothings into her ear, which it would
+have been rapture to him to utter; though it was maddening to see
+Glenrith act as her escort on all morning excursions, when he seldom
+dared approach; still a sort of fascination bound him to the spot. It
+was with trembling anxiety that he watched Lady Blanche's reception
+of his friend's attentions, with pain which he could not control that
+he marked anything which might be construed into encouragement on her
+part; but it was with most unreasonable joy that he perceived her
+listen to him with cold indifference, and sometimes that he caught her
+eye glance towards himself while Lord Glenrith was by her side.
+
+Any doubt he might entertain as to his friend's real intentions was
+soon set at rest by his one day confiding to him that he was very much
+attached to Lady Blanche, that his parents wished him to marry, and
+that he had made up his mind to propose, as soon as he felt sure of the
+lady.
+
+This annunciation fell as a final death-blow on De Molton's hopes--if
+hopes they might ever have been called. "Yet Glenrith spoke
+doubtfully of her reception of his offer--and Glenrith is not usually
+over-diffident of himself," thought De Molton in the midst of his
+despair. Still he felt it would be folly, madness, to linger in the
+society of Lady Blanche. In all probability she would soon be the
+affianced wife of his friend. It would be base and treacherous in him
+to attempt to circumvent that friend--cruel to sport with her feelings;
+and now that Glenrith had spoken thus confidentially, there was nothing
+left but to withdraw himself from witnessing the prosecution of a suit,
+in the probable success of which he felt he ought to rejoice, while his
+spirit recoiled from the bare anticipation of such a result.
+
+Accordingly he told Lord Glenrith that he was suddenly recalled to
+England on particular business. He seated himself in the cabriolet of
+the Calais diligence, and took his weary way to his native land with
+the most profound adoration of wealth--with the most ardent aspirations
+for honour, rank, riches, and all the good things of this world--that
+he might, without folly, or presumption, be entitled to throw himself
+at the feet of Lady Blanche.
+
+Lady Westhope's duty, as a wise chaperon, would have been to
+discourage in every way the attentions of Captain De Molton, and to
+foster those of Lord Glenrith. She meant to do so,--she thought she
+did so. She constantly repeated to Blanche how impossible it was that
+Captain De Molton should ever propose, how impossible that he should
+be accepted, how totally impossible that they could ever marry--or
+that, if married, they could have bread to eat; and she thought she
+had done her duty. But the spectacle of a man, sincerely, ardently,
+respectfully, and hopelessly in love, was to her feelings, naturally
+warm, though she had encased them in an armour of coldness and reserve,
+so interesting a sight, that she could not help treating him and
+speaking of him as a person formed to win the heart of woman. All those
+who had formerly seemed inclined to pay her attention, she had from
+the very beginning treated with such repelling coldness, that she had
+never been exposed to the trial of witnessing real and sincere emotions
+strongly excited. In the desolation of her own secret soul, the sight
+was tantalising and painful. She could not help envying Blanche the
+power of calling them forth, nor could she help looking back with a
+sigh upon the blank of her own loveless career. She would have given
+anything for Aladdin's lamp, that she might have endowed young De
+Molton with the worldly wealth which could have secured to them the
+fate from which she was herself cut out.
+
+The few months they passed at Paris had a sensible effect upon the
+minds of both the cousins. Lady Blanche for the first time felt
+love. She also felt keen mortification--for to nothing does love
+more completely blind its victim than to the sensations experienced
+by the object beloved. While Lady Westhope saw in Captain De Molton
+an interesting and high-minded young man struggling with a hopeless
+passion,--in short, while she accurately read, and was able to
+appreciate, his feelings,--Lady Blanche thought him cold, indifferent,
+capricious, and frequently doubted whether indeed he entertained any
+preference at all for her.
+
+In Lady Westhope's mind a great change also had taken place. Perhaps
+the example of all around her (for, whatever the propriety of French
+women under the new _régime_ may be, the conduct of English women, when
+once they have crossed the Channel, is not such as to impress foreign
+nations with a high idea of the morality for which we would fain be
+thought remarkable), perhaps the more easy footing of society abroad,
+combined to produce in her vague aspirations after an interchange
+of sincere affection: visions of mutual love, devotion, attachment,
+&c.--notions against which, for nine years, she had been shutting her
+ears and barring her heart--again found entrance to her bosom.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  Whom call we gay? That honour has been long
+  The boast of mere pretenders to the name.
+  The innocent are gay. The lark is gay,
+  That dries his feathers saturate with dew
+  Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams
+  Of dayspring overshoot the humble nest.
+
+  Cowper.
+
+
+The morning after De Molton's departure, our two cousins were prepared
+for an excursion to Versailles, and were expecting the gentlemen who
+were to accompany them, when Lord Glenrith entered. Lady Westhope
+inquired what was become of Captain De Molton.
+
+"Gone," he replied: "he set off for England yesterday;--called home on
+some tiresome regimental business. But did you not see him? did you not
+hear from him? Very uncivil, faith! not at all like De Molton."
+
+"I wonder he did not call," said Lady Westhope: and she stole a look
+towards Blanche, who was so busily employed in tying her bonnet
+and putting on her shawl, with her back towards them, and her veil
+half covering her face, that she could not detect how she took this
+unexpected intelligence.
+
+The carriages of the rest of the party drew up in the street. Lord
+Glenrith ran down stairs to deliver a message to one of the Miss
+Elwicks, offering her Captain De Molton's seat in the barouche; when
+Lady Westhope remarked,
+
+"How strange in Captain De Molton!"
+
+"How mortifying!" replied Lady Blanche: "the idea of marrying may be
+foolish and imprudent, as you say, but he might leave me to find it
+out. I hate cold, calculating men, who do exactly what is right, and
+discreet, and proper; whose conduct nobody can find the least fault
+with. Such men may be esteemed, but they cannot expect to be loved. I
+almost think I should prefer a warm-hearted, impetuous person, who was
+generously wrong, to a wary, prudent one, who was coldly right. But
+what am I saying? The simple fact is, that the poor man did not happen
+to like me. I do not know why I should find fault with him because he
+did not fall in love with me!" And she tried to smile, and to treat the
+whole thing lightly.
+
+Lady Westhope could not help adding, "that she had thought, and
+indeed she did still think, that he was in love, notwithstanding his
+prudence." Lady Blanche had just time to reply, half bitterly, half
+jestingly, "that there could not be much love, if prudence could so
+completely master it;" when Lord Glenrith returned to hand them from
+their splendid apartments, down the dirty brick-stairs of a French
+hotel.
+
+The day was beautiful--the drive not long enough to be fatiguing--the
+palace magnificent--the gardens noble--the whole replete with the most
+interesting recollections. Lady Blanche had always been an enthusiast
+about Madame de la Vallière, Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette. She had
+anticipated the greatest delight in visiting the scenes of so many
+events with which, from childhood, she had been familiar; but she
+found herself listening with the most absent mind to the details given
+by the guide, even though he pointed out the very balcony from which
+he himself remembered having seen Marie Antoinette, with the dauphin
+in her arms, addressing the people on that dreadful day when the
+royal family were carried off by the mob to the Tuileries. She looked
+round with vacant eyes at the white and gold apartments where Marie
+Antoinette held her evening soirées; nor could she warm herself into a
+proper emotion over the oratoire of the unfortunate king, nor even over
+the narrow back passage by which he attempted to escape.
+
+In the gardens, the statues which were pointed out as those of Madame
+de Maintenon, Mademoiselle de Fontanges, and Madame de la Vallière
+herself, failed to excite any interest. In her present state of mind
+she thought it was all nonsense, and did not the least believe that
+Diana was Madame de Maintenon, or Fidelity, with a dog at her feet, was
+intended for Madame de la Vallière.
+
+She became somewhat more interested at the Petit Trianon. The Swiss
+cottage, the vacherie of poor Marie Antoinette touched her, and she
+remarked to Lord Glenrith, on whose arm she leaned, how, in the midst
+of all her splendours, the queen seemed to have preserved her taste
+for nature, the country, freedom, and simplicity. "It shows, after
+all, how insufficient are pomp and grandeur to happiness!" And she
+thought of Captain De Molton, and that just such a cottage as the Swiss
+farm, with him (supposing he had liked her, which he did not), would
+be vastly preferable to Versailles itself with any one else. Lord
+Glenrith thought, what a noble, high-minded girl! she will love me for
+myself--she will not be influenced by my being a good match; and he
+redoubled his attentions.
+
+The party had obtained permission to have their collation laid out in
+the marble gallery; and they sat down, a large and brilliant party--as
+young, as beautiful, as had ever been the inmates of that palace,
+consecrated to pleasure, and pleasure alone.
+
+Lady Westhope was the eldest lady present. The two Miss Elwicks were
+beauties--decided beauties, and in the first bloom of youth, with gay
+and lively manners, high spirits, light hearts, and vanity enough to
+thoroughly enjoy the admiration they were in the habit of exciting.
+Mrs. Courtney Astwell was very pretty, and, being married, and a
+coquette, of course commanded the attentions of the gentlemen still
+more supereminently than any of the other ladies, whatever their
+claims might be. Lady Westhope was, for the first time, quite in the
+background--nearly on the shelf. Lord Glenrith was devoted to Lady
+Blanche; Sir Charles Weyburn was decidedly struck with Miss Elwick;
+Lord James Everdon and Miss Eliza Elwick were so merry, that another
+joke succeeded, long before the laugh produced by the first had
+subsided. Mr. Stapleford, the sharp, sarcastic, clever _diplomate_,
+did Mrs. Courtney Astwell the honour of giving her his arm; while Lord
+Faversham walked on the other side and joined in the conversation, and
+the stripling Lord Elmington hovered on the flank or in the rear, as
+opportunity might serve.
+
+Mr. Wroxholme alone remained for Lady Westhope. He was a new addition
+to the society whose claims to notice had not yet been ascertained. He
+was in the law, and he looked clever. He might be nearly thirty, and he
+was presentable in appearance and gentlemanlike in manners.
+
+Notwithstanding the dignity and reserve of Lady Westhope's deportment,
+she had never before found herself overlooked. Her rank, her
+respectability, her beauty, in the usual routine of dinners, parties,
+and balls, secured for her the attentions of some one of the first
+persons in the company. She never before had found herself the most
+_passée_ of a party--and on an occasion, too, when the usual forms of
+precedence are not attended to. Though she had never sought or valued
+attention, she did not half like the absence of it. She never wished
+for it while she had to repel it,--it was not till it was withheld,
+that she found she attached to it any value whatever.
+
+Mr. Wroxholme, however, was well informed and agreeable. By degrees she
+found he was acquainted with several acquaintances of hers, and the
+scenes which they were viewing together afforded matter of conversation.
+
+At the breakfast, or luncheon, or by whatever name the repast might be
+designated, the pictures which adorned the walls of the gallery were
+discussed. Among others, that of Madame de Maintenon, with Madame de la
+Vallière's daughter at her knee. Lady Blanche exclaimed with energy,
+"The only redeeming point about that hypocritical old woman is her
+having been so good-natured to poor dear Madame de la Vallière's child!"
+
+"And may I ask Lady Blanche why she so much prefers Madame de la
+Vallière to Madame de Maintenon?" in the softest voice imaginable,
+inquired Mr. Stapleford, who was rather fond of putting people out of
+countenance. In this case he perfectly succeeded; for though it is true
+that every one loves the erring Madame de la Vallière, and few have
+any tenderness for the discreet Madame de Maintenon, it would not have
+been so easy for a young lady to defend her feelings and opinions on
+the subject, without entering into a discussion which might be rather
+awkward.
+
+This Lady Blanche felt, and replied scarcely knowing what she said.
+"Everybody pities Madame de la Vallière, because she was so unhappy!"
+
+"Then every one who suffers may hope to have someplace in your
+affections," whispered Lord Glenrith.
+
+Mr. Stapleford replied,--"As an approving conscience is universally
+allowed to produce cheerfulness, I conclude the strictly virtuous have
+no chance of finding favour in Lady Blanche's sight."
+
+"Oh! Mr. Stapleford, how you misconstrue everything one says!" Blanche
+blushed, half in confusion, half in anger. Mr. Stapleford enjoyed it;
+he liked to make women blush;--many men do.
+
+"I am sure every one present ought to be very much obliged to me for
+what I have said, if it is only for having brought so beautiful a bloom
+into Lady Blanche's cheeks."
+
+All eyes turned towards Lady Blanche, who did indeed blush over
+forehead, throat, and arms, till the tears were ready to start from her
+eyes. Lord Glenrith uttered in a more severe tone than was usual to a
+person renowned for his good-nature--
+
+"One would think Stapleford had neither mother nor sisters of his own,
+that he should find pleasure in causing a woman to blush." And at the
+moment Lord Glenrith worshipped Lady Blanche as devoutly as he hated
+Mr. Stapleford. Lady Blanche felt grateful to him for having defended
+her, and for having given Mr. Stapleford a reproof.
+
+"Is Mr. Stapleford a friend of yours?" said Mr. Wroxholme to Lady
+Westhope.
+
+"Not at all," she answered: "is he of yours?"
+
+"I am happy to say he is a perfect stranger to me: that is a kind of
+man I detest."
+
+Lady Westhope liked her new acquaintance, for his warmth and his
+openness.
+
+The repast was over. The personages already mentioned sauntered
+for a short time before their departure among the close walks and
+the orange-trees. Lord James Everdon and Miss Eliza Elwick were
+inseparable; not that they had the slightest preference for each
+other--their whole bond of union consisted in the magnificent set of
+teeth with which nature had favoured them both. They were not the least
+aware of the reason they were pleased with each other; but it may be
+remarked, that those who have bad teeth do not find themselves so
+comfortable with a companion who makes them laugh, as with one whose
+conversation is more serious; while a person with fine teeth discovers
+a point in many a jest, which to one who is conscious of anything
+defective in that respect would appear stale, flat, and unprofitable.
+Many flirtations might be traced home to similarity of teeth, which
+have passed for congeniality of disposition.
+
+When they arrived at home, the two friends talked over the day. "Who
+in the world is your Mr. Wroxholme?" said Lady Blanche.
+
+"I assure you he is a very agreeable man," replied Lady Westhope,
+anxious he should appear to have been her companion by choice, rather
+than from necessity.
+
+"What is he by birth and parentage?"
+
+"I do not know, but he is acquainted with several people who are mutual
+friends; I shall invite him to my parties next spring. I think he will
+be a great acquisition."
+
+"What an odious man Mr. Stapleford is! I always disliked his quiet
+sarcastic manner of dropping out just the thing that is most
+disagreeable; and I was so much obliged to the dear, good, honest Lord
+Glenrith, for giving him a lecture, which ought to have made him look
+foolish."
+
+"How handsome Lord Glenrith is!" said Lady Westhope, curious to know
+how Blanche felt towards him.
+
+"Yes! he certainly is handsome; but he has too much colour, and he
+looks so very healthy and robust! I do not think his countenance could
+express unhappiness. I like a man to look serious and thoughtful, as if
+he was full of feeling, and as if his gaiety was just a bright gleam of
+sunshine, the more brilliant for the gloom which precedes and follows
+it. Nothing is so beautiful as the smile of a countenance habitually
+melancholy."
+
+Lady Westhope perceived that, notwithstanding her pique, Blanche had
+not forgotten De Molton.
+
+They returned to England. The London season was nearly over;
+Parliament did not sit late; there was no business which required Lord
+Falkingham's presence, and Blanche joined her parents in the country,
+where they had already established themselves; but, as she passed
+through London, she went to the play with the Westhopes. They were
+leaving the theatre, when they met Captain De Molton on the stairs.
+He rushed to them with a face in which the much-admired smile usurped
+the place of the melancholy which Lady Blanche also admired. He asked
+her if she was staying in London: she replied she was going to Temple
+Loseley the next day.
+
+"Then I must esteem myself fortunate to have caught even this glimpse
+of you."
+
+"Oh, but I hope we shall see you in the country."
+
+They were both thrown off their guard by the suddenness of the meeting,
+and their looks and their manner proclaimed the state of their feelings
+as much as it was possible for them to do so, in descending the last
+ten steps of the private box entrance. But he had handed her into the
+carriage--the door was closed--she was gone--before he had time to
+answer the sort of half invitation contained in Lady Blanche's last
+words.
+
+Blanche had much to tell her mother; all she had heard--all she had
+seen, but not all she had felt. Lady Falkingham was reserved with her
+children; she was above all weaknesses herself, and never seemed to
+contemplate the possibility that younger minds might not be so well
+regulated, younger feelings might not be so sober and temperate, as her
+own.
+
+The summer passed quietly; Blanche rode with her father, gardened with
+her mother, and tried to think no more of a person who felt nothing for
+her. Had she not most unguardedly, most imprudently, almost invited
+him to Temple Loseley? She forgot that, not being acquainted with her
+parents, it was absolutely impossible he could act upon such a hint.
+She only remembered that she had advanced a step which had not been
+met by him, and she recalled what she had heard and read a thousand
+times, that a lover can generally create an opportunity for seeing his
+beloved; how much easier, then, to improve one that presents itself!
+The only conclusion, therefore, to be drawn was, that she was an object
+of perfect indifference to him.
+
+In September a party was collected for shooting; and, among others,
+Lord Glenrith accepted with joy and eagerness an invitation to Temple
+Loseley.
+
+Lord and Lady Falkingham rejoiced to see so fair a prospect opening
+before Blanche. Lord Glenrith was particularly good-tempered; he was
+heir to a fine property; there was not an objection to him. Lady
+Falkingham, whose health was very delicate, was much relieved by the
+idea that she need never again pass from twelve till four in the
+morning, seated on the blue sofas at Almack's, her head nodding with
+sleep under the plumes which she thought it her duty to place upon it.
+
+Blanche could not fail to perceive that Lord Glenrith was serious in
+his attentions: it was impossible to dislike him; he was an honest,
+genuine creature; he loved her sincerely, admired her, and respected
+her;--he was not wanting in sense or information. Had not her mind been
+prepossessed, she would most likely have been in love with him; at
+least, ninety-nine girls in a hundred would have been so, and ought to
+have been so. He proposed: her parents were delighted; she was sorry,
+although she preferred him to any one else, except Captain De Molton.
+Yet, what nonsense to allow her imagination to dwell upon a person who
+cared not for her! Should she refuse an excellent man who was sincerely
+attached to her--a connection with whom would delight her own parents,
+and his parents, and all their mutual connections, for the sake of a
+penniless captain who cut her--positively cut her? It would be the
+height of folly; there would be a want of pride in continuing to pine
+for an indifferent swain. So, as she had no good reason to adduce
+either to herself, or to others, for saying "No," she said "Yes," and
+she was engaged.
+
+This great event took place a few days before the Falkingham family
+paid a long-promised visit to the Westhopes. Lord Glenrith was to have
+joined the party at the end of the week; but, as the accepted lover, he
+obtained leave to accompany them to Cransley.
+
+His sterling worth gained upon Blanche every day; there was something
+so English, so true, so generous about him. Her parents were quite
+delighted with his sentiments upon all subjects connected with
+settlements. She heard him praised from morning till night, and she was
+beginning to persuade herself that she ought to be, and that she was,
+exceedingly happy, when they arrived at Cransley.
+
+The sight of Lady Westhope reminded her of Paris, and of all she had
+felt when there; and she was shocked to find she still retained such
+vivid recollections of incidents the most trivial in themselves. Mr.
+Wroxholme had arrived the day before, and at dinner Lord Westhope
+remarked, "We shall be quite the old Paris party on Friday, when De
+Molton comes."
+
+Lady Blanche was listening to Lord Glenrith's description of his
+father's place, Wentnor Castle; but she was not so absorbed in the
+subject, but that these words caught her ear. She gave an involuntary
+start; she felt Lady Westhope look at her; she felt herself colour.
+But her start and her blush were unobserved: Lord Glenrith was
+completely occupied in explaining how the seclusion of the south and
+west fronts of the castle, and of the broad terrace overlooking the
+rapid stream of the Dwent, was preserved by the alteration in the road,
+which now approached the gateway from the north-east, instead of the
+north-west.
+
+If Lord Glenrith had a fault, or rather a foible, it was his passion
+for his native place, and an inclination to think everything belonging
+to himself superior to that which belonged to another. He seldom sold
+a horse; for when once he had possessed it, he became so alive to its
+merits, that he always asked more for it than others, who were not so
+clear-sighted, thought it was worth. This is a happy disposition for
+the possessor, and for those connected with him. It is seldom that such
+a person makes an unkind husband, or a tyrannical father, or a hard
+master; but it is not a quality that interests a romantic girl. Lady
+Blanche, however, thought "Captain De Molton shall see I am not pining;
+he shall see that his friend can appreciate me, if he cannot."
+
+Mr. Wroxholme proved, upon farther acquaintance, to be a very
+agreeable addition to the society. He had read much, and was full of
+information. Lord Falkingham pronounced him to be one of the most
+rising young men of the day. Mr. Wroxholme, on his part, was delighted
+with Lord Falkingham's political sentiments, with Lady Falkingham's
+high-breeding, with Lady Westhope's gentleness, with Lord Westhope's
+good-humour and ease in his own house, with Lord Glenrith's downright
+happiness, with Lady Blanche's beauty, with the good shooting, and the
+beautiful place, and he felt gratitude towards Lady Westhope for having
+given him the opportunity of enjoying society so much to his taste.
+
+He was a man of good birth; but though born and bred a gentleman,
+he had not before mixed in the very first circles, and he was
+flattered at being deemed worthy of admission into one of them. He
+had discrimination enough to be pleased with the shade of superior
+refinement which pervaded it, and tact enough instantly to acquire its
+tone.
+
+When Lady Westhope found herself alone with Lady Blanche, she never
+alluded to Captain De Molton; she felt that the less that was said upon
+the subject the better.
+
+Blanche had treated his departure from Paris as wilful neglect of her,
+and she had laughed at his indifference. Although in her heart Lady
+Westhope believed she had felt it acutely, it was wiser to treat the
+whole affair as a trifling flirtation which had left no trace behind.
+She was sorry Lord Westhope had invited Captain De Molton at this
+moment, but it was one of those things for which there was no remedy.
+He and Lady Blanche must meet some time or another, and the sooner it
+was over the better.
+
+Lady Blanche, meantime, continued to receive Lord Glenrith's
+attentions, and to find her imagination more and more inclined to
+wander, and her mind less and less able to take in the relative
+positions of the stables, the kitchen-garden, and the coach-houses of
+Wentnor Castle.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  Dicen que amor ha vencido,
+  A los deydades mayores,
+  Y que de sus pasadores
+  Cielo y tierra està ofendido.
+
+  _Spanish Romance._
+
+
+During the four months which intervened between Captain De Molton's
+leaving Paris and his joining the party at Cransley, how had he passed
+his time? He was a person of much determination of character, and
+when once he had made up his mind what was right, he could, generally
+speaking, carry his resolutions into effect; at least it was only when
+his feelings, naturally strong, were immediately under excitement, that
+he was betrayed into actions of which his judgment did not approve.
+
+To Lord Glenrith he owed an early debt of gratitude: their friendship
+dated from boyhood. At Eton they had been bathing together, when De
+Molton was seized with the cramp, and must have perished, had it not
+been for the exertions of his young schoolfellow. This and many other
+acts of kindness which the rich heir of Wentnor Castle was naturally
+enabled to show to the penniless seventh son, and thirteenth child
+of the distressed Lord Cumberworth, made De Molton's friendship for
+Glenrith partake in some measure of the nature of gratitude. He felt it
+would be doubly base in him to attempt to gain the affections of the
+girl to whom Lord Glenrith owned himself attached, even if, with regard
+to Lady Blanche herself, it would not have been ungenerous to drag her
+from her exalted sphere into poverty and destitution with him.
+
+He went straight to his regiment, and devoted himself with particular
+energy to teaching his men the new manœuvres recommended by the Horse
+Guards. Never were men so well appointed, never was troop in such
+order. But his fellow-officers at the mess found him somewhat moody
+and silent; he was not a jolly companion; and although all respected
+him,--yes, and loved him too, and would have applied to him for advice
+and comfort in any distress,--he was not, in the common acceptation of
+the word, a popular man. It was not De Molton who was asked to ride
+this fellow's horse at the hack stakes got up in the regiment; or
+De Molton, to whom another fellow proposed to gallop forty miles to
+London to see the new actress, and down again at night,--or to jump
+into a hack-chaise after dinner and drive off to the tradesmen's ball
+at the county town: but if any dutiful son wished to prolong his visit
+to his parents, or any pining lover had an opportunity of flying to
+his mistress, he felt pretty sure that De Molton would take his duty
+for him. His manners were a little stately, and a youngster was not
+likely to choose De Molton as the confident of any foolish scrape; yet
+no one was more ready to sympathize with, and to relieve, any case of
+unmerited distress.
+
+He chanced to be in London one of the days that Lady Blanche passed
+there in her way from Paris; and he had been attending his mother, and
+three of his six sisters, to the play on the night when he saw Lady
+Blanche.
+
+It was with an uncontrollable burst of joy that he rushed to hand her
+down the steps; and this brief interview sufficed to unsettle in his
+heart all the reasonable acquiescence in the disposition of their fates
+which he had been striving to attain.
+
+When he received Lord Westhope's invitation, he certainly did not
+think it quite impossible he might meet Lady Blanche; but he persuaded
+himself that he had in four months allowed his friend all proper time
+for making himself acceptable, and that there was no necessity for his
+refusing the accustomed invitation to a house to which he was in the
+habit of paying an annual visit. At all events, he should learn from
+Lady Westhope what was the state of the case: anything was better than
+the uncertainty in which he lived.
+
+Lady Blanche's manner, when he met her on the dimly lighted stairs
+of the theatre, had made him vaguely hope--he knew not what; for,
+supposing they did love each other, what then was to happen? He
+repeatedly asked himself this question; but did any one ever wish that
+the person beloved should not return his love? De Molton was a very
+reasonable man--he kept his feelings under great controul, but they
+were strong and ardent, and he could not reach that pitch of stoicism!
+
+To Cransley he went, with a mind distracted by doubt, wonder, hope,
+and fear. As he drove to the door, he saw Lord Falkingham dismounting
+from his cob; so he knew that Lady Blanche was in the house. "How will
+she meet me?" he thought; "how shall I find her? how shall I regulate
+my own behaviour?" and he almost repented having wilfully run into
+such danger; although, in truth, it was the hope of being placed in
+that very danger which had made him so gladly accept Lord Westhope's
+invitation.
+
+He was giving his orders to his servant at the door, when he saw
+Lord Glenrith approach the house in shooting costume, followed by
+keepers and dogs. He could not mistake the bright, happy face of his
+friend. His teeth gleamed as the setting sun shone on them; his cheek
+was sun-burned, and ruddy with exercise; his kind eyes beamed with
+honest joy to see De Molton. De Molton's heart sank within him as he
+recognized his dear friend; and it was with an effort, which would have
+been visible to any other eyes, that he returned his cordial greeting.
+
+As they both entered the drawing-room, the pale countenance and
+melancholy brow of De Molton would, in the opinion of many, have set
+off to advantage the gay good-humour of Lord Glenrith.
+
+The ladies were all there. Lady Blanche shook hands with Captain De
+Molton as soon as he had paid his devoirs to Lady Westhope, and,
+without having raised her eyes higher than to his chin, re-seated
+herself to her embroidery frame.
+
+Lord Glenrith approached her. De Molton's heart beat quick; he felt
+almost giddy. Lord Glenrith's manner was gay and unembarrassed: he
+held a parcel in his hand. Lady Falkingham drew near--there was a
+great colloquy: De Molton heard the expressions "beautiful!"--"the
+prettiest I ever saw!"--"they tell me it is the first that has been
+made;"--"well, how lovely!" Lady Blanche seemed to be expressing her
+thanks, but in so low a tone of voice he could not catch the words.
+She looked blushingly beautiful! Lady Falkingham moved a little on one
+side, and he saw Lord Glenrith in the act of fastening a bracelet on
+her arm. Perhaps another lover might not have selected such a moment
+for presenting his first love-token, but the parcel was only just
+arrived. Lord Glenrith was pleased with his purchase; all around were
+friends, and why should there be any mystery?
+
+To De Molton's eyes all mystery was indeed dispelled. He felt
+choking. He could not master his feelings sufficiently to preserve an
+indifferent countenance, and he left the room under the pretence of
+seeing after his postboy, or his portmanteau.
+
+The rest of the company gathered round the bride elect, and admired
+the beautiful ornament and discussed its peculiar fabric; while poor
+Blanche sat frightened at the agitation which pervaded her whole frame
+in consequence of having been for five minutes in the society of De
+Molton.
+
+However, when she retired to her own room before dinner, she satisfied
+herself that what she had felt was merely a very natural awkwardness
+at first meeting a person with whom she certainly had flirted a
+little, and shyness at being seen by a young man acquaintance, in
+the act of receiving her lover's first present. She could not help
+secretly wishing Lord Glenrith had not given the bracelet before so
+many witnesses, and she felt there was a want of delicacy in the
+proceeding, even while she told herself it was in unison with his open,
+unsuspicious character, which measured the kindliness of others by his
+own good-natured heart.
+
+At dinner De Molton placed himself at the farther end of the table, and
+the épergne prevented his being able to perceive Lady Blanche's face.
+However, he saw Lord Glenrith's; and never did an honest countenance
+express more secure and undisturbed happiness. Poor De Molton! He had
+quitted Paris on purpose not to stand in the way of that happiness
+which his friend had obtained; and now, how painful was it to see the
+object accomplished!
+
+During the evening, Lady Westhope contrived, in as quiet a manner as
+she could, to convey to De Molton the confirmation of a fact which was
+already too evident to his eyes, and she appeared not to remark the
+varying hues of his complexion, and the agitation of his manner, during
+her communication.
+
+Lady Blanche strove to be easy and unembarrassed; and she succeeded so
+far as to make him believe her happy, and perfectly satisfied with the
+prospect before her.
+
+He resolved to plead particular and sudden business--a summons from
+his father--a relation at the point of death--any excuse to depart the
+following day. This torture was not to be endured. Yet he wished to
+have an opportunity of speaking to her once, and of telling her how
+ardently he prayed for her welfare.
+
+He left his room very early the next morning, and he perambulated the
+library, the saloon, the breakfast-room, the hall. He knew Lady Blanche
+was an early riser; Cransley was renowned for the lateness of its
+breakfast-hour; perhaps she would make her appearance before the other
+guests. He was not wrong in his calculations. Lady Blanche came into
+the drawing-room to look for her mother's work-basket, and was hastily
+retiring with it, when De Molton arrested her steps by saying, "that as
+he was obliged to depart in an hour, he was anxious to express to one,
+for whom he felt such esteem and admiration, his earnest wishes--his
+prayers for her happiness."
+
+"You are not going to-day, surely, Captain De Molton?" answered Blanche
+in a tremulous tone.
+
+"I must," he said: "I could not, would not stay here another day, for
+anything this world can now offer me."
+
+"Lady Westhope will be quite disappointed. She hoped you were come for
+ten days, or a fortnight."
+
+"Such was my intention; but circumstances--imperative circumstances,
+over which I have no controul, render my stay here----impossible."
+
+"I hope no misfortune has occurred in your family?" inquired Lady
+Blanche, thoroughly impressed with the idea of his indifference towards
+herself, and, consequently, by no means attributing his visible
+agitation to its true cause.
+
+"No misfortune has occurred in my family," he resumed in a voice of
+deep emotion--"but one to myself. No--no! it is not a misfortune: on
+the contrary, it is the thing in the world I ought most to wish; it
+is the union of the two beings I most value, most respect, most love
+on earth! I ought to rejoice--I do rejoice. Believe me, Lady Blanche,
+though my voice falters, and I am at this moment weak, I rejoice that
+the friend to whom I am bound by every tie of gratitude and affection
+has gained the heart of the most perfect of womankind; and that the
+woman who alone in my eyes is perfect, is likely to be happy with a
+man who is all honour, truth, and uprightness. May Heaven in its mercy
+bless you both!"
+
+The tears stood in De Molton's glistening eyes. They almost overflowed.
+"I am a fool," he added; "I thought I had more command over myself;
+I did not mean to torment you, to insult you, with an avowal of my
+hopeless, my presumptuous love!"
+
+Lady Blanche had stood transfixed in fear, amazement, joy;--yes, joy!
+there are no circumstances under which it is not joy to find affection
+is requited. "And do you indeed love me?" she said, scarcely conscious
+of what she uttered.
+
+"Do I love you! Lady Blanche, can you ask that question? In folly,
+hopelessness, misery, I cannot--cannot quell my love!"
+
+"Oh, why--why did not you tell me sooner?" she said, earnestly clasping
+her hands.
+
+"Tell you so? How could I venture, penniless as I am, without a home to
+offer you,--how could I have the insane presumption to ask you to share
+poverty--penury with me, when splendour, rank, wealth were courting
+your acceptance?"
+
+"Oh, I despise these things! I always did! I never could care for money
+in all my life, and now!"--She stopped; her engagement rushed across
+her mind. She felt guilty of perjury and infidelity.
+
+De Molton, in his turn, stood confounded; he had done everything he
+had especially resolved not to do, and, mingled with the delight he
+could not help experiencing at the avowal which had almost escaped
+Lady Blanche's lips, he felt humiliated by the base part he had acted
+towards the friend to whom he had meant to devote himself. He struck
+his forehead, and exclaimed, "Oh, Lady Blanche, I am a wretch not
+worthy of a moment's regard! Do not waste a thought on me; forget me,
+or at least only remember me to bestow a sigh of pity on one who has
+been betrayed, by his love for you, into an act of ingratitude for
+which he abhors himself. Glenrith is my best friend,--he is the soul of
+honour, he--he is worthy of you!"
+
+Lady Blanche was frightened at what she had said--frightened at
+what she had listened to. Voices were heard approaching,--the door
+opened,--Captain De Molton rushed into the adjoining library. Lady
+Blanche seized her mother's basket, and left the room before she had
+time to perceive who the intruders were. As she ran up stairs, she met
+Lady Westhope. "What is the matter, Blanche?" exclaimed Lady Westhope,
+as her friend darted past her.
+
+"Mamma wants me," she hastily answered, as she took refuge in her
+mother's room.
+
+"Mamma! mamma!" she exclaimed, throwing herself breathless into a
+chair; "I am wretched, guilty, and miserable! I am the most unfortunate
+creature in the world!"
+
+"What possesses you, child? what is the matter?" replied Lady
+Falkingham, as she put down the untasted piece of toast she held in her
+hand.
+
+"Mamma! he loves me after all!"
+
+"Who, my dear?--what! Lord Glenrith? To be sure he does. I never saw a
+man more attached in my life!"
+
+"Poor dear Lord Glenrith, so he is! Oh, how little I deserve that he
+should be so! when I--oh, mamma, what will you think of me? I have
+almost owned that my affections are--at least I implied--Oh, mamma!
+what shall I do?" And poor Blanche wept bitterly.
+
+"Certainly, my dear Blanche, I do not consider it modest and becoming
+in any young woman to allow a man to perceive that he has acquired too
+much power over her heart; yet, as you are on the point of marriage,
+I think you need not blame yourself so very much. There should always
+be a certain reserve of manner and expression; but anxious as I am
+that women should preserve their dignity, and that no daughter of mine
+should condescend----"
+
+"Oh, mamma! you do not understand me: I never told Lord Glenrith I
+loved him."
+
+"What on earth do you mean then?--what are you talking about?" Lady
+Falkingham's countenance assumed an expression of alarm, wonder, and
+displeasure.
+
+"Oh, how can I tell you?--you, mamma, who never did anything weak, or
+foolish, in your life! Do not look at me, mamma, with those stern and
+reproachful eyes, or I can never confess it."
+
+"Blanche, you alarm me more than I can describe. Do you mean that
+you love any one better than the man whom you have accepted as your
+husband,--the excellent, amiable, high-minded Lord Glenrith, who is so
+sincerely devoted to you?"
+
+"Oh, mamma! I do value him, and I render him justice, indeed; and I
+love him in a kind of way----"
+
+Lady Blanche was each moment becoming more alive to the ingratitude,
+the duplicity, with which she had acted towards Lord Glenrith, and
+began to wish she had not opened the subject at all to her mother.
+
+"Explain yourself, Blanche," repeated her mother: "whom are you talking
+of? Is it Mr. Wroxholme, whom you met at Paris?"
+
+"Oh dear, no, mamma. It is Captain De Molton!" And she no longer found
+any difficulty in speaking his name. Mr. Wroxholme might be a very
+good man, but, in her eyes, was immeasurably inferior to the object of
+her preference. Those who are in love, always resent as an injury the
+suspicion that they could find charms in any other than the one person
+to whose merits they are alive.
+
+"Captain De Molton!" exclaimed Lady Falkingham; "why, I scarcely ever
+heard you mention him! You ought to have told me this before."
+
+"I never knew till to-day what were his feelings towards me, mamma!"
+
+"I must say your lover has chosen a good moment for avowing his
+passion! It proves an honourable mind! And he wishes to induce you to
+break off your marriage with a man in every way calculated to make you
+happy? For what? He has scarcely bread to eat himself, and his father
+has none to give him."
+
+"He knows all that, mamma, and he is going away this moment. He does
+not ask me to marry him. He says he is not worthy of me."
+
+"Oh, Blanche! Blanche! and you allow this man, who tells you he
+cannot marry, to make love to you, while you are the affianced wife
+of his friend! I should never have thought a daughter of mine would
+have acted in so improper, so unprincipled a manner. Heaven knows, I
+cannot accuse myself of having neglected my children. You have all
+had every attention paid to your minds and your morals. Each hour had
+its avocation; you were never permitted to read a book which Miss
+Strickland or myself had not previously perused; you were never allowed
+to walk beyond the shrubberies and the park! If, like some mothers, I
+had neglected the essentials for the sake of accomplishments----but the
+religion-master always came three times a week! How on earth can such
+low notions of moral rectitude ever have found entrance into your head,
+or your heart?"
+
+Lady Blanche was in despair at her mother's grief. She now viewed her
+own conduct with horror; but how to meet Lord Glenrith, with this
+weight of guilt upon her mind?
+
+"Look here," continued Lady Falkingham; "read this letter; all kindness
+and generosity--receiving you into the family with joy, treating you
+already as if you were their daughter!" Lady Falkingham gave Blanche
+the joint epistle she had just received from Lord and Lady Wentnor,
+expressing every thing most gratifying concerning the choice their son
+had made.
+
+Each word she read was a dagger to Lady Blanche's heart. "I cannot
+overthrow all the happiness of these worthy people," she mentally
+revolved, "and that of my parents, and of poor Lord Glenrith. I must
+quell this foolish inclination,--I must fight a good fight, and I shall
+conquer, I dare say. But it is hard, when now, for the first time, I
+know myself beloved."
+
+After a pause, she told her mother she would try to compose herself:
+she implored her not to mention the subject to her father; she strove
+to persuade her mother, and herself, that it was only a passing
+feeling, a momentary agitation which would soon subside; that it had
+been pique, that it was now gratified vanity--any thing, in short,
+except love. Her mother was only too glad to be deceived, and assisted
+her in her self-deception.
+
+Lady Falkingham would have been very sorry to lose so estimable and so
+unexceptionable a husband for her daughter; but the disgraceful _éclat_
+of breaking off an engagement openly entered into and acknowledged, was
+still more appalling to a person who had a salutary horror of being
+"talked of." She had herself passed through life with the highest
+character as a wife and as a mother. Her elder daughters had married
+at a proper age, and in a proper manner. She looked upon a young
+lady's first love as a silly affair, which has more to do with the
+imagination than the heart; and if any of her other daughters had ever
+felt a preference which had not received their mother's sanction, they
+would never have ventured to confess it with that frankness which, in
+spite of the education just described by Lady Falkingham, was one of
+Blanche's characteristics.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  Now have I shewed you bothe, these whyche ye lyst,
+    Stately fortune, or humble povertee:
+  That is to say, now lyeth it in your fyst
+    To take here bondage, or free libertee.
+
+  Sir Thomas More.
+
+Captain De Molton had sent his servant to the neighbouring town to
+procure him a chaise, that with the least possible delay he might carry
+his project of departure into execution.
+
+When he had in some measure recovered his self-possession, he made
+his appearance at the breakfast-table, and informed Lady Westhope
+that he was unexpectedly obliged to return to London, to arrange with
+his father some matters connected with his exchange from his present
+regiment, which, as Lady Westhope knew, was under orders for India.
+
+This was strictly true, for he had resolved to insist upon his
+father's suspending the application he was on the point of making for
+this exchange. He determined to proceed to India with his regiment.
+The unhealthiness of the climate, which gave his relations so much
+uneasiness, appeared to him, in his present frame of mind, a positive
+recommendation.
+
+The company expressed all due disappointment at his sudden
+departure--all but Lady Blanche; she was not present. Lady Westhope
+suspected something must have occurred, and when she bade De Molton
+adieu, she pressed his hand with a mysterious kindliness, which she
+meant should imply, "You are acting like a man of honour; I see you
+suffer, and I pity you."
+
+She was confirmed in this opinion, by Mr. Wroxholme telling her he
+had found Captain De Molton in the library before breakfast, with his
+head leaning against the marble chimney-piece, and his countenance so
+pale and haggard, that he feared for a moment something dreadful must
+have happened. Lady Westhope recollected Blanche's hurrying manner of
+passing her on the stairs, and she pitied all parties.
+
+Lady Falkingham's indisposition accounted for Lady Blanche's absence
+till the hour of luncheon, when she came down stairs with a feeling of
+kindness towards Lord Glenrith, awakened by the consciousness of having
+injured him. She scarcely ventured to raise her eyes from the ground,
+but her blushing manner passed for the modesty of a young girl on the
+eve of marriage. Lord Glenrith pathetically lamented the absence of his
+friend, and Lady Blanche quivered at the sound of his name, and then
+reproached herself for doing so.
+
+Lord Glenrith showed her the letters he had received from the different
+members of his family. Blanche could not but feel flattered by the
+manner in which she was spoken of; could not but think the better of
+the son, and the brother, who was loved with such tender affection;
+could not but own she ought to be happy with the prospect of possessing
+such a father, mother, brothers, and sisters-in-law. Lord Glenrith in
+his own happiness perceived nothing wanting in her manner, and laughed,
+and talked, the gayest of the gay. His inward satisfaction did not
+render him sentimental, but his buoyant spirits made him inclined to
+be pleased with everybody and everything. He even forgot the dislike
+he had imbibed for Mr. Stapleford; and when his arrival that day was
+announced, he declared him to be a "devilish good fellow, though he was
+a sarcastic dog."
+
+His flow of spirits was almost oppressive to Lady Blanche, yet she
+rejoiced he did not possess the sensitive tact which might have
+rendered him alive to every look of hers.
+
+At dinner, Lord Glenrith was telling Lord Falkingham he had a famous
+brood-mare at Wentnor Castle, whose colt was likely to win the St.
+Leger.
+
+"Is your colt as clever as your old horse Perseus, Glenrith?" asked Mr.
+Stapleford.
+
+"Ah! Perseus! by Jove, that is a horse! Never was a thorough-bred one
+so good for weight--and as active as a cat--such action! and such
+pasterns! None of your short pasterns the grooms are so fond of--but
+long enough to be elastic! He is a true Whalebone!"
+
+"I am not sure, after all, I do not like Quirk still better,"
+Stapleford dropped out quietly, while a sly smile lurked in the corner
+of his lip.
+
+"Quirk is a singularly good horse! He has such bone, and such a
+constitution!"
+
+"And that grey pony, Glenrith--you will never part with that pony?"
+
+"Part with Yung-frau? not for three hundred guineas!"
+
+"You are a fortunate man in your stud, Glenrith!" remarked Stapleford,
+with a quiet, composed, and serious air, which to the unsuspicious
+Lord Glenrith was perfectly satisfactory, while the rest of the party,
+especially poor Blanche, were painfully aware he was playing on the one
+weak point of the amiable young Benedick.
+
+Nothing lowers a man in the eyes of a woman so much as being made a
+butt, no matter whether the quizzer be a person for whose opinion she
+entertains any respect or not. It was unlucky that, at the moment
+the _héros de roman_ lover had departed in magnanimous despair, the
+successful one should lay himself open to the quizzing of a dandy.
+Lady Blanche felt miserable--more miserable than when she parted
+from De Molton--more miserable than when she heard the jingle of his
+hack-chaise as it drove from the door--more miserable than when her
+mother's statement of the case made her awake to the enormity of her
+misconduct--more miserable than when she resolved to drive her lover's
+image for ever from her mind. Those distresses were at least elevated
+ones--this bordered on the ridiculous.
+
+In the course of the evening Mr. Stapleford found himself near Lady
+Blanche. "I must offer you my congratulations, Lady Blanche, and
+especially upon the good looks and the good spirits of the fortunate
+Lord Glenrith. His beaming and ruddy appearance shows that you have not
+been unnecessarily cruel, tormenting before you consented to make him
+the happiest of men. It must give a person of your kindly feelings
+great pleasure to behold a face so redolent with joyousness!"
+
+Every word of this speech was disagreeable. Poor Blanche did not admire
+a "ruddy" man--did not like an unsentimental lover; and, above all, she
+did not like the implication that she had been
+
+ "Won unwooed, or slightly wooed at best."
+
+Mr. Stapleford bore not the slightest ill-will either to Lady Blanche,
+or to Lord Glenrith. He enjoyed saying the disagreeable thing in the
+civilest manner possible; partly because it is almost the only exercise
+of power which a person without house, or lands, or fortune, can
+indulge in; partly because he liked to see what people really felt--and
+he thus frequently discovered the true state of their minds; partly
+because he happened to possess the species of tact which enabled him to
+do it--and everybody derives pleasure from success of any kind.
+
+The next day Blanche received a packet from Wentnor Castle. It
+contained some beautiful ornaments--offerings from different members of
+her future family, each accompanied by the prettiest note imaginable.
+Congratulations showered in from every quarter. All the numerous
+friends and relations of both sides wrote letters in which each party
+was described as perfection, and each as having met with perfection.
+It is astonishing that matrimony should ever fail to secure lasting
+happiness, when (if we may believe the written testimony of those who
+best know the contracting parties) none but paragons ever enter into
+the holy state. But among all the happy unions that have been joyfully
+anticipated, none ever gave more general satisfaction than the present.
+The age, situation, rank--everything was suitable. Poor Lady Blanche
+felt herself every moment more thoroughly hampered, entangled, and
+pledged; and every moment her disinclination to the marriage increased.
+
+It was an odd thing! but Mr. Stapleford's quiet manner of quizzing
+Lord Glenrith, and his imperturbable good-humour under it,--or rather,
+his perfect unconsciousness of what was happening,--hurt his cause
+even more than her preference of De Molton. She would rather have
+seen him angry and resentful; to persons with _la tête exaltée_, the
+smallest shadow of ridicule irrecoverably destroys the halo of romance
+they would fain throw around the object of their devotion. Blanche
+might have turned from her hopeless and youthful dream of love, to
+admiration, respect, obedience, and submission; but when her head, her
+heart, and her imagination were possessed with the dignified brow, the
+melancholy eyes, the mellow voice, the lofty air, the noble grief of
+De Molton, to see the joyous, the "ruddy" Glenrith perfectly contented
+under the quizzing of a Stapleford, prevented her being able to work
+herself up to the feelings it was her duty to entertain towards him.
+
+Mr. Wroxholme one day remarked to Lady Westhope, that Lady Blanche
+appeared to be extremely out of spirits, and that he almost feared her
+disposition and that of her future husband were not exactly suited.
+
+"She seems to take no pleasure in his country pursuits--she listens
+with an abstracted air while he continues to pour into her ear details
+which he might perceive are not interesting to her; though I own I
+sometimes wonder she should not be more curious about Wentnor Castle,
+which, from the engravings, must be a magnificent and interesting
+place."
+
+Lady Westhope agreed with Mr. Wroxholme, and could not help half
+confiding to him, that she feared Lady Blanche had some other
+prepossession.
+
+"Poor girl!" resumed Mr. Wroxholme; "but then it is a thousand pities
+she should marry, if she cannot love, Lord Glenrith."
+
+"He is such a good man!" answered Lady Westhope; "he has such excellent
+principles--he is so sure to make a true and faithful husband, that in
+the long-run I should hope no woman, who had herself good principles,
+could fail to be happy with him."
+
+Lady Westhope sighed, and Mr. Wroxholme, who had by this time heard
+and seen somewhat more of his host, felt that poor Lady Westhope spoke
+as one who had suffered from the absence of these qualities in her
+husband.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  Ever still must I adore thee:
+    Though wide seas between us roll,
+  Each fond thought shall hover o'er thee,
+    And thine image fill my soul.
+
+  Morning breaking o'er the ocean
+    Will thine opening graces wear,
+  And with evening's last devotion
+    I will breathe thy name in prayer.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+Upon leaving Cransley, Captain De Molton had hastened to town. He there
+found his father, who having left the rest of the family at Brighton,
+had also repaired to London for the purpose of effecting the proposed
+exchange.
+
+Lord Cumberworth was preparing to enter a hackney-coach, which waited
+to carry him to Brookes's, where he meant to dine and to solace himself
+with a quiet game at tolerably high whist, when he was startled at the
+unexpected appearance of his son.
+
+"Why, Francis!" he exclaimed, "I thought you were gone to Cransley for
+a fortnight! What brings you here?"
+
+"I wished to see you, father, and to talk to you seriously concerning
+my prospects in life. You are come up about my exchange, are you not?"
+
+"Yes--and I hope I shall be able to settle it all comfortably. Your
+mother has been in one of her nervous ways at the bare thoughts of your
+going to India."
+
+"I think I ought to go, father."
+
+"Why! which way does the wind blow now? Why the d--l did you not tell
+me so sooner? They have all been pestering me to come to town, and
+to leave no stone unturned to save you from this banishment, as you
+all called it; and now I have taken the trouble of coming, you change
+your mind! Upon my word, this is very inconsiderate. But, after all,
+I myself do not like your going into such an unhealthy climate, and I
+would rather keep you at home if I could. If you are to go into danger,
+let it be where some honour and renown are to be obtained. There is no
+glory in dying of a liver complaint, as yellow as a guinea."
+
+"I am very sorry, my dear father, to have given you so much
+unnecessary trouble, but I have fully made up my mind to sail with my
+regiment."
+
+"And pray, Master Francis, what has worked this wondrous revolution in
+your mind?"
+
+"Why, father, to tell you the truth, happiness is out of the question
+for me; and therefore I had rather do whatever will make me least
+burthensome to my family, and also take me out of the way for a time."
+
+"And why do you want to lie perdue? You have not been running in debt,
+have you?"
+
+"No, father; I am too well aware what are your circumstances."
+
+"Not a scrape? eh, my boy!"--and Lord Cumberworth, whose morals were
+not puritanical, smiled. "It can't be Lady Westhope, she is such a
+prude. You have not been playing the fool, I hope?" continued Lord
+Cumberworth, putting more of parental gravity into his countenance.
+
+"I have been guilty of nothing wrong in deed or thought," replied De
+Molton with seriousness.
+
+"Egad! but there's a woman in question though," replied Lord
+Cumberworth. "You are not in any danger of marrying?" and his face
+really assumed an expression of sincere alarm.
+
+"Not exactly, father; but I am unfortunately attached to a person who
+is on the eve of marriage with another."
+
+"Thank heaven that is all!" exclaimed Lord Cumberworth. "Remember one
+thing, Frank--a man is never thoroughly undone till he is married."
+
+De Molton remained silent. His father's tone of feeling was so little
+in unison with his own, that he wished to say no more upon the subject
+than was absolutely necessary.
+
+"Does the girl like you, my boy?" added Lord Cumberworth.
+
+De Molton was somewhat perplexed how to answer, but he said, "I told
+you, father, she was going to be married to another man."
+
+"Ah! but women have married a rich man, when they have been in love
+with a poor man, before now. And you are a d----sh handsome fellow, and
+more like me than any of my children. Well, don't look so sheepish,
+like a bashful maiden yourself. Is the girl in love with you?"
+
+"I conclude not," resolutely answered De Molton.
+
+"Have you told her you are in love with her?"
+
+"Why, yes, I have."
+
+"And she was not angry, eh? Come, I suppose your nice sense of honour
+will allow you to say whether she is very much in love with her future
+husband or not?"
+
+"I should say she esteemed him highly, but was not precisely in love
+with him," was De Molton's guarded reply.
+
+"Wheugh--gh--gh!" with an elevation of the eye-brows, and a sound that
+ended in something like a whistle, was the response produced by this
+last communication of his son's. "You had better go, my boy. I see
+how it is: if you stay, we shall have the marriage broken off and the
+d--l to pay. Ah! well I am sorry to part with you, but you had better
+go--we will do no more about the exchange. But I am as hungry as a
+hound--I have eat nothing since I left Brighton. There is no dinner
+in the house--nothing in it but the old housemaid: we can't roast
+her--she would be tougher than Pedrillo. Let's be off to Brookes's. By
+the by, you don't belong to Brookes's: I remember you said it was too
+expensive, when George wanted to get you put up. Well, you can eat your
+dinner at your Junior United Service Club; and we will meet here, at
+home, at ten o'clock, and talk matters over quietly."
+
+Lord Cumberworth got into his hackney-coach, and De Molton walked off
+to his club, to snatch a hasty morsel, and return to South Audley
+Street, there to ruminate sadly upon his future fate until his father
+should join him. There was much of bitterness in his reflections. He
+could not help repining at the unequal distribution of fortune, and
+thinking it hard that the happiness of two beings should be wrecked
+for lack of that contemptible thing, money. He almost doubted whether
+he was acting rightly by Lady Blanche in abandoning her when she had
+all but acknowledged her love for him. And yet, what could he do? His
+worldly pelf consisted but of his pay, and the very moderate allowance
+his father was able to make him. He had nothing to look to. His
+father's property was entailed upon the eldest son--his circumstances
+were embarrassed--he had been obliged to let Cumberworth Hall, and
+lived principally in London, making an occasional excursion to some
+watering-place: there was no chance of his saving money, and there
+were twelve of them to divide the fifty thousand pounds settled on
+younger children. Lady Blanche certainly had no dislike to Glenrith,
+or she would never have accepted him: and who could know Glenrith,
+and not learn to value and to love his kind feelings and singleness
+of heart? The more he reflected, the more strengthened he was in his
+purpose. When he was far away, she would assuredly forget the slight
+prepossession she had entertained for him, and she would soon give her
+whole heart to Glenrith. When he had brought his reasonings to this
+most desirable point, he found it infinitely more painful than any
+other view of the subject.
+
+His father returned about ten o'clock, and after arranging to write
+immediately to the person with whom they had been in treaty for the
+exchange, and to lose no time in procuring the proper stock of articles
+necessary for the voyage, as there was a possibility of the regiment
+sailing within a fortnight, they agreed to leave London the following
+afternoon, and to join the rest of the family at Brighton.
+
+"Well, cheer up, my boy!" said Lord Cumberworth, as he bade his son
+good night. "There is no use in fretting--there are more pretty girls
+than one in the world, and you are not the first sentimental young man
+who has been crossed in love. _Il en faut passer par là._ We have all
+been crossed in love in our time. I, myself, was very much smitten with
+another woman when I married your mother; but I saw that my marrying
+Helen was out of the question, and so I did what they all wished
+me to do, and it answered just as well. Your mother is a very good
+woman, Frank, and I am very fond of her. So cheer up, my boy--never
+be down-hearted! You will forget your Dulcinea long before you cross
+the line." He was closing the door, when he turned back again to
+say,--"Frank, you look for all the world as if you were younger brother
+to the knight of La Mancha--_el cavaliere de la triste figura_,--with
+your pale cheeks and your high forehead. I would not be a skill of wine
+or a windmill in your way for something!"
+
+The good-humoured but unsentimental father chuckled at his own joke,
+and went off to bed so relieved that his son would be secured from the
+impending danger, that it quite reconciled him to his departure.
+
+When they arrived at Brighton late the following evening, poor Lady
+Cumberworth was in despair at the prospect of her pet, her darling, the
+most affectionate, the most considerate, the most dutiful of all her
+children, running all the risks consequent upon a banishment to India;
+"not only," as she said, "braving perils by sea and perils by land, but
+those of climate and disease."
+
+"There are worse perils in England, Mary," replied her husband with a
+knowing wink. "Perils by eyes are the most dangerous for handsome young
+fellows! Depend upon it, he is far safer in the other hemisphere; for
+peril by marriage is the worst of all--that is to say, when a man has
+nothing, and never can have anything as long as lives."
+
+De Molton shrunk at hearing his attachment alluded to among all the
+family circle; though to his dear gentle mother he could have opened
+his whole heart, and to most of his sisters individually also. The
+eldest was grown a little starch, and the youngest was rather too young
+and giddy; but the four middle ones had plenty of romance in them, and
+would have listened to his tale with tears in their eyes. To any one of
+them in a tête-à-tête he might have spoken his feelings; but to have
+twelve curious, wondering, though kind eyes, turn upon him at once, was
+peculiarly unpleasant to a sensitive and reserved man.
+
+Lady Cumberworth saw his distress, and hastened to say, "We were just
+going to bed when you arrived. I shall carry Frank off to have a quiet
+gossip with him; so good night, girls!"
+
+De Molton followed his mother, and in her found a sympathizing
+listener--one who entered into all his difficulties, and who was
+ready to love poor Blanche for appreciating her own dear Frank as he
+deserved. But she saw that, deeply as his affections were engaged,
+their union was impracticable; and she was obliged, though most
+reluctantly, to confess that a temporary absence, and entire change of
+scene, were likely to spare his feelings and principles many a trial.
+
+Lady Cumberworth entreated her husband not to annoy poor Frank by any
+allusion to his unfortunate attachment.
+
+"Lord bless the fellow!" exclaimed Lord Cumberworth, "I never meant to
+annoy him! I know he is d--shly in love, and that is all I said! And I
+only said, he could not marry, and that he knows well enough!"
+
+"He is unhappy, and we must refrain from remarks that wound his
+delicacy just now."
+
+"Delicacy--fiddlestick! You always did spoil that boy--and you will
+make him as full of feelings, and nerves, and refinement, as the most
+fanciful woman of you all!"
+
+The young ladies also met in a nocturnal synod. "What is this love of
+Frank's?" exclaimed Mary.
+
+"How papa made him blush!" said Laura.
+
+"And is he really going to India?" asked Charlotte.
+
+"Who is the girl?" inquired Emily.
+
+"And why could not mamma talk to him before us, I wonder?" added
+Katherine, the youngest, who was rather pert.
+
+"When you are a little older, you will know that people do not like
+to discuss _les affaires du cœur en pleine salle_," answered Jane the
+eldest; and with a dignified air she retired to bed.
+
+"I suppose Jane wishes to persuade us she has some love affairs of her
+own, though we know nothing about them," continued the merry Katherine:
+"she has preserved a most dignified mystery upon the subject, ever
+since I have been grown up."
+
+After a few more questions which could elicit no answers, seeing that
+all parties were equally in the dark, the sisters separated for the
+night, and all found the repose they sought except Lady Cumberworth,
+who acutely felt the approaching separation from her son, and still
+more the pain that darling son was doomed to endure.
+
+Lady Cumberworth was not one who considered the sufferings of lovers as
+matter for sport;--she had been fervently attached in her early youth,
+and the object of that attachment had been snatched from her by death.
+On her side, as well as on her husband's, their marriage had been one
+of reason and of expediency. But she had made him an excellent wife,
+had borne him a large family, and they had always been a happy and
+affectionate couple--happier, perhaps, than if one of the parties, and
+only one, had felt more warmly.
+
+In a fortnight from the time De Molton joined his family at Brighton,
+he tore himself from the arms of his sisters, and, lastly, from the
+long, speechless, close embrace of his mother, to whose more sad and
+sacred affection all instinctively yielded the parting caress.
+
+He sailed with his regiment, and we will leave him for a while, losing
+the sense of all his romantic and high-wrought sensibilities in the
+absorbing sufferings often endured in the Bay of Biscay.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  No te falterà otra Dama
+  Hermosa y de galan talle,
+  Que te quiera, y tu la quieras
+  Porque lo mereces Zayde.
+
+  _Spanish Romance._
+
+The visit of the Falkinghams at Cransley had now lasted more than ten
+days. Blanche ardently wished to be at home again. She felt wretched,
+hypocritical, and guilty. She found herself so uncomfortable where she
+was, that she imagined any change must be for the better. When they
+left Cransley, Lord Glenrith was to pay his parents a visit of a few
+days, and then to join them at Temple Loseley; after which they were
+all to proceed to London for the purpose of procuring the wedding
+paraphernalia.
+
+Lady Blanche's depression became so evident, that even Lord Glenrith,
+although not an acute observer, could not avoid perceiving it. He
+was exceedingly flattered, and attributed it all to his approaching
+absence. He kindly consoled her. "I shall soon be with you again,
+Blanche. I love my father and mother dearly; but just now I do not
+think even they can succeed in keeping me above three days away from
+you. I hate the thought of leaving you, but it will be such a pleasure
+to meet again!--will it not, dearest Blanche? I think it will almost
+make up for the pain of parting; and then I suppose, I need not leave
+you any more. So we have nothing but joy before us." And he wondered
+his betrothed did not appear to be more consoled by this prospect.
+
+He has handed them all into their travelling barouche, and he
+has thrown himself into his britska, and they have left Cransley
+in opposite directions. All the rest of the party had previously
+dispersed--all but Mr. Wroxholme, and he was going to town the next
+day. As he and Lady Westhope stood upon the steps watching the receding
+vehicles, they could not help communicating to each other their fears
+concerning the approaching marriage. Lady Westhope was exceedingly out
+of spirits at poor Blanche's prospects, and Mr. Wroxholme entered into
+her feelings, with all the delicacy of a person with good heart and
+good taste.
+
+As their barouche rolled smoothly along, Lord and Lady Falkingham fell
+into deep and earnest conversation: Blanche sat in the back seat,
+absorbed in her own meditations. The road lay through an open, hilly,
+and heathy country, watered by small rivulets, on the immediate banks
+of which were sometimes seen a solitary cottage, and, close around, a
+small patch of cultivated ground. It was a mild watery day, with little
+positive rain, but one in which the shifting lights and gleams of
+pale sunshine give a purple hue to the heathy hill-side, and a bright
+yellow to the green meadow, or the mossy swamp. Her eyes mechanically
+watched the varying hues, and at length fixed themselves upon a lonely
+turf-roofed hut in the valley below. "How peaceful must be existence in
+such a hut!" she thought within herself; "no worldly considerations,
+no aspirations after rank and situation, can there interfere with
+the affections. A strong arm and a willing mind are all that are
+required to authorize the peasant lover to seek the hand of his peasant
+mistress. Personal, individual qualities alone are considered,--not
+the adventitious recommendations of fortune. How much happier must be
+that rank of life, where love, and love alone, leads to an union which
+is to endure as long as life itself! Oh! if I could, in honour and
+in respectability, become the wife of De Molton, how willingly would
+I resign every luxury to which I have been born, and live in that
+very cottage, unnoticed and unknown! I think I could gladly perform
+even the household drudgery: I could feed the chickens and sweep the
+brick floor, and pile up the blazing faggots, and prepare my husband's
+evening meal--if that husband were De Molton!"
+
+She gazed upon the cottage as long as it remained in sight, and almost
+felt as if she left a place that was endeared to her by habit, when a
+turn in the road concealed it from her view.
+
+It may be much questioned whether Lady Blanche's view of the various
+conditions of life were a correct one, and whether there may not exist
+as much, or more, disinterested love in the higher orders than in the
+lower.
+
+But her thoughts continued, "And feeling thus, shall I promise entire,
+undivided, eternal love to another man? Has not my life been an enacted
+lie for the last fortnight? Can I make up my mind to continue for
+years and years this unceasing duplicity? I thought De Molton's image
+would have faded from my mind--I thought I should each day have become
+more attached to Lord Glenrith. I hear of so many happy wives who did
+not marry for love! But is this the case? No! his image rises to my
+mind's eye more frequently than ever, and I find my soul recoil more,
+every day, from poor dear Lord Glenrith's tenderness. I shall behave
+ill to him in breaking off the marriage, and I shall be called a jilt;
+but shall I not behave more ill to him by marrying him, when I feel
+as I now do? I will tell him the whole truth myself! It is a horrid
+alternative, but I cannot--I cannot marry him!"
+
+The day after their arrival at home Lady Blanche communicated to
+her mother the resolution she had formed. Lady Falkingham was
+thunderstruck. Blanche had continued for the last week to admit
+of Lord Glenrith's attentions, and had never again alluded to her
+attachment, so that Lady Falkingham had convinced herself the childish
+affair had passed from her mind. She was inexpressibly grieved at the
+information; but she was a woman of principle, and could not insist
+upon her daughter's marrying, while a passion, which would become
+criminal, retained full possession of her breast. Lord Falkingham,
+as might be expected, was very indignant--perhaps more so at first
+than his wife had been; but when the first ebullition of anger was
+past, he was sooner able to resume his usual bearing towards his
+daughter. The days are passed, when any measures, beyond argument and
+persuasion, can be put into practice to force an unwilling bride to
+the altar; and argument and persuasion were of no avail with one who
+unequivocally declared that she had tried in vain to subdue her love
+for De Molton--that her efforts to return Lord Glenrith's affection
+were totally unavailing, and that, if she found herself his wife, she
+should be utterly miserable.
+
+Two days had elapsed from Lord Glenrith's departure for his father's.
+On the third he was expected at Temple Loseley. There was no cross
+post; there was no time to write; and, indeed, Blanche thought she had
+rather tell him the whole truth herself, as she could better exonerate
+his friend from any blame, by word of mouth, than by letter.
+
+Never did three persons await the coming of a gay and gallant
+bridegroom with more uncomfortable feelings. At the appointed moment
+on the third day he arrived, beaming with honest joy. After the first
+greeting, he slipped upon the finger of his love, with an attempt at
+sentimental mystery, a ring containing his own hair. He also brought
+from his mother the family diamonds, which, she said, would infinitely
+better grace the blooming young bride than the sober matron. Lord
+Glenrith exhibited them with some pride and great delight;--pride at
+the family glories--delight at offering them to Blanche.
+
+Never were diamonds received so awkwardly, and with so little apparent
+gratitude.
+
+"Why, Blanche! you do not seem to care about the diamonds," he said, in
+rather a mortified tone.
+
+"Indeed I am very, very grateful to Lady Wentnor for her constant, her
+unmerited kindness to me--so much more than I deserve!"
+
+"You are very modest, my dear Blanche! Well! I hope it is that you
+are so glad to see me, you cannot think about the diamonds; and if
+that is the case I will forgive you, and so will my mother too, I dare
+say. I have been told many women love their diamonds better than their
+husbands: that will not be your case, I trust, or you will care very
+little for me." He hurried off to dress for dinner, a little put out by
+the reception he had met with.
+
+The dinner was most distressing. Lord Glenrith began, in the innocence
+of his heart, to tell them everything he had done, every arrangement
+that had been made, and how Lord and Lady Wentnor meant to visit
+Leamington for a few weeks, and to relinquish Wentnor Castle to them
+for their honeymoon; but he found his audience so cold, that he in his
+turn became chilled and daunted.
+
+As they left the dining-room, Lady Blanche summoned all her courage,
+and said, "I wish to speak to you presently in the breakfast-room."
+
+The die was cast! She must now tell him all. She seized her mother's
+arm as they crossed the hall. "O, mamma! what a task I have to perform!
+How could I ever accept poor dear Lord Glenrith, and plunge myself into
+this dreadful difficulty?"
+
+"My dear, say rather, 'How could I let myself fall in love with a man
+whom it is utterly impossible I should marry?'--that would be more to
+the purpose. But it is too late now: there is no use in retrospection!"
+
+It was not many minutes before they heard the dining-room doors open.
+Lady Blanche rushed into the breakfast-room adjoining, and in two
+seconds Lord Glenrith followed her. He saw something unusual had
+occurred, and he felt uneasy, but his mind never glanced towards what
+awaited him. "Well, Blanche, what in the world have you to say to
+me?" and he seated himself on the sofa by her side. "How glad I am we
+are once more quietly here, and no longer surrounded by simpering,
+quizzing acquaintances!" And there seemed a considerable danger of his
+attempting to put his arm round her waist. If he did meditate such a
+thing, his intentions were by no means carried into effect, for she
+started up to take her reticule off the table, and re-seated herself at
+the opposite side of the fireplace in an arm-chair.
+
+"Lord Glenrith," she said, "I have something upon my mind which has
+made me very miserable of late."
+
+"Miserable!--you miserable, and I not know it! What can I do, dearest
+Blanche? You know I would go through fire and water to serve you."
+
+"Do not speak so kindly to me,--you make what I have to say more
+painful, more difficult. I deserve nothing from you but hatred and
+contempt."
+
+"What are you talking about? Are you in your right senses?"
+
+"Scarcely, I believe; for any other woman would think herself the
+happiest and most fortunate of creatures in marrying you; and if I was
+to do so, I should be both wicked and wretched!"
+
+"Not marry me, Blanche!--you are dreaming. What can all this mean? It
+is very unpleasant, though you cannot mean what you are now saying."
+
+"Indeed I do mean what I say; and you cannot know how much I have
+suffered in coming to this conclusion."
+
+"This is strange--this is unaccountable!" and he passed his hands over
+his eyes, as if to make sure he was awake. "Have I done anything to
+change your opinion of me? I am not aware of having been wanting in any
+way--and I am sure, Blanche, I have loved you truly and sincerely."
+A tear glistened in his eye. "Tell me what I have done, and I will
+correct my fault. You are only saying this to try me; and if so, let
+me tell you that it is a very foolish jest, and one entirely unworthy
+of you." The colour mounted into his face, and he looked for a moment
+extremely angry.
+
+"No! Lord Glenrith, this is no jest! I am in sober, serious, most
+sad earnest. Your conduct towards me has been from the beginning ten
+thousand times better than I deserved; but I should be treating you
+shamefully if I were to marry you when my heart--is another's."
+
+"Your heart another's! Did you say so? Your heart another's! Then why,
+on earth, did you accept me?"
+
+"Well may you ask that question, and well may I blush to answer it! I
+thought my affection was unrequited, and I esteemed you. My parents
+thought more highly of you than of any one. I believed I should soon
+prefer you to the one person I had loved, as much as I already did to
+all common acquaintances; and it was not till I found my affection was
+not unrequited, that I became aware of the depth and strength of my own
+attachment. I have been miserable ever since, and all I can now do is
+to tell you the honest truth."
+
+Lord Glenrith sat with his eyes fixed on the ground. "This is a
+cruel blow!" he said at last; "I have not deserved this from you,
+Lady Blanche. And who is the favoured object? By heaven, it must be
+De Molton! I remember his countenance at dinner the day he was at
+Cransley--how pale he looked, and how continually he strove to catch
+a view of you by the épergne; and every time he met my eye, he looked
+in another direction! I am born to be made a fool of--to be deceived
+by the friend I have loved from childhood, and by the woman to whom I
+would fain have devoted all the rest of my existence!" He hid his face
+in his hands.
+
+"Blame me, Lord Glenrith, for I deserve your reproaches; but your
+friend has never deceived you: Captain De Molton has always considered
+you more than himself."
+
+"Then it is De Molton! These are the actions dictated by his high-flown
+notions of honour! A plain, matter-of-fact man would never have proved
+such a shabby fellow!"
+
+"Captain De Molton shabby!" The word "shabby" sounded strangely on her
+ear when coupled with the name of De Molton. She would have answered
+Lord Glenrith angrily, if the consciousness of how deeply she had
+wronged him had not checked her speech; but she could rather have
+forgiven his calling her lover a black-hearted villain, than a "shabby
+fellow."--"Lord Glenrith," she repeated, "you wrong your friend. He
+carefully concealed from me his feelings till--till----"
+
+"Till you had promised to marry me!"
+
+"Till he fancied the avowal of them could not endanger your happiness,
+or, as he imagined, mine. When he took leave of me at Cransley, he
+showed some emotion, which caused him to reproach himself for betraying
+feelings he had long concealed. Then first I learned he did experience
+any feelings which he wished to conceal, and this discovery produced a
+revolution in my mind which appalled me. I strove to blind myself as to
+the nature of my sentiments, I strove to conquer them,--in vain; and
+now, what can I do, but throw myself on your mercy, and implore you
+to forgive me for having ever accepted the devotion of an honest man,
+whose affection I could not requite as it deserved!" She held out her
+hand to him.
+
+"Oh, Blanche! you break my heart!" and he kissed the hand which she did
+not withdraw: she felt a tear fall upon it. Her very soul seemed to
+melt towards the kind being to whom she was giving so much pain.
+
+"Believe me, Lord Glenrith, when I tell you, that every sentiment of
+esteem, respect, and gratitude--every sentiment which my reason can
+command, is yours; and that I esteem and respect you too highly to
+wish you married to a wife who cannot give you her whole heart. In a
+short time you will forget a person who has caused you nothing but
+disappointment and annoyance; and you will find many, many girls who
+will esteem themselves fortunate in being allowed to devote to you
+their first affections. You will soon rejoice in the liberty I now
+restore to you. While I have nothing in store for me but contempt
+and ridicule, you will find, with some one far superior to me in all
+respects, happiness, which I must not hope for."
+
+"Never, Blanche, never!--I shall never marry!" And Lord Glenrith
+conscientiously believed what he uttered.
+
+"Before we part, tell me that you forgive Captain De Molton, and that
+you believe me when I assure you, that he never intended to interfere
+with your interests."
+
+"Yes," he said, "I do believe you, and I will try to forgive De Molton."
+
+Everything was said. Blanche felt that their return to the drawing-room
+was very awkward, but there was no other course to pursue. She led the
+way to the door--there was nothing left for Lord Glenrith but to follow
+after. He felt that something of ridicule always attached itself to his
+position; but at the same time he felt injured, and he tried to put a
+certain resolute and dignified air into his walk. He looked flushed and
+heated, his eye glanced suspiciously and uneasily from side to side,
+but he attempted to assume an unembarrassed deportment.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  The smile that on thy lips erewhile
+    So kindly wont to play--
+  That could each idle care beguile
+    Of Love's first golden day,--
+  Now, when lone Fancy rules the hour,
+    At evening's lingering close,
+  Comes o'er my soul with mightier power,
+    To soothe my real woes.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+Lord and Lady Falkingham were seated, one on each side of the
+fireplace, awaiting the result of the conference which was taking place
+in the apartment within. They had been pathetically lamenting the
+folly with which Blanche was resolved to throw away the most desirable
+establishment in the world; and they had been indulging in unpleasant
+anticipations of what the world would say when it was known that a
+daughter of theirs was an avowed jilt. The door of the breakfast-room
+opened, and Blanche entered: Lord Glenrith followed close behind. Lady
+Falkingham perceived, at a glance, that the unacknowledged hope, which
+she had still cherished, of Lord Glenrith's eloquence prevailing at the
+last, was doomed to annihilation!
+
+During their absence the tea had been brought in, and the urn was
+smoking and boiling upon the table. Lady Blanche sat down before it,
+and rejoiced in her mother's old-fashioned fancy for having the tea
+made in the drawing-room.
+
+Lady Falkingham and her daughter took the earliest opportunity of
+retiring for the night. Lord Glenrith lighted their candles, and opened
+the door for them. As they passed, Lady Falkingham pressed his hand
+with an expressive look of sorrow and of regret. Lady Blanche held out
+hers, and uttered in a low voice,--"We part friends!" He took her hand,
+and turned away.
+
+When the door was closed, Lord Falkingham addressed him:--
+
+"I am afraid, Glenrith, you have had a very unpleasant conversation
+with my daughter. I need not tell you how much my wife and myself
+regret the foolish fancy the girl has taken into her head. But what can
+we do? We cannot, in justice to you, urge her to fulfil her engagement."
+
+"I should be the last man to wish Lady Blanche's affections to be
+controlled; and I hope I know sufficiently what is due to myself, not
+to wish any woman to be forced into a marriage with me."
+
+After a few more words of regret and kindness on the part of Lord
+Falkingham, they also parted for the night.
+
+The next morning all the jewels and trinkets which he had presented
+to Blanche were restored to him, and before the family were assembled
+round the breakfast-table he was several miles on his road to Wentnor
+Castle.
+
+Lord Glenrith felt his disappointment keenly, for he loved Blanche.
+He felt his mortification keenly; for although not vain (if by vanity
+we understand a desire to show off in the eyes of others), still he
+entertained no mean opinion of himself. He had never in his life
+before met with anything but success. He had been accustomed to the
+admiring affection of his parents, the devotion of his dependants, the
+good-fellowship of his equals, the attention of his inferiors; and
+he had been early warned by his mother to be guarded in his manner
+towards young ladies, lest he should excite hopes which he could not
+realise--hopes which he found them, generally speaking, only too ready
+to entertain. Astonishment, therefore, almost equalled the other
+emotions to which we have alluded. He turned and turned in his head how
+he should break to his parents the result of the preceding evening's
+conversation, and he felt that he equally dreaded their pity, and their
+indignation.
+
+By degrees, as he got farther from Temple Loseley and nearer to Wentnor
+Castle, he found his love and his grief diminish, and his mortification
+and disappointment increase, till, by the time he reached the lodge, he
+thought he could have endured the latter, provided the publicity of his
+engagement had not exposed him, while writhing under the former, to the
+pity, the stare, and the jest, of great and small, rich and poor, old
+and young.
+
+Blanche's first sensation, upon retiring to her room, was that of
+relief and freedom. She felt as though a weight of guilt and deceit
+was removed from her bosom, and she resolved she would now indulge
+herself in thinking of De Molton as much as she pleased. But the
+mortified expression of Lord Glenrith's countenance would rise up to
+her mind's eye; and she found herself more occupied with him, and less
+with the image of De Molton, than at any other moment since their
+meeting at Cransley. She scarcely knew, whether satisfaction at having
+now done that which was decidedly honest, sincere, and unworldly, or
+self-reproach for having so wronged Lord Glenrith by ever entering into
+an engagement with him, ought to preponderate,--and, upon the whole,
+she found herself less happy than she expected.
+
+The ensuing weeks passed drearily enough. Lady Falkingham was under
+the necessity of announcing to her friends and relations that her
+daughter's marriage was broken off; an occupation which did not raise
+her spirits, or smooth her temper. Of course the true reason could not
+be openly divulged, or all hope must be relinquished of Blanche's ever
+forming any other alliance. It is strange, but it is an undoubted fact,
+that a girl loses half her attraction if her maiden affections are
+supposed to have been in any degree touched; while there is a peculiar
+charm attached to the idea of a widow, although it may be presumed she
+has known what it is to inspire, and to experience, all the emotions
+attendant upon love.
+
+Blanche herself wrote to her sisters; and as she felt that her
+rejection of Lord Glenrith bound her fate in some measure to that of
+Captain De Molton, she made no mystery of the prepossession which
+had rendered her incapable of doing justice to Lord Glenrith's good
+qualities.
+
+She had scarcely despatched these letters, when she read in the
+newspapers the departure of De Molton with his regiment for the
+East Indies. He had sailed the very day of her final interview with
+Lord Glenrith. She experienced a blank sensation nearly allied to
+mortification; forgetting what were the motives which induced him to
+seek safety and repose in another hemisphere.
+
+Still, when she rejected Lord Glenrith, she did not quite anticipate
+that there was to be an end of everything. She had not precisely looked
+forward to sitting down quietly in deep retirement with her father
+and mother, till the arrival of another spring should summon them to
+London, there to be dragged the weary round of insipid entertainments,
+without the hope or the possibility of seeing the only face she wished
+to see. Her home was no longer what it had been. Lord Falkingham's
+vanity was mortified in the daughter of whom he had hitherto been
+exceedingly proud. Lady Falkingham, although not absolutely unkind,
+was cold and reserved, and never encouraged her to speak of feelings,
+which she always treated as a silly, unreasonable, youthful whim.
+On all occasions, the attachments of young people were spoken of in
+a slighting and contemptuous manner, which confirmed Blanche in her
+resolution to prove, that hers was not a passing fancy--but a real,
+sincere, and respectable attachment.
+
+Captain De Molton, after a prosperous voyage, had arrived at Calcutta
+just about the time when the meeting of parliament called Lord
+Falkingham to London; and Blanche with pain and disgust saw the
+bracelets, the trinkets, the jewels, which her various friends had
+given her upon her expected nuptials, packed up to adorn her person
+during the ensuing season. She felt she never could bring herself to
+wear these tokens; for although it had been impossible to return any,
+except those which had been presented by Lord Glenrith's family, it
+seemed to her as if they had all been obtained under false pretences.
+
+De Molton had struggled hard to bring his mind to a state of calm
+acquiescence in his fate. He had tried to accustom himself to the idea
+of Lady Blanche as the wife of Lord Glenrith; he had used all possible
+means to divert his thoughts from his unfortunate passion; he had
+occupied himself during his voyage with studying some of the Eastern
+languages, with learning everything connected with Eastern warfare;
+and although the renown to be gained in India at the expense of health,
+if not of life, falls far short of that gained in an European campaign,
+still he resolved that Fame should now become his mistress.
+
+He had not been more than three weeks at Calcutta, when a letter
+reached him from his mother, which overturned all the good resolutions
+he had formed, and rendered him almost incapable of profiting by the
+opportunities which now offered themselves of perfecting his knowledge
+of Hindostanee or Sanscrit, or of putting in practice the tactics he
+had studied.
+
+His mother informed him that the marriage between Lord Glenrith and
+Lady Blanche de Vaux was suddenly broken off, and that no cause was
+assigned for the event except that the lady "had changed her mind."
+She tried to persuade him that the case was as hopeless as ever
+for himself, and she resisted the temptation of telling him it was
+whispered that a preference for himself was the true cause of the
+rupture. Although she longed to communicate what she knew must give
+him pleasure, even she was aware that it would be weakness and folly
+to keep alive a passion to which no prosperous termination could be
+anticipated.
+
+Her intelligence, however, was sufficient to inspire De Molton with an
+ardent desire to return to England. Lady Blanche was free: honour no
+longer called upon him to avoid her; on the contrary, honour seemed to
+demand that he should now profess his anxiety to devote himself to her
+for life; and he bitterly lamented having so rashly banished himself
+from his native land. Yet, upon his first arrival in India, he could
+not in decency apply for leave of absence. He suffered tortures of
+perplexity, doubt, and anxiety. At one time, he thought he would write
+to Lady Blanche, and regularly make her an offer of himself and of his
+fortunes. Then he shrank from doing so; for what were the fortunes
+he was able to offer her? and, moreover, such a proceeding would be
+assuming that it was for his sake she had broken off her marriage with
+Lord Glenrith,--a conclusion he had in fact no right to draw.
+
+The news contained in his mother's letter was already six months old.
+Before his answer could reach England, another six months must have
+elapsed. What events might not have taken place in that time! Lady
+Blanche would have passed through another season in London: with her
+beauty, she must have been surrounded by admirers. It was possible,
+nay probable, that his letter might find her married, or on the eve of
+marriage with some one else. How ridiculous then would his conceited
+assumption appear in her eyes! No--he would wait, at all events, for
+further information; at the same time fully resolved to let slip
+no opportunity of returning home, when he might easily judge for
+himself whether an offer on his part would or would not be esteemed
+presumption.--Then again he thought, if for his sake Glenrith had
+indeed been rejected, how cold and how ungrateful must he appear, not
+instantly to avail himself of the chance afforded him.--Fortunately
+for him, his thoughts were necessarily in some measure withdrawn from
+his own annoyances, by his regiment being marched up the country, and
+by being engaged in some slight but animating skirmishes with the
+Pindarries.
+
+The prospect of active service rendered his applying for leave of
+absence absolutely out of the question. All doubt upon that subject
+was thereby set at rest. It also seemed to set at rest the question
+whether he should or should not address Lady Blanche herself:--it was
+impossible to hint at her plighting her troth to him in a foreign land,
+from which he might never return, or of her keeping herself disengaged
+in the hope, at some future indefinite period, of following the drum
+with him from country quarter to country quarter.
+
+He relieved his mind by writing to his mother a full statement of
+his perplexed feelings, and by imploring her, if possible, to convey
+them to Lady Blanche; and having done so, he resolutely bent all his
+energies to the discharge of his professional duties; while his heart
+beat high with the cheering hope of returning to her feet, his name
+coupled with deeds of valour, and illustrated by feats of military
+prowess.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  The soote season that bud and bloom forth brings
+    With greene hath cladde the hyll, and eke the dale;
+  The nightingall with feathers new she sings,
+    The turtle to her mate hath told the tale.
+
+  Lord Surrey.
+
+The "soote season" had arrived, and the Falkingham family were in
+London. Lady Blanche's heart sank within her at the prospect of the
+wearisome pleasures in which she would be forced to join. She shrank
+also from the idea of being looked upon in the light of a jilt.
+
+Though Lady Falkingham, by her system of education, had not been
+able to subdue the natural warmth of Lady Blanche's feelings, or her
+somewhat head-long indulgence of them, she had succeeded in inspiring
+her with her own horror of being subject to the animadversions or the
+ridicule of the world, and Lady Blanche felt, more keenly than most
+girls, what is considered as a disgrace by all who have been well
+brought up.
+
+She thought that the only mode of redeeming herself in the estimation
+of others was to adopt manners the most reserved; and to justify,
+by her scrupulous fidelity to the object for whom it was now pretty
+generally understood she had rejected Lord Glenrith, the inconsistency
+from which she could not clear herself.
+
+Lady Falkingham, whose most ardent wish was to see her daughter
+settled, was in a continual state of vexation at the distant and
+chilling manner with which Blanche received the most common attentions.
+There was truth in the charge her mother brought against her, of being
+on the defensive, even before she was attacked: and though there is
+nothing more attractive than the reserve which springs from innate
+modesty, Lady Falkingham knew full well, that few things more offend
+the self-love of men, and render them proof against the charms a woman
+may really possess, than the reserve which seems to proceed from
+contempt, or from a pre-determination to check their advances.
+
+Blanche would gladly have passed her days in retirement, but her
+parents believed that the only mode of effacing the impression made
+by Captain De Molton was to place her in the society of others.
+Moreover, to seclude herself entirely from the world, would be a tacit
+acknowledgment of deserving blame. At all the usual places of amusement
+they were consequently seen. But the calm brow of Lady Falkingham had
+acquired a careful and discontented expression; and the bright glances
+and glowing smile of Lady Blanche had given place to a cold and stately
+pensiveness. She danced occasionally, but partners no longer disputed
+the honour of her hand. She sometimes received compliments; nor did she
+dislike them, for as she felt an internal dissatisfaction, she would
+have enjoyed anything which tended to reconcile her to herself; but she
+was so afraid of appearing to enjoy them, that she assumed a disdainful
+manner which effectually prevented any recurrence of what appeared to
+give offence.
+
+With Lady Westhope alone did she find any comfort. To her she opened
+her whole heart--with her she talked over each trifling incident which
+had occurred during their visit to Paris--to her she repeated every
+word De Molton had said--to her she dwelt on his looks, his manner, his
+expression, in their last interview at Cransley. Lady Falkingham little
+guessed that the cold, the discreet, the immaculate Lady Westhope,
+could be a companion so little calculated to lead her daughter to a
+reasonable and worldly view of her own prospects;--Lady Westhope, who,
+unknown to herself, was every day acquiring a more thorough conviction,
+that in mutual affection alone can a married woman expect to find
+happiness. Blanche's conversations with Lady Westhope tended not only
+to keep alive the impression produced at Paris; they also made her feel
+still more pledged to adhere to the attachment which she professed.
+
+It was about the middle of the season when Lord Glenrith arrived in
+London. He and Lady Blanche occasionally met at public places, in large
+and mixed society. Their first meeting was inexpressibly awkward. By
+some untoward accident, they found themselves _vis-à-vis_ of each other
+in a quadrille. Although good breeding might prompt the fourteen or
+eighteen other people in the quadrille to withdraw their eyes from
+the pair who had once been lovers, their attention could not fail to
+be riveted upon them. They were to meet as friends; consequently,
+they bowed when first they caught each other's eye; and both blushed
+equally crimson. The rest of the time, they advanced and retreated,
+performed their _queues de chat_ and their _dos-à-dos_, without raising
+their eyes from the floor; but when poor Lord Glenrith was obliged in
+the _pastorelle_ to figure before Lady Blanche as _cavalier seul_,
+she felt ready to sink into the earth with distress on his account
+as well as on her own. The effect which this position had upon Lord
+Glenrith, and the degree to which his pride and his self-love suffered
+under the gaze of others, may be deduced from the circumstance of his
+having that night resolved he would not long be seen in the light of a
+discarded lover, and of his having the very next day begun a series of
+devoted attentions to the lovely daughter of the Duke of L----. Before
+the London season drew to a close, the magnificent _trousseau_ of the
+future Lady Glenrith was the general subject of conversation among
+young ladies; and the beautiful horses and equipages of Lord Glenrith
+that among young gentlemen.
+
+Then came the morning when the narrow entrance to St. George's Church
+was crammed with lovely bride's-maids, and weeping, smiling relations;
+and the afternoon, when half the coachmen and footmen in the Park
+appeared with gorgeous favours in their hats; and the evening, when
+little morsels of tinsel ensconced in white satin ribbon were seen
+pinned to the side, or stuck in the button-hole, of all the most
+distinguished personages of both sexes.
+
+Blanche and her affairs were utterly forgotten, and she heard on all
+sides descriptions of the loveliness of the bride and the happiness of
+the bridegroom.
+
+In sober earnest, Blanche rejoiced that her anticipations with regard
+to Lord Glenrith had been so soon realised; and if she could have
+seen De Molton--if she could have heard him speak,--if she could have
+received any communication from him,--if she could have indulged any
+hope of ever herself knowing the happiness of reciprocal affection, she
+would have utterly despised the frivolous grandeurs which excited such
+a sensation in the London world.
+
+But with her all seemed a blank. She had wished her story should be
+forgotten,--and it was forgotten. No one seemed to remember that she
+might have been in Lady Mary L.'s situation. She wished people to be
+aware that, though she had jilted Lord Glenrith, she was no flirt;--and
+she had succeeded! No one attempted to make love to her.
+
+She was sitting with Lady Westhope, when Mr. Wroxholme, who had also
+been paying a morning visit, took his leave. "I have just heard what
+is to me a very melancholy piece of intelligence," said Lady Blanche.
+"Mr. Wroxholme tells me Parliament will sit three weeks longer. I feel
+so weary and so jaded with the joyless entertainments to which mamma
+thinks it her duty to take me! She fancies I may thus forget; but she
+is mistaken. My thoughts only recur the oftener to him from whom she
+hopes to wean them. I think, when among a number of indifferent people,
+one feels the want of the person with whom one would fain interchange
+thoughts and feelings, even more acutely than in the retirement of
+one's own home."
+
+"That is only too true," answered Lady Westhope, with a sigh.
+
+ "This is to be alone--this, this is solitude."
+
+"I like Mr. Wroxholme," rejoined Lady Blanche. "He looks as if he could
+understand one. I always feel at my ease with him."
+
+"I told you you would like him! For my part I think he is quite an
+acquisition. I know no one who is _d'un plus doux commerce_. He has
+so much tact, and he is particularly obliging! One has but to express
+before him a wish for anything, and one is sure to find one's wish
+gratified."
+
+"And then he has another great merit in my eyes: he cannot endure Mr.
+Stapleford."
+
+"And I know of one more merit still," added Lady Westhope with a
+smile--"he likes Captain De Molton. They were school-fellows, you know."
+
+Mr. Wroxholme had been always interested for Lady Blanche and her
+lover, and, with the tact for which he was supposed to be remarkable,
+had from the first read her feelings. When her marriage had been broken
+off, Lady Westhope had not scrupled to speak confidentially to a person
+who had shown so much sympathy and kindness concerning her friend. Mr.
+Wroxholme had warmly approved of Lady Blanche's disinterestedness, and,
+naturally enough, had spoken his sentiments on the subject of worldly
+marriages.
+
+He seemed to consider congeniality of tempers, tastes, and opinions,
+as the only objects to be sought in such a connexion; and there was
+something to Lady Westhope's feelings singularly soothing and agreeable
+in hearing such sentiments so warmly expressed, especially as her
+strict notions of propriety could not take the alarm at a disprejudiced
+observer merely giving an opinion upon the affairs of a third person.
+
+All he said breathed a tone of high respect for the sex in general--a
+generous horror of seeing a woman thrown away upon a man who was not
+worthy of her, or who did not sufficiently value her, which could not
+fail to be gratifying to a person who felt such to be her own case.
+
+The indignation he felt at Lord Westhope's neglect of his wife, and
+the pleasure she took in finding herself appreciated, might gradually
+and unconsciously have led them both to entertain sentiments for which
+both would have reproached themselves, had nothing occurred to arouse
+them to a sense of their danger. An incident did however occur, which,
+though trifling in itself, served to open the eyes of one who had no
+wish to keep them wilfully closed.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  Gentil parlar, in cui chiaro refulse
+  Con somma cortesia, somma onestate;
+  Fior di virtù; fontana di beltate;
+  Ch' ogni basso pensier del cor m'avulse.
+
+  Petrarca.
+
+Lady Westhope's praises of Mr. Wroxholme, and her intimation of his
+early intimacy with Captain De Molton, led Lady Blanche to talk to him
+with more satisfaction than to any one else. When in conversation with
+him, her countenance resumed some of its former animation; and they
+frequently met, and always met with pleasure.
+
+One evening Mr. Wroxholme had been recounting to Lady Blanche some
+boyish prank at school, in which he had contrived to let her know that
+De Molton had been engaged; she had been listening with an expression
+of amusement, which had been succeeded by a look, half confusion, half
+tenderness, on the incidental mention of De Molton's name, when Mr.
+Stapleford remarked to Lady Westhope, "I think the conversation in
+that recess seems to justify the report I heard yesterday."
+
+"What report?" inquired Lady Westhope.
+
+"Why, that Wroxholme might succeed in consoling Lady Blanche for the
+loss of her penniless, as well as of her wealthy, lover."
+
+"Oh, what an idea!" exclaimed Lady Westhope.
+
+"I assure you the report is very general, and I think there can be no
+doubt but that Wroxholme is very much in love."
+
+"There never was so unfounded a notion! What could put it into
+anybody's head?"
+
+"Though no blue-stocking, I presume Lady Westhope knows enough of
+optics to be aware that the rays of light reflected from objects
+actually before us, passing through the different lenses of the eye,
+are impressed upon the retina, and are, by some process beyond the
+comprehension of us poor mortals, thence communicated to the brain: in
+plain English, Lady Westhope has heard the old adage, that seeing is
+believing."
+
+His eyes, when he began to speak, were fixed upon Lady Blanche, who was
+diligently picking to pieces the bouquet she held in her hand; (Mr.
+Wroxholme was telling her what a good-hearted fellow Frank De Molton
+was at school, and how kind he had been to a poor boy who had been run
+over by a cart;) but as he finished his sentence, he withdrew his most
+penetrating and disagreeable eyes from the couple, whose feelings he,
+for once, misinterpreted, and let them fall gently and fixedly on Lady
+Westhope.
+
+"I can assure you, you are perfectly mistaken in this instance," Lady
+Westhope replied with some quickness. "Lady Blanche is only likely to
+be perseveringly, foolishly, constant; and as to Mr. Wroxholme's being
+in love with her, it is quite out of the question."
+
+"Why out of the question?" asked Mr. Stapleford, with the most
+provoking matter-of-fact coolness.
+
+Lady Westhope did not very well know why it was so; but she answered--
+
+"Oh, he is not the sort of man to fall in love with Blanche."
+
+"He is an odd sort of man, then, if it is out of the question for him
+to fall in love with one of the handsomest girls in London, who plucks
+off every leaf of a beautiful camellia while he is talking to her! A
+prepossession in another quarter might steel a man's heart even against
+such attractions as those I have alluded to; and I have no doubt Lady
+Westhope is better versed in the mysterious workings of the human
+heart than I can pretend to be. I must bow therefore to her superior
+knowledge of the state of Mr. Wroxholme's affections;"--and, with a
+supercilious bow, he joined a knot of politicians.
+
+Lady Westhope felt prodigiously annoyed. She could not tell why she
+disliked so much to hear that Mr. Wroxholme was in love with Lady
+Blanche. There was no harm in it if he was. She looked upon him as a
+man with whom a woman might be very happy; and, although not rich, he
+had a competency. Why was she so certain he entertained no particular
+preference for her friend? and why did she feel aggrieved at the
+suspicion? It could not be that, at her age, after having passed
+unscathed through all the trials of her youth, her own heart was in any
+danger? What a humiliating, what a degrading surmise! She felt almost
+ashamed of suspecting herself of such a weakness; one that she would
+always have thought criminal, but that now would be ridiculous as well
+as criminal. It was evident, however, that Mr. Stapleford did suspect
+her of harbouring so ridiculous a prepossession, and she scrutinized
+her own feelings with resolute accuracy.
+
+The truth was, that she had been accustomed for some months to feel
+herself the first object with Mr. Wroxholme; and although no words ever
+passed which expressed, or implied, that such might be the case, it
+was that consciousness which made her find his society so agreeable.
+She had felt so secure that she was past the age when she need guard
+her heart from tender impressions, that she had relaxed in her former
+watchfulness; she had felt so strong in her virtue, that she had
+not taken heed lest she might fall; and it was with a sense of deep
+humiliation and self-abasement that she awoke to a conviction of her
+weakness. She thenceforth resolved to keep strict watch and ward over
+her inward feelings, as well as over her outward actions.
+
+These resolutions were more easily taken than carried into effect: she
+had no right to assume coldness towards a person who had never given
+her the slightest cause of offence, who had never presumed upon the
+intimate footing to which he had been admitted in the house.
+
+How difficult is it, with the very best intentions, for a woman
+who lives in the world to steer entirely clear of suspicion, or
+misinterpretation, unless there exists between her and her husband a
+frank and cordial understanding! If, with all her knowledge of the
+world, Lady Westhope did not find it easy to shape her conduct so as
+to be discreet without prudery, and cool without unkindness, it is not
+surprising that the inexperienced should, without really deserving it,
+occasionally lay themselves open to blame.
+
+The subject of love is one which young ladies are not allowed to
+discuss; at least, not with their elders. But how much have parents
+to answer for, who, by their avoidance of the subject, leave the
+responsibility of forming their daughters' minds on a point of such
+vital importance, to the man whom they may chance to marry! How much
+has the husband to answer for, who, by his neglect, his sternness, or
+his profligate notions, fails to become the guardian of the virtue he
+is bound to protect! Yet, by light conversation, by reporting gossiping
+anecdotes, and witty though immoral jokes, how frequently does he treat
+with levity, and make the subject of mirth and ridicule, errors, nay
+crimes, which hitherto the girlish matron has scarcely ventured to
+contemplate! Is it wonderful that the young mind should sometimes, when
+it fancies it only throws off the shackles of old-fashioned prejudice,
+discard at the same time the restraint of rigid principle? And the
+husband who has thus contaminated the fountain whence the actions flow,
+is surprised and indignant that the purity he once admired should have
+given place to notions more resembling his own! Is it surprising that a
+young creature, whose mind is thus deprived of ballast and of rudder,
+should in the voyage of life fail to steer clear of shoals and hidden
+reefs?
+
+Fortunately, Lady Westhope had withstood the first trial,--that of
+being early united to an unprincipled man; and she had now acquired
+knowledge of the world, which enabled her to meet her present
+difficulty.
+
+She debated within herself whether talking to him freely concerning
+marriage, and advising one, who appeared to entertain such exalted
+notions of the happiness to be found in the wedded state, to enter
+into it himself, might not be a good mode of proving how completely she
+considered herself in the light of a friend, though of a kind friend
+deeply interested in his welfare; but, upon the whole, she decided that
+it was entering upon a dangerous topic. It might be construed into
+the common artifice of coquettes to pique, or to lead to sentimental
+conversation; and if, unknown to himself, he did entertain for her the
+feelings she more than suspected, it might open his eyes to the true
+nature of them, as Mr. Stapleford's insinuations had opened hers.
+
+In her early youth she had made to herself a rule never to admit male
+visitors in the morning: but, since she had approached the middle age,
+she had gradually relaxed in the strictness of her prohibition; and
+gentlemen now lounged on her sofas, and whipped their boots before
+her fire, as freely as in any other house in London; and no one more
+frequently than Mr. Wroxholme. These visits, in the first place, she
+resolved to check; but she knew that an explanation was always a thing
+to be most scrupulously avoided. By remaining late in her boudoir,
+and denying herself to all persons equally, on the plea of not being
+dressed; by seizing every opportunity of taking an early drive into the
+country; she for some time succeeded in her object, without wounding
+one whose only fault consisted in regarding her with respectful
+partiality. When he did find her at home, she received him cordially,
+and he was for the moment re-assured that she had not intentionally
+avoided his society. When they met in public, though she spoke to
+him but little, she carefully preserved the tone of friendliness and
+intimacy.
+
+Still, in the long run, gently and gradually as the change was made,
+Mr. Wroxholme perceived that there was a change. He could not but
+become aware that he was less frequently invited to dinner; and when
+invited, that it was to large set parties, and not to the hasty repast
+before the play, the friendly gathering of a few intimates; and he
+could not but be struck with the numerous avocations and engagements
+which so often prevented his finding Lady Westhope at home of a morning.
+
+In the course of time, he became hurt and half angry. He had always
+heard that fine ladies were apt to be capricious, and his pride was
+wounded: he was a gentleman in mind, in manners, and in birth; and his
+spirit rose at the bare suspicion of having been so sported with. He,
+in his turn, avoided Lady Westhope, and this was the severest trial she
+had yet met with.
+
+They still, however, occasionally met; for both parties wished to
+preserve the same demeanour towards the other. Mr. Wroxholme took an
+opportunity of expatiating upon the meanness of those men who could
+condescend to be toad-eaters and hangers-on of the great: "He had no
+notion how any one with the feelings of a gentleman could endure being
+take up, and set down, at pleasure;" and asserted, "that a man who
+could submit to such treatment, amply deserved to meet with it!" There
+was a tone of asperity in his mode of speaking which proved that his
+was not a general observation on men and manners, but that he spoke
+from personal feeling. She was inexpressibly hurt, and she determined
+she would, by some means, let him know she was not one of the heartless
+fine ladies to whom he alluded.
+
+The evening before their departure for the country, she invited a few
+friends to meet at her house; and, among others, Mr. Wroxholme. She had
+formed no distinct plan; and yet she vaguely hoped she should be able
+to undeceive him, and to correct the impression he had so erroneously
+received of her late conduct.
+
+Notwithstanding his wounded pride, he could not resist the temptation
+to pass one more evening in her society.
+
+The party was small, the conversation general: subjects of literature
+were discussed; the novels of the day were naturally mentioned. From
+them she easily led the discourse to the French novels of the day that
+is passed, and she took the opportunity of remarking how just were
+the little observations and reflections with which they were often
+interspersed. Mr. Wroxholme added, that in knowledge of the smaller
+workings of the human heart, he thought Madame de Genlis was scarcely
+inferior to Madame de Staël.
+
+"But none of Madame de Genlis's are equal in power to Delphine,"
+replied Lady Westhope.
+
+"Are you a great admirer of Delphine?" inquired some one.
+
+"A great admirer of the eloquence and fire with which it is written;
+and if the motto at the beginning is borne in mind, the truth of which
+is forcibly exemplified by the fate of both the hero and heroine, I
+think a great moral truth may be extracted from it; though I grant that
+the charm thrown around immoral feelings might render it a dangerous
+book for the young."
+
+"And what is the motto?"
+
+"'Que l'homme doit braver l'opinion, la femme s'y soumettre.' All
+the miseries of Leonce and Delphine arise from their neither of them
+following the maxim contained in the motto. How fortunate it is for
+us women, that the opinion of the world, and virtue, always prescribe
+the same line of conduct! There are many occasions in which it is
+praise-worthy, nay, admirable, in a man to risk the censure of his
+fellows; many in which he may act ill without risking it. But with us
+it is quite different: it is seldom that we incur the condemnation of
+our own consciences, or the disapprobation of others, if we avoid not
+only what is really wrong, but that which may bear the semblance of
+wrong."
+
+"Well," interrupted a young man present, "I think it is enough for man,
+or woman, to do what is right, and to leave appearances to take care of
+themselves."
+
+"I am glad it is a man, not a woman, who says so," resumed Lady
+Westhope, smiling. "I am always grieved and alarmed when I hear a woman
+speak with contempt of the opinion of the world: it argues in her
+neither good feeling, cleverness, nor true courage. True courage (in
+woman) consists in at once giving up what may be agreeable and innocent
+in itself, rather than risk having one's good name called in question."
+
+Mr. Wroxholme had listened with interest, for his attention had been
+arrested by the earnestness with which Lady Westhope spoke. He suddenly
+understood all that had previously puzzled him in her conduct. He
+admired and respected her; and his wounded pride, his offended vanity,
+were soothed.
+
+When she bade him adieu, she expressed a hope that he would join
+their Christmas party at Cransley; she did not invite him for
+partridge-shooting in September, as she had done the previous year. He
+felt that she meant to be kind, yet firm; and although the intervening
+six months appeared to him immeasurably long in perspective, he had too
+much principle himself to blame her, or to repine.
+
+There was a cordiality in the respectful devotion with which Mr.
+Wroxholme took his leave, which convinced Lady Westhope that he no
+longer looked upon her as a capricious fine lady, but as a woman of
+rigid, uncompromising virtue.
+
+She felt, however, lowered in her own estimation when she could not
+disguise from herself how great an effort it cost her to exercise this
+same virtue; and she was indignant, almost disgusted, with herself
+when she found her home cheerless, and her time unoccupied, upon her
+arrival in the country. This very feeling roused her to shake off the
+disgraceful weakness; and she resumed her wonted employments, and
+strove to make to herself new ones.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  And words of small import, but tinged with gall,
+    Jar on the sense by their unkindly tone.
+  The morning greeting may sound harsh withal,
+    The evening benison a curse may own;
+  While oft a smile--a kindly look alone--
+    Born of compunction, falls right soothingly
+  On the sick heart, the past offence t' atone,
+    Ere word be spoke at all. As violets shy,
+  By their sweet breath betray where they are lurking nigh.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+The events of the last few weeks in London had also awakened Mr.
+Wroxholme to the state of his own affections; and he no sooner admitted
+to himself that he had been in danger of liking Lady Westhope too
+well, than he rejoiced in the prudence and discretion with which she
+had checked his growing preference, and felt grateful that he had been
+preserved from the danger which beset him.
+
+During the period when London is nearly deserted, and that the few who
+are still detained in its dreary and dirty streets are naturally drawn
+into habits of closer intimacy, he was much thrown with the daughter of
+an eminent lawyer, with whom he often had professional intercourse.
+
+He fancied a considerable resemblance to Lady Westhope's in the profile
+of her nose: her complexion was of the same tone; and he perceived a
+decided likeness in the setting on of the head.
+
+When Christmas arrived Mr. Wroxholme wrote an excuse to the Westhopes,
+informing them that he was on the eve of marriage with the daughter of
+Sir H. B----, and that the arrangements attending this happy event must
+detain him in London. He told Lady Westhope that his future bride bore
+a strong resemblance to herself in outward appearance, and that he only
+hoped she might take her as a pattern in more essential qualifications.
+
+How did Lady Westhope feel upon the reception of this letter? She felt
+exceedingly surprised, for experience only can teach woman how short a
+time love can survive hope in the heart of man; but she felt satisfied,
+nay relieved. She had for six months devoted herself to the performance
+of her duties,--she had repelled every weak emotion. She rejoiced that
+Mr. Wroxholme should be happy, she rejoiced that she would no longer be
+called upon to keep strict watch and ward over her own heart, and she
+was gratified by the manner in which he spoke of herself. The likeness
+which he professed to discover in Miss B. was a balm to her vanity, and
+prevented its obscuring her reason. She was therefore able to rejoice,
+as her principles pointed out she ought to do, that they had escaped
+all further trial.
+
+While Lady Westhope was thus regaining tranquillity and self-esteem,
+Blanche toiled through a long summer of very fine weather and the usual
+country occupations,--through a long autumn and its shooting-parties.
+She had to listen to the number of head of game killed at battues,
+or to the merits of the young hounds or of the new huntsman; and she
+conscientiously danced through the winter balls at the county town.
+
+In some respects she gave great satisfaction to the neighbours. No
+one could accuse her of showing the slightest preference for the most
+distinguished young heir apparent over the most Tony Lumpkin-like
+son of the most humble country 'squire, or the most penniless young
+curate, who might summon courage to ask Lady Blanche De Vaux to dance.
+Indeed, the more out-of-the-question the partner, the more gracious was
+Blanche; so that the popularity of the house of Falkingham was greatly
+on the increase. Unfortunately there was no son, or his chance of
+being returned for the county would have been considerably augmented:
+Lord Falkingham's family consisted only of daughters, among whom his
+personal property would be divided; while his whole landed estate would
+descend, with the title, to a nephew.
+
+A second spring arrived. To London they went again. The brilliancy of
+Lady Blanche's complexion was gone; her step had lost its elasticity,
+her figure something of its roundness. The last month or two had been
+to her a period of much uneasiness, much mortification.
+
+She had calculated that the intelligence of her marriage having been
+broken off, must have reached De Molton, and by this time she might
+have received from him a passionate expression of his joy and his
+devotion. Day after day elapsed and no letter arrived. It is impossible
+to say whether, suffering the pangs of (as she imagined) unrequited
+affection, she might not have found a remedy, as it were, in the very
+excess of the disease, had not a circumstance occurred which again
+excited hope.
+
+Even in woman, love can seldom exist if completely deprived of aliment,
+though it thrives upon the very smallest portion of sustenance
+imaginable.
+
+Blanche frequently met Lady Cumberworth and her daughters in society:
+the very sight of De Molton's mother caused a tremor and an agitation
+which roused her from the state of apathy into which she had fallen.
+Moreover, she often perceived Lady Cumberworth's eyes fixed upon her
+with a kind and motherly expression; and she even fancied she looked as
+if she longed to speak to her, although they had never been regularly
+introduced. Lady Falkingham watched with a jealous eye every symptom of
+intercourse with Lady Cumberworth; and if they found themselves within
+speaking distance of De Molton's mother, never failed to move to the
+other side of the room.
+
+One morning Lady Falkingham complained of a cold, and promulgated
+at breakfast that she should not go to Mrs. Baltimore's party that
+evening. Now Mrs. Baltimore was a relation and a particular friend of
+Lady Cumberworth's. Blanche quickly replied, "Oh, do not run any risk
+on my account, dear mamma! You know Lady Westhope can chaperon me."
+
+"Bless me, Blanche!" exclaimed her father; "you, wishing to go out, and
+your mother to stay at home! I am delighted to find young and old are
+resuming their natural characteristics."
+
+"Really, Blanche," said Lady Falkingham, "I think you are the most
+perverse girl I ever knew. Every evening I am obliged to urge you to go
+and dress, to drive you by force to the best parties in London; and the
+one only night I would rather stay at home, you are seized with such a
+fury of dissipation, that you wish to send all over the town to find
+a chaperon! Nothing I dislike so much as that a girl should be hawked
+about, one night with one person, and the next night with another!"
+
+"But surely, mamma, sending to Lady Westhope is not sending all over
+the town; and I was so long with her at Paris, that it is not like
+going out with a stranger."
+
+"Don't talk to me of Paris, Blanche, if you wish me to be able to eat
+any breakfast; the sample she gave of her chaperonage there, is not
+calculated to make me anxious to entrust you to her again!"
+
+"Really, my dear, I think it is you who are rather perverse: you often
+find fault with Blanche for wishing to shut herself up, and for not
+exerting herself to recover her spirits, and now you check her when she
+attempts to do what you so often urge. I have some business with Lord
+Westhope this morning, and if I find Lady Westhope at home, I cannot
+see any objection to my asking her to take Blanche to-night."
+
+Lady Falkingham could say no more: she could not, before Blanche,
+explain her objections to Mrs. Baltimore's party. She resolved,
+however, to risk a fit of rheumatism, rather than allow her daughter to
+elude her vigilant eye.
+
+Lord Falkingham quickly settled the evening arrangements with Lady
+Westhope, and as quickly took his leave, to avoid the formality of a
+wedding visit from Mr. and Mrs. Wroxholme, who had just returned from
+passing their honeymoon in the country.
+
+Lady Westhope was exceedingly surprised to find Mrs. Wroxholme small
+and slender, whereas she herself was tall, and was altogether a fine
+woman rather than a pretty one. She was also surprised to find that
+her mouth was wide, (though her teeth were so bright, and her smile
+so sunny, that no one who spoke to her would be disposed to criticise
+it too severely,) whereas Lady Westhope's was peculiarly small, and
+classical in its form. The setting on of the head was concealed by the
+winter apparel; and Lady Westhope was not sufficiently well acquainted
+with her own profile, to be struck with any resemblance in Mrs.
+Wroxholme's. She scarcely knew whether or not to be flattered at Mr.
+Wroxholme's having fancied a likeness where so little existed; and yet
+it proved that she had been present to his thoughts, and that he could
+not admire any one without trying to discover in her a resemblance to
+the person he had fixed upon as the type of female perfection.
+
+Mr. Wroxholme looked the happiest of the happy. Mrs. Wroxholme was
+modest without being awkward, and did not seem to be indisposed towards
+her husband's friend, as is so frequently the case when the husband
+has injudiciously praised, or the woman has a narrow mind or a jealous
+disposition. On the contrary, she seemed disposed to take it upon
+trust, that the person of whom her husband approved must be deserving
+of esteem.
+
+Lady Westhope was much pleased with all she saw of the bride in this
+morning visit; and she was gratified by her evident inclination to
+like, and her desire to be liked. When they were taking leave, she
+took an opportunity of expressing to Mr. Wroxholme, how much she was
+flattered at his having found any resemblance between so charming a
+person as his young wife, and herself. Mr. Wroxholme looked surprised,
+and wholly unconscious to what she could allude; then suddenly
+recollecting himself--"Oh yes, so I did! I thought Emma very like you
+when first I knew her; but I have not been so much struck with the
+likeness of late."
+
+The truth was, that since he had become so exceedingly in love with
+his wife, as he now was, he had utterly forgotten what had at first
+been to him her greatest attraction. With the generality of men, love,
+when once over, leaves not a trace behind. With women, on the contrary,
+a person whom they have once loved, or even one by whom they once
+believed themselves to be sincerely loved, remains to them an object of
+interest, though the sentiment itself may long have ceased to exist.
+
+Lady Westhope felt almost abashed when she replied in an explanatory
+tone--"I should not have had the vanity to make such a remark, if,
+in announcing your marriage, you had not yourself mentioned the
+resemblance."
+
+Mrs. Wroxholme, who caught what was passing, said with such an air of
+honesty, that she was "really distressed at hearing the comparison
+made," and looked as if she sincerely thought Lady Westhope so much
+handsomer than herself, that Lady Westhope felt gratitude towards the
+wife, mixed with a momentary (it was but a momentary) emotion of pique
+towards the husband.
+
+To Lady Falkingham's infinite annoyance, her cold increased towards
+the evening--she was threatened with the tooth-ache--the night was
+extremely cold; she could not, without openly saying she would not
+trust her daughter out of her sight, insist upon accompanying her to
+Mrs. Baltimore's; neither was her illness such that she could make it a
+pretext for keeping Blanche at home.
+
+Meanwhile Blanche looked unusually animated at dinner, and her father
+rejoiced exultingly to see her dark hazel eyes sparkle once more with
+the rich lustre which was natural to them. Lady Falkingham, on the
+contrary, was suffering, and uncomfortable, both in body and mind.
+Her tone was querulous; and she found it impossible to agree either
+with her husband or daughter upon any subject, whether of literature,
+society, or politics. She felt provoked and oppressed by the
+unaccountable spirits of both father and daughter.
+
+Lord Falkingham had been trying to talk his wife into good-humour,
+and, nothing daunted by the ill success which had as yet attended his
+efforts, he proceeded: "I find Mapleton is quite sure of the county if
+he stands next election."
+
+"That is very odd!" said Lady Falkingham: "Mr. Evans told me that Mr.
+Talpoys had eight hundred votes to spare."
+
+"Well! Mapleton himself told me he had more than fifteen hundred to
+spare."
+
+"I do not believe Mr. Mapleton knows anything at all about the matter.
+He believes what his agents tell him; and they wish him to persist
+in his opposition to Mr. Talpoys, that they may make their own
+perquisites."
+
+"Mapleton must be a great fool if he is so taken in."
+
+"I never heard he was clever," answered Lady Falkingham, with a
+sarcastic smile.
+
+"How pretty the new lamps look!" remarked Lady Blanche, who knew that
+her father had a regard for Mr. Mapleton, and did not like to hear
+him spoken of slightingly. "I think they give a most agreeable, soft
+light,--do not you, mamma?"
+
+"I cannot say I agree with you, my dear. To my mind, they are not near
+so pretty as the old ones."
+
+Lord Falkingham, who always felt a vague uneasiness whenever he saw his
+wife look out of spirits, as he amiably termed and thought what others
+might have deemed being out of humour, made another attempt to say
+something agreeable.
+
+"Is that pretty cap the handiwork of your new maid, my dear? If it is,
+I think she is likely to suit you."
+
+"My dear Lord Falkingham, you mean to be very complimentary, I
+dare say; but it would be infinitely more complimentary if you had
+recognised the old friend you have seen me wear half the winter at
+Temple Loseley."
+
+This was another failure; but he laughed at his own mistake, said he
+evidently was not born to be a milliner, and remarked what a good
+_vol-au-vent_ he was eating.
+
+"I am glad you like it. I thought it very bad, I must confess, and had
+meant to speak to the cook about it; but I will tell him you approve."
+
+Lord Falkingham was provoked at last. He piqued himself upon his taste
+in gastronomy, and did not at all like any one presuming to have a more
+refined palate than his own. Little more was said.
+
+Blanche counted the moments till Lady Westhope called for her, with
+something of the same eagerness she would have done had it been De
+Molton, instead of De Molton's mother, whom she expected to meet.
+
+To her great joy, the first person she saw on entering the room was
+Lady Cumberworth; and she felt, she knew not wherefore, that this
+evening was big with events of the utmost importance.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  So, bounding o'er the billows, ride our fleets,
+  To reach the land that owns the sacred name
+  Of _home_; and high among the shrouds brave hearts
+  Beat towards that home with strong tumultuous joy.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+Lady Blanche and Lady Cumberworth were at opposite ends of the room.
+They were not acquainted with each other. Rubber after rubber
+was played by the elder people; some of the younger won and lost
+considerable sums at _écarté_. The evening wore away; Blanche's
+high-wrought expectations seemed likely to end in nothing. "After all,"
+she thought, "what did I expect? What was to happen? How foolish I
+have been! Lady Cumberworth does not even turn her head my way." She
+might have seen that a very charming young man was in deep conversation
+with the fourth Miss De Molton; and Lady Cumberworth would not have
+moved an inch, or even looked as if she could ever wish to move, as
+long as this conversation lasted. When the charming young man had,
+however, taken his leave to grace some more splendid assembly with his
+presence, Lady Cumberworth changed her position, and crossed to the
+side of the room where Lady Blanche stood. She was slightly acquainted
+with Lady Westhope, and seated herself by her. Blanche's heart beat
+quick--something would surely occur now.
+
+Presently Lady Cumberworth begged Lady Westhope to introduce her to her
+cousin, Lady Blanche; which common-place ceremony was performed in the
+most common-place manner: but Lady Blanche's eyes were full of tears,
+and she blushed to her very temples. Lady Cumberworth saw that her
+darling son was as truly loved as ever, and, though she knew it would
+be reckoned imprudent, she could not help ardently wishing to let her
+know that De Molton was neither faithless nor indifferent. "After all,"
+thought she, in the good-natured weakness of her heart, "it is evident
+they are both so deeply attached, that they never can be happy if they
+are separated. Lord Falkingham is rich--he has no son; if he chose to
+provide for Lady Blanche, he could make them tolerably comfortable. I
+must give the poor girl pleasure by letting her know what are Frank's
+feelings; and then he will be so very happy if I tell him I have seen
+his Blanche, and that she is constant!" She took the opportunity of
+Lady Westhope's changing her position to draw nearer to Lady Blanche.
+"Now," thought Blanche, "something is coming; Lady Cumberworth looks as
+if she did not wish my cousin to hear."
+
+Lady Cumberworth asked her "if she had been at the last ball at M.
+House." Lady Blanche answered "Yes," and felt disappointed at so
+unmeaning a question.
+
+Lady Cumberworth did not know how to open the subject. "Were you much
+amused?" she inquired.
+
+"No! I did not think it was very gay," was Blanche's reply.
+
+"I had a letter from my son in India the other day," continued Lady
+Cumberworth, while Lady Blanche's heart seemed almost to stop its
+pulsations from excess of emotion, "and he tells me the society of
+Calcutta is very dull. He is gone up the country now, on an expedition
+against some native chiefs."
+
+Lady Blanche changed colour, and her eyes turned fearfully and
+inquiringly on Lady Cumberworth, who proceeded:--"He soothes my
+maternal fears by telling me that it is not a service of much danger;
+but he adds, that while there is any active service to be expected, he
+cannot, in honour, follow his own inclination, which would be to return
+to England instantly. He seems very much to regret having gone to India
+at all."
+
+This was enough. Hope again danced in the heart of Lady Blanche; but
+she dared not raise her eyes from the ground; she did not utter--she
+could not think of anything which would not too openly commit her to a
+person who was, in fact, a stranger. But Lady Cumberworth saw enough
+to convince her that Frank's devotion was amply requited, and she
+absolutely loved Lady Blanche. She was a kind, nay, a tender-hearted
+woman. She never could resist doing the thing which she saw wished
+by others, and many a lecture had she received from more sage and
+worldly matrons for allowing her daughters to flirt uselessly, and for
+permitting herself to be completely managed by them upon most subjects.
+Several very imprudent marriages had been in question for the girls,
+and had from her met with little discouragement. Fortunately Lord
+Cumberworth's heart was not so soft, while his head was somewhat harder.
+
+From this time, whenever Lady Blanche and Lady Cumberworth met, a few
+words of cordial recognition passed between them. Lady Falkingham, to
+avoid the necessity of being introduced, was either affectedly engaged
+in earnest conversation with some one else, or statelily reared herself
+to her full height, her eyes looking over, or beyond, Lady Cumberworth.
+The greetings, consequently, became each evening shorter and more
+constrained; but still they were sufficient to keep Blanche's mind
+engaged with the idea of De Molton.
+
+The letter which his mother wrote to him immediately after her
+conversation with Lady Blanche, found him one sultry day lying in his
+bungalow, exhausted both in body and mind. The expedition against the
+Pindarries was over. He had distinguished himself by his eager and
+ardent courage, and his previous study of the history and nature of the
+country had enabled him to be of essential service to his commanding
+officer. The novelty and excitement of this desultory warfare had
+assisted to divert his thoughts from dwelling exclusively on the
+subject of his unfortunate attachment; but that excitement was over.
+The regiment was at present established in bungalows, near the borders
+of the British possessions, and removed to a great distance from any
+European society.
+
+The weather was so oppressively hot, that, except for some hours about
+sunrise, and for a few more in the evening, it was impossible that even
+any military duty could take place.
+
+The intervening space of time was generally passed by the officers
+languidly stretched on mats, and gasping for breath. They were cut
+off from all communication with any of their countrymen, and the
+unhealthiness of the climate had wofully thinned the number of those
+who had originally formed their small society. The few books possessed
+by the party had been read and re-read a hundred times. An occasional
+tiger-hunt before daybreak,--the exhilarating intelligence of a
+crocodile having been seen on the bank of a neighbouring tank,--the
+punishment of some native discovered in one of the thefts, which were
+so often perpetrated and so seldom detected, or the death of another
+comrade,--were the only events which occurred to vary the monotony of
+De Molton's existence.
+
+In the vacuity of such a life, the image of Blanche would rise before
+his mind, more beautiful, more fascinating than ever; and he would pass
+whole hours with his eyes fixed upon the blinds which the natives were
+constantly watering to preserve some freshness in the atmosphere, while
+his thoughts wandered far away from the melancholy and uninteresting
+sights around him, to the festive and brilliant saloons of Paris, or to
+the dimly-lighted stairs of the private-box entrance of Covent-Garden,
+or to the long dinner-table at Cransley, with the épergne and its
+projecting flowers,--or, dearer than all, to the library where he last
+beheld her,--where he caught the expression of her countenance when
+she said, "And do you then love me?"--to the library where she had
+uttered the few words which had changed the whole tenour of both their
+fates--"Why did you not tell me this sooner?"
+
+He was feasting his memory on these precious recollections; he was
+wondering whether she still remembered him, whether he should ever
+return to England, whether he should find her free from any other
+engagement--whether there was a possibility that she might ever
+become his, or whether he was not flattering and deceiving himself in
+attaching so much importance to these few words;--when he was roused
+from his reveries by the arrival of despatches from Calcutta with
+English letters, and his eyes were greeted by the sight of many a
+well-known handwriting.
+
+It is only those who have been in distant lands, far from all most dear
+to them, who can judge of the mingled emotions of joy and fear with
+which letters from home are received by the exile. The magic contained
+in that word Home!--the thousand tender, delightful, and painful
+feelings that crowd upon the soul! The anxiety with which the letters
+are hastily examined to see that they are not sealed with black,--the
+eagerness with which the one from the person nearest and dearest to
+the heart is selected from all the rest,--the sickening agitation with
+which it is torn open, and the nervous haste with which the eye glances
+to the top of the page to look for the accustomed "All well," and the
+glow of delight with which the comfortable words are hailed!
+
+De Molton seized his mother's letter,--perused the assurances of the
+welfare of his father, his brothers, his sisters, his uncles, his
+aunts, his first cousins, and his second cousins! Nothing could be more
+satisfactory than the report his mother gave of every branch of the
+family, and yet he was not satisfied.
+
+At length came the postscript; and there he found the name he had
+been longing to see. There he found that Blanche was still free and
+unfettered, that Blanche did not enjoy society, that Blanche still
+blushed when she heard his name.
+
+His impatience to return home now exceeded all bounds. Two years had
+elapsed since he left England; there seemed little chance of any war in
+which his services would be useful to his country, or in which he could
+himself acquire fame.
+
+He lost no time in negotiating his exchange into a regiment which was
+shortly to sail for his native land; and towards the end of the third
+spring from the time of his departure, he once more set foot on English
+ground, and hastened to his father's house, with all the trepidation
+and anxiety experienced by any one who arrives at a home from which the
+last intelligence is nearly a year old.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  Love mocks all sorrows but his own,
+  And damps each joy he does not yield.
+
+  _Unpublished Poems._
+
+De Molton had the happiness of finding no chasm in the dear and
+well-known family circle. He could look round and meet the beaming,
+tearful, tender glance of his doting mother, the gay but kindly smile
+of his father, the affectionate countenances of his sisters; and
+he felt that the joy of reunion almost compensates for the pain of
+separation, when the return is not embittered by the absence of any
+familiar face.
+
+Three years, however, had worked some changes in those around him.
+His mother was thinner, her eyes were dimmer, her nose appeared
+sharper, and she was altogether a smaller person than he had left
+her. His father was fatter, and his head more bald. His elder sister
+had acquired an air which bespoke the spinster of a certain age. His
+youngest sister was wonderfully improved: but it was Charlotte, the
+fourth, in whom he perceived the greatest alteration.
+
+The very charming young man whose conversation Lady Cumberworth had
+been so unwilling to interrupt, had at length made his proposals; and
+Charlotte, whom her brother Frank remembered pale, and thin, and shy,
+and dull, was grown rosy and blooming, with a peculiarly expressive
+countenance, and singularly speaking eyes.
+
+The moment De Molton could draw his mother aside, he questioned her
+concerning Lady Blanche; and from her he learned that the Falkinghams
+were still in London, that Lady Blanche was still unmarried, and that
+she was supposed to have lately refused a most excellent and worthy
+man.
+
+De Molton's heart throbbed with joy which he did not attempt to conceal
+from his mother; but the very hope, to which, in her tenderness, she
+had not been able to resist ministering, alarmed her, now she witnessed
+its excess, and she began to remind her son how impossible it was that
+he should ever marry Lady Blanche, how improbable that the Falkinghams
+should ever consent to such an union, and, even should they not oppose
+it as strenuously as she anticipated, how impossible it was that he
+should by any means muster an income sufficient to provide against
+real, actual poverty.
+
+But Lady Cumberworth's prudential reasonings came too late. Her son had
+made up his mind that honour and gratitude now demanded the same line
+of conduct as that prompted by inclination, and he resolved if, upon
+the first interview which he could obtain with Lady Blanche, he had
+reason to believe he still held the same place in her affections, that
+he would brave all the frowns of fortune, and gladly, gaily, gallantly
+encounter any degree of poverty, provided she were willing to share it
+with him: if she were not willing to do so, she could but refuse him.
+
+In vain did Lady Cumberworth use every argument she might have
+recollected before she imprudently revived the hopes he had been
+attempting to crush. De Molton, when once he had taken a resolution,
+was immovable; and his mother, although frightened at what she had
+assisted to bring about, could not help loving him the better for his
+ardour, and her heart went with him, while she dreaded the reproaches
+of others for having fomented what she ought to have repressed.
+
+De Molton left a card at Lord Falkingham's the day after his arrival.
+On returning from the morning drive, Blanche found it upon the table,
+and she could not entirely check a faint exclamation. Her mother looked
+at her with a stern and reproachful, but melancholy glance, which
+suddenly drove back the colour already mounting to her cheeks. She felt
+ready to faint; but she was ashamed to show such emotion before one
+whose feelings were so little in unison with her own, and by a strong
+effort she mastered herself. She would have given the world had Lady
+Falkingham spoken, even to reproach her. This chilling silence was more
+awful, more subduing, than any words which could be uttered.
+
+She gladly seized the first excuse to retire to her own room, and
+there to enjoy the delight of finding that her lover was in England,
+safe, and faithful;--for she felt convinced he was faithful. She had
+seen Lady Cumberworth only two days before. He was not then arrived.
+His calling the very day after his return, before he had any printed
+cards (for his name was only written, and, as she thought, written with
+an unsteady hand), spoke volumes to her hopeful heart.
+
+They dined out on that day; and, after their dinner, were to proceed
+to a party at which Blanche thought it possible she might meet the
+Cumberworths, and, consequently, De Molton.
+
+If Lady Blanche's reputation for good manners had depended upon her
+conduct on that memorable day, she would certainly have been reckoned
+the least well-bred young lady who ever sat at "good men's feasts."
+Three times did the master of the house ask her to drink wine before
+she took any notice whatever of his request, and then she answered,
+"Mutton, if you please." The servants were repeatedly obliged to touch
+her sleeve with the silver dishes containing the _entrées_, before they
+could induce her to turn round; and her next neighbour gave up the
+point of leading her into anything like connected conversation; not,
+however, till he had made many fruitless attempts to do so; for there
+was an animation in her countenance, there was a fire in her eye, and a
+blushing consciousness pervading her whole demeanour, which convinced
+him it was not because she was either dull, or shy, or stupid, that it
+was impossible to excite or to interest her.
+
+It was with infinite vexation that Lady Falkingham remarked all these
+symptoms. Not a word was spoken during their drive from the dinner
+to the party. She knew Blanche's frank nature, and she knew, if once
+the ice was broken, she would speak boldly and strongly all that Lady
+Falkingham least wished to hear.
+
+When they entered the assembly, the room was not full, and Blanche at
+once saw that none of the Cumberworth family were there. Though she
+ardently desired to see De Molton, yet she almost dreaded it. So many
+eyes would be upon her, that she would willingly have postponed the
+long-wished-for moment of meeting.
+
+The rooms began to fill. She fancied a likeness in the hair of this
+man, in the forehead of another: but no; when the crowd allowed her to
+see the rest of the face, it was not De Molton.
+
+At length the door opened wide, and she heard announced in a loud
+voice, "Lady Cumberworth, the Miss De Moltons, and Captain De Molton."
+
+Every thing swam before her eyes: she could scarcely distinguish Lady
+Cumberworth's delicate and fragile, though faded beauty, as she entered
+the apartment followed by three fine handsome girls, all taller and
+larger than their mother. Behind them all, she at length perceived
+the stately figure of De Molton; his face bronzed,--yes, and oldened
+too,--but there was the same look of feeling and of dignity, although
+he seemed to wish to glide unperceived into the room till his eager and
+inquiring glance had ascertained whether his long-loved Lady Blanche
+was present.
+
+Their eyes met, and as instantly fell; but that one glance revealed
+to each that, although so long separated, time had worked no change
+in their feelings. In one second he was by her side--the crowd had
+again closed in--Lady Blanche was seated while most of those around
+were standing, and their meeting was more private than in many a less
+crowded apartment.
+
+But Lady Falkingham was by her daughter's side; both felt her cold
+and searching eyes upon them, and both were unable to utter. Lady
+Falkingham, after a somewhat lofty recognition of De Molton, made nor
+sign nor movement which could encourage him to seat himself; and he
+stood before them, growing every moment more and more shy, and feeling
+himself more inconveniently tall than ever he did before.
+
+Blanche, in a trembling voice, had asked him when he landed, and
+inquired whether his voyage had been prosperous, to which questions
+he had made some indistinct answers; when Lady Falkingham's attention
+being for a moment withdrawn by some one on the other side, he asked
+in a low voice whether he should find Lady Blanche at home the next
+morning? She answered "she hoped so."
+
+"I must see you," he added; "but not here--not thus!" Lady Falkingham
+turned round, and he hurried away, leaving Blanche in a confused state
+of perfect happiness.
+
+He mingled among the crowd, and was soon overpowered with greetings
+from numerous old acquaintances, and friendly congratulations upon his
+safe return; but Lady Blanche was aware that his eye still turned
+towards her, and that she was still in his thoughts.
+
+She was romantic; her heart was formed for love; while, for nearly
+three years, her taste for the romantic, and the warmth of her
+attachment, had been nearly deprived of aliment. Since her last
+definitive conversation with Lord Glenrith, she had had no delicate
+distresses, no interesting persecutions, no occurrences of any kind.
+This very blank had, to a person of her disposition, been a greater
+trial than any more active trial would have been. Perhaps it was one
+which her constancy might not have stood, if her rejection of Lord
+Glenrith had not caused her pride, as well as her feelings, to be
+engaged in preserving an undeviating fidelity to her absent lover. Be
+that as it may, the pleasure of again knowing herself beloved, of again
+meeting eyes which beamed softly upon hers, of being once more engaged
+in all the pleasing agitations of a love-affair, was inexpressibly
+delightful.
+
+De Molton, on his part, returned home intoxicated with the rapturous
+conviction that the beautiful, the admired Lady Blanche had for his
+sake rejected many of the best matches in England; that among all the
+temptations of the London world, and in spite of all the opposition
+of her parents, she had enshrined his image in her heart of hearts.
+The result was, that they were both desperately in love; and they both
+wondered how they had endured existence during their long and hopeless
+separation.
+
+The next morning, De Molton called at an unusually early hour; but
+Lady Falkingham, as a measure of precaution, had ordered the servants
+to say--'not at home,' and he was refused admittance. He bit his lips,
+and retired from the door with a flushed brow, but a more lofty bearing
+even than usual. He returned home to indite a long and passionate
+epistle to Lady Blanche, as passionate as might be expected from a
+man who had loved long, fervently and hopelessly; who felt himself
+presumptuous in offering himself, yet was conscious that his effusions
+would not meet a cold and disdainful eye, but that they were addressed
+to one who fully returned his affection.
+
+At the same time he wrote to Lord Falkingham, giving a true and
+undisguised account of his present situation and of his future
+prospects; both of which were, it must be confessed, as unpromising
+as can well be imagined. Yet, while he honestly detailed his own
+unworthiness to match with such a person as Lady Blanche, there was
+a proud humility pervading every line he wrote, which proved that,
+although on the score of fortune he owned himself her inferior, he felt
+conscious of being an honourable and high-minded man, her equal in
+birth and situation, and one who would not brook being treated with any
+want of consideration or respect.
+
+Blanche received his letter with unalloyed delight. She read over
+and over again the glowing expressions of devotion it contained, and
+resolved that nothing short of the positive commands of both parents
+should prevent her returning such an answer as might reward De Molton
+for all he had suffered on her account.
+
+With his letter in her hand, she hastened to her father's study,
+in order to open the subject to him before her mother had had an
+opportunity of influencing him against her wishes.
+
+"Papa," she said, "I have had a letter!"
+
+"So have I, my dear!" answered Lord Falkingham, who was sitting in his
+leathern arm-chair, one foot on the fender, the other on a bar of the
+grate, with one hand holding the open letter, with the other stroking
+his eye-brows, as he often did when thinking deeply and unpleasantly.
+
+"Papa, mine is from Captain De Molton," and she coloured a little,--but
+it was only a little; for she was resolved, and not trembling. She knew
+her father was aware of her attachment; and she did not experience the
+confusion attendant on the first confession of a budding preference.
+
+"So is mine," rejoined Lord Falkingham, "and very distressing it
+is. Take it and read it, my dear Blanche, and you will perceive
+that, knowing as I do how completely you return Captain De Molton's
+affection, it is a communication which must exceedingly distress a
+father's feelings!"
+
+Blanche's countenance fell: she seized the letter; she fancied there
+must be some difficulty, some objection on his part, to which he had
+not alluded in his letter to her, and she devoured each line with
+her eyes, dwelling with delight upon the expressions of devotion to
+herself, on the impossibility he had experienced to drive her from his
+mind; she admired the noble pride which pervaded the whole; she fully
+appreciated the candour with which he entered upon the subject of his
+poverty; and quickly glancing over the sums specified as his younger
+brother's fortune, the amount of his pay, &c., as topics in which she
+had no interest, and which were "papa's affair," she returned the
+letter to her father with a pleased and animated countenance. "What
+a beautiful letter, papa! There is nobody the least like him; nobody
+so noble, so true, so constant!" and she clasped her hands earnestly;
+"and I know, papa, you value such qualities a thousand times more than
+riches!"
+
+"Yes, my child, more than riches; but they will not do instead of a
+competency. You have been brought up in luxury, and you are very little
+calculated to make a poor man's wife."
+
+"Oh, papa! you know that Lord Glenrith's splendour did not gratify
+me the least. You know how indifferent I was to the diamonds; that I
+never felt the least wish for his wife's beautiful _trousseau_, which
+all the world was admiring; nor for the long-tailed roan horses; nor
+for anything of the sort. I could be happy without those things; but,
+papa, I could not--no, I could not live with a husband I did not
+love:" she spoke with strong emotion: "and I never shall love any one
+except Captain De Molton. So, if you forbid me to think of him, you
+may rest assured I shall never marry as long as I live. I have proved
+this is not a girlish fancy. It may be a first love; but it is not the
+contemptible first love of every young lady which you and mamma despise
+so much."
+
+"Would to Heaven it were!" exclaimed Lord Falkingham. "Blanche, you
+make me very unhappy, for I see nothing before you but a choice of
+evils; no happiness, or much unhappiness."
+
+"No, papa! not unhappiness. People cannot be unhappy when they are
+truly attached, and when they are together. And indeed ours is a true
+attachment. It has stood the test of time and of absence. It has
+conquered all difficulties. If it was the passing fancy people can
+be laughed out of, I should have been cured long ago. If I could not
+forget Captain De Molton when I was uncertain whether he remembered
+me or not, shall I forget him now, when I find that, among strangers,
+in foreign lands, in another hemisphere, he has thought of me, and
+me only; when, added to my admiration of his character, I must feel
+gratitude for his constancy?"
+
+"This is very perplexing," rejoined Lord Falkingham; "I wish the fellow
+was not so very poor. He is an honest, straightforward gentleman,
+though: he has no humbug about him: he does not try to make the best of
+himself."
+
+Blanche smiled through her tears, and looked up at her father with such
+a proud exulting tenderness at hearing him speak in these terms of De
+Molton, that his heart was touched, and, kissing her forehead, he said,
+"Well, my child, I will do my best. If he can get his father to assist
+him, and if we can make up anything like an income----"
+
+"Remember, I despise riches, dear papa; I hate the very name of money."
+
+"Yes, my love, yes; and so do a great many other people, who want the
+things which cannot be got without money, as much as their neighbours
+do. Well! I will see De Molton; I will talk to him."
+
+At this moment Lady Falkingham entered. Blanche felt a little alarmed
+at having first flown to her father in the tumult of her joy; but
+still she was glad her father was not to receive his first impressions
+upon the subject from her mother. Lady Falkingham looked surprised at
+finding father and daughter together, with evident traces of agitation
+visible on both their countenances. Lord Falkingham began:--
+
+"My dear, I have just received this letter, and I have been talking to
+Blanche very seriously upon the subject."
+
+Lady Blanche was grateful to her father for so wording his sentence
+that it might almost seem as if he had sent for her; for she now felt
+that Lady Falkingham might be hurt, and perhaps with some reason, at
+her first impulse having brought her to her father, rather than to her
+mother, upon such an occasion. Lord Falkingham dwelt upon the serious
+manner in which he had spoken to his daughter; for he knew his wife
+would disapprove of his having allowed her to hope there was any chance
+of his ultimate approbation.
+
+Lady Falkingham took the letter, and after having perused its contents
+with an unmoved countenance, she returned it, merely saying,--
+
+"I think Captain De Molton is as presumptuous a young man as I ever
+heard of. He cannot surely expect that Lady Blanche De Vaux is to
+follow him in the baggage-waggon."
+
+The colour forsook Blanche's cheek, but the next moment it rushed
+again to her face, and her eyes flashed at hearing De Molton thus
+spoken of. The few words her father had said in approbation of his
+conduct had justified and sanctioned to her own mind her resolution
+to abide by him through all opposition. Her father thought him noble
+in soul, and worthy in character; he found no objection to him but
+the want of contemptible worldly advantages; and she felt it was both
+generous and consistent to persevere in her devotion.
+
+Lord Falkingham, having once said he admired the manly candour of
+De Molton's letter, was not disposed to agree with his wife; and
+the severity of her remark made him adopt the side of the lovers
+more decidedly than he might otherwise have done. "Nay, my dear," he
+answered, "there is nothing presumptuous in the manner in which he
+offers himself. He speaks most humbly of his own situation."
+
+"It is the pride that apes humility. The very fact of proposing, is
+presumption in itself."
+
+"It might be, if he did not know that Blanche was in love with him;
+but as he cannot doubt that fact, I must say I think the young man has
+acted very properly in offering himself. We should think him cold and
+calculating if he did otherwise."
+
+"Certainly, if a girl throws herself at a man's head, proclaiming her
+attachment to the sound of the trumpet, and making her _belle passion_
+the talk of the town, it alters the case. I once thought it impossible
+a daughter of mine should ever so degrade herself. But Blanche has long
+been beyond my control."
+
+Blanche was so indignant for De Molton, that, although deeply hurt
+at what her mother said, she was not softened, and did not weep, as
+she would otherwise have done. She had always fancied that if Lady
+Falkingham had known more of De Molton, she would have perceived his
+superiority to the rest of mankind; that, like Lady Westhope, she would
+have admitted that he was formed to captivate the heart of woman, even
+while she condemned the marriage as imprudent: but now that her mother
+had read this touching and manly effusion, this epistle breathing the
+very soul of honour and of loyalty to the lady of his love, she was
+indeed astonished, disappointed, and mortified, at finding her still
+unmoved; and for a time her heart shut itself up from one parent, while
+it opened to the other.
+
+"I think the best thing I can do," resumed Lord Falkingham, "is to have
+some conversation with Lord Cumberworth, and see whether it is possible
+to arrange anything."
+
+"It is utterly impossible Lord Cumberworth can ever make Captain De
+Molton a fit match for Blanche."
+
+"But the girl says she can never marry anybody she does not love, and
+that she can never love anybody except Captain De Molton."
+
+"She has never tried," rejoined Lady Falkingham: "from the moment she
+so foolishly rejected Lord Glenrith she has wilfully fostered her silly
+predilection for this interesting penniless captain, though she has
+seen how miserable her infatuation has made me. If she had not nurtured
+it by every means in her power, it would have died away like other
+young ladies' first loves."
+
+There was a contemptuous expression thrown into these last words, which
+roused all the heroine in Blanche.
+
+"Mamma," she said, "I am very sorry I have made you unhappy; I am very
+sorry to have given my father any uneasiness; but it is not in my power
+to command my feelings. I can tell Captain De Molton that I will never
+marry him without your consent; but I can never cease to love him, nor
+can I ever love another. How can you say I have not tried to please
+you, and to obey you! Did I not accept Lord Glenrith, and have I ever
+ceased to repent having done so? If you command it, I will now refuse
+Captain De Molton; but when I do so, I cannot attempt to conceal from
+him that my affections are wholly his, that they have been his during
+three years of absence, and that they will be his as long as I live."
+
+"You see, my dear, that you will not manage Blanche in this way. The
+truth is, the girl is desperately in love, and we must try to make the
+best of it."
+
+Blanche was glad that her father at length treated her attachment
+with some respect, but she would greatly have preferred the phrase
+'irrevocably attached,' to 'desperately in love.'
+
+"Indeed, Lord Falkingham, if you encourage your daughter in these
+high-flown notions, there is no use in my interfering, and I must make
+up my mind to seeing her a beggar, and an unhappy beggar; for Blanche
+is not formed to struggle with poverty; she has been accustomed to
+every indulgence; every wish, every fancy has hitherto been gratified.
+No young lady thinks it more indispensable to be perfectly well
+dressed, no one is more alive to any want of refinement in those with
+whom she lives. I know my own child; she will never be happy in the
+style, and among the associates to whom she wilfully dooms herself."
+
+Lady Falkingham wept, but her tears were not all tenderness; some
+anger, some mortification were mixed with the feeling which prompted
+them to flow.
+
+Blanche felt all this, without knowing that she felt it, and was
+somewhat shocked at her own want of filial piety in not being more
+touched by the tears her mother shed over her.
+
+This most unpleasant family colloquy ended by Lord Falkingham's writing
+to Lord Cumberworth to request an interview, and by the mother and
+daughter returning to the drawing-room, with less cordiality between
+them than is usual in modern days, when mothers are oftener over
+indulgent, than over severe.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  Je demeurai étourdie, muette, et confuse; ce qui étiat signe que
+  j'étais charmée.
+
+  Marivaux.
+
+Blanche's life had not of late been a happy one, and in addition to the
+natural wish of being united to the object of her love, she experienced
+considerable anxiety to change her present mode of existence; and
+having candidly avowed to her parents that she would not attempt to
+conceal the state of her affections from De Molton, and having received
+from them no prohibition to answer his letter, she retired to her own
+room to indite a suitable reply.
+
+She longed to be alone, and at length to communicate freely with the
+person who had so long been master of her affections. She spread the
+paper before her, she dipped the pen in the ink; and when she had
+thus prepared herself, she found herself totally at a loss what to
+say. She was going to write a love-letter:--how ought she to begin?
+She had written, "Dear Captain De Molton:" she thought it looked very
+common-place and cold; and she did not know how to proceed. It was
+true they had been long and faithfully attached, but they had seen very
+little of each other. Not more than half a dozen words of love had ever
+passed between them, and those had passed three years before, so that
+there were no habits of intimacy; and now it came to the point, she
+felt inexpressibly shy at the thoughts of confessing her love in words
+addressed to the object of it.
+
+If a man is doubtful of the success of his suit, he should never
+propose by letter. It is very easy to write the kindest, the
+civilest, the prettiest, refusal in the world; whereas a gentle and
+good-natured, or a timid person, finds it always difficult to utter,
+in plain distinct words, to a man's face, "I do not like you; you
+are disagreeable to me." The hesitation produced by the difficulty
+of couching such sentiments in pretty language may be construed into
+encouragement: silence is proverbially consent; and a woman may easily
+become entangled, in cases where the feeling on her part does not
+amount to positive dislike.
+
+Blanche's epistle would, to the eyes of the indifferent, have appeared
+a very stupid, ill-written letter. It was formal at first: as it
+proceeded it almost too plainly expressed the warmth of her attachment;
+she then professed her determination to abide by the decision of her
+parents. In short it was not consistent,--it was not in keeping; but
+De Molton thought it perfect. He perceived ardent feelings struggling
+with maiden modesty and filial obedience, and he thought the eloquence
+displayed in it might render it worthy a place among the effusions of a
+Sappho or an Heloise.
+
+The next morning Lord Cumberworth waited upon Lord Falkingham. He did
+not like the idea of the marriage, for he feared he should be expected
+to make some sacrifices for his son's happiness, and he was not a man
+who was fond of making sacrifices. He had, however, an unfailing and
+excellent excuse for never doing anything he disliked, in the number of
+other sons and daughters who had an equal claim upon his parental care
+and tenderness,--a tenderness which consisted in imperturbable good
+humour, and in allowing them all the run of the house.
+
+The two fathers were slightly acquainted; and Lord Cumberworth, seating
+himself with an easy air by the fire, rubbed his hands several times
+up and down his shins, and at length said with a half smile and a shake
+of the head, "My dear Lord, this is a sad business of my son's and your
+daughter's; I am very sorry for it, upon my soul!"
+
+Lord Falkingham felt that he had more reason to regret it than Lord
+Cumberworth, inasmuch as Blanche would have twelve thousand pounds
+at his death, and De Molton would only come in for the eleventh part
+of fifty thousand pounds at his father's death; inasmuch as Lord
+Falkingham was an earl, and Lord Cumberworth only a baron. He looked a
+little awful, and replied,
+
+"Your Lordship cannot regret the circumstance more than I do."
+
+"I have done my utmost to prevent it; I have told him from his boyhood
+that a man is never undone till he is married. Just before he sailed,
+I said, 'Frank, my boy, remember peril by marriage is the worst peril
+a man can fall into.' But, as they say, every one must buy his own
+experience; and when young people have taken a fancy into their heads,
+we cannot preach them out of it. We cannot put old heads on young
+shoulders, as you have found with your daughter, my Lord."
+
+Lord Falkingham did not half like hearing Lord Cumberworth speak as if
+Blanche was as resolute in her predilection as her lover was in his,
+though it might be perfectly true that she was so.
+
+"My daughter places herself in my hands, and has no idea of disobeying
+my commands." Lord Cumberworth slightly elevated his eye-brows, and the
+expression of his countenance did not betoken that he participated in
+Lord Falkingham's reliance on his daughter's submission. "But as I know
+her happiness is deeply concerned in this affair, I am anxious to do
+every thing in my power to forward hers and Captain De Molton's wishes."
+
+Lord Cumberworth's countenance brightened: he did not exactly know how
+strictly Lord Falkingham's property was entailed upon his nephew, and
+he drew his chair nearer to Lord Falkingham, hoping that his son was
+going to make a better match than he had been aware of.
+
+"That is exactly what I say; as their happiness is concerned, poor
+young things, parents should strain a point, rather than see their
+children pine, and pine, as poor Lady Blanche has done."
+
+This was unpleasant to Lord Falkingham's pride and his delicacy: he
+instinctively pushed his chair back as many inches as Lord Cumberworth
+had advanced his. The good-humoured, but unrefined father of De Molton
+was totally unsuspicious that he had at all offended, but on the
+contrary flattered himself he was cleverly pushing his son's interests.
+"After all, what do any of us wish but to see our children happy? I am
+sure there is nothing I would not do that was compatible with my means."
+
+"You are aware," resumed Lord Falkingham, "that my estates are all
+entailed upon my nephew; but my personal property will be equally
+divided among my four daughters, so that I shall be able to leave
+to each twelve thousand pounds at my death. This sum I will give to
+Blanche upon her marriage; and if you will make up Captain De Molton's
+income equal to the interest of her fortune, I will consent to their
+union, although by so doing I believe I am acting the part of a weakly
+indulgent, rather than of a truly kind father."
+
+Lord Cumberworth's countenance fell. He had imagined--he scarcely knew
+what; and although nothing could be more fair than Lord Falkingham's
+proposal, it fell infinitely short of what he had expected, and he
+found himself not only unwilling, but unable, to do what was required
+of him.
+
+De Molton had hitherto lived upon his pay and an additional 100_l._ per
+annum from his father. Lord Cumberworth was very little prepared to
+make such an addition to the 100_l._ per annum, and replied evasively,
+"that he would do all in his power,--but that he had duties towards
+his other children,--that he could not exactly say,--that he would
+communicate with his man of business,--that his daughter Charlotte's
+marriage, and the expenses attendant upon it, did not render him
+just then very flush of money, &c. &c." In short, he took his leave,
+somewhat disappointed with Lord Falkingham, while the impression he
+left upon Lord Falkingham's mind was by no means a favourable one.
+
+Meanwhile, Lady Cumberworth, who could not endure to witness the
+state of nervous excitement and agitation in which her darling Frank
+paced the floor of her boudoir, resolved she would herself seek Lady
+Falkingham. She felt sure she could so work upon her womanly and
+maternal feelings as to win her over to the side of the lovers. She
+accordingly ordered her carriage, and soon after Lord Cumberworth's
+return from his momentous interview with Lord Falkingham, she found
+herself at the same door.
+
+She did not inquire if Lady Falkingham was at home, but sending in her
+card, she desired the servant to take it at once to his lady, and to
+ask if she could see her for a few minutes.
+
+By this means she effected her entrance; but Lady Falkingham was
+exceedingly annoyed at what she deemed an unwarrantable intrusion, and
+was disposed to think Lady Cumberworth, who was the most humble and the
+meekest of her sex, a pushing, obtrusive person.
+
+Lady Cumberworth was somewhat abashed when she entered; for although
+she had worked up her courage to take this step by reminding herself
+that Lady Falkingham was universally allowed to be a most exemplary
+mother, and that therefore she must surely understand, and sympathize
+with the maternal feelings of another, she could not quite shake off
+the impression produced by Lady Falkingham's constant avoidance of
+herself.
+
+Lady Falkingham was alone, and received her with the most awful
+perfection of good-breeding. The gentle, the kind, the unsuspicious
+Lady Cumberworth felt chilled; but she thought of her son's care-worn
+face, and she found resolution to open the subject. "She was sure
+that Lady Falkingham's own tenderness for her daughter would plead
+her excuse for intruding upon her: that her son's peace of mind was
+so completely involved in the event which was then pending, that she
+could not withstand the temptation of seeking Lady Falkingham, and
+of pleading his cause. She was fully aware that her Frank was by no
+means worthy in point of fortune and situation to match with Lady
+Blanche; but that still, in point of character and disposition, he was
+so perfect, so kind--so dutiful a son! so affectionate a brother! so
+excellent in all the relationships of life!--that if personal qualities
+could make up for the absence of worldly advantages, he was not
+unworthy of any good fortune."
+
+Lady Falkingham listened with stately politeness, and when Lady
+Cumberworth paused, she answered: "that she had no doubt his mother's
+account of his moral perfections was perfectly just, but she feared
+these qualities would not provide the conveniences of life. She
+regretted, as much as Lady Cumberworth herself could do, the necessity
+of attending to such paltry considerations; yet, as the world was now
+constituted, it was impossible to disregard them."
+
+"But, dear Lady Falkingham, surely anything is better than that two
+young creatures should die of broken hearts!"
+
+"If young people regulated their feelings, we should not hear of such
+unreasonable proceedings."
+
+"But in youth the feelings are strong, and the reason is not matured.
+We have all been young; we all know----"
+
+"Certainly--I also have been young; and therefore I know that in youth,
+as well as in maturity, it is possible to take reason, rather than
+impulse, for our guide."
+
+Lady Falkingham had never deviated for a moment, in principle,
+inclination, or practice, from the strictest line of prudence and
+propriety. Lady Cumberworth thought of her own early love, and of its
+tragic ending, and ardently wished to preserve her child, and the
+object of his love, from the blight which had passed over her own young
+days. In the warmth of her feelings she could not help saying: "You
+have been a fortunate woman, Lady Falkingham! If you had known what
+it is to give the whole treasure of your young affections to one only
+object, and to be deprived of that object for ever, you would pause
+before you doomed anything you loved to such a fate! It is hard to bear
+when the deprivation comes from the hand of Heaven; how much more hard
+if from the hand of man!"
+
+Lady Falkingham did not reply. The deep tone of emotion with which
+Lady Cumberworth spoke, made her unwilling to maintain her own side of
+the argument; neither could she be brought to allow the expediency of
+Blanche's marrying Captain De Molton.
+
+At this moment, Blanche accidentally entered the room. She started
+at seeing Lady Cumberworth, but approached her with a glowing,
+blushing countenance. Lady Cumberworth, whose feelings were excited
+by her previous conversation, received her with open arms, embraced
+her tenderly, and burst into tears. Blanche, surprised, delighted,
+overpowered, returned her caresses with corresponding emotion. Lady
+Falkingham sat by, provoked to see how everything conspired to bring
+about the dreaded union, and somewhat jealous of her daughter's sudden
+tenderness for a stranger.
+
+The following day a second interview took place between the fathers, in
+which Lord Falkingham ascertained, through a profusion of fine words,
+that Lord Cumberworth either could not, or would not, do anything more
+to assist his son in making up an income; and Lord Falkingham thought
+it his duty to inform his daughter, that she must in good earnest exert
+herself to conquer her attachment,--that the marriage was impossible.
+
+Lady Falkingham looked triumphant. Lady Blanche gave way to utter
+despair. She wept, she was in hysterics; she would not leave her
+room; she fretted herself really ill; physicians were sent for,
+draughts prescribed. Even Lady Falkingham began to be alarmed, and was
+unremitting in her attentions. But these attentions did not relieve
+or soothe Blanche's perturbed spirit. Her mother had never attempted
+by kindness to win her from her imprudent attachment, and she had
+completely failed in ridiculing her out of it. The consequence was,
+that she had lost all influence over her mind, and much of that which
+she had possessed over her affections.
+
+De Molton of course heard of Blanche's illness. He wandered about the
+neighbouring streets; he inquired twenty times a day at the door; and
+at length, upon hearing that Lady Blanche was considered worse, and
+that a new physician had been called in to a consultation, he sent a
+message to Lord Falkingham, to implore one moment's conversation.
+
+Lord Falkingham was uneasy and confounded at the serious aspect of
+his daughter's illness, and was beginning to think anything was
+preferable to the present state of affairs. De Molton was admitted, and
+a passionate appeal on his part did not meet with an absolute refusal.
+The matter was again renewed; Blanche was allowed to hope--her health
+rallied surprisingly, and in the course of three or four days she was
+able to descend to the drawing-room, and there to receive De Molton as
+her plighted lover, her affianced husband.
+
+And now did they at length enjoy many delightful tête-à-têtes; and so
+fully were they engaged in detailing to each other all the sorrows and
+fears, doubts, anxieties and sufferings of their years of separation,
+that they had little time to talk over, or to arrange their plans for
+the future. They had both been duly warned what were their prospects.
+Even the tender Lady Cumberworth had told them that they must not
+expect to possess all the blessings of this world; that as they would
+be rich in that which seemed to her the greatest of all earthly ones,
+mutual affection, they must make up their minds to be happy without
+others. Lord Cumberworth repeated, "Remember, Frank, there are twelve
+of you: I cannot rob my other children:"--which meant, "I do not mean
+to give up any of my own comforts for you." Lord Falkingham said
+everything that was reasonable and kind, and at the same time provided
+them with a plain travelling-carriage, with all that is useful and
+necessary in the way of plate, and with as much household linen as
+would be advisable for people who must change their abode as often as
+their regiment changed its quarters. Lady Falkingham, who had been too
+much terrified by Blanche's despair and her illness actively to oppose
+the marriage, contented herself with shaking her head mournfully, and
+with secretly detesting her future son-in-law: but she spared Blanche
+many of the home truths and useful severities, which might have been
+of much service had they been duly attended to, but which, under the
+present circumstances, might have been productive of no good effect.
+
+Blanche and De Molton, however, acquiesced in the truth of all that
+was urged by their other relations and friends, and declared, with
+the utmost sincerity, their contempt for filthy lucre; a contempt
+unconditionally expressed by Blanche, but by De Molton in more measured
+terms, as considering it unworthy to be put into a competition with the
+affections of the heart.
+
+Immediately after their marriage, they were to repair to a very pretty
+villa belonging to a friend of Lord Cumberworth's; after which they
+were to pay several visits; and towards the autumn they were to join De
+Molton's regiment, which was quartered in one of the most lovely parts
+of Devonshire.
+
+As they had no house of their own, there was no need to procure
+furniture. Lord Falkingham had already provided plate and linen; Lady
+Falkingham of course selected the _trousseau_; presents of all kinds
+flocked in from the numerous connexions of both families,--presents
+which, as they were known to be poor, were all intended to be useful:
+china ink-stands--Sèvres ornaments for chimneypieces--buhl clocks, and
+beautiful dressing boxes, with cut-glass bottles, mounted in silver
+gilt!
+
+Nothing could exceed the happiness of the lovers,--nothing could exceed
+their gratitude to their friends for their considerate kindness; and
+Blanche felt how preferable were these tokens of affection, to the
+Glenrith diamonds, which she had received so coldly.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  Lordly gallants, tell me this:
+    Though my safe content you weigh not,
+  In your greatness what one bliss
+    Have you gain'd, that I enjoy not?
+
+  You have honours, you have wealth,--
+    I have peace, and I have health;
+  All the day I merry make,
+    And at night no care I take.
+
+  George Wither.
+
+The honeymoon was spent at Sir Frederick Vyneton's villa; whose
+man-cook and whole establishment were devoted to the new-married
+couple, while the good-natured proprietor was making a tour in the Low
+Countries.
+
+When Captain and Lady Blanche De Molton entered the dark-green
+travelling chariot which Lord Falkingham had given them, and drove from
+the portico of Sir Frederick Vyneton's villa, on their way to Cransley
+to pass a fortnight with the Westhopes, Lady Blanche exclaimed, "How
+strange it is that there should exist people who can sell themselves
+for money, or for an establishment! Should we be happier, Frank, if
+we possessed the mines of Golconda, than we are now?" She threw her
+beaming eyes upon him with an expression of joyous tenderness which
+made him indeed feel himself the happiest of men; yet he trembled to
+think how little she knew the details of that poverty with which he was
+already acquainted, although only in the limited degree experienced
+by a single man, whose wants, and consequently whose privations, are
+merely personal.
+
+"Dearest Blanche," he replied, "you know nothing of poverty yet. Repeat
+what you have just said, two years hence, and I shall indeed esteem
+myself the most blessed of human beings. I hold it a matter of duty
+and of conscience to live within one's means whatever they may be; and
+if, when you really have learned what is the life of a soldier's wife,
+you still say you despise worldly wealth, I shall be happier--yes,
+still happier--than I am at this moment; for I now feel as if you had
+engaged yourself in a fate you are not prepared for. But I have warned
+you, dearest Blanche--I have not won you under false pretences!"
+
+"We shall see," replied Blanche, smilingly. "I think I am made for
+a poor man's wife; for nobody can more heartily detest everything
+appertaining to pomp and splendour, and that odious thing called money."
+
+Blanche expected a rapturous glance of gratitude from De Molton, and
+was surprised at hearing him sigh. The truth was, they knew little
+of each other's dispositions when they became irrevocably engaged.
+Blanche was warm, enthusiastic, inconsiderate; she followed her
+impulses, without looking forward beyond the present moment. De
+Molton was not without enthusiasm, but his was of a more thoughtful
+and serious cast. A high notion of honour was in him paramount to all
+other considerations. It enabled him to leave Paris when he found his
+friend was in love with Blanche,--it enabled him to quit England when
+he discovered that she was in love with himself,--it enabled him to
+stay in India while there was any military duty to be performed,--it
+prompted him to throw himself at her feet when he found her still free,
+although by so doing he scarcely hoped for anything but a contemptuous
+refusal on the part of her parents. It now made him resolve that his
+love for his beautiful wife should not lead him into any expenses which
+his limited income could not meet; and that, however painful he might
+find it to see her deprived of the luxuries to which she had been
+accustomed, he would never be tempted to run into debt, or to be a
+burthen upon his father, who was neither able nor willing to assist him.
+
+But when he made this resolution, he did not look forward with unmixed
+pleasure to installing her in the temporary home which he should
+be able to procure for her, near M * * *. She watched the serious
+expression of his countenance; and she admired that expression, though
+she wished at this moment to dispel it;--nor was it long before she
+succeeded in driving away all traces of care from his countenance.
+
+Several agreeable visits succeeded that to Cransley; and at last, when
+they approached the neighbourhood of M * * *, he left her for a few
+days at the house of a cousin, while he preceded her to his quarters,
+for the purpose of preparing some comfortable habitation for her
+reception.
+
+He was fortunate enough to find a very pretty cottage, with a veranda
+and a garden, to be let, within a mile of the town. He arranged the
+furniture so as to make it look as little like a lodging-house as
+possible; he unpacked all the presents which had, at a considerable
+expense, been forwarded to M * * *; and before Blanche joined him, he
+had so disposed the buhl clock, the ink-stands, the paper-cutters, the
+letter-pressers, the Persian table-covers, and the low, luxurious,
+well-cushioned arm-chair which Lady Cumberworth insisted should form
+part of the camp equipage, as to give the room a look of home.
+
+De Molton hastened to receive Blanche at the door, and ushered her,
+with more complacency and satisfaction than he had anticipated, through
+the narrow entrance, into the treillaged drawing-room.
+
+It was a lovely evening! The flowers had not yet all faded,--the little
+garden was bright in the western sun. The view was enchanting!--rich
+varieties of luxuriant trees clothed the undulating slope to the
+sea-shore, and the clear blue sea, at a little distance, which from
+their elevated situation reflected to their eye the azure of the
+heavens, formed as it were a background to the wooded bank.
+
+Blanche was enchanted. "How lovely, how beautiful! Oh, what are
+castles, halls, abbeys, parks, or palaces, to such a home as this, with
+the person one loves?"
+
+De Molton was indeed happy--too happy for utterance. A tear gathered
+in his eye, which he was almost ashamed should be seen even by his
+wife,--and yet he could not avert his eyes from hers when she looked
+up so tenderly in his face. He gently drew her arm within his own, and
+they walked forth to enjoy in the fulness of their hearts the beauties
+of nature, and the delight of enjoying them together.
+
+Thanks to the snow-white table-cloth, the handsome plate, the
+presents of Lord Falkingham; the pretty dinner service, that of Lord
+Cumberworth; the lovely dessert service, that of Lady Cumberworth; the
+cut-glass bottles, that of the eldest Miss De Molton; the tea-things,
+that of Miss M. De Molton; the breakfast-things, that of Miss J. De
+Molton; the silver urn, that of one of Blanche's married sisters; and
+the silver coffee-pot, that of another; the first four-and-twenty
+hours of Blanche's life as the mistress of her own house, passed in a
+state of rapture and of constant exclamations at the uselessness and
+contemptibility of money.
+
+She forgot that she was all this time enjoying money's worth, and
+that indifference to worldly advantages is not put to the test while
+a person possesses every luxury, every elegance, though on a small
+scale,--at the moment of all others, too, when married lovers wish only
+for the enjoyment of each other's society.
+
+One of the soldiers, who had been trained by De Molton to act as his
+valet, served as footman. His horses were, of course, taken care of in
+the barracks; and as he had a gig, they were able to drive every day
+in different directions, exploring new parts of the delightful country
+around. Blanche's life was a day-dream of delight--her rich hazel
+eyes sparkled with feeling and gaiety--her rosy lips smiled joyously
+whenever De Molton entered the room: to her
+
+  "This earth was all one beautiful dream."
+
+Still, De Molton felt that Blanche had not steadily and dispassionately
+weighed the advantages and disadvantages of their present situation,
+and that it was not with a thorough knowledge of what she was
+undertaking that she had made choice of poverty with him.
+
+Too much reliance must not be placed on those who, having never had a
+wish ungratified in the way of worldly conveniences, profess to despise
+them. If those who have already experienced privation deliberately
+form a poor marriage, we may conclude that they will know how to abide
+by the selection they have made, and we need not anticipate for them
+mortification and disappointment.
+
+De Molton, from his early youth, had had many opportunities of seeing
+the real details of a married officer's life; and though, for the sake
+of the woman he loved, he gladly encountered the difficulties which
+he knew awaited him, he was thoroughly aware what they were, and he
+regretted that she should be exposed to them. He almost trembled at her
+exuberant happiness, knowing that he might not always procure for her
+a pretty cottage orné in the neighbourhood of his barracks, and that
+they should not always be quartered in so cheap a country as Devonshire.
+
+He would rather have seen her more soberly contented; and when she,
+proud as it were of being so happy, looked towards him for applause,
+she was half-mortified at the flatness with which her unworldly
+sentiments were received.
+
+These sentiments were not so frequently expressed as the season
+advanced. The flowers were all gone; the little garden was very damp;
+the veranda kept out the sun, and the windows did not keep out the
+wind; the roof did not always exclude the rain; and black beetles
+abounded on the ground floor, and sometimes a stray one mounted to the
+bed-rooms. The walks were muddy, the drives were windy, the trees had
+lost their foliage, and the chimneys smoked.
+
+One evening, as they left the little dining-room, and entered the small
+drawing-room, they were half-stifled with smoke.--"Oh, dearest Frank!
+make haste and open the window, or we shall be smothered." But the
+window was a French window, and the wind set that way. There was no
+fastening it open so as not to run the risk of breaking it, or letting
+in a perfect hurricane. They agreed to open door, and window, and to
+return to the dining-room till the atmosphere was once more fit for
+respiration.
+
+This desirable result was soon accomplished, as small rooms are
+soon filled with smoke, soon cleared, soon warmed, and soon cooled.
+Accordingly, when they re-entered their snug apartment, they might as
+well have established themselves under the veranda, for any benefit
+they derived from the fire, which was only now beginning to burn. "This
+is the only objection to small rooms!" exclaimed Lady Blanche. "If one
+keeps the doors shut, they become oppressively hot; and if one opens a
+door or a window, they are as cold as if they had never been inhabited."
+
+"It is very true indeed," rejoined De Molton: "shall I fetch you a
+shawl, dearest Blanche?"
+
+"Thank you, dearest Frank, I think it would be comfortable:" and she
+drew her chair close to the fire, and placed her feet upon the fender,
+when a great puff of black smoke turned back from the chimney, as if to
+fly in her face. She quickly pushed back her chair. "How stupid that
+Devonshire girl is--she always will heap the grate with small coals.
+Surely a housemaid's business is to know how to light a fire!"
+
+"It is, indeed; but I am afraid a raw Devonshire girl is not likely to
+be an accomplished housemaid." And De Molton hastened out of the room
+to seek his dear Blanche's shawl.
+
+"Now, Frank, you must read to me while I work: that will be so
+comfortable! and I have a great deal of work to do. I shall show you
+what a good poor man's wife I am!" She took out of her delicate ivory
+work-box a small cap of tiny dimensions, which she was beginning to
+embroider with the most intricate patterns.
+
+De Molton looked really pleased, and smiled upon her with the gentle
+sentimental smile which had always appeared so bewitching.
+
+The room became warmer, the fire clearer; the shawl was very tenderly
+arranged by De Molton himself; and they sat down to pass a comfortable,
+domestic, and rational evening.
+
+"What book shall I read to you?" inquired De Molton. "Some of your own
+youthful library, which your mother so kindly sent after us?"
+
+"Oh no! I know all those books by heart; but you have some of your own
+upon that shelf. I dare say they will be quite new to me."
+
+"I dare say they will, dearest, for they are all upon military tactics,
+engineering, and fortification,--Vauban, Coehorn, and Jomini, &c."
+
+"Oh, that will never do," rejoined Blanche. "But there are some novels
+from the circulating library at M * * *, which I have not yet looked
+at. I dare say that you will find something to amuse, though it may not
+instruct us."
+
+He turned over the volumes--the usual trash of a country town
+library--Lady Evelinas and Altendorfs, and Cecilias and Mortimers,
+Albertinas and Ildelheims, Eleanoras and Miraldinis, by the dozen. They
+attempted one or two, but could not proceed beyond the first three
+pages.
+
+"Dearest Frank, why would you not subscribe to a London library, as I
+begged you to do? You see these books are not readable."
+
+"The expense of the carriage, dear Blanche, as well as that of the
+original subscription, made me very unwilling to do so. Moreover, even
+the London libraries do not supply one with very good books, when one
+is at such a distance in the country."
+
+"Well! we will return these horrors, and you shall see what you can
+procure to-morrow. By the by, do send for the mason, or the bricklayer,
+or whoever the man may be, who does chimneys, and let him try to
+prevent the smoke. Look, again! now we have had fresh coals."
+
+"I will send about it to-morrow; but I am afraid we shall not be able
+to effect much good in a lodging-house."
+
+The next day "the man who did chimneys" came, and he proposed new
+setting the grate, contracting the sides, and altering the flue.
+Blanche said, by all means, if these measures would secure the absence
+of smoke. De Molton inquired what would be the cost of the alteration,
+and found that it would be nearly a third of the house-rent for the
+year. He paused, dismissed the man, and explained to Blanche, that as
+they were to pay her father and mother a visit in the spring, and as
+a great part of the winter was over, and as they would probably be
+quartered in some different part of the world the following winter, it
+would not be wise to spend much money upon this chimney; and he advised
+their sitting in the dining-room when the wind happened to blow from
+the smoky quarter.
+
+To this she assented, but it was with an effort; and she evidently
+did so, to prove that she was indeed the good poor man's wife she had
+professed to be.
+
+Colonel Jones, the colonel of the regiment, and his wife, on their
+return from a short absence among their friends, waited upon Lady
+Blanche. As she could not, in this remote corner of the world, enjoy
+the best society, Blanche would much have preferred living in complete
+seclusion. But De Molton, who thought any slackness on their part would
+be a want of attention from an inferior to a superior officer, did not
+allow her to put off the visit of propriety.
+
+The weather was fine, though cold; and they walked to call on Colonel
+and Mrs. Jones, who lived in the town, close to the barracks.
+
+As they entered the door, their noses were assailed by the smell of
+roast mutton and rice pudding; and they were ushered into a dark
+two-windowed country-town drawing-room, with a dirty green paper, and
+a high dado, which had once been painted white; while remarkably smart
+bell-ropes rendered the dinginess of the rest more conspicuous from the
+contrast.
+
+Nine rosy children and the governess were seated at dinner; Mrs. Jones
+officiating as carver, and the head nurse assisting the youngest to
+guide its food safely to its mouth. A smell of pudding and of small
+beer pervaded the apartment, and greatly annoyed Lady Blanche.
+
+De Molton introduced her to the Colonel's lady, who, relinquishing the
+carving knife to the governess, retired from the scene of action to the
+sofa with Lady Blanche, and apologised for her children being so late
+at dinner, saying, "The colonel had taken the boys out with him to see
+the itinerant menagerie in the market-place, and had kept them beyond
+their usual dinner-hour; or else," she continued, "I always make it a
+point to be fit to be seen at visiting hours, for when one lives in the
+world, one can never tell who may drop in."
+
+The little Joneses, who, having always lived "in the world," were
+not shy, and were not more awed by the De Moltons than by Mr. and
+Mrs. M'Vining, or Mr. and Mrs. Green, or any of the other misters and
+mistresses who "dropped in," proceeded with their repast somewhat
+noisily: they were healthy, and there were nine of them!
+
+Blanche could hardly hear herself speak, but she was too well-bred to
+be fine; and she contrived to look as if she heard all Mrs. Jones said,
+and as if she was quite accustomed to noisy children and clattering
+plates.
+
+Dinner was over; grace was said in French by the eldest girl; they rose
+simultaneously; and, after being kissed by their mamma, were dismissed
+to have their faces washed, and their brown holland pinafores taken
+off, preparatory to the afternoon walk.
+
+Mrs. Jones was an excellent woman, who was devoted to her domestic
+duties, and she considered the whole proceeding as so completely in the
+common course of things, that she made no apologies; and was so far
+from being distressed or annoyed by the bustle, the ferment, and the
+clatter, that she was scarcely aware a noise had existed, or that when
+the door closed upon the last child a calm succeeded to the storm.
+
+When the De Moltons took their leave, Mrs. Jones good-humouredly
+ran to the top of the stairs and called aloud for John, at the same
+time complaining how troublesome it was that neither of the bells in
+the drawing-room would ring. John was not forthcoming; and a dirty
+housemaid appeared in his stead, hastily tying a clean apron over
+the very dirty one beneath: she opened the street-door, and Blanche
+squeezed past her into the welcome open air.
+
+"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, "how can people submit to live in so
+wretched and vulgar a manner! Mrs. Jones is not so dreadful herself,
+but her _entourage_!"
+
+"My dear Blanche, Colonel Jones is very poor: and he has nine children."
+
+"But there is no occasion to have things about one so dirty, so untidy,
+so uncomfortable. We are poor, but how different!"
+
+"Our cottage would not contain one ninth of Colonel Jones's children."
+
+"But why have no bell? And why such bell-ropes?"
+
+"Poor people cannot afford to furnish every temporary lodging-house
+with elegancies."
+
+"But why have all the Master and Miss Joneses dine in one's
+drawing-room?"
+
+"I dare say all the other rooms are pre-occupied as sleeping apartments
+for said Master and Miss Joneses."
+
+"Now you are resolved to be provoking, and I could beat you for not
+agreeing with me."
+
+"I am afraid, Blanche, that poverty is not a pretty thing in reality,
+though it sounds pretty in a book."
+
+De Molton looked serious; he could not joke upon the subject. Blanche
+also looked serious, for she thought he was rather over solemn, and she
+firmly resolved she would not be poor after Mrs. Jones's fashion.
+
+Blanche worked very diligently at the little cap; and when she had
+finished the cap, she embroidered the body of a little frock, and
+showed them exultingly to her husband. Still these preparations did not
+go far towards providing the expected scion of the house of De Molton
+with the necessary wardrobe, and Blanche feared she should be obliged
+to procure many articles ready-made in the town.
+
+"Why should not your maid work at them, my dear?" suggested De Molton,
+as he found her considering, and wondering, and calculating what plan
+she had best pursue.
+
+"Why, perhaps she would undertake the caps for me; but she has never
+been used to anything but dress-making. Mamma never expected her to do
+anything else."
+
+"You have been working so much yourself, surely you must have done a
+great deal."
+
+"Oh yes!--this cap and this body. Look, how beautiful they are!"
+
+Blanche's distresses on this score were however soon relieved by
+learning from Lady Cumberworth that her good-natured sisters-in-law
+had amused themselves by making and providing everything she could
+want, and that a lovely set of baby-linen would meet her at Lord
+Falkingham's, where she was to pass some time previous to her
+confinement, in order that she might be under her mother's eye.
+
+She was not sorry when the time came for leaving the pretty smoky
+cottage. The March winds did not agree with the chimney, and she was
+not well enough to be able to roam among the dells and dingles, the
+shaws and the banks, in search of violets and primroses; and she
+thought it would certainly be more desirable to enact the invalid, with
+all appliances and means to boot, in her father's luxurious mansion,
+than in the windy, smoky, creaking lath and plaster cottage, which
+looked so pretty in the beginning of September.
+
+In London, Blanche would have been perfectly happy with her kind
+father,--her mother who loved her, though not with the usual melting
+tenderness of a mother,--with her husband, who was as handsome and
+interesting in appearance, and if possible more affectionate in his
+attentions than ever,--and with her husband's family doting upon
+her,--if it had not been that Lady Falkingham treated De Molton with a
+shade of superciliousness. She always spoke of her daughter as "poor
+Blanche," wondered to see her look so well after the terrible winter
+she had passed in a house scarcely weather-tight, alluded constantly
+to the great change that had taken place in her situation, and almost
+ridiculed the notion of the Miss Be Moltons having presented her with
+such pretty worked caps and embroidered frocks for the "poor little
+creature" that was expected!
+
+These speeches, although they contained some undeniable truths, were
+extremely galling to De Molton, and very unpleasant to Blanche, for his
+sake, as well as for her own.
+
+Blanche found herself infinitely happier with her husband's family,
+where, instead of being treated as a person who was now to be looked
+down upon by those who were once her compeers, she was considered the
+most charming of her sex; adored by Lady Cumberworth for having loved
+her son so disinterestedly; made a fuss with by the Miss De Moltons
+because they were good-humoured girls, by nature inclined to like
+rather than dislike any fine, natural, affectionate creature of their
+own age; and very much admired by Lord Cumberworth, who thought she
+was an exceedingly fine woman, and that Frank was a very lucky fellow,
+for the present at least, however the marriage might turn out in the
+long-run.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+  There little love or canty cheer can come
+  Frae duddy doublets and a pantry toom.
+
+  Allan Ramsay.
+
+As De Molton expected, the quarters of his regiment were changed;
+and soon after Blanche's confinement, he left her to superintend the
+removal of their goods and chattels, and the arrangement of them in
+some other temporary domicile.
+
+Unfortunately, the regiment was sent to a small town, built principally
+of red brick, situated in one of the midland counties,--ugly, bare,
+and bleak. There were no pretty cottages with nice gardens in the
+neighbourhood; not even a retired farm house, with a few rooms to be
+let; for the rustic inconveniences and rural inelegancies of a rambling
+farm house are infinitely preferable to the pert vulgarity of a red
+house in a street.
+
+To this last alternative De Molton was most unwillingly reduced, and
+all he could accomplish was the acquisition of one of the few tenements
+to which was affixed a bright light-green balcony, which formed a
+brilliant contrast to the vermilion of the walls; at least, the
+untarnished freshness of the colouring gave promise of new furniture
+and cleanliness within.
+
+He returned to London for his wife and child, and his delight at seeing
+them was somewhat alloyed by finding that, during his absence, Blanche
+and her father had ascertained that Turton was very little out of the
+way to Temple Loseley, and that, consequently, he and her mother would
+pass a night or two with Blanche on their way into the country.
+
+If his heart had sunk within him at the thoughts of introducing his
+wife to the vulgar abode which he had been obliged to provide for her,
+how much more did it sink at the thoughts of exhibiting to her parents
+their graceful, their beautiful, their high-born daughter, as mistress
+of this same abode. Moreover, the house was not calculated to receive
+an influx of company.
+
+Still every one ought to be proud and happy to receive their father
+and mother-in-law under their roof; and he was determined to be so.
+He reminded himself that, though he was poor, he had never pretended
+to be otherwise, he never would pretend to be otherwise: there was no
+disgrace in poverty; he had presented himself under no false colours;
+he knew his own situation, and he would not throw a ridicule over it by
+seeming ashamed of it.
+
+Blanche had pictured to herself another cottage, of the same stamp as
+that in Devonshire: and as the country was now in full beauty, and as
+there was no occasion to put the chimneys to the test, she anticipated
+with pleasure showing her mother how happy and how pretty an humble
+home might be; how dignified De Molton could look, though employed in
+working in his garden; and how little she deserved the pity that had
+been lavished upon her.
+
+She was extremely vexed when her dear Frank broke to her the nature of
+the country, the situation of the town, the sort of house he had been
+compelled to hire.
+
+"Is there nothing else to be procured for love or money?"
+
+"For money, yes; for love, not!" he replied.
+
+"But if something else is to be got, for Heaven's sake make any
+sacrifice!"
+
+"There is one house much larger than we require, which has been fitted
+up with every luxury by a retired brewer, who now wishes to travel, and
+would gladly let it."
+
+"Oh, that will be just the thing!"
+
+"My dear! the rent is far, far beyond our means."
+
+"Oh! but for one year, dearest Frank!"
+
+"With a limited income, one year's extravagance unavoidably entails
+many, many years of real distress. I will not run the risk of being
+unable to answer the just demands of my tradesmen. I never sent a
+creditor away without his money, and I never will."
+
+De Molton spoke with seriousness, and something approaching harshness;
+for he suffered under the mortification of his wife, and the tone was
+meant to confirm his own determination, not to be unkind to her. She
+thought him stern.
+
+"We had much better put off papa and mamma, and say at once we cannot
+receive them."
+
+Her tone was a little pettish. De Molton's task was no longer so
+difficult; he dreaded seeing her unhappy, but the moment he perceived
+there was temper mixed with her sorrow, his fortitude returned, and
+he replied, "By no means: such as it is, our home is ever open to our
+parents; and we have only to regret that it is not in our power to make
+them more comfortable."
+
+"I had a thousand times rather mamma did not come at all, than that she
+should see me in such a hole as you describe."
+
+Her voice was half choked with rising emotion: she had led her mother
+to expect something so very different! The Devonshire cottage had grown
+under her glowing descriptions into a miniature terrestrial paradise.
+
+"Blanche, this is not kind by your parents; you should wish to see them
+for their own sakes." Certainly De Molton did not wish to see them, but
+he would not have pleaded guilty to such a weakness for the world.
+
+"I do not know how I can wish to be exposed to mamma's taunting
+expressions and contemptuous looks;" and partly from vexation, and
+partly from bodily weakness, she burst into tears.
+
+"Blanche, this is childish! You chose to marry a poor man, and you must
+abide by it."
+
+"You should not be the person to speak so coldly and unkindly. You know
+the thing I mind most of all is, that mamma always seems to despise
+you; and I had hoped to show her that, though we were poor, we did not
+deserve pity." Her sobs here interrupted her words. In addition to her
+other mortifications, she felt injured by the husband whose dignity she
+was so anxious to uphold.
+
+De Molton was quite overcome by finding it was for him her feelings
+were so strongly excited. "Blanche, dearest Blanche!" he exclaimed,
+"you do not think me ungrateful for all you have given up for my sake!
+Oh no! you cannot think that!" And he soothed her by every attention
+and kindness in his power.
+
+The effervescence of her mortification and vexation had exhausted
+itself, and she was sorry to have wounded him; he was also annoyed at
+having allowed an unkind word to escape his lips; and they were still
+sufficiently lovers for their little quarrel to be almost a renewal
+of love: almost,--but not quite. Blanche could not forget that he had
+said, "You have married a poor man, and you must abide by it;" and De
+Molton remembered that she had said, "She should be ashamed to be seen
+in such a hole" as the only home he could take her to.
+
+These words recurred to his mind more and more frequently as they
+drew near the small town of Turton. He felt quite angry with the
+Horse-guards for having built any barracks in so frightful a country
+as that which they were approaching. It was all arable: but there
+were no enclosures, no hedges, no hill, no dale, no woods, no copses;
+merely a succession of fields; in the highest state of cultivation it
+is true, but that circumstance did not add to their beauty in Blanche's
+eyes. She would gladly have seen the wheat enlivened by some brilliant
+scarlet poppies, some beautiful old-fashioned blue corn-flowers, now
+almost exploded by the improvements in agriculture; she would gladly
+have been greeted with the fragrance of a distant field of charlock.
+
+They had a good view of Turton long before they reached it; for it was
+placed in the midst of a large basin of land, divided into squares
+by the various crops, though by no other visible mark. From the last
+hill, as they looked down into the broad vale below, De Molton felt
+responsible for its ugliness, and tried to carry off a sensation
+something resembling shame, by remarking that, though such scenery
+was not to our English eyes picturesque, it was very like "la belle
+France." The day was grey and colourless: there were no gleams of
+sunshine, no passing shadows, which will invest any extensive view with
+a certain degree of beauty. The wheat was all green, the barley was
+green, the oats were green, the tares were green, the clover was green;
+there was no variety of hue, except where, here and there, a field lay
+fallow, or had been newly ploughed up.
+
+De Molton looked cheerlessly upon Blanche's spiritless face, and fairly
+wished the first evening in their new domicile come and gone. Blanche
+wished, upon her arrival, to be able to say she found it better than
+she expected, but the words died away upon her lips. She walked to
+the window, and looked up and down the straight street. There was the
+lawyer's house opposite, with a brass knocker well polished; then came
+the Sun Inn, all new, and red, and staring; then a paltry shop; and
+then the apothecary's door, surmounted by a gilt pestle and mortar. The
+road was dusty, and the cut lime-trees before the houses on the other
+side of the lawyer's were rather whitish-brown, than green. The street
+ran north, and south; a gust of wind drove down it from the north,
+which gave the poor leaves a fresh coating before her eyes.
+
+It was as cold as days sometimes are in June: she turned from the
+window, and proposed a fire; they both dreaded the attempt, but it
+succeeded, and there was no smoke.
+
+Blanche wished the days had not been so long, that they might sooner
+have let down the green Venetian blinds (there were no shutters), drawn
+the short and scanty white curtains, and shut out the dismal prospect.
+She tried to place the furniture in such positions as to give the room
+an inhabited appearance, but she only succeeded in making it look
+untidy. The little dimity covered _chaise-longue_ was wheeled out from
+the wall, and placed between the fire and the window, till they found
+that so sharp a draught cut across from the ill-closed sashes, that it
+was quickly wheeled back to its original situation. A card-table was
+set open, and made to enact the part of a stand for _petits objets_.
+Blanche collected all her baskets and boxes, in hopes of making the
+apartment look comfortable, but her efforts were not as yet crowned
+with success.
+
+The next day she bought a square of dark red cloth, and she bound it
+with gold-coloured binding, and with it concealed a great portion of
+the card-table, and set off to better advantage the _chef-d'œuvres_
+of art and the _souvenirs_ of sentiment. The arm-chair, the dear
+arm-chair, was unpacked; and the buhl clock, it was hoped by both of
+them, would be a redeeming object.
+
+Alas! there was no part of the room in which the buhl clock could
+be safely and advantageously placed! The little chimney-piece was
+infinitely too narrow; the card-table was already filled; and the
+one other table which was not in constant requisition was by far too
+rickety to be entrusted with so precious an article.
+
+At length the small _souvenirs_ were removed to the rickety table, and
+the clock was established upon the card-table; and De Molton, when he
+looked upon his wife with her child upon her knee, saw no fault in the
+arrangement of the room.
+
+There was, however, one misfortune to which even De Molton could not
+close his eyes or bar his senses,--a misfortune, too, which was utterly
+irremediable.
+
+A kind of fixture,--half cupboard, half bookcase,--the lower part of
+which opened like a cupboard while the top finished in shelves, adorned
+each side of the fire place. Now, in the lower part of one of these
+nondescript things there was every reason to believe the predecessors
+of the De Moltons had been in the habit of keeping apples. When the
+room was closed, this dire smell of apples assailed their noses, and at
+length it was traced home to the guilty spot.
+
+Chloruret of lime, eau de Cologne, every sort of fumigation was tried,
+but the indomitable smell was only quelled for the time: it returned
+with fresh vigour! Blanche was in utter despair, for Lady Falkingham
+was expected in a day or two, and she was renowned for the extreme
+acuteness of her olfactory nerves! Blanche had repressed any expression
+of her feelings, till this last blow quite over-came her fortitude.
+
+"Can nothing be done about this smell, Frank? It will distract mamma!"
+
+"Upon my word I do not know what more to recommend. Let us wash it
+again with chloruret of lime just before your mother comes."
+
+"I would not mind all the rest if we could but get rid of this smell of
+apples!"
+
+That expression--"all the rest," spoke volumes. De Molton was fully
+aware how much it implied of discomfort.
+
+Love in a cottage is a thing very frequently met with in books, and
+not unfrequently in actual life; but love in a red-brick house in the
+street of a country town can never exist in poetry, and seldom in
+reality.
+
+"There is one other thing I would fain alter, Frank, and I think it
+might be accomplished without much expense."
+
+Blanche spoke timidly, for she had learned to be afraid of proposing
+anything which he might deem extravagant. "Could we not get rid of the
+knocker on the door? It looks dreadful; but the horrid vulgar sound is
+worse than the appearance. It is impossible to forget where one is,
+when one hears that rap-a-tap!"
+
+De Molton sighed to think she should so wish to forget that she was
+in her home, with her husband and her child; and Blanche, two years
+before, would not have believed she could ever have been otherwise than
+contented, when certain of De Moltan's constancy, of his undivided
+affection, and when united to him by the holiest ties.
+
+The day arrived on which the almost dreaded parental visit was to
+be paid. De Molton proposed driving to a nursery-garden at no great
+distance, and buying some flowers, which would make the room look
+rather more gay and countryfied. To this Blanche gladly assented;
+and she took great pains to fill all the little ugly vases upon the
+chimney-piece, and all the finger-glasses which were not wanted after
+dinner, with such flowers as could be procured. They had arranged
+everything for the accommodation of Lord and Lady Falkingham as well
+as the capabilities of the house permitted. Blanche's maid was turned
+out of her room, and into the nursery, for Lady Falkingham's maid; an
+arrangement which by no means met with her approbation, and which had
+not been accomplished without considerable difficulty.
+
+De Molton relinquished his dressing-room to his father-in-law, and,
+unknown to any one, as he hoped, performed his toilet very early in
+the morning in the dining-room; the little back-parlour having been
+consecrated to the ladies'-maids, and anything being more practicable
+than to interfere with their morning repast.
+
+Both Blanche and De Molton had looked repeatedly into each room, and
+had ascertained that everything was as comfortable as they could make
+it, and they sat waiting in some agitation for the arrival of their
+guests.
+
+Generally speaking, if there is a moment of unmixed happiness, it is
+that in which parents pay their first visit to a married child, and in
+which children receive the first visit from their parents.
+
+The pretty, half-childish, half-matronly pride with which the young
+wife does the honours of her domestic arrangements; the tearful joy
+of the mother as she inspects and admires; the honest happiness of
+the father; and the modest exultation of the bridegroom who has
+installed the creature he loves in all the comforts with which she is
+surrounded,--render the moment one of pleasing interest to the most
+careless bystander.
+
+But such were not the feelings which animated any of the present party.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  Some difference of this dangerous kind,
+  By which, though light, the links that bind,
+  The fondest hearts may soon be riven;
+  Some shadow in Love's summer heav'n.
+  Which, though a fleecy cloud at first,
+  May yet in awful thunders burst.
+
+  _Lalla Rookh._
+
+The Falkinghams did not arrive till very late. Blanche knew that every
+moment's delay was injurious to the repast she was so anxious should
+be tolerably well dressed. She several times ran down into the kitchen
+herself, to enforce upon the cook that she must contrive to keep back
+the dinner without letting the meat be over-roasted.
+
+At length they heard a great rumbling of wheels and hallooing of little
+boys, and the well-known carriage with four horses drove rapidly by,
+and drew up at the Sun Inn opposite. The postillions were soon directed
+to the right house; the whole equipage was turned round, and at length
+drew up before the little door.
+
+All this caused a sensation; and well _crêpé_'d heads were seen popping
+up above the white blinds of the lawyer's opposite, and frilled caps
+appeared at the windows of the house with the cut lime-trees, and
+waiters, chamber-maids, and boots thronged to the door of the inn,
+hoping the coroneted carriage was going to put up at the Sun.
+
+The first greetings were over, and Blanche was eager to show her mother
+to her room, for, "on hospitable thoughts intent," she was reflecting
+on the over-boiled chickens and the over-roasted beef. But their
+progress was arrested by the imperial! It was stuck in the turning of
+the stairs; and Lady Falkingham's tall footman, who measured six feet
+two inches and a half, and De Molton's omnipresent John Benton, were
+struggling, and lifting, and pushing, and shoving in vain!
+
+This was an unlooked for misfortune; one which might have been laughed
+at, among people so nearly and intimately connected, and one which
+might have been an excuse for dining very merrily in travelling
+costume; but with Blanche's feelings, with Lady Falkingham's, with De
+Molton's feelings, the misadventure had a contrary effect. Blanche was
+extremely annoyed, and led her mother back to the drawing-room; while
+De Molton hastened to lend his assistance, and, with the help of his
+more judicious mode of turning the imperial, it was extricated from its
+inconvenient position, and was safely deposited in Lady Falkingham's
+room.
+
+All this produced some delay; then came their respective toilets; and
+they were not seated in the dining-room till an hour and three quarters
+after the cook had expected to "dish up."
+
+It requires the coolness, the presence of mind, the decision of the
+bolder sex, to be able to accelerate or to retard the dinner-hour. The
+humble cook of the De Moltons was thoroughly feminine in her timidity,
+and the consequence was, that the chickens fell to pieces in the dish,
+that the beef crackled under the teeth, that the potatoes were watery
+and sodden, that the greengages of the pudding had burst through their
+surrounding paste, and presented a shapeless, confused, and uninviting
+mass to the eye, while the maccaroni was stringy, strong, and burned.
+
+De Molton had wished the dinner to be plain and without pretension,
+and he had flattered himself that, by attempting nothing, they must be
+secure from a failure. Alas! they had the mortification of seeing both
+their guests scarcely able to finish what they had upon their plates,
+and of perceiving that Lord Falkingham helped himself three times to
+cheese, and that Lady Falkingham demolished full half the sponge-cake
+at dessert! De Molton, who was habitually reserved and possessed much
+self-command, maintained a calm exterior; but Blanche, who, whatever
+might be her wish to do so, was never able to conceal her feelings for
+any length of time, was in a fussy state of agitation, and was the
+first to complain of the badness of the dinner.
+
+Her remarks disturbed the equanimity of John Benton, who was most
+anxious that all should go off well. In his eagerness, he made more
+noise, jarred the plates, knocked the glasses together, clattered the
+knives and forks, and placed the dishes on the table in a more fearful
+undecided manner than he was ever known to do before; constantly
+brushing by Lady Falkingham's cap to give a finishing touch to the
+arrangement of the table. Blanche's martyrdom increased every moment!
+
+It is very easy to be tranquil, composed, and agreeable at the head of
+one's table, if one has the comfortable assurance that all will proceed
+properly and decorously; but when one has no reliance that such will
+be the case, it is not so easy to preserve the careless air of perfect
+good-breeding; still less so, should one actually see one's guests
+hungry and incommoded: such tranquillity amounts to a lofty pitch of
+stoicism scarcely attainable by common mortals.
+
+If the Falkinghams had smiled good-humouredly, it might have
+been better; but the mother preserved a civil semblance of not
+perceiving what was amiss, evidently treating the present, as the
+best entertainment it was in the power of the De Moltons to give,
+and considerately sparing their feelings. When the ladies retired
+after dinner, Lady Falkingham made no allusion to the house, the
+establishment, the cookery, or any part of the _ménage_, except the
+baby, on whose growth she expatiated, and whom she wished to see in its
+crib.
+
+Blanche accordingly took her mother upstairs to the garret, where Lady
+Falkingham was shocked at finding two beds in the small room. "My dear
+Blanche, do you allow two people to sleep in such an apartment as this?
+It is very bad for the baby to be so confined as to air and space."
+
+"My maid sleeps here just now," Blanche replied; "it cannot hurt the
+baby for a little while."
+
+"The weather is so hot, I own I should dislike it very much; I always
+was very particular about giving you all an airy nursery;--but I
+suppose it cannot be helped," added Lady Falkingham, checking herself.
+
+"Oh this house is horrid!" exclaimed Blanche; "if you had but come to
+see us in our Devonshire cottage, mamma--!"
+
+"I wish I had, my dear."
+
+"But you know we have this only for a time, mamma; and next year we may
+be quartered in a prettier country, and a nicer neighbourhood, and
+where we can get something out of a town."
+
+"I hope you will, my love," replied Lady Falkingham, who was resolved
+to dwell as little as possible upon her daughter's present discomfort,
+and who thought herself very kind and very meritorious in not saying
+what she thought, felt, and looked,--viz. "I told you how it would be."
+
+The breakfast was not more prosperous. The bread was baker's bread:
+the French rolls, well rasped and very tough, were exceedingly unlike
+the rolls and cakes of every variety which graced the breakfast-table
+of Temple Loseley. The butter was bought at the shop; and Turton was
+situated in an arable, not a grazing country: they churned every
+morning at Temple Loseley. The cream was thin, colourless, and
+tasteless: the Alderneys at Temple Loseley were renowned for their
+perfection in beauty and breeding.
+
+Most assuredly, urban and rural poverty are very different things.
+With a pretty garden; with flowers, poultry, cream, butter, eggs,
+and vegetables in profusion; vulgarity and discomfort may always be
+avoided, though splendour may not be attained.
+
+The Falkinghams went away, sincerely commiserating their daughter,
+although Lady Falkingham's sincere sorrow was somewhat alleviated by
+being able to remark to her husband how precisely everything had turned
+out as she had foreseen and predicted.
+
+When they had driven from the door, Blanche sat down to work at her
+needle, with a sensation of depression more over-whelming than she
+had ever felt before. "I am glad mamma is gone!" she exclaimed, after
+having hemmed nearly a yard of muslin without uttering: "when people
+are no longer young, they miss the comforts to which they have been
+accustomed!"
+
+De Molton said nothing. He also had been deeply hurt, mortified in
+every way; hurt to see his wife exposed to mortification, and mortified
+to see her feel it so keenly.
+
+"Not but what mamma behaved beautifully," continued Blanche, for she
+was half angry with her husband for his very silence:--she wished him
+to declare how annoyed and unhappy he also was; but he was a proud man,
+and when such a man does feel mortification, it does not find vent in
+words. Being somewhat displeased at his silence, she did not spare
+him. The feelings of the daughter got the better of those of the wife,
+and she proceeded: "Mamma never complained of anything. It was only
+through her maid that I heard she could not sleep a wink on account of
+the baby crying over head; and the partition being so thin, she heard
+her as plainly as if she had been in the same room. Mamma was very
+kind, she took care to say nothing to vex me."
+
+De Molton thought mamma would have been infinitely more kind if she
+had appeared a little less miserable, and had not looked at Blanche
+as if she thought her a victim. He did not feel in charity with Lady
+Falkingham; he found no pleasure in hearing her praised.
+
+"I am going to call on Colonel Jones," said De Molton; "I shall be at
+home again in time to walk with you." He took his cap and his stick,
+and sallied forth; but he had walked far beyond Colonel Jones's, before
+he recollected his intention of calling upon him, and he had to retrace
+his steps for some quarter of a mile. He found him just returning from
+a long walk with some of his children, who were joyously sporting
+around him; and they all together mounted the narrow staircase which
+led to a drawing-room much in the same style as Blanche's, though
+somewhat larger in its dimensions.
+
+Mrs. Jones and her eldest girl were busily engaged in needle-work,
+while the second daughter was reading history aloud. She cordially
+greeted De Molton, and said they had been taking advantage of the
+Colonel's having cleared the house of the boys to get on with the
+education of the girls; "for in a small house, and with such a family,
+it is difficult to find a quiet moment," added Mrs. Jones, with a
+cheerfulness and good-humour which seemed to prove she found nothing
+unpleasant or disgraceful in poverty.
+
+She was the daughter of a country curate, and although well educated,
+and tolerably well born, she did not feel the want of luxuries and
+elegancies to which she had never been accustomed, and which none of
+those with whom she associated missed any more than herself.
+
+De Molton wished he could teach his wife to accommodate herself to
+her circumstances, as Mrs. Jones did. But how many habits had she to
+unlearn and to forget before she could be happy as Mrs. Jones was
+happy!
+
+He resolved to cultivate the Joneses, and he asked them to dinner that
+very day, frankly bidding them come and feast upon the remains of the
+provisions they had laid in for his father and mother in law. The
+happy and good-humoured Joneses accepted the invitation in the same
+unceremonious spirit in which it was made, and De Molton returned home
+to inform his wife of the company she might expect. She detested the
+thoughts of encountering another dinner in her own house; but De Molton
+was not a person who would ever condescend to ask his wife's permission
+before he invited a friend to dinner, and of that she was fully aware.
+
+The Joneses arrived just five minutes before the appointed hour; and
+Mrs. Jones asked Blanche's leave to take off her bonnet, and arrange
+her hair at her looking-glass, as she had walked from her own house.
+She shortly re-appeared with her bows and her ringlets in the most
+perfect order, for she had never been in the habit of depending upon
+the services of a maid. She also appeared in a smart silk gown; her
+fair, fat, handsome arms uncovered, a necklace on her neck, and
+ear-rings in her ears.
+
+Blanche, on the contrary, was in a more seemly costume for a country
+dinner by day-light; and Mrs. Jones wondered her hostess should wear in
+the evening what seemed to her a morning dress.
+
+The cook's nerves had not been agitated, and the dinner was very good.
+Colonel Jones was gay and conversible: he had served in the Peninsula;
+he, and his wife also, had been at Paris when the allied armies entered
+it; they had seen many different countries, had been mixed up in many
+of the events of that period, when every day brought changes which
+affected empires; they had been thrown with many of the personages who
+already figure as historical characters. They were delighted with De
+Molton, who was an excellent listener; delighted with Lady Blanche, who
+possessed the charm to which all people in all ranks are sensible,--the
+real good-breeding of real high fashion; and Blanche was astonished to
+find herself in better spirits than she had been in for some days.
+
+No fund of natural spirits, however inexhaustible it may be, can stand
+the trial of seeing the guests under your roof, cold, abstracted, and
+comfortless; whereas the phrenologists could certainly point out
+some organ in the human head which takes pleasure in being developed
+when you feel that those towards whom you are exercising the rites of
+hospitality are really and thoroughly enjoying themselves.
+
+There was a good deal of broad humour about Colonel Jones, and no
+shyness; he was animated in his descriptions. De Molton's wine was good
+of its sort; and the dinner was gay,--noisily gay. Blanche thought them
+a little vulgar, but still she liked them both; and after the cheerless
+restraint which had prevailed during the two preceding days between the
+nearest and dearest relations, there was something which expanded the
+heart in the warmth and cordiality of the Joneses.
+
+The dinner which they gave the De Moltons in return proved less
+agreeable. The astonishing clatter made by the servants, the badness
+of the cookery, the multitude of children, and the friends who were
+invited to make up the party, did not conduce to reconcile Blanche
+to the real work-day details of poverty, as De Molton had at first
+intended it should, by showing her how happy people could be in its
+despite.
+
+The summer wore away, but without any summer enjoyments; the autumn
+succeeded, and winter followed in due succession. They had many
+invitations from different friends, but travelling was expensive; and
+having been in London for some months during the spring, they could
+not obtain leave of absence for any length of time which might make it
+answer to leave home.
+
+The following year saw them removed to a fresh habitation, and saw
+another olive-branch added to the parent stock.
+
+The nurse now professed her inability to attend to two children, "both
+babies as it were; she could not do justice to the dear little loves.
+Miss Emma, she was just old enough to get into mischief; and she was
+more work, a body might say, than the infant himself." There was no
+denying the reason and truth of the nurse's statement. It was also
+true, as the nurse added, "that my lady was very particular, and liked
+to see the children always nice; that it was not as if she did not mind
+their being just dressed in brown holland pinafores, and such like,
+as the little Master Joneses were; that, for her part, she could not
+a-bear to see children look so,--just like anybody's children."
+
+De Molton, as well as Blanche, was proud of little Emma's exquisite
+beauty, and they could neither of them endure the thoughts of their
+children not being thoroughly well taken care of. "Could you not ask
+Mrs. Green to help nurse?" suggested De Molton; "she might walk out
+with Emma, and might make her clothes. Our life is such a quiet one,
+surely she must have a great deal of time upon her hands."
+
+Blanche stood rather in awe of Mrs. Green, who was a regular fine
+lady, and who felt the change in her situation to the full as acutely
+as Blanche herself could do, and who had not the same strong motive
+for bearing it with uncomplaining fortitude, inasmuch as she was
+not married to the man of her choice, neither had she any character
+for consistency to maintain. In many of the minor distresses and
+difficulties which had occurred, Mrs. Green had not failed to make
+her mistress feel how great was her merit in submitting to them; and
+Blanche knew it was utterly impossible to accomplish what De Molton
+(who was not so well versed in the nice limits and boundaries of the
+honourable office of lady's maid) thought could be so easily arranged.
+
+"It is quite impossible, my dear Frank! Green has already put up with
+a great deal to oblige me, and I could not ask her to wait upon the
+nursery."
+
+"I do not want her to wait upon the nursery, but she might assist the
+nurse."
+
+"I can part with her, Frank; but I cannot propose to her to attend upon
+the children."
+
+De Molton, who saw no reason why one woman should sit idle, while
+another had more to do than she could well perform, was half annoyed
+with Blanche, and he answered rather quickly, "All I can say is, I
+cannot afford to keep another servant."
+
+"I will tell Green what you say," replied Blanche, with the tone of a
+heroine and a martyr; and accordingly she lost no time in informing
+Green that she must look out for another situation unless she would
+wait on Miss Emma, as Captain De Molton wished; and as, of course, Mrs.
+Green declined to do.
+
+So much separated from all former connexions, friends, and relations,
+as Blanche had been of late, she naturally felt a good deal annoyed
+at parting with a person whom habit had rendered agreeable to her,
+who was an excellent lady's maid, and was pleasing in her manners. De
+Molton could not sympathise in her annoyance at getting rid of a fine
+lady, and infinitely preferred the stout good-humoured girl who came in
+her stead, and who was too happy to fetch and carry, and was too much
+honoured by being allowed to wait on my lady.
+
+Unfortunately, the last remnant of Blanche's trousseau was growing very
+shabby, and her wardrobe needed recruiting. Green was gone; the girl
+Phœbe was no milliner; Blanche could embroider beautifully, and she
+could now accomplish children's frocks with considerable success, but
+she could not make her own clothes. How should she? She was obliged
+therefore to have her wants supplied by the country milliners, and both
+she and De Molton were appalled at the bills which were the inevitable
+consequence.
+
+Blanche wished exceedingly not to be expensive, but she knew not how to
+avoid being so. She had never had any allowance when a girl: she had
+been so amply supplied with every article of dress upon her marriage,
+and had since led so retired a life, that little occasion to spend
+money had occurred until now; and she was ignorant how miraculously,
+when once the purse-strings are opened, the contents vanish as it were
+of themselves.
+
+It is a great fault in the education of girls, to omit teaching them,
+in some measure, the value of money. They suddenly find themselves
+at the head of an establishment, in which, if large, considerable
+sums pass through their hands; if small, on them depends the comfort,
+or discomfort of the _ménage_; and they are not aware, (except from
+theory, which has little to say to practice) that twenty shillings make
+a pound.
+
+The loss of Green was an annoyance of daily recurrence. Blanche
+could not dress her own hair; and the awkward attempts of the shy
+and frightened red-fisted maid to brush and to curl, to braid and to
+_crêper_, made her every morning come down to breakfast in a ruffled
+and uncomfortable state. She found it necessary now and then to buy
+herself a cap, and unluckily the bill for these caps came in at a
+time when De Molton's finances were at a very low ebb. Blanche had no
+pin-money, and she applied to him for the requisite sum.
+
+"What nonsense, Blanche, to buy tawdry caps, when you have all that
+beautiful brown hair, which is so much prettier and more becoming than
+any cap that can be made."
+
+"I never learned to dress hair; and since Green is gone, I find it
+impossible to do without a cap. I have not quite made up my mind to
+go about a perfect figure, yet; but I dare say I soon shall. It is
+impossible to be well-dressed without a maid."
+
+"But surely you could soon learn to arrange your hair. You told me Mrs.
+Jones always dressed her own, and I am sure it is very smart--in bows,
+and all kinds of things."
+
+This was too much for Blanche to endure. To have been forced to part
+with her maid! To be refused a cap! To be twitted with Mrs. Jones! To
+have Mrs. Jones set up as a pattern! "Indeed I should be very sorry
+to look like Mrs. Jones!" she exclaimed, with a heightened colour,
+and an eye which was very beautiful in its increased brilliancy: "if
+you wished to have a wife who should look and dress like Mrs. Jones,
+you should not have selected me! I hope I may never arrive at such a
+pitch of vulgarity as that! I had rather look like anybody in the whole
+world than Mrs. Jones!" and in her anger and petulance, she spoke, as
+she would not have done in a cooler moment, of a person whom she both
+respected and liked.
+
+"Mrs. Jones is a most excellent and exemplary woman," replied De
+Molton, with some solemnity of manner; "one who performs the duties of
+her situation in life cheerfully and admirably. I have a very great
+regard for Mrs. Jones. Where is this bill?" he added, with an awful
+calmness: "I am sorry to say you must buy no more caps. I have not the
+means of paying for them!" He gave her the money, which she took with
+pain and indignation.
+
+It is very disagreeable to ask for money,--very disagreeable to receive
+it when it is given grudgingly. Women should have, settled upon them
+when they marry, the sum which, in proportion to the income of their
+husband, they may in fairness spend upon their dress; otherwise, if
+extravagant, there are no regular limits to their extravagance: while,
+on the other hand, however economical they may be, and however liberal
+the husband may wish to be, they may chance to ask for money at a
+moment when it may prove inconvenient to produce a sum which the man
+had not calculated would be called for at that particular moment.
+
+An expression of annoyance will wound and distress a high-minded woman,
+will anger a high-spirited one, or will induce a timid one to conceal
+her bills, and to acquire the habit of contracting debts unknown to her
+husband.
+
+Blanche received the money with a swelling indignant heart, and her
+feelings were not soothed when a tradesman entered with a long bill,
+for which De Molton drew a draft without a remark or a murmur, and most
+politely dismissed the man, pleased with his exactness and punctuality.
+
+Blanche thought, "After all, he is not really so poor as he pretends to
+be. He only talks thus to prevent my spending anything. He has money
+enough for every one else."
+
+De Molton had appointed that very morning to pay that very bill.
+He had purposely reserved the requisite sum, and he remained with
+scarcely enough for the weekly unavoidable expenses. But he did not
+explain all this to his wife. He was resolved never to run into debt,
+and he was unapproachably serious and correct upon the subject. If he
+had candidly explained the state of the case to her, shown it her in
+black and white, perhaps she would have joined with him in cheerfully
+accommodating herself to existing circumstances; but he dealt in
+general expressions of poverty and distress, and yet, at the very
+moment he complained most bitterly, the money was forthcoming for those
+things which must be paid for. It was exactly _because_ he would have
+wherewithal to meet necessary expenses, that he so strenuously opposed
+any which he deemed unnecessary.
+
+Having once come to the conclusion that he had acquired a habit of
+complaining, and that he could find money if he chose to do so, she
+only felt injured when he enforced economy, and mentally accused him of
+making needless difficulties.
+
+Two more years elapsed, and their family consisted of four promising
+children, when De Molton's regiment was ordered to Brighton: they were
+again thrown among people of their own class, and friends of former
+days.
+
+They had been married nearly five years, and during those years words
+had been spoken which could not be forgotten. Poverty had come in
+at the door, and if Love had not quite flown out at the window, he
+fluttered on the window-sill.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  And ruder words will soon rush in
+  To spread the breach that words begin,
+  And eyes forget the gentle ray
+  They wore in courtship's smiling day,
+  And voices lose the tone that shed
+  A tenderness round all they said;
+  Till, fast declining one by one,
+  The sweetnesses of love are gone.
+
+  _Lalla Rookh._
+
+
+Among other old acquaintances, the Westhopes were established at
+Brighton; and it was with mixed feelings that Blanche prepared
+herself to meet the friend of her youth, the person who had most
+unintentionally assisted to foster her love, by always appearing so
+impressed with De Molton's attractions. Upon that subject both men and
+women are more influenced by the estimation in which the object is held
+by others, than they would willingly allow: they are ashamed to be so
+easily pleased as to prefer a person whom no one else thinks pleasing,
+and they are decidedly proud of being preferred by one whom every one
+else admires.
+
+Mingled with her desire to see her early friend, Blanche experienced
+a certain dread of the scrutinizing eye of intimacy. She felt she
+should never be able to echo, with the accent of truth, the romantic
+sentiments in which they used once to indulge; and she did not wish
+her friend to discover that the love which she had spoken of as equal
+to endure any trials, had nearly sunk under the petty and undignified
+vexations of pecuniary difficulty.
+
+Time, however, had worked some changes in Lady Westhope. She had long
+conquered her incipient inclination towards Mr. Wroxholme; she had
+learnt that a well-regulated mind can make itself contented, if not
+happy, under almost all circumstances; she had quite given up the point
+of being the youngest and most admired person in her circle; and she
+had convinced herself that she ought to be grateful for the worldly
+comforts with which she was surrounded, for the ample means of doing
+good which were within her reach, and for the circumstance of having a
+very good-humoured husband, who, whatever might be his faults, was no
+tyrant.
+
+Lord Westhope, also, was somewhat altered. He was now eight years
+older than when we began our story, and twenty-two years older than
+when he began his infidelities. It was, indeed, time he should have
+sown his wild oats, and accordingly he was become infinitely more
+domestic. Although love was a feeling which could never again exist
+between them, there subsisted a considerable regard, and their society
+was far from disagreeable to each other.
+
+On the morning after the arrival of the De Moltons, when Lady Westhope
+called upon Blanche, one of the disputes, which were now of too
+frequent occurrence, had just taken place between her and her husband.
+Blanche had made a desperate effort to persuade De Molton to take a
+house which was to be let at a rent, low in proportion to its size, but
+still higher than he thought he could afford. Blanche shrank from being
+seen by her former associates in the mean and paltry lodging which, in
+so expensive a place as Brighton, was the only one he found within his
+means. He persisted in his usual resolution, never to do anything which
+might eventually lead to a shabby action, for the sake of avoiding a
+shabby appearance. He had not long left the room, after a peremptory
+refusal to accede to his wife's request, when Lady Westhope entered.
+
+After the first greetings were over, and Lady Westhope had admired
+Blanche's beautiful children, they drew their chairs to the fire,
+and Lady Westhope exclaimed, "How I envy you those lovely children,
+Blanche! I think, if I had four such enchanting creatures, I should
+be quite happy! I should so like to have a large flourishing family
+growing up around me!"
+
+"Heavens! dear Lady Westhope! and I consider each addition to mine as
+a visitation which gives me the blue devils for months! When once they
+are there, and they have made themselves beloved, one would not part
+with them for worlds; but if you knew what unceasing trouble they give,
+and how difficult it is to do one's duty by them, you would not wish
+for a large family."
+
+"Well! perhaps there are advantages, as well as disadvantages, in
+everything. I have schooled my mind, and brought myself to think
+everything is for the best. I am a much more contented person, Blanche,
+than when we used to talk over your love affairs in former days. Now,
+tell me a little about Captain De Molton. Is he as handsome as ever?
+and are you as much in love as ever? I certainly never did see such a
+regular love-match as yours! The longer you were separated, and the
+more you were thwarted, the more desperately constant you both were!"
+
+"Opposition has always been supposed to have that effect: I believe it
+has often turned many a passing fancy into a _grande passion_."
+
+"Why, you are not implying such treason against yourself as to say that
+opposition assisted to foster your _grande passion_?"
+
+"Oh dear, no! I only spoke generally. But do you tell me a little
+about Lord Westhope," she added, to turn the conversation from her own
+affairs.
+
+"Oh! he is grown so kind and attentive! I assure you we are settling
+down into a most domestic comfortable old couple."
+
+The entrance of Mr. Stapleford interrupted the mutual investigation of
+conjugal felicity which the friends had set on foot. Mr. Stapleford
+said he had just met De Molton in the street, who had told him where
+he should find Lady Blanche, and he had lost no time in paying his
+respects to her. "But, dear Lady Blanche, you are going to remove from
+this horrid place? In such a situation too! A mile and a half from the
+sea. I could scarcely believe De Molton, when he pointed out this as
+your abode; and should have imagined he was playing off a practical
+joke upon me, if I had not known he was not given to being facetious.
+But I suppose you are only here till you can procure something in the
+land of the living."
+
+Blanche did not wish Mr. Stapleford to perceive she was not perfectly
+contented with her fate, and she replied that she did not like being
+within hearing of the sea,--the constant monotonous breaking of the
+waves upon the shore made her melancholy.
+
+"There is no accounting for tastes," he replied, with a polite bow, and
+a glance which quickly ran over the shabby furniture, the once smart
+trellised paper, (a sort of paper peculiarly in vogue at sea-bathing
+places, where real flowers and real green leaves are rare,) the
+little round convex mirror surmounted by an eagle with a chain in its
+bill, and the other lodging-house elegancies which adorned the room,
+especially the bell-ropes, which were as fine, and much more dirty,
+than those at Mrs. Jones's, which, four years before, had excited such
+strong feelings of horror in Blanche's mind. She saw the excursive
+glance of his eye, and she saw the affectation of politeness with which
+he then let it fall on the ground, while a slight smile just played
+about the corners of his mouth. She always disliked him; and she now
+most devoutly wished he had not fancied the sea-air bracing, and the
+society of Brighton agreeable.
+
+"You will be at Mrs. L.'s this evening, shall you not?" inquired
+Stapleford.
+
+"No!" replied Lady Blanche; "I am not acquainted with her."
+
+"Ah! by the bye, she has come into fashion since your time. How long is
+it since we lost sight of you?"
+
+"I have been married five years."
+
+"Married! Ah! marriage is a holy rite, synonymous with honourable
+sepulture. You have, from that day, been dead to all your friends! By
+the bye, I was with the Wentnors a month ago. You know your old friend
+Glenrith is become Lord Wentnor now. He, however, seems determined not
+to be buried alive. He is giving balls and fêtes of all descriptions;
+or rather _she_ is, for he is such a doting husband, that every fancy
+of hers is a law to him. It is quite pretty to see such love-making
+after eight years of marriage, especially as the result of this
+Arcadian conjugality generally is a splendid entertainment by which
+half England profits."
+
+Stapleford's instinct for saying the disagreeable thing had not
+deserted him; and he left Blanche to ponder on the fate she had
+rejected, and to compare it with that she had persisted in choosing.
+Lady Westhope, too, was happy! She rejoiced that such should be the
+case; but certainly the reflections she made during the rest of that
+day were not unworldly ones.
+
+De Molton had again met Stapleford in his morning walk, who, after
+complimenting him upon the unimpaired beauty of his wife, attacked him
+most unmercifully for having kept her so long in seclusion, and for
+now burying her in such an out-of-the-way place, and implied (what
+he had no right to know, but what he had guessed from the expressive
+countenance of Blanche, in which her feelings might always be read as
+in a mirror,) that she was an unwilling denizen in that remote suburb.
+
+De Molton returned home somewhat displeased at having been, as he
+imagined, spoken of as a tyrant and a miser. The tête-à-tête in the
+evening did not promise to be agreeable.
+
+"Mr. Stapleford called this morning," Blanche began.
+
+"So he told me," replied De Molton.
+
+"And Lady Westhope has been here."
+
+"Did they tell you any news?
+
+"Mr. Stapleford told me he had been staying at Wentnor Castle; and he
+gives such a description of their happiness! They seem to be giving
+splendid fêtes and beautiful entertainments, all to please her; for, he
+says, that every wish of Lady Wentnor's is a law to her husband."
+
+De Molton felt this last sentence as an implied cut at him. "It is very
+fortunate for Glenrith that he has money to throw away in gratifying
+every foolish whim of a fantastical woman."
+
+Blanche felt that this was a hit at her; and forgetting that by
+applying to herself what her husband said, she gave him a right to
+conclude she meant to be personal in her account of Lord Wentnor as a
+husband, she followed her impulse, and replied:--
+
+"I cannot see that there is anything fantastical in wishing not to be
+laughed at by all one's acquaintance, and in disliking a house one's
+friends can hardly bring themselves to enter."
+
+"Blanche, when you married me, you knew you married a poor man: if you
+wished for riches and splendour, why did you not marry Glenrith?"
+
+"I am sure, if I wished for kindness and for good-humour I had better
+have married Lord Glenrith. I do not know what foolish, girlish
+infatuation came over me."
+
+"It is, indeed, unfortunate, that in consequence of this _foolish,
+girlish infatuation_, which are the terms by which you designate your
+attachment to your husband, you should have thrown away a situation in
+which you would have been so much happier. I have but to regret that
+I should have marred your fortunes--so unwittingly marred them,--for
+neither Glenrith nor yourself can accuse me of having, by any arts or
+underhand practices, attempted to win your affections from him."
+
+This implied, according to Blanche's interpretation of his words,
+that she had allowed them to be gained before he had made any attempt
+to do so; and, as angry people usually do, answering to the sense she
+chose to attribute to his speech, rather than to its plain and obvious
+meaning, she replied,--
+
+"If it was only pity for the unfortunate passion which you supposed me
+to entertain for you, which induced you to profess love at Cransley,
+it is indeed unfortunate that you allowed your pity so far to overcome
+your prudence. If I had imagined such to have been the case, I should
+most assuredly never have broken off my engagement with Lord Wentnor."
+
+"I can only again lament that I should have been the cause of your
+doing what you so much regret."
+
+"If this is my reward for having rejected, for your sake, the best
+_parti_ in England, a good man, too, and one who loved me; for
+having disappointed and angered my parents; for having preserved an
+undeviating constancy for three years to a person who now laments that
+I did not marry his rival, and confesses he only married me out of
+pity, I am indeed the most unfortunate woman in the world!" She burst
+into a flood of tears of anger and vexation.
+
+"Blanche, you wilfully pervert the meaning of all I say. When did I
+imply that I married you for anything but love? But these reproaches,
+this petulance, are not the right method to preserve a husband's
+affection."
+
+"If nothing but a slave,--a patient, meek Griselda,--a Mrs. Jones,--can
+preserve your affection, I am afraid I have no chance of preserving
+it! I do not know what I can do more than I already do. I work for my
+children; I go without all the comforts I have been used to; I have
+no maid; and I must refuse going to Lady Westhope's to-morrow night,
+because the nursery-maid cannot dress my hair, and because I have no
+gown fit to appear in."
+
+"I am very, very sorry I have not the means of providing you with
+the luxuries you regret, and I am very sorry you refuse yourself the
+pleasures and amusements that so naturally fall in your way. I had
+hoped that at Brighton, where people may join in society without
+much expense, and where it is not necessary to keep a carriage, you
+might have mixed with your friends. I should have thought the art
+of hair-dressing was not so very difficult to acquire, when one
+sees every attorney's daughter, every milliner's apprentice, every
+shop-girl, with hair which puts to shame all the exertions of M.
+Hippolite."
+
+"I am not a shop-girl or a milliner's apprentice," answered Lady
+Blanche, while all the blood of the Falkinghams mounted to her cheek,
+and all the spirit of an ancient race flashed from her eye.
+
+"But you are the wife of a poor man, although of one as nobly born as
+yourself!" and all the pride of the De Moltons rendered the brow of her
+husband absolutely awful.
+
+"I know full well that I am the wife of a poor man; there is no need
+to remind me so often of that truth," replied Lady Blanche, with some
+bitterness in her tone; "and therefore I shall stay at home, and not
+expose my poverty to the eyes of the pitying world, or to the sneers of
+a Mr. Stapleford."
+
+"You will do as is most agreeable to yourself. I shall certainly go
+to Lady Westhope's, as I shall feel sincere pleasure in seeing my old
+friends again."
+
+To Lady Westhope's went De Molton; and Blanche stayed at home. She
+had originally intended, for the sake of enjoying agreeable society,
+to brave the slight mortification of not finding herself, as was once
+the case, the best dressed woman in the room; but the conversation of
+the preceding evening had left her so unhappy, so discontented, and
+so indignant, that she found a certain pleasure in martyrdom. It was,
+however, only in the eyes of her husband that she wished to enact the
+martyr; from the world she would fain conceal that she had so misjudged
+the strength of her own attachment: she meant to persuade others that
+it was from choice, from bad health, or from any motive rather than the
+true one, that she persisted in leading a retired life.
+
+But with her candid disposition, and her speaking eyes, it did not
+require the malicious tact of a Stapleford to read the true state of
+her feelings. With Lady Westhope, especially, she could not always be
+on her guard; and to her it was soon only too evident that the love
+for which she had given up everything else did not repay her for the
+sacrifices she had made. Lady Westhope began indeed to doubt whether
+this much-vaunted love had not, when tried in the balance against
+privations of every sort, been found utterly wanting.
+
+It may be asked, should then Blanche have married Lord Glenrith?
+No, certainly; for she was not in love with him. More especially no,
+for she was at the time in love with another. But we would urge that
+if affluence without love is insufficient to wedded happiness, so
+is the most romantic love without those habitual luxuries, and that
+dispensation from sordid details, which, to persons in a certain
+situation, may almost be termed the necessaries of life.
+
+Let not those who, valuing the good things of this world, are dazzled
+into forming an interested marriage, anticipate the delights of
+sentimental affection, nor be disappointed if one whose situation
+was the attraction prove destitute of those qualities which were not
+sought; and let those who are "all for love and the world well lost,"
+keep in mind the latter half of the sentence, and not expect to find
+both that which they prize, and that which they profess to contemn.
+Above all, let not those who have an opportunity of uniting in their
+choice true affection with the enjoyments of those comforts to which
+they have been accustomed, be induced, by any temptation of rank,
+wealth, or power, to give up virtuous happiness for heartless splendour.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
+  Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown;
+  No traveller ever reach'd that blest abode,
+  Who found not thorns and briers in his road.
+
+  Cowper.
+
+
+In her intercourse with the De Moltons, Lady Westhope observed that
+they seldom addressed each other; and that, in speaking of her husband,
+Blanche invariably called him Captain De Molton, instead of Frank, as
+she had formerly done; and that De Molton also, when speaking of his
+wife, added the title to her name, and even occasionally addressed her
+as "Lady" Blanche.
+
+These were trifles, but yet they indicated much. Though grieved for her
+cousin's sake, Lady Westhope's reflections served to reconcile her to
+her own fate, and to confirm her in her opinion that
+
+  Every black must have its white,
+    And every sweet its sour,
+
+and that true wisdom consists in dwelling on the "sweets" of one's
+own peculiar lot, and striving to forget the "sours;" and though for
+herself she would still have chosen Blanche's trials rather than her
+own, it might be that she knew her own, and was not so well versed
+in Lady Blanche's. Yet her character was better fitted for Blanche's
+situation: she had more decision, more strength of mind, more
+pride,--not worldly pride, but pride of soul to persevere in the path
+which she had once chalked out for herself.
+
+De Molton had keenly and painfully felt the coolness which had for
+months, nay almost years, been gradually increasing between them; and
+he was still more deeply wounded when she nearly confessed, or at least
+did not deny, her regret at having rejected Lord Glenrith for him.
+He could have found excuses for anything else. The pride of man, the
+tenderness of the husband, the sensitiveness of the individual, were
+all touched in the tenderest point.
+
+"Could this," he thought, "be the same creature who was such a
+contemner of worldly wealth, so ardent a votary of love in a cottage,
+such an enthusiast for the pleasures of nature?" Alas! for poor
+Blanche! it was love in a lodging-house, not love in a cottage, that
+she had tried; and as to the pleasures of nature, the dusty suburbs of
+a country town are scarcely "the country" to a person brought up in the
+midst of an extensive park, in a wild and woody country.
+
+De Molton recollected how, out of consideration for her, he had
+concealed his own feelings at Paris; how scrupulously he had avoided
+interfering with the more brilliant prospects which were opening before
+her; how, far from taking advantage of her unguarded confession of
+preference, he had banished himself from his native land; how, though
+hopeless, he had remained constant to her image for three long years;
+how, when he found her free, he had hastened to throw himself at her
+feet; how, without murmuring or repining, he gladly endured privations,
+the same that she did, and thought himself only too well rewarded if
+she would cheer their humble home with a smile. He thought over all
+these things, and he felt himself the most injured of men. Did he not
+deny himself every indulgence? Did he not even refuse himself the
+satisfaction of asking a friend to share his morsel?--the most galling
+self-denial enjoined by absolute poverty! Did not the responsibility
+of providing for their children weigh upon his mind? Was it not his
+duty to look forward to the time when education must commence; when
+boys must be sent to school, when girls must have masters? What parent
+will set down contented under the notion that his children will not be
+fitted by manners and education to move in the sphere in which they
+were born?--None, who are not without that commonest and strongest
+feeling in all created beings, parental affection--or who are not
+without the power of reflection! And how were these expenses to be met?
+How, but by increased economy on their part?
+
+Such were the cares which pressed on De Molton's mind. How much better
+would it have been had he fairly communicated them all to his wife; had
+he frankly counselled with her upon the best plan to be pursued; had he
+openly laid before her his actual income, his actual expenses! But the
+constitutional reserve to which we have alluded prevented his pursuing
+this course.
+
+It was most painful to him to refuse any of her wishes, and the very
+pain it gave him imparted to his manner of doing so a certain harshness
+which prevented Blanche from entering into his views. Her resistance to
+his views, or her martyr-like acquiescence in them, rendered him still
+less communicative, when, perhaps, had he pursued a more open line of
+conduct, a person who married with such good intentions as she did
+(though with little knowledge of things as they are) might have been
+led to suggest the very sacrifices at which she repined when they were
+demanded as a right.
+
+Each succeeding day seemed to widen the breach between them. This
+result of a love-match afforded the materials for many a bad jest among
+some who called themselves their friends, while others saw nothing
+entertaining in the wreck of happiness to two people possessing many
+amiable qualities, though neither of them might be faultless. Some
+pitied Lady Blanche for having such a harsh and ungrateful tyrant for a
+husband; and some felt for the noble, uncompromising De Molton, whose
+home was evidently rendered miserable by a wilful, discontented wife.
+Some predicted a separation: some predicted that, beautiful as was Lady
+Blanche, and tired as she was of her home, the time would arrive when
+she would be induced to leave it, for one more brilliant, though less
+respectable;--although her manners were now so reserved, so decorous,
+a few years, and people would see the difference; a woman who had once
+loved so passionately, would not remain contented to pass her life from
+the age of twenty-eight in a state of cold indifference, if not of
+absolute dislike.
+
+But those who thus prognosticated, proved uninspired prophets.
+Affection was still deep-rooted in both their hearts. The noxious
+weeds of petty grievances had choked, but not destroyed, the goodly
+plant. It still retained sufficient life, when moistened by the waters
+of affliction, to spring up with renewed vigour, and overcome in its
+growth the weeds which had almost stifled it.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  And dearer seems each dawning smile
+  For having lost its light awhile.
+
+  _Lalla Rookh._
+
+The illness of their children first awakened Blanche and De Molton to a
+knowledge of their real feelings towards each other.
+
+The children caught the measles, a complaint which had at that period
+proved peculiarly fatal. The eldest girl, who was at that most engaging
+of all ages, when, without losing the graces of infancy, the mind opens
+into companionship, became alarmingly ill. In their tender assiduity by
+the little bed of the sufferer, all feelings of asperity, all feelings
+of coldness, were quickly forgotten.
+
+Together they watched with intense anxiety, together they listened to
+the short and frequent cough; one held the cup of cooling beverage
+with which the other moistened the parched lips of their child. No!
+it is not possible that parents can bend over the sick bed of their
+first born,--the creature equally dear to both,--the creature whose
+first accents of tenderness have been framed to utter their names,--the
+creature whose first emotions of love have been for them, whose first
+notions of right and wrong they have together laboured to form!--no!
+they cannot bend over the sick bed of this loved creature, and harbour
+any recollection of former unkindness. The impression may fade away;
+new causes of irritation may subsequently arise; but, for the time
+being, surely it is impossible that any but feelings of affection can
+find a place in their hearts.
+
+With Blanche and De Molton all that had ever passed was utterly wiped
+away, as, with the sickening dread of hearing their worst fears
+confirmed, they followed the physician from the sick chamber. They
+scarcely knew in what terms to couch the dreadful question to which
+they feared to receive a still more dreadful answer,--that question
+which is asked in a broken and quivering voice, but sometimes with a
+faint smile assumed to re-assure the questioner,--that question which
+is oftener put in the form of an assertion, "You do not think there is
+any danger."
+
+"Why, certainly, our little patient is in a very uncomfortable state,"
+replied the physician, who considered it his duty to prepare the
+parents for the event which he thought only too probable.
+
+The false hollow smile faded from the countenance of the agonised
+father: he knit his brows, and bit his compressed lip, till the blood
+almost started; but Blanche, worn out with fatigue and agitation, his
+poor Blanche, unable to meet this death-blow to her hopes, staggered
+towards him for support, and the husband mastered the feelings of the
+father, to sustain her fainting form, to soothe her more over-whelming
+agonies.
+
+There are sufferings on which it is painful to dwell,--sufferings too
+real, too true, too common,--sufferings which have been often endured,
+and which, alas! many have in store for them,--sufferings which equal
+in intensity any of which human nature is capable.
+
+For two days and two nights did they watch each varying symptom, count
+with trembling accuracy the minutes, the seconds, which were passed in
+undisturbed repose, and listen with painful rapture to the sweet voice,
+the plaintive and endearing "papa," "mamma," which the poor child often
+uttered, when, in the restlessness of illness, she wanted, she knew not
+what.
+
+How sad and painful an effort was it to veil under a semblance of
+playfulness the anxiety which consumed them, while they attempted to
+amuse the infant sufferer! to tell her childish tales, in a gay tone
+of voice, while the heart was bursting! to smooth the brow, to affect
+a smile! How often during these two long days, these two interminable
+nights, did Blanche reflect upon her folly and her ingratitude!--her
+folly in not enjoying to the uttermost the happiness which, a few short
+days before, was within her reach,--her ingratitude to Providence for
+the blessings till then vouchsafed to her!
+
+A horrible chill ran through her!--perhaps it was this very ingratitude
+which had deserved so severe a chastisement. How did she now wonder
+that petty annoyances should have so ruffled her! What to her were
+now the sneers of Stapleford, the pity of the world, the absence of
+elegancies, of comforts! Dry bread to eat, a shelter from the weather,
+and her children once more healthy, now appeared to her the summit of
+earthly happiness.
+
+De Molton, too, when he beheld his still-loved Blanche bowed down with
+grief, when he found her once more overflowing with tenderness to
+himself, wondered how he could ever have imagined her to be estranged
+from him, and he watched over her as tenderly as over his child.
+
+On the third day the physician perceived a slight improvement. He
+allowed them to hope; and the revulsion of feeling, the unbounded
+joy with which this permission was hailed by Blanche, alarmed him by
+its vehemence. He attempted to qualify his opinion, but it was in
+vain!--she was allowed to hope; and, stronger than reason, her ardent
+nature made her jump to the delightful conclusion that her child was
+safe.
+
+De Molton, fearful of a relapse, tried to subdue her raptures; but no
+sooner had the physician left the room, than, throwing herself into his
+arms, she exclaimed, "Our child will live, Frank! I know she will! She
+will live, and we shall be happy--entirely, perfectly happy! Nothing
+can ever make me unhappy again!"
+
+Short-sighted mortals! We little know what the next week, the next day,
+the next hour, the next moment, may have in store for us!
+
+The hopes of Blanche, however, were not doomed on this occasion to be
+disappointed: the little girl rapidly recovered; the other children had
+the complaint mildly; and Blanche, indeed, thought herself beyond the
+reach of misfortune. She felt gratitude, fervent gratitude, to Heaven
+for its mercies; but affliction had not yet taught her to "rejoice in
+trembling." She did not remember how, always, at all times, and in all
+places, our happiness is in the hands of an all-wise, all-powerful, but
+merciful Being, whose chastisements are dealt in pity.
+
+This truth was forced upon her mind when, just as the children were
+convalescent, she saw her husband become listless and oppressed: she
+heard him frequently cough, and she felt some alarm on his account.
+
+It had always been a matter of doubt whether a slight rash he had
+in his boyhood was or was not the measles. He had never remembered
+this doubt while attending his child, and it was not till he felt
+unaccountably languid and suffering that he recollected he might
+possibly have caught the infection.
+
+The suspicion which he then hinted to Blanche shot through her frame
+with the conviction of impending woe; and when the physician confirmed
+the fact, the agonizing, but not uncommon dread which often overtakes
+those in affliction recurred to her mind with increased intensity.
+Were their sorrows the visitations of an offended Providence, called
+down upon their devoted heads by their own want of submission to its
+decrees?--was she unworthy of a happiness which she had failed to
+value?--was the moment come when her repinings and her discontent were
+to be requited with a terrible retribution?
+
+Nothing that Doctor A. could utter was capable of reassuring her. She
+shook her head mournfully, and redoubled her attentions to her husband.
+When told that "she ought to place more reliance in that Power which
+had raised her child from a much more desperate state of sickness," she
+answered mournfully, "I do not deserve it."
+
+"We none of us deserve the mercies we meet with," replied the
+kind-hearted physician: "if we were dealt with according to our merits,
+well might we all despair." For a few moments such arguments would
+cheer her, but again she would relapse into despondency; and when,
+after some days, Dr. A. confessed that the pulse was very high--when
+his tone of encouragement changed to one of consolation and condolence,
+her spirit completely sunk--hope died away within her bosom.
+
+In what fearful array did her own faults towards him rise up against
+her! How completely did she forget the little tone of harshness which
+had once appeared to her to excuse and to justify her in disputing his
+wishes and opposing his plans! She felt she could never do enough
+to expiate her faults, that a whole life of devotion could scarcely
+suffice to atone for them; and, extreme in everything, she now looked
+upon herself as having been the most sinful of creatures.
+
+De Molton, whose affection had only been suspended, not destroyed, by
+the coldness he had met with, now, when he found her tender, gentle,
+and indefatigable, felt for her all, and more than he had ever felt
+before. One day she had been tending him with even more than her usual
+solicitude, when he said, "Thank you, Blanche; you are a kind and
+excellent nurse; and it grieves me when I think to what a dreary home
+of sickness, penury, and drudgery, I have been the means of bringing
+you. Without me, you would have been now enjoying the splendour, the
+brilliancy of your father's house, even supposing you had never deigned
+to adorn any of the other happy homes which courted your acceptance. I
+know that you have suffered much from the privations unavoidable in our
+situation; you have at times thought me harsh; but indeed, my dearest
+Blanche--my dear, dear wife, you do not know how much it has cost me to
+refuse you anything on earth."
+
+"Oh, Frank! do not speak in that manner! I now know how unreasonable,
+how ungrateful, I have been. Do not talk of what is past. Believe me,
+you should not agitate yourself."
+
+"It will do me good to say what is upon my mind: it is possible I may
+not recover."
+
+"Oh, Frank!" She looked at him reproachfully, as if he was unkind in
+saying what it was so painful to hear.
+
+"Nay, do not cast at me so frightened and so accusing a glance. I am
+not so very ill yet; and anticipating what is possible, will not make
+it more probable. Dr. A. says there are still hopes."
+
+"Oh, Frank! I cannot bear it; indeed I cannot!"
+
+"Dearest love, if it should please God to take me from you, you must
+bear it; and, what is more, you must exert yourself. You will be left
+with four young children, and, I am sorry to say, with less than ever
+to support them and yourself. I have ensured my life; but that could be
+but to a small amount, though to the utmost I could succeed in saving.
+It was this, as I thought, indispensable duty which contributed to
+render us so very poor."
+
+"Oh! you were doing everything that was right; and, indeed, if I had
+known all, I think--I believe--I should have behaved better. I think,
+if you had told me----"
+
+"I ought to have done so, perhaps. It was a kind of mistaken pride.
+The whole thing was so distressing to me! I desired so ardently to
+have been able to gratify every wish of your heart, that my spirit
+rebelled at being able to gratify none. Still, my sense of duty and of
+strong necessity made me resolve not to transgress one inch the line
+of prudence I had marked out for myself. The more your notions seemed
+unfitted for the fate we had embraced, the more I thought it my bounden
+duty to resist them, and to impress upon you the plain naked truth of
+our condition in life. I was wrong; I feel now that I was wrong. I
+should have made you the partner of my thoughts and plans, as well as
+of my affections."
+
+"No, no! it was not you who were to blame: you were all that was
+admirable; yours was strict, uncompromising rectitude, firmness of
+mind, everything that was manly and noble; while I!--oh, that I can
+have so misjudged you!--oh, that I can have so wasted these past
+years, which I now feel ought to have been years of such unmixed, such
+unalloyed happiness!"
+
+"Now, when perhaps it is too late!" he added in a low faint voice; then
+perceiving the expression of her countenance, he added, "but better
+late than never, my love;" and he held out his hand to her, with a
+smile half playful, half sad, attempting, as sick people often do, to
+familiarize their own and the minds of their friends with the idea
+of a final separation. He drew her hand towards him, and placing the
+other upon it, he continued with earnestness and solemnity: "We have
+been both to blame--both of us. When I am gone, do not torment yourself
+with useless regrets, but remember what I now say--that I am conscious
+of having been to blame on my part. If I had treated you with entire
+confidence and openness, I might have won on your generous nature to
+submit cheerfully to any privations. But I am reserved, I am proud. I
+am at length aware of these constitutional faults; and I trust, if I
+should be raised from this bed of sickness--if I should be spared to
+you, dear Blanche--that I shall in future know my duty better, and that
+I shall pursue it resolutely, and never again allow pride and reserve
+to chill our intercourse."
+
+"Oh, Frank, if we are but spared to each other, in spite of all outward
+circumstances, we will be so very, very happy! But we will rejoice in
+trembling. We are now too well aware how precarious is our happiness,
+and we shall prize it the more from that very consciousness. We shall
+learn to be grateful for the sterling blessings we possess."
+
+"And we shall know, my love, as I do now, that, when we meet death face
+to face, those points only on which we have done our duty can afford
+reflections in which there is any comfort,--those alone on which we
+have failed to perform it can give unmitigated pain!"
+
+"Alas, alas! how much have I to repent of! Instead of making your
+happiness, have I not caused you vexation and disappointment? Have I
+always honoured, always obeyed you?--have I been really a helpmate to
+you? Oh, Frank! forgive me! Indeed, indeed, I need your forgiveness;
+and even that can never reconcile me to myself!"
+
+"Have you already forgotten my injunctions, my love? Remember what I so
+earnestly wish to impress upon your mind,--that we have been both to
+blame,--both."
+
+"Thank you, my good, kind, beloved husband,--thank you; and may God in
+his mercy preserve you to guide my mind, and direct me in the path I
+should go!--then I shall never err again."
+
+"A weak and erring mortal, like yourself, is a poor guide to lean upon,
+dear Blanche; we must look within ourselves for the ardent and sincere
+wish to do what is right, but we must seek from above the strength to
+perform it. It is easy to know our duty; the difficulty is to persevere
+in its performance."
+
+"I shall be able to persevere, with you to support me!"
+
+He looked upon her with an expression of unutterable tenderness and
+pity, and pressed her hand in silence.
+
+The more the fear that they might be for ever parted grew upon her, the
+less could she admit any allusion to it, the more did she cling to the
+idea that their union was indissoluble.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+  Some manne hath good, but chyldren hath he none;
+  Some manne hath both, but he can get none healthe.
+  Some hath all three, but up to honour's throne
+  Can he not crepe by no manner of stelth.
+  To some she sendeth chyldren, riches, welthe,
+  Honour, worship, and reverence all his lyfe,
+  But yet she pyncheth him with a shrewde wyfe--
+                                      Be content
+  With such reward as Fortune hath you sent.
+
+  Sir Thomas More.
+
+De Molton's health remained for some weeks in a most precarious state,
+during which period they had time and opportunity for opening their
+whole hearts to each other.
+
+The religious sentiments which, although never before much called
+forth, were latent in both their bosoms, were more fully developed;
+and in sorrow, in fear, and in distress, the communion of feeling and
+interchange of thought became more complete than in the earlier years
+of their marriage.
+
+When he recovered--for he did recover,--they found themselves
+thoroughly, entirely, and reasonably happy. The first time that he
+came into the drawing-room, when she had arranged his arm-chair by the
+fire, and drawn the narrow curtains, placed the table close to him,
+and settled little Emma on a stool at his feet, she looked round with
+delight, and could not help expressing that she thought the room an
+exceedingly nice one, and that really a horse-hair sofa was not so very
+uncomfortable.
+
+"Take care, Blanche," replied De Molton, playfully; "we must be happy
+without deceiving ourselves: we must see things as they really are.
+Do not, because you are glad to see me here, fancy this little room a
+splendid apartment, or a horse-hair sofa a luxurious seat, lest the
+moment of disenchantment should come. No, no! we will be happy in
+spite of a bad room and wretched furniture; but we will indulge in no
+visions."
+
+"How right you always are! All will go well, now you are recovering.
+Yes, you will at last make me reasonable too: and you will teach me to
+keep all my feelings, good as well as bad, under proper control! And
+yet, I do not know how it is, the room does really look different in my
+eyes; and I almost think I do not slip off the sofa as much as I used
+to do!" He smiled at her again; and she laughed gaily at herself.
+
+As he gradually recovered, some friends were admitted to see him. Lady
+Westhope rejoiced, not only at the restoration of his health, but at
+the restoration of confidence between them. Mr. Stapleford pathetically
+lamented that De Molton should have been taken ill in this horrid
+nutshell, and asked when they should move to a more habitable part of
+the town.
+
+"Not at all," answered Blanche.
+
+"You are not in earnest? What can you find to admire in this apartment,
+dear Lady Blanche?"
+
+"Its cheapness," replied Blanche resolutely: "do you not know, Mr.
+Stapleford, that we are very poor?"
+
+The courage to utter these few words would spare many persons many
+moments of doubt, and hesitation, and awkwardness, and many unavailing
+efforts to make an effect.
+
+Mr. Stapleford bowed with much respect, and a glance, which seemed
+to say, "You have made a bad bargain! with your beauty, thus to have
+thrown yourself away!"
+
+But his glance met that of Lady Blanche, which seemed to answer, "I am
+very poor, but I do not repent my bargain."
+
+Blanche's object was no longer to make a decent appearance in the eyes
+of others, but to render her husband's home happy. De Molton no longer
+felt humbled at their poverty, when she no longer seemed affected
+by it. He candidly detailed his expenditure and his plans: she took
+great pains to dress her own hair, and soon acquired the proficiency
+of a Mrs. Jones, or of a milliner's apprentice; she gaily sprung into
+a Brighton fly with a bounding step, and willingly went into any
+agreeable society that presented itself: and she found that, though no
+longer the leader of fashion in point of dress, she was handsome and
+agreeable enough to be equally sought and liked.
+
+In one of her tête-à-têtes with Lady Westhope, they were both
+exclaiming at the worldliness of some mutual acquaintance, who courted
+a woman whom no one esteemed or loved; whom no one thought either
+agreeable or handsome, solely on account of her position in the world.
+
+"At least Frank and I have one comfort," exclaimed Blanche, in the
+corner of whose heart there still lurked a remnant of vanity: "if
+we are sought, it must be for our intrinsic merits. There can be no
+interested motive in any attention or kindness that is shown to us; and
+that is a reflection which puts one in better humour with one's self."
+
+"Yes," answered Lady Westhope; "and if we were so inclined, we might
+moralize on this subject as well as on more serious ones. 'This is a
+world of compensations,' as Lady Montreville says she has learned from
+her old nurse. You remember Milly Roberts, who was always toddling
+after her lovely children in St. James's Square? It is quite refreshing
+when one is in London to converse with Milly Roberts, and hear good
+sense, good feeling, and philosophy uttered so unconsciously. Lady
+Montreville says she has taught her almost all she knows of right and
+wrong; and, among other things, that we must not look for perfect
+happiness in this world,--that the most fortunate are not without their
+troubles, as she expresses it, nor the most unfortunate without their
+own peculiar blessings. I have reasoned myself into a very respectable
+degree of contentment, and I only hope that the sight of you and your
+husband, as you now are, may not disturb my philosophical, and, I hope
+I may add, religious view of my own fate, as much as the sight of you
+three months ago tended to confirm and strengthen it."
+
+Blanche had time to prove that her cheerfulness under privation was
+not the effort of a moment, but a resolution founded upon principle,
+and persevered in from the same motive; and De Molton also had time
+to prove that the tenderness of his wife had softened the sternness
+which was the only flaw in his character; and to become as gentle as he
+was firm in the performance of his duty; when an event occurred which
+prevented their late-acquired virtues from being any longer put to so
+severe a trial.
+
+By the death of a very rich godfather, De Molton became possessed of
+a small independence. It was very small; but it enabled him to retire
+on half-pay, till he might be wanted for the active service of his
+country, and to take a small cottage in the immediate vicinity of
+Cransley, where Blanche was able to realise her preconceived notions
+of refined poverty and elegant indigence. They kept a cow, and their
+butter equalled that at Temple Loseley; their cream was no longer blue
+milk; they baked at home; and instead of a knocker on the door, they
+had a bell with a respectable countrified sound. They had a garden,
+a small one certainly; but its flowers were as bright as those at
+Cransley, and the primroses decidedly blew a week earlier! They had a
+veranda, and it did not darken the room much. In short, they had all
+appliances and means to boot requisite for real happiness.
+
+They were enabled, while their children were so young, to lay by
+something to assist in their education as they grew older; and they
+began to think that Milly Roberts was wrong, and that some fortunate
+people were without "their troubles," when Mr. Stapleford paid them a
+morning visit from Cransley, and enlightened their minds as to the one
+only point on which their fate might admit of amelioration.
+
+After expressing his astonishment at their not knowing all the
+innumerable pieces of scandal which he retailed to them; at their
+not having read all the new novels of the last spring; at their not
+having seen the new actress, heard the last singer, visited the last
+exhibition, and become intimate with the last brides of the season; he
+exclaimed, "Why, dear Lady Blanche, you will let the grass grow over
+your intellect, as you are letting it grow over the gravel before your
+door! One can see by your road and your conversation that Cransley has
+been uninhabited, and that Lady Westhope has been in London, while you
+have been in the country, for the last six months!"
+
+"Oh, come and help us, Mr. Stapleford! we will soon get rid of the
+weeds out of doors. Emma, fetch the gardening basket; Henry, bring your
+old knife; Arthur, where is my rake? and Frank, if you will get the
+roller, we will make our little bit of gravel quite nice before Lady
+Westhope calls."
+
+"Of course I am _à vos ordres_, Lady Blanche; but, I assure you, I
+shall be vastly more useful in polishing your mind than your garden.
+People who ruralize all the year round, and cannot therefore be _au
+courant_ of what is going on in the world, should never let slip an
+opportunity of instruction."
+
+"There is some truth in what you say," replied Blanche, as she looked
+up from her labours, with sparkling eyes, and a complexion dazzling
+in its brightness from the warmth of the day and the nature of her
+employment: then shaking back her curls, she bade him seat himself on
+the bench beneath the young acacia, and tell her "everything, about
+everybody."
+
+"Well then, Lord D. did not propose, after all, to Miss C.; but set
+off for Paris, just as the family was on the tip-toe of expectation,
+thinking every double knock was the peer come to propose in person, and
+every single knock was a special messenger bearing a written offer of
+his hand and heart."
+
+"I did not know Miss C. was grown up: does she turn out pretty?"
+
+"Heavens! Lady Blanche, she has been out these two years! and everybody
+thinks her quite gone off. She was pretty when the duke made such a
+fuss with her at her first ball; but Mrs. L. thought it an insult to
+her charms."
+
+"Mrs. L's charms! I thought she was so very plain!"
+
+"Plain! why, she has been a beauty these three years. Lady G. betted
+Captain S. an amber-headed cane, to an ivory fan, that within a month
+she would talk her into being a beauty: and she did so, in three
+weeks and two days,--five days within the prescribed period. When
+once Lady G. had given her a start, she had the ingenuity to keep it.
+Her portrait now adorns the Annuals, and the Duke has worn her chains
+for two years and a half.--But I must not linger here any longer,
+or I shall be late at dinner. Good morning, dear Lady Blanche; your
+simplicity is quite piquant, and absolutely refreshes me. You dine at
+Cransley to-morrow, when I will finish rubbing the rust off your mind."
+
+That evening Lady Blanche remarked to De Molton: "The only little
+drawback to our perfect happiness is, that certainly one does grow very
+dull, and very stupid, knowing nothing that goes on in the world! Yet,
+after all, how much better to be like you, than like Mr. Stapleford!
+Yes, notwithstanding the grass that has grown over our minds, I do
+believe ours is the happiest position in life,--that we have the fewest
+troubles and the greatest number of blessings. I think I may now say
+with truth, and without enthusiastic nonsense, that we are happier than
+if we possessed the mines of Golconda. I told you so when we left Sir
+Frederick Vyneton's villa after our honeymoon; and you then declared
+how happy you should be if I said the same at the end of two years.
+I could not have said so then; but I can now, after eight years of
+marriage." We need not add that De Molton was indeed perfectly happy,
+nor that he told his wife he was so.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+  LONDON:
+  Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
+  New-street Square.
+
+Transcribers note: "Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_)."
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75709 ***
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+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75709 ***</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<p class="ph3">STANDARD</p>
+
+<p class="ph3">NOVELS.</p>
+
+<p class="ph4">N<sup>o</sup> CXVII.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"No kind of literature is so generally attractive as Fiction. Pictures of
+life and manners, and Stories of adventure, are more eagerly received by
+the many than graver productions, however important these latter may be.
+<span class="smcap">Apuleius</span> is better remembered by his fable of Cupid and Psyche than by
+his abstruser Platonic writings; and the Decameron of <span class="smcap">Boccaccio</span> has outlived
+the Latin Treatises and other learned works of that author."</p>
+
+<p class="ph1" style="margin-top: 5em;">TALES</p>
+
+<p class="ph5">OF</p>
+
+<p class="ph2">THE PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.</p>
+
+<p class="ph6">COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.</p>
+
+<p class="ph4" style="margin-top: 5em;">LONDON:</p>
+<p class="ph5">RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET;</p>
+<p class="ph6">AND BELL &amp; BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH.</p>
+
+<p class="ph6">1849.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p class="ph6" style="margin-top: 10em;"><span class="smcap">London</span>:<br>
+<span class="smcap">Spottiswoodes</span> and <span class="smcap">Shaw</span>,<br>
+New-street-Square.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class="center" style="margin-top:5em;">
+<img src="images/image01.jpg" alt="painting">
+</p> 
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>Clara Cause, del.</i>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <i>C. Cook, sc.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALES OF THE PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"<i>The Chevalier received the Countess of Nithsdale with what he
+meant to be marked attention, but his manner was subdued, his bearing
+dejected</i>" Winifred</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>London. Published by Richard Bentley. 1849.</i></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p class="ph2">TALES</p>
+
+<p class="ph6">OF THE</p>
+
+<p class="ph3">PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.</p>
+
+<p class="ph4" style="margin-top: 5em;">EDITED BY LADY DACRE.</p>
+
+<p class="ph5" style="margin-top: 10em;">LONDON:</p>
+<p class="ph6">RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET;</p>
+<p class="ph6">AND BELL &amp; BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH.</p>
+
+<p class="ph6">1849.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak">NOTICE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Proprietors of <span class="smcap">Circulating Libraries</span> in all parts of
+the country are compelled by the new Copyright Act to discontinue
+purchasing and lending out a single copy of a foreign edition of an
+English work. <i>The mere having it in their possession ticketed and
+marked as a library book</i> exposes them to</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>A PENALTY OF TEN POUNDS.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>By the new Copyright Act and the new Customs Act, even single copies of
+pirated editions of English Works are prohibited both in Great Britain
+and the Colonies. Copies so attempted to be passed are seized.</p>
+
+<p>These measures will be rigidly enforced.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak">PREFACE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The authoress feels much diffidence in sending forth to the world a
+tale which by its title gives promise of treating not only of history,
+but of Scottish history; an act of presumption from which she is
+anxious to clear herself;—and at the same time she wishes to re-assure
+those readers who may not like historical novels from a woman's pen,
+that she has entered no farther into public affairs, than as they may
+have influenced the fortunes and feelings of the one admirable woman
+who forms the subject of the following memoir.</p>
+
+<p>Since in the human heart the same passions and the same emotions are
+found in all ages, she hopes she has not trespassed beyond the limits
+assigned to one who is conscious that all she writes bears the stamp
+of feminine authorship, in attempting the development of a female
+character, the firmness and tenderness of which may be gathered from
+Lady Nithsdale's own beautiful letter to her sister.</p>
+
+<p>The foundation of the story of the Hampshire Cottage is strictly true.
+The appearance, the characters, the sentiments, and the death of the
+old couple, are entirely from nature. Their very Christian names have
+been preserved; and the circumstance of the blind old man feeling too
+low for the head of the little girl, who had outgrown his recollection,
+actually occurred to the authoress, when visiting the cottage after a
+long absence.</p>
+
+<p>For reasons which perhaps may be understood by her friends, she adds,
+that the tale of Blanche was written in the year 1832.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">London.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">June 26, 1835.</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<table>
+<tr><td>  </td><td class="tdr">Page</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale</span></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Hampshire Cottage</span></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Blanche</span></td> <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" >TALES</h2>
+
+
+<p class="ph6">OF</p>
+
+<p class="ph3">THE PEERAGE AND THE PEASANTRY.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak">WINIFRED, COUNTESS OF NITHSDALE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER I.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My father stood for his true king,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Till standing it could do nae mair;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The day is lost, and so are we,—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nae wonder mony a heart is sair.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Jacobite Song.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> sound of the organ pealed through the chapel of the English
+Augustine convent at Bruges: a bright gleam of sunshine, streaming
+through the painted window to the south of the altar, shone upon the
+clouds of incense which arose in silvery folds from the censers; it
+shone upon the white-robed assistants, upon the priests, and upon the
+calm brow of the young nun who had that moment taken the irrevocable
+vows which separated her from the world—a world of which she knew
+but little; but which, from the circumstances in which her family was
+placed, offered not to her the temptations it usually holds out to
+youth, beauty, and rank such as hers.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Lucy Herbert was the fourth daughter of William Marquis of
+Powis, who, having devoted himself to the cause of James the Second,
+and accompanied his queen in her flight to France, received from the
+exiled monarch, as a reward for his uncompromising loyalty, the empty
+titles of Marquis of Montgomery and Duke of Powis.</p>
+
+<p>James afterwards appointed him steward and chamberlain to his
+household—offices which, although of small advantage, may have been
+gratifying to his feelings, as proofs of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span> estimation in which he
+was held by the master to whom he had sacrificed everything.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the Duke of Powis's death, which took place in 1696, his widow
+placed her two youngest daughters in the English Augustine convent
+at Bruges; while the three elder remained with her at the melancholy
+shadow of a court still kept up at St. Germain's.</p>
+
+<p>It was no grief to the widowed mother when she found that the bent
+of the young Lucy's mind was sincerely and enthusiastically directed
+towards a religious life. Although the attainder had been reversed,
+and her son had been restored to the Marquisate of Powis, it was not
+till some years afterwards that she had ventured to return to England;
+even then she lived in retirement and privacy. The widow of so zealous
+an adherent to King James could not be regarded without suspicion;
+her means were scanty; her elder daughters had not then made the
+advantageous alliances which they afterwards formed; and joyfully did
+she hail the vocation which she hoped would secure, to one of her
+children at least, a peaceful and tranquil existence, secure from any
+farther vicissitudes of fortune.</p>
+
+<p>But to one person the decision of the Lady Lucy Herbert was a matter of
+deep and unmixed sorrow. Her younger sister, the Lady Winifred, loved
+her with all the devotion of a fresh and unpractised heart. They had
+been early separated from the rest of their family. At the period of
+their father's death, when their childish hearts had for the first time
+been made acquainted with grief, they had been thrown entirely on each
+other for support and consolation.</p>
+
+<p>Though many years had now elapsed, the moment was still fresh in their
+memories, when their mother, in her mourning habit, with pale cheek
+and streaming eyes, delivered them over to the care of the friend who
+was to convey them to Bruges. The sad countenances and black garments
+of their sisters, and of the few domestics who still remained of their
+former establishment, coupled with the vague, ill-defined feeling,
+half resembling fear, half shame, which children experience when they
+witness grief more intense than their young minds can comprehend, had
+left a deep impression upon both the youthful pensioners. When first
+they found themselves in the convent, with none but strangers around
+them, the timid Winifred clung instinctively to her sister; while Lady
+Lucy, forced, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span> it were, to become the prop and stay of one younger
+and weaker than herself, acquired at an early age the habit of seeking
+strength and support from above.</p>
+
+<p>Loving and admiring her sister as did the Lady Winifred, it may excite
+wonder that she did not imbibe her strict religious notions; that she
+also should not have looked forward with joy to the idea of devoting
+herself to pious seclusion, and thus, at the same time, preserving the
+society of the being she most loved on earth. But it was not so. On the
+contrary, she felt her sister's vows as a barrier of separation between
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Although she had no wish to wander beyond the walls of the little
+convent garden, though she seldom even went to the parlour grate, and
+never wished to avail herself of the occasional opportunities which
+occurred to the pensioners of mixing in society, still she felt an
+instinctive horror of irrevocable vows, to renounce—they knew not
+what. It was with a feeling amounting to despair that she witnessed
+the funeral rites, that she heard the service for the dead, that she
+saw the black veil dropped between her sister and the world, of whose
+pains and pleasures they could form no idea. Moreover, these vows for
+ever precluded the possibility of her seeing their native country in
+company with that beloved sister; and in the heart of the Lady Winifred
+there existed the strong instinctive affection for the land of her
+forefathers, which the coldest and the most hardened are not wholly
+without, but which in minds of a more ardent temperament amounts almost
+to a ruling passion. She had never beheld the British shores, she had
+never breathed British air, and yet she felt as if England was her
+home—her natural resting-place.</p>
+
+<p>When first the young girls had been sent to Bruges, an old and faithful
+servant of the name of Evans had accompanied them. She was a native of
+Wales, and had been born in the neighbourhood of the ancient seat of
+the Herbert family, Poole Castle, in Montgomeryshire.</p>
+
+<p>Loyalty to the family of Herbert had grown with her growth and
+strengthened with her strength, and was only balanced by the attachment
+to her country, which is generally more enthusiastic in the inhabitants
+of mountainous districts than of any other.</p>
+
+<p>The young girl had listened for hours together to old<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> Evans's glowing
+descriptions of the cloud-capped Snowdon, the green mountains, the
+smiling valleys, the rapid streams, the wreaths of mist,—all the
+varied beauties of her own Wales. From the windows of their convent
+they could descry nothing but the flat and uninteresting country
+which surrounds Bruges: but when the clouds formed themselves into a
+thousand fantastic shapes, old Evans would point out to them how one
+mass resembled such a mountain near their ancestral castle—how another
+was the very picture of Snowdon when he wore his white cap of clouds,
+as she familiarly expressed herself. She would describe to them the
+peculiar customs of Wales—the snowy caps, the small black hats, of
+the women,—would expatiate on the light form and airy step with which
+they trod the mountain paths—would picture to them how beautiful were
+the white sheep dotting the soft green of the steep and swelling hills,
+till the youthful Lady Winifred's heart would burn within her to flee
+to the home of her ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Nor, though Evans afterwards returned to her mistress, the duchess,
+when she established herself in England, did these impressions fade
+away.</p>
+
+<p>The nunnery was all composed of English, most of whom had been driven
+into exile by the adherence of their families to that of Stuart; thence
+it naturally arose that all their ideas of prosperity, happiness,
+splendour and gaiety, were blended with the memory of England. These
+recollections also partook of the colouring thrown around them by the
+joyousness of youth; so that perhaps in no spot of earth had patriotism
+a firmer hold on the human heart than in the English Augustine convent
+at Bruges. There also did King James the Third, as he was ever styled,
+reign without a rival. To every inhabitant of the convent was his
+cause endeared by the sacrifice of friends, of property, of rank, or
+of situation; and all those whose age or disposition inclined them
+to hope, rather than to despond, looked forward with superstitious
+confidence to the time when "the king should enjoy his own again."</p>
+
+<p>It was an additional grief to the Lady Winifred that her sister's vows
+would prevent her ever witnessing the glorious restoration which was
+to take place at some future and unknown period; and it was with a
+feeling of desolation keener than any emotion she had experienced since
+the grief of childhood at her father's death, that she retired for the
+first time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> to her solitary apartment as one of the pensioners; while
+her sister—her friend, her companion by day and by night—was now a
+professed nun, immured within her narrow cell, and henceforward subject
+to all the rules and regulations of the order.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Lucy's vocation had been so decided, and her only surviving
+parent's consent so unhesitating, that her noviciate had been
+shortened; and it seemed to Lady Winifred a sudden and violent
+separation.</p>
+
+<p>During the next year, her thoughts, which could no longer be
+communicated as they arose in the hourly companionship of sisterhood,
+turned more frequently than ever towards her native land; her studies
+were all of the glorious deeds of England; she read none but English
+poets; she carolled none but English ballads; and she hailed with joy
+the intelligence that her eldest sister, the Lady Mary, was united to
+the eldest son of Carril Viscount Molineux, and that an alliance was in
+treaty between the Lady Frances and the Earl of Seaforth, for she hoped
+her mother might wish for her society when her sisters were honourably
+disposed of in marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Since she had taken the vows, the Lady Lucy had unavoidably been
+not only less her companion, but moreover the constant practice of
+religious forms and exercises occupied her mind as well as her time.
+She was unable to sympathise with Lady Winifred: her lot was cast
+within her convent walls; and she would have considered it a vain
+and sinful indulgence to let her thoughts wander towards scenes or
+pleasures, which she had renounced. At the age of fifteen, therefore,
+the Lady Winifred's mind had been thrown back upon itself; and it
+gradually acquired a gentle reserve, a mild thoughtfulness, which
+suited well the cast of her features. The placid brow, and the full
+white eyelids,—the rounded cheek, which, except when some sudden
+emotion called up an evanescent bloom, was pale as the white rose
+consecrated to the Jacobite party,—were not calculated to strike at
+first sight; but any one who had once looked upon her, could not choose
+but look again. The dove-like eyes, the lips so full of expression, the
+whole form so aristocratic in its mould, so feminine in its movements,
+so delicate, so fragile,—all were rather like a poet's dream, than
+a being formed to encounter the chances and changes of this rough
+work-day world. Her slender throat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> gleamed white from the close,
+narrow mantilla of black silk edged with lace, which, according to the
+fashion of the time and country, was closely fastened down the front;
+her soft brown hair was smoothly parted off her brow, and tucked under
+the little white cap, enclosing the back of the head, which is still
+worn in the Low Countries, and which formed part of the dress of the
+young pensioners.</p>
+
+<p>The character, the countenance, the features, and the habit, all seemed
+in unison with each other.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER II.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hail, Childhood! lovely age, in thy short race</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Too oft we know our only happy hours.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With what fond yearnings later we retrace</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Each several step in thy sweet path of flowers.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The spirit bounding wild, unknowing why,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And still expectant of new ecstacy—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The little sorrows that to memory seem</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As 'twere joys undefin'd in some fair dream.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> evening the Lady Winifred was alone in the small and simple
+apartment of which she was now the sole inhabitant; the fading light
+had obliged her to relinquish her employment, and she gazed through the
+narrow grated window as the sun sank behind the bank of purple clouds
+which, in low flat countries, so frequently accompany the decline of
+day. She thought on old Rachael Evans's descriptions of her home, and
+she remained lost in fanciful imaginings, conjuring the masses of
+vapour into the forms of mountains which she had never beheld, when
+she was roused from her meditations by the entrance of the sister
+porteress, who came to announce to her that a messenger from England
+had arrived, and to summon her to the parlour grate.</p>
+
+<p>What were her joy and surprise at recognising old Evans herself, who,
+with a trusty servant, was sent to convey her in safety to London,
+where she would meet her mother, the Duchess of Powis, as she was
+called by all her immediate dependants, although the title conferred
+upon her husband by James the Second was not allowed to her son at the
+court of Queen Anne.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred listened with even fresh delight to all which Rachael
+Evans could impart respecting her family and her country, though she
+could not but express her surprise that her mother should so suddenly
+command her to her presence.</p>
+
+<p>"Your lady mother may have her reasons," replied the old woman, with a
+mysterious and important air; "and it is likely his gracious majesty
+himself, (Heaven bless and restore him to his own!) may also have his
+reasons for wishing you should not follow your sister's example."</p>
+
+<p>"The king! He cannot surely take any thought of what my fate may be!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not for me to make so bold as to dive into a king's counsels;
+but it would not be fitting for all the heads of noble Catholic
+families and true Jacobites to be intermarrying with the daughters of
+crop-eared Whigamoors, as many of the young lords have done of late.
+If all the beautiful young ladies of loyal families were to take the
+veil, as the Lady Lucy has done, it would not be the better for the
+true cause. Your fair sister, the Lady Anne, is about to be married to
+the Viscount Carrington; and there may be other nobles as great, or
+greater, whom King James may also wish to see attached to his cause,
+rather than withdrawn from it, by the lady whom they may chance to
+marry."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Winifred was half alarmed at Rachael Evans's insinuations. Love
+and marriage were topics of conversation interdicted by the elder nuns,
+and subjects on which she had never wittingly allowed her thoughts to
+dwell. Yet she could not but collect from various expressions which
+Evans let drop, that some alliance, by which the Jacobite cause might
+be strengthened, was in contemplation for her.</p>
+
+<p>Her thoughts were all duty, submission, and obedience, both towards
+her mother and her king; but her pure and ardent soul recoiled from
+the idea of being condemned to love and honour one of whom she knew
+nothing. She questioned Evans more closely, and extracted from her that
+Colonel Hook had been despatched with credentials from the court of St.
+Germain's, for the purpose of ascertaining the situation, numbers and
+ability of King James's adherents in Scotland; that he had reported the
+Earl of Nithsdale to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> a nobleman of much weight and consideration in
+the southern counties, and the head of a Jacobite family; and that he
+was considered by the Chevalier de St. George as a person whom it was
+of great importance to attach firmly to his cause, by uniting him to a
+lady of undoubted loyalty.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred received this intelligence with tears and sorrow.
+The notion of resistance to the wishes of her superiors never crossed
+her mind as within the scope of possible events; but the prospect
+which unfolded itself before her seemed to her simple, yet ardent
+imagination, awful in the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever seen the Earl of Nithsdale?" she timidly inquired, after
+the long silence which succeeded Rachael Evans's developement of the
+views entertained with regard to her.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my sweet young lady," replied Evans; "but you need not harbour a
+fear that he is other than a good and a noble gentleman. There never
+was a Whig nor a traitor among any of the Maxwells of Caerlaverock. Was
+it not his ancestor, the noble Sir Eustace, who was as true to King
+Robert Bruce, as your own blessed father was to his king? and rather
+than that the enemy should have a chance of turning it into a garrison
+for themselves, did he not, with his own hands, assist in demolishing
+his fair castle of Caerlaverock? The king gave him twenty-two pounds in
+money for this piece of service; and though that sounds little enough
+in these days, they say it was then thought a great sum of money. It
+was his ancestor, Lord Robert, who was killed at the battle of Flodden,
+fighting by King James's side. They always were a noble family, and
+true to their lawful sovereign. It was the first earl who spent all his
+princely fortune in the wars of King Charles the Martyr;—nor would
+he surrender his castles of Caerlaverock and Thrieve, till he had
+received his majesty's own letters commanding him to do so. It may be a
+bold speech for me who am but a servant—though, I am proud to say, a
+trusted one—but I think a young lady should esteem herself honoured to
+ally herself with one descended from such worthy parentage."</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred sighed: she also set a high value upon an honourable
+and noble lineage; that a woman should match herself beneath her
+station appeared to her a shameful degradation.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> The idea of a Jacobite
+intermarrying with a Whigamoor was as revolting to her imagination as
+to Rachael Evans's; yet she would fain have learned something more of
+her future husband's character, his age, and his appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Evans," she replied, "it sometimes happens that persons of noble
+birth are mean and sordid in their minds, and such that it would be
+difficult to love and honour them, as a wife should love and honour her
+husband, and as I have heard you say my mother loved and honoured my
+father. Oh! I could tell you a sad tale which one of our nuns has often
+told to me, how a friend of hers was married to a great duke, who was
+of the oldest and noblest family in France."</p>
+
+<p>"And was he not noble in mind, as such a great person should ever be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will repeat it all to you, as sister Margaret has so often told
+it to me, and you will not wonder at my fears:—She was brought up
+in the same convent as Eugénie de St. Mesnil: they were friends from
+childhood; and when Eugénie was removed to her father's house, previous
+to her betrothment, she begged that her friend might be permitted
+to accompany her. One morning they were all dressed in their most
+brilliant apparel,—sister Margaret says that poor Eugénie looked
+more like an angel than a woman,—the relations were assembled, and
+in the adjoining apartment waited the notaries and the family of the
+bridegroom. The folding doors opened:—sister Margaret kept close
+to Eugénie, who stole a fearful glance towards the gentlemen at the
+farther end of the room. She whispered softly to sister Margaret
+'she only hoped it was not he who wore the blue and silver!' The
+future bride and bridegroom were now summoned to sign their names to
+the parchments. Eugénie advanced, and from among the gentlemen she
+indeed saw him who wore the blue and silver step forward, and it was
+he who signed his name with hers. Sister Margaret says, that to her
+dying day she shall never forget the expression of despair in poor
+Eugénie's countenance. At that moment she resolved she would profess
+herself a nun; and the very day which saw Eugénie become a miserable
+wife, sister Margaret returned to her convent. She was soon afterwards
+removed hither, that she might take the veil among others of her own
+country.—Alas! alas! how often have I wished to see my native land;
+and now how much rather<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> would I embrace the fate of sister Margaret,
+than that of Eugénie de St. Mesnil, if I could do so without failing in
+duty to my mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady, you should not listen to these love tales; they
+are almost as bad for young people as reading idle romances and songs."</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred could not suppress a smile. "Nay, dear Evans, I do
+not think my tale has been a tale of love," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say sister Margaret's French friend was very happy after a
+while, when she became accustomed to the strange duke."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! I believe not"—and the young Winifred shook her head. "Sister
+Margaret never would tell me any more of what befel her. She says poor
+Eugénie is at rest, and bids me ask no farther of her history. It was a
+very sad one, she always adds; so sad, that she rejoiced when she heard
+of her friend's death!"</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER III.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">You call this weakness!—It is strength,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I say; the parent of all honest feeling!</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who loves not his country, can love nothing.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Two Foscari.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear</span> as her sister had ever been to the Lady Winifred, never had she
+seemed so dear as at the moment of parting from her for ever: never had
+she so loved the convent garden, which had hitherto been her only place
+of recreation; the cloisters, through which she had so often wandered
+in the twilight; the chapel, where she had so regularly joined her
+companions in devotion. It was with a sensation resembling awe, that
+she bade adieu to the tranquil retreat where she had passed a youth
+unruffled by any grief, if not enlivened by many pleasures, to enter
+upon a career which was destined to call forth feelings as pure and as
+ardent as ever informed mortal clay; feelings which, whatever might
+prove their intensity in after years, now lay dormant under an exterior
+almost child-like in its placidity.</p>
+
+<p>To her unpractised eyes every object was new, every sight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> interesting.
+The very streets of Bruges were not familiar to her, for she had
+seldom passed the portals of the convent. The town appeared to her
+interminable. So many houses, with their high roofs and their pointed
+gables; the innumerable people, who hurried past each other in every
+direction, intent on business or on pleasure; the various vehicles
+which crowded the streets;—all confused her, and she forgot for the
+moment the grief of parting from her sister, the joyful prospect of
+seeing her mother, her curiosity concerning her native land, and even
+her dread of the husband to whom she was destined.</p>
+
+<p>Uninteresting as was the country between Bruges and Ostend, she looked
+with pleasure at the fields so brightly green, at the hedgerows of
+willow, at the luxuriant crops; at the industrious peasant who still
+toiled at his daily labour, or at the noisy boors who were enjoying the
+relaxation of their favourite game of bowls; at the stout and active
+boys, who almost excited her mirth by their antics as they ran with
+incredible speed by the side of the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>The extreme flatness of the country prevents the traveller from
+becoming aware how near he is to the ocean, till he finds himself
+almost upon the shore. Though overpowered, her first emotion was mixed
+with disappointment. When standing on a level with the sea, the eye
+embraces so much smaller a range than when placed on higher ground,
+that she did not receive that impression of its boundless expanse
+which she had anticipated. Yet the sight of the ocean awakened other
+emotions. She almost felt as if it were part of her native country. She
+had imbued and fed her mind with the history of England's glories—of
+England's triumphs. She felt as if the waters were all tributary to the
+Island Queen; she knew that the navies of England maintained the empire
+of the sea, and she hailed with a feeling of love and reverence the
+waves which washed the white cliffs of Albion—the waves which bore the
+British fleets to conquest and to glory.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till on board the vessel which was to convey her to her
+long-loved though stranger home, and that the first surprise had in
+some degree subsided, that her thoughts were again able to dwell on her
+own future fate.</p>
+
+<p>After a long and thoughtful silence, she thus addressed Evans:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p>
+
+<p>"It would be impossible that a person who was good should fail to love
+her husband, would it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"A woman's first duty, madam, is towards her husband."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I trust I shall assuredly love the Earl of Nithsdale," she
+replied with a brightened countenance; "for when my confessor parted
+from me, he bestowed on me this little crucifix, which was brought from
+Our Lady's holy convent at Einsiedlin, and giving me his benediction,
+he told me I had been ever a good girl, and that he felt confident
+I should prove myself a virtuous woman. I have felt happier from
+that moment; for since Father Albert says so, I suppose I must prove
+virtuous, and fulfil my duties, whatever they may be."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish her grace, your honoured mother, were present," answered Evans,
+"to hear you speak so beautifully and so properly!"</p>
+
+<p>"But if I should not love Lord Nithsdale, I shall be sinful!" exclaimed
+Lady Winifred with a look of terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Young ladies' minds should not be turned upon such subjects as love:
+it is a word which does not befit a maiden's lips," replied Rachael
+Evans, with an expression of severity in her countenance.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred was silent and abashed. She feared to have been
+unmaidenly in her questions, and she buried within her own bosom the
+emotions which she could not subdue.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before she again ventured to address her companion. She
+found that years had not softened the old woman's character. She was
+faithfully devoted to the objects of her loyalty—the Herbert family,
+the exiled Stuarts, and after them the mountains of Wales; she did not
+imagine that any doubts or scruples could lawfully interfere where duty
+towards either of the first-mentioned objects was in question.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred sat watching the waves as they dashed one after
+another against the side of the vessel; she wondered within herself
+to find that the accomplishment of her constant and early wish—the
+prospect of so soon setting her foot on British land—should not give
+her more pleasure. She wished she had remained in ignorance of her
+mother's intentions respecting her, and she felt a certain awe of that
+mother stealing upon her, from finding old Evans so much more stern
+and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> serious than when she had parted from her. Since that period,
+Evans, who was a privileged person, had been entrusted with many of the
+secrets of the Jacobite party, and had occasionally been of service in
+conveying intelligence between the Duchess of Powis and her friends.
+She had consequently become more and more devoted to the cause, and
+would have resented any difficulty thrown in the way of a Jacobite
+plan as an injury offered to herself. She feared Lady Winifred might
+not blindly submit to the decrees of her mother, and she felt almost
+displeased with her for even wishing to know to whom she was destined.
+But the Lady Winifred was so thoroughly imbued with the principles of
+submission and duty, that resistance to parental authority seemed to
+her impossible: yet her submission would have been that of a mind in
+which the sense of duty was stronger even than the warm and ardent
+feelings of which she in after life gave such signal proofs, not the
+submission of weakness or of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>At length the white cliffs of Albion actually greeted her eyes, and
+she once more forgot herself and all that might await her. What a
+strange and strong tie is that which binds the soul to the land of
+one's forefathers! Her heart went forth towards the very earth: strange
+as it was to her, it seemed familiar: and as the vessel glided up the
+stately river, and passed the ships which bore the riches and the arms
+of England to every region of the habitable globe, she exulted in the
+power and the wealth of her country.</p>
+
+<p>They passed the Tower of London; and little did the fair young
+creature, who gazed with youthful curiosity upon the antique edifice,
+anticipate what she would one day endure within those walls! Little did
+she think, when the Traitor's Gate was pointed out to her awe-struck
+and wondering eyes, that he in whom her own existence was wound up
+would one day mount those dreary steps, and pass that ominous portal.</p>
+
+<p>The duchess's coach was in waiting to convey the Lady Winifred to her
+mother's presence—the Duchess of Powis having undertaken a journey
+to London purposely to receive her daughter: she usually resided in
+retirement at her son's castle in Wales. She did not wish to excite
+suspicion by openly refusing to attend the court of Queen Anne; yet she
+could not bring herself to pay the accustomed homage expected of one of
+her exalted rank, when, in truth, she was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> devoted to the cause of the
+Chevalier de St. George—when she looked upon Queen Anne as an usurper,
+though, as many others at that time did, she looked upon her in the
+light of an unwilling usurper.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Anne was known to speak with kindness and pity of her exiled
+brother; and she was not regarded by the Jacobites with the same horror
+they had entertained towards Mary, whose want of filial piety afforded
+her enemies a never-failing topic for eloquent invective.</p>
+
+<p>As the heavy coach, with its ponderous horses, conveyed Lady Winifred
+to that part of the town where the Duchess of Powis had for the time
+established herself, her feelings were too much excited to remark upon
+the long, muddy, and unpaved streets, which contrasted so strangely
+with the extreme brilliancy of the shops, and which usually called
+forth the astonishment of those who visited London for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>At length she was ushered into the presence of her who was at once a
+parent and a stranger. She knelt at her feet;—it was her mother's
+hand which was placed upon her head—it was her mother's voice which
+pronounced a blessing over her. The venerable lady embraced her, while
+a tear shone beneath her eyelid. She looked with tenderness upon
+her child—her youngest child, but it was a tenderness mixed with
+reserve and with habitual stateliness. Her mind had been of late years
+turned to matters of secrecy and importance, and her countenance had
+acquired an expression which, while it did not amount to sternness,
+was nearly enough allied to it to awe her young daughter rather than
+to attract her. Her silver hair was parted smoothly from her forehead,
+while a black silk hood, from beneath which appeared a close cap of
+the finest lace, formed her head-dress. Her stature was tall, and
+remarkably erect. She moved and looked the daughter of a long line of
+ancestors—the widow of the true and loyal Duke of Powis—the mother of
+a race of nobles!</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred was presented to many of her relations; and to her
+sisters, the Ladies Seaforth and Carrington, and the Lady Mary Molineux.</p>
+
+<p>All were delighted with the timid and graceful girl, whose heart was
+so ready to receive them, as if she had ever been nurtured among them;
+while the freshness of her mind, her wonder at all she saw, and her
+determination to love and to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> admire every thing English, rendered her
+as interesting as she was attaching.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess of Powis did not devote many days to making her daughter
+acquainted with her kinsfolk, but shortly set forth upon her journey to
+Wales; and at length the Lady Winifred's ardent desire to gaze on real
+mountains was likely to be gratified. In the agitations of the last
+few days, and the anticipated delight of visiting Wales, the destined
+husband had been forgotten. Her mother had not alluded to the subject;
+and with the natural buoyancy of early youth, she gave herself up to
+the enjoyment of the moment, and would not look beyond the present
+happiness.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER IV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Peace, brother, peace! Speak not irreverently</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of maiden bashfulness; it were to slander</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The breath of morn—the dew-drop on the bud—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The thousand, thousand evanescent sweets</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That mix in Nature's earliest incense.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> the first few miles of her journey every step of the way called
+forth from the Lady Winifred fresh expressions of delight; at every
+inequality of the ground, she inquired whether these were yet the
+mountains of Wales, although at the same time she would have been
+disappointed had she received an answer in the affirmative, for her
+imagination had pictured something far more wild and sublime.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees her questions became fewer, her exclamations less frequent.
+It was not that her wonder, or her delight, decreased; it was not that
+her mother was unkind; but there was no sympathy between the artless
+child, (for she was scarcely more than a child in experience,) and the
+aged and serious women, who had arrived nearly at the end of a career,
+in which they had witnessed the overthrow of the monarch to whom they
+were attached, the destruction of the religion they professed, and the
+blasting of the hopes of youth. All that remained of warmth of feeling
+in the Duchess of Powis was concentrated in the desire of once more
+seeing a Catholic king upon the throne; all the energies of a lofty and
+commanding spirit were devoted to that one object.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p>
+
+<p>The innocent wonder, the simple delight of her young daughter, would
+have afforded to many a subject of pleasing interest: but her thoughts
+were upon weightier matters; and to a person engaged in secret
+negotiations for the restoration of a dynasty, such artless graces
+possessed no charm. The Lady Winifred's personal attractions were
+such that there was no reason to fear the Earl of Nithsdale would not
+gladly fulfil the engagement which was desired by his king; from the
+gentleness and duty of her child, no resistance to her wishes could be
+anticipated, and she was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>The duchess journeyed with her own horses, and from the state of the
+roads in those days there was leisure during their progress for much
+reflection. By the time the dark blue outlines of the mountains became
+visible, the Lady Winifred had learned to subdue her raptures, and to
+resume the staid and sober demeanour which had been usual to her in the
+convent, but which had in some measure given way under the excitement
+of her first arrival in England.</p>
+
+<p>When once established in the castle, of which Lord Powis considered
+his mother as the mistress, and where he himself only occasionally
+resided, the Lady Winifred found her life nearly as monotonous as it
+had been at Bruges. She had the pleasure of looking upon the beauties
+of nature, it is true; but it was only from a distance. The duchess
+would have considered it improper and undignified for her daughter
+to have strayed beyond the terrace which surrounded two sides of the
+castle, or the pleasaunce, which, having been neglected during the
+years that the Herbert family passed in exile, now rather resembled a
+straggling orchard, and, although superior in extent, was very inferior
+in neatness and cultivation to the trim garden of the Augustine convent
+at Bruges.</p>
+
+<p>There were moments when the Lady Winifred looked back with regret to
+her convent life—when she thought with painful tenderness of her
+beloved sister—when she keenly felt the want of congenial companions.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother, serious and abstracted, would sometimes pass whole hours
+in unbroken silence. Seated in her carved arm-chair of black oak, with
+its high back and its velvet cushions, she industriously plied her
+needle at the elaborate piece of carpet-work which had occupied her
+fingers, though not her thoughts, for the last twelve years; while the
+Lady Winifred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> as patiently toiled at the delicate embroidery, in the
+execution of which persons brought up in foreign convents are usually
+so skilful.</p>
+
+<p>An airing in the ponderous coach, through roads which would now be
+deemed impassable, constituted the only break in the routine of their
+life.</p>
+
+<p>But even then, there was no one to whom she might exclaim upon the
+beauties of the Dovey, the rich interchange of meadow and mountain,
+wood and fields of waving grain, or admire the more majestic glories of
+Cader Idris; which, although inferior in height to Snowdon, strikes the
+eye as being more lofty, from its more abrupt and bolder outline.</p>
+
+<p>The daughter of Rachael Evans had been appointed as the personal
+attendant of the Lady Winifred, and notwithstanding the difference in
+their birth, their condition, and their education, it was not long
+before the high-born Lady Winifred Herbert discovered in the humble Amy
+Evans a spirit as simple, as ardent, as unsophisticated, as her own.</p>
+
+<p>Their young hearts warmed to each other. The want of sympathy in the
+other persons who surrounded her naturally led the Lady Winifred to an
+unconstrained communication with her waiting-woman; which, had Amy's
+mind been stamped in a common mould, might have produced disrespect
+or familiarity, but which, with a soul so true, so frank, as that of
+the Welsh girl, inspired the enthusiastic devotion which subsequently
+proved invaluable to her lady.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred was one evening summoned from her walk upon the
+terrace, where she was calmly listening to the tinkling of the distant
+sheep-bells, and watching the sun as it gradually sank behind the blue
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>It was Rachael Evans, whose tall and stately form approached through
+the twilight. From the circumstances before alluded to, she had been
+associated with those in a class above her, till she had acquired
+manners, as well as sentiments, beyond her station. She now wished to
+prepare the Lady Winifred's mind for the unresisting compliance to her
+mother's wishes, which she knew would be expected from her; but she
+was too really well-bred ever to lose, in the freedom of the trusted
+companion, the respect due from a menial to her superiors—while at
+the same time the affection she felt for one whom she had nursed in
+infancy, though it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> tempered the sternness of her character, was but
+secondary to her devotion to her lady, and the cause her lady had
+espoused.</p>
+
+<p>There was respect, affection, and decision in Rachael Evans's tone as
+she thus accosted Lady Winifred:—"Her grace requests your presence
+in the oak-chamber, madam: she has matters of high importance to
+communicate to your ladyship. You remember, my dear young lady, what I
+once told you, that your honoured mother had chosen for you a gentleman
+of noble lineage and undoubted honour; and I trust that my dear young
+mistress will show herself, as I know she is, a dutiful and grateful
+child."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Evans! you do not mean—that my mother is really about to speak to
+me of the gentleman you mentioned—now!—this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred clasped her hands and trembled.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madam, assuredly is she. And from whom can a young lady more
+properly receive the first intimation of her approaching marriage,
+than from her parent—her only remaining parent? But I thought I would
+prepare you for what you were about to hear, lest you should at first
+look strange upon her grace; and you know full well that the lady
+duchess is not one of those who could brook an undutiful word, or a
+look of disobedience. Ever since his grace's death—Heaven rest his
+soul!—my mistress has been used to rule everything; and nobly has she
+contended with adverse fortune, and well is she entitled to observance
+and respect from all around her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, Evans. Full well do I know that it is the first duty of a
+child to honour and obey her parents: still I cannot but feel uneasy
+and alarmed."</p>
+
+<p>"Compose yourself, my sweet child. I know you are dutiful, although
+somewhat timid. Do not linger on the way, but hasten to her grace; she
+is in the oak-room,—and see! the tapers are already lighted. Hasten,
+lest the supper may be served, and her grace may not be pleased if you
+are absent."</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred followed old Rachael's injunctions, neither did she
+venture to question her any farther. Though kinder and less stern than
+when she had formerly opened the subject, still Rachael's manner was
+firm and uncommunicative, and she feared to show a curiosity which
+might be deemed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> forward or unbecoming. In ages and in countries where
+marriages are arranged and contracted by parental authority, love,
+whether lawful or unlawful, is equally treated as a feeling improper to
+be indulged.</p>
+
+<p>With trembling hands the Lady Winifred turned the lock of the high and
+massive door. The apartment was brilliant from the wax tapers in heavy
+silver sconces which illuminated it. The venerable lady was content to
+live in retirement; but though she inhabited only a few rooms of the
+rambling old castle, in those she would not dispense with any of the
+state to which her youth had been accustomed.</p>
+
+<p>She was, as usual, employed upon her carpet-work. How many serious and
+lofty thoughts—how many ambitious, proud, and melancholy feelings—how
+many sad and tender recollections—how many aspiring and loyal
+hopes—had passed through the mind of the noble embroideress, while
+her fingers had been employed in tracing the unconscious leaves and
+fruits!—if unrolled, it would have been to her as a journal of past
+thoughts and feelings!</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred gently closed the door behind her, and timidly
+approached her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"I sent Rachael Evans to bid you hither, my child," said the duchess,
+as Lady Winifred stood before her: "be seated, Winifred; I have much to
+say to you. I have just received a letter from your brother, informing
+me that he will be here to-morrow by mid-day, and with him the Earl
+of Nithsdale, who accompanies him from Scotland. He is a nobleman of
+undoubted loyalty and gallant bearing, and one to whom I shall feel
+proud and happy in committing the welfare of my child. He is to become
+your husband, my dear Winifred; your king, your surviving parent, and
+your brother, have chosen him for you: so prepare yourself to receive
+him with such maidenly attention as may be fitting in one of your noble
+birth."</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred answered not; but the tears stood in her eyes, and at
+length flowed down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"What mean these tears?" resumed the duchess, when she observed them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing, madam; only the news is sudden, and I scarcely know——"</p>
+
+<p>"You scarcely know what, my child?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely know how I should comport myself on such an occasion. Is
+he—is the Earl of Nithsdale—a person—such a person—is he a good
+man?" the Lady Winifred faltered forth.</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly is he. Does my daughter think I would wed her to a person
+who was mean in character—a heretic, a coward, or a profligate? No;
+not even to fulfil the commands of my king would I peril the immortal
+soul of my child!" answered the lady, with a proud reliance on her own
+integrity of purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! my honoured mother, I never imagined such a thing: only——"
+but she durst frame no other question. If in her secret bosom she
+wished to know whether he was in outward appearance, and in manners,
+such as might win a youthful heart, she scarcely ventured to
+acknowledge to herself any anxiety upon subjects concerning which both
+her mother and Rachael Evans had appeared to consider it unbecoming in
+her to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess of Powis presently resumed. "The young earl" (the word
+young was not lost upon Lady Winifred) "was at Bruges when your sister
+Lucy took the veil; indeed, he has not been many months returned from
+Flanders. When there, he was fortunate enough to obtain a secret
+interview with our gracious king."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he indeed?" asked Lady Winifred with eagerness; for the loyalty in
+which she had been nurtured invested every thing that appertained to
+the exiled monarch with interest in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it was when King James was serving in the King of France's army.
+His retinue, alas! was scarcely equal to that of a private gentleman;
+and his gracious majesty was suffering so severely from ill-health,
+that he was shortly obliged to return to St. Germain's; but he received
+the earl most graciously, and accepted his homage and devotion. Colonel
+Hook, who has since been sent from St. Germain's to Scotland, has
+been for some time in communication with the earl, and it is through
+him that the king has expressed a wish that the loyal family of the
+Maxwells should form an alliance with that of the Herberts."</p>
+
+<p>The servant now entered to announce that supper was served, and the
+Lady Winifred offered her supporting arm to conduct<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> her mother into
+the adjoining apartment, although perhaps at that moment the daughter
+more needed a stay to her footsteps than the parent, who was pleased
+and satisfied at the successful termination which she anticipated to
+the plans she had long been forming.</p>
+
+<p>The repast was silent. The Lady Winifred felt as if the gray-headed
+butler and the two serving-men must all be aware that she was a
+destined bride, and she blushed for the agitation which prevented her
+being able to touch any of the viands placed before her.</p>
+
+<p>It was the custom of the ladies to retire to rest soon after supper;
+and when the young girl had carefully folded and arranged all belonging
+to her mother's work, and had dutifully lighted her to her apartment,
+the duchess gave her a more tender and fondling embrace than was usual,
+according to the formal manners of the time, and the cold bearing of
+the person we have described.</p>
+
+<p>This temporary unbending on the part of the parent roused all the
+smothered feelings in the bosom of the daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me your blessing, dearest mother," she exclaimed, with an emotion
+her mother had never yet witnessed: "Bless me before I leave you, and
+pray that I may make a good wife to the stranger I am to marry."</p>
+
+<p>"I do indeed bless you, my good child; nor can I doubt that you will
+prove the virtuous wife that is a crown of glory to her husband. None
+of your race and lineage have failed, nor will you, my gentle daughter.
+Heaven bless you, and preserve you, my Winifred, to be an honour to
+your family and to your sex!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy Evans was surprised, when her young lady had closed the door of her
+sleeping-apartment, to see her suddenly throw herself into a chair and
+burst into convulsive sobs. She was greatly alarmed, and prescribed
+such simple nostrums for hysterics as occurred to her. She knelt by
+her side; she patted her lady's hands; she bathed her temples with
+distilled waters.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not ill, dear Amy! I shall be better in a moment; but—but, I am
+going to be married, Amy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, my lady! You do not say so? I hope it is to a worthy
+gentleman."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes: my mother says he is in every respect most worthy, and was
+almost angry with me that I could doubt it."</p>
+
+<p>"And is he young?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think the word young escaped my mother's lips."</p>
+
+<p>"And handsome, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, of that I know nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"How! my lady, not know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have never seen him, and these are questions it would not have been
+fitting for me to ask."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I thank my kind stars I am not a lady," exclaimed Amy, "to be
+married to some ugly old man one knows nothing of."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! is he indeed old and ugly? Oh, Amy! would I were an humble
+country-girl! But," she added, after a moment's pause, with a gentle
+dignity and firmness of resolve—"but, being what I am, I must do that
+which my station requires. I must obey my mother, even though he may be
+as old and as disagreeable as you say."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, my dear, dear lady, do not look so sad! I know not that he is old
+and ugly; I was only thinking it would be a sore trial to be married
+to some old stranger, when—when——" It was now Amy's turn to blush,
+and to look confused, for she was betrothed to the son of a tenant of
+the Duke of Powis's. "But with you, my lady, it is quite different. Who
+knows but your future husband may prove as dear to you, as—as—David
+is to me?" she added, half-blushing, but half-smiling also, for her
+engagement was an acknowledged thing.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you may have seen him, Amy? He is a friend of my
+brother's,—the Earl of Nithsdale."</p>
+
+<p>"No, my sweet lady, I have never seen him; but the name is a marvellous
+well-sounding name; so do not look sorrowful, but hope for the best.
+If your lady mother has chosen him, and if your brother loves him, why
+should not you love him also?"</p>
+
+<p>"And the king, Amy—the king approves of him, and confides in him; and
+the king wishes for this union!"</p>
+
+<p>"His majesty!" exclaimed Amy with awe; "then it must be right! And
+yet," she added, "I know not how it would fare with me, if the king was
+to send his commands from beyond the seas, that David was not to be my
+husband, but that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> I was to marry some one he chose for me! Ah, well!
+it is all as it should be! You are a lady, and I am a country maiden;
+and it is all for the best!"</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER V.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His soul is tost sweet hopes and doubts between,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And you might almost 'mid these flutterings trace</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A dear assurance to be lov'd by her;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For silence is Love's best interpreter.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He might, besides, as she drew near, observe</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O'er all her face a deep vermilion dye;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And short and broken, check'd by cold reserve,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her accents of condoling courtesy.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Translation from the Italian of Pulci.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> morrow came. The Lady Winifred was pale, more pale than usual. Her
+hands trembled as she toiled at her many-coloured silks; more time was
+spent in disentangling them than in embroidering. Her heart beat at
+every sound: she started every moment. But the duchess was in the habit
+of veiling all emotions under an exterior of imperturbable composure,
+and proceeded with the eternal carpet-work without making one false
+stitch, although she might feel some inward agitation at the prospect
+of presenting her daughter to her future husband, and some joy at that
+of seeing her son, who had been many months absent.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice she turned her eyes upon her daughter, and secretly
+regretted that she seemed pale and languid, and she even fancied she
+could perceive traces of tears upon her cheek; but she knew that the
+marriage was arranged, and she was certain that a shade more or less of
+beauty in his betrothed would not affect the ultimate success of the
+negotiations with the Earl of Nithsdale. She was confident that the
+Herbert family was too noble to be slighted; and she doubted not that
+the gentleness and virtues of Winifred must attach her husband, even
+should her personal attractions fail to strike him at first.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred, meantime, thought not of her own appearance. She
+imagined that Lord Nithsdale was as inevitably bound to her as she was
+to him; and her agitation at the notion of first beholding him, and her
+longing desire to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> see the brother, who was equally a stranger to her,
+swallowed up all personal feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The apartment already described as that usually inhabited by the
+Duchess of Powis was a corner room, and was lighted by windows on two
+sides. Lady Winifred habitually established herself in one of those
+which looked towards the east; it commanded the most extensive view;
+and, moreover, when gazing in that direction, her thoughts o'erleaped
+the space between, and wandered towards the friends and playmates
+of her childhood. From the other, to the south, could be seen the
+approach of travellers from some distance. If her brother only had been
+expected, probably she would have placed herself so as to command a
+view of the road, but now she scarcely ventured to turn her eyes that
+way: she sat with her face bent low over her frame, almost breathlessly
+listening to every sound.</p>
+
+<p>The castle clock struck three. The Duchess of Powis wondered her
+visitors had not yet arrived. She desired her daughter to look out
+towards the southern entrance, and tell her whether she saw any one
+approaching.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madam!" answered Lady Winifred, in a voice scarcely audible.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my child, whom and what do you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are four horsemen, madam, riding quickly up the hill."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I imagine we may order dinner to be served," answered the mother,
+who was accustomed to the strictest punctuality. "How near are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are even now entering the castle gate;" and Lady Winifred sunk
+on the window-seat, while her eyes became so dizzy she could scarcely
+distinguish anything farther. A vague indistinct recollection of sister
+Margaret's French friend, Eugénie de St. Mesnil, and of the betrothed
+in blue and silver—a confused thought of Amy's expression, "old and
+ugly," ran through her brain—when her mother bade her ring the bell:
+she obeyed; and rallying herself, she returned to the embroidery, which
+she hoped would assist her in recovering from her confusion.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments footsteps were heard in the adjoining apartment; the
+clank of boots—the sound of voices. The door opened; and the Marquis,
+or, as he was more usually<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> called, the Duke of Powis, advanced to his
+mother, and having kissed her hand, was folded in her maternal embrace;
+while Lady Winifred, having risen mechanically from her seat, stood
+pale and immovable behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"My sister?" inquired the duke.</p>
+
+<p>"Our dear Winifred," replied the duchess; and, to her utter surprise
+and confusion, the Lady Winifred suddenly found herself embraced by a
+bluff, gay, honest-looking man, who was indeed her brother.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, my lady mother, you must allow me to present to you my friend
+and companion, the Earl of Nithsdale, who has been my host for the last
+three weeks, which I have passed with him at Terreagles."</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Nithsdale, who had hitherto kept in the background, now
+advanced with a graceful and respectful bow to make his obeisances to
+the duchess, who then presented him to her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred, startled by her brother's greeting, blushed
+rosy-red. Lord Nithsdale bowed still lower than to the duchess, and for
+a moment gazed upon the fair young thing before him, but as quickly
+withdrew his glance; for, with the nice feeling of a refined mind, he
+perceived, although her eyes were not for one moment raised from the
+ground, that she quivered beneath his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>The parent might have been satisfied with the personal attractions
+of her daughter at this moment. The surprise and the excitement had
+summoned a bloom that gave her all the brilliancy which at times she
+might require. The extreme purity of her expression, and bashfulness of
+her demeanour, suited well with the embarrassing situation in which she
+was placed.</p>
+
+<p>The mid-day repast was announced. The duchess was handed by Lord
+Nithsdale; while the Duke of Powis gave his arm to his shrinking
+sister, who, shy and trembling, scarcely ventured to slightly touch it,
+alarmed to find herself on so familiar a footing with any man, even
+though a brother—she who had scarcely spoken to one of the other sex,
+except good Father Albert.</p>
+
+<p>Had the soft innocent eyes of young Winifred never yet been raised? Had
+she not yet beheld the face of her future lord? When first the door had
+opened, she had stolen a furtive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> glance—had seen enough to convince
+her that the person who accompanied her brother, if indeed he were
+the Earl of Nithsdale, was neither old nor ugly. But from that moment
+forward they had been riveted to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was dull and constrained—how should it have been otherwise?
+Though the Duke of Powis exerted himself to the utmost, and told many
+lively anecdotes concerning his exploits when deer-stalking in the
+Highlands, or salmon-fishing in the Lowlands, his unassisted efforts
+could not succeed in sustaining the conversation. The venerable duchess
+was always stately in her manners: she had lived almost entirely out of
+the world, and had none of the small talk of the day. Lady Winifred,
+of course, could not be expected to speak. Lord Nithsdale, although
+he had read much, travelled far, and although he had seen much of the
+world in general, felt that in his situation, also, light and flippant
+conversation would be out of season; and upon subjects of nearer
+interest, of deeper anxiety, whether personal or political, they could
+none of them touch while surrounded by attendants.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, they adjourned to the pleasaunce, they were able to
+communicate more freely.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Powis imparted to the duchess all that Colonel Hook had
+told them of the Chevalier's hopes and fears; of all the promises of
+assistance which were held out to him by Louis the Fourteenth; of all
+the pledges of devoted attachment to the cause which he had received
+from the various nobles and lairds of Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Nithsdale qualified his friend's hopeful view of the case,
+by mentioning the divisions which, in consequence of Colonel Hook's
+mismanagement, had arisen between the more zealous partizans, including
+the Dukes of Athol and of Perth, who were for at once receiving the
+king without any conditions, and the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl
+Marishal, and others, who adopted more moderate principles.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred cowered close to her mother; but once or twice,
+attracted by the deep, low, earnest tones of his voice, as he feelingly
+deplored these disunions, which he feared might prove the destruction
+of all their hopes, she found her eyes involuntarily turn towards the
+speaker; and once—once only—he surprised them fixed upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Confused and shocked at herself, she hastily withdrew<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> them, and from
+that instant found herself, all loyal Jacobite as she was, totally
+incapable of listening to the chances of success which attended the
+plans in agitation, but wholly occupied in wondering what must have
+been the Earl of Nithsdale's impression of her boldness, in having
+ventured thus to gaze upon him, and fearing he must necessarily have
+formed a very unfavourable opinion of her.</p>
+
+<p>This was a great change! She was little aware herself that the
+subject of her anxiety had so completely shifted its ground, from the
+impression he might make on her, to that which she might make on him.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred found the young Amy awaiting her with impatience in
+her chamber. "I have seen him, my dear lady—I have seen him!" she
+exclaimed with eagerness; "and if he is but as good as he is comely,
+why there is no harm in leaving it to one's king and one's parents to
+choose for one. I am so overjoyed to think my dear mistress may be as
+happy as she deserves to be! for you never could have been happy, my
+lady, if they had married you to such a husband as I had fancied in my
+own mind.—But you do not look half pleased, madam! Think you he is not
+so worthy a gentleman?" inquired Amy with a tone of alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, Amy; I do not think any one with such a voice could be other
+than most excellent and most gentle!"</p>
+
+<p>"And it seemed to me, madam, as he was walking in the pleasaunce, that
+he had the goodliest eye-brows!—so black, and so straight! And yet he
+did not look as though he were stern."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe not;—but indeed I scarcely ventured,—I was
+fearful—lest——"</p>
+
+<p>"And then every time you turned at the end of the broad walk, he bowed
+with such grace and respect to your honoured mother, it did one's heart
+good to see; for it seemed as though he would make a dutiful son to
+her, as well as a good husband to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Amy! I cannot think it possible he should ever be my husband."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I thought, madam, he was come here on purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"He never can think of me, I am sure! so wise, so noble as he is! And
+I who know nothing, and have seen nothing—I never can make him a wife
+such as would be worthy of him!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p>
+
+<p>"And if you are not worthy to match with any earl, or duke, or prince
+in the wide world, my lady, I do not know who is—good, sweet,
+gentle, beautiful, and noble as you are!" exclaimed Amy, with a burst
+of enthusiasm which almost resembled indignation at her lady for
+undervaluing herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! Amy, not beautiful! I never thought before how much more
+beautiful my dear sister Lucy is than I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, my dear, dear lady, I have often heard my mother say the Lady
+Lucy may be taller, and may have more colour in her cheeks, but that
+for real beauty her features are not near equal to yours; and as for
+the Lady Carrington, or the Lady Mary, or——"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, stop, Amy! I must not listen to such flatteries! What would
+Father Albert say, if he knew I was listening to such sinful vanities
+as praises of personal beauty, and that I was listening to hear myself
+preferred before my sisters? Oh, no! It is not thus I may make myself
+worthy of him who is to be my lord, if indeed he can condescend to such
+as I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my sweet mistress! you are only too good. Bear with me, my lady,
+and I hope in time I may learn to be something like you. But indeed it
+hurts me to hear you speak so humbly and so sadly: I am sure that every
+time you dropped behind, I saw the earl slacken his pace, and steal a
+look to see if you were there."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he, indeed?" said the young Winifred; but, checking herself,
+she added, "but now I will to my prayers. Alas! I wish Father Albert
+were here! I feel as if I had much need of confession, and of ghostly
+counsel; and yet I do not know what sin I have committed which seems
+to weigh so heavily upon me. My mind is bewildered. It is so very long
+since I have confessed! I wonder what Father Albert would say!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VI.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>His affection was of a very extraordinary alloy,—a composition of
+conscience, and love, and generosity, and gratitude, and all those
+noble affections that raise the passion to its greatest height.</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Clarendon's Life.</i><br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> the following morning, after some private conversation between the
+duchess, her son, and the Earl of Nithsdale, the Lady Winifred was
+summoned to the oak-chamber, where her mother formally taking her hand,
+placed it in that of the earl. They both knelt before her to receive
+her blessing; and though as yet they had never addressed one word to
+each other, they rose from their knees, their faiths mutually plighted.</p>
+
+<p>Such marriages have often been contracted, and sometimes they may have
+proved as well assorted as those in which the choice of the individuals
+has been more consulted; but it has seldom occurred that hearts have so
+sincerely acquiesced in the vows dictated by others as on this occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Nithsdale was approaching the age of thirty. He had visited
+Paris, he had travelled in Italy, he had passed some time in Germany.
+There was a singularity in the eye-brows, whose darkness had already
+attracted Amy's notice, and the clear but melancholy blue eyes which
+they shaded, in the pale complexion, and the expression of sadness
+about the mouth, which had proved irresistible to many a foreign fair
+one. He had often won unwooed the hearts of those Parisian belles,
+who were not devoted to the dreary court decorum prevalent during the
+reign of Madame de Maintenon; while many of the more glowing beauties
+of Italy had absolutely courted the favour of the young Englishman,
+and many a sentimental German seemed ready to yield her heart, almost
+before he could lay siege to it.</p>
+
+<p>In his early youth he had not failed to profit by the advances which
+were thus made to him; but his was not a character which could long
+find pleasure in such conquests. He had an innate preference for
+virtue and purity; his disposition was naturally enthusiastic and
+contemplative. The gay, the thoughtless, passing attachments to which
+we have alluded, were not in unison with his mind. The sprightly
+Parisian was too volatile to make any lasting impression on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> such a
+heart, the Italian too little refined, the German too easily won;
+so that, though he had passed the first flush of youth, his real
+affections were still unhackneyed.</p>
+
+<p>He had accidentally found himself at Bruges when the Lady Lucy
+pronounced her vows, and was one of the assembly who crowded the church
+to witness the ceremony. Lady Winifred had been pointed out to him
+among the convent pensioners, as being sister to the young nun; and he
+had then remarked upon the innocence and purity of her countenance,
+and had thought within himself how much more attractive was such an
+expression than all the graces and fascinations which are meant to
+allure.</p>
+
+<p>If there is any foundation of virtue in the heart of a man, the more he
+has been thrown with the less respectable part of the sex, the more he
+has been exposed to their allurements, the more highly does he prize
+entire innocence when he meets with it, and the more strict is his line
+of demarcation between the modest, and those in whose conduct there may
+be any touch of levity. It might almost be taken as a touchstone of
+the original disposition, whether or not, through all the errors into
+which man, when tempted, is liable to fall, he yet preserves a quick
+perception of genuine purity, and also retains a taste and a veneration
+for it. Whatever may have been his aberrations, there is always hope
+that such a one will return to the path of virtue.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Nithsdale, however, was not one who had ever been
+completely carried away in the vortex of dissipation. He had still
+cherished within his mind an ideal model of perfection, which had
+preserved him from yielding up his affections to any of the fair
+creatures who fluttered around him. He had always resolved that the
+woman to whom he should unite himself should be pure as the unsunned
+snow, with mind, soul, and affections fresh and unpolluted.</p>
+
+<p>It was, therefore, willingly that he entered into the alliance urged
+by the agent of his master—a master towards whom he inherited loyalty
+with the blood which flowed in his veins, and to whom, since his
+interview with him in Flanders, he felt additionally bound by every tie
+of romantic honour.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale had sought that interview with all the feelings of
+enthusiasm naturally inspired by the circumstance of the young prince
+so gallantly entering the King of France's<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> army. He was then saddened
+at the appearance of ill-health visible in the Chevalier, and he was
+disheartened by perceiving how poorly he was attended. These facts,
+unpromising as they were, affected his hopes of success, but they did
+not lessen the interest he felt for the royal exile. The divisions
+among the Chevalier's adherents, consequent upon Colonel Hook's
+imprudent neglect of the more moderate Jacobites, who were not prepared
+rashly and unconditionally to yield the hard-earned liberties of their
+country into the hands of a restored monarch, portended, to a person
+who was not of a sanguine temperament, the ill-success which attended
+the attempt of 1707, but it did not for a moment affect his allegiance.</p>
+
+<p>This despondent, yet devoted loyalty threw over his whole demeanour
+a tinge of melancholy, which was calculated to render him only more
+interesting in the eyes of a young girl; and she soon learned to watch
+with anxiety the varying expression of his brow, and to hail with joy
+the smile which her presence invariably called forth.</p>
+
+<p>His affection for her was a mingled feeling of almost parental care and
+protection, with a punctilious respect, excited by her innocence and
+her noble birth.</p>
+
+<p>She had been brought up to honour and to obey; and the love to which
+she gladly and dutifully yielded every faculty of her soul, evinced
+itself in a thousand actions of almost filial reverence. She was
+unaccustomed to the common attentions mechanically granted by the other
+sex, and unconsciously received by those who have lived in the world;
+and he sometimes smilingly checked her when she stooped for her own
+roll of silk, or performed for herself and others a thousand little
+services, which, in former days especially, were exacted not only from
+a lover, but from all gentlemen towards all ladies.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, they occasionally found themselves alone, a circumstance
+of rare occurrence, then her instinctive inborn nobleness and modesty
+made her for the time assume, unknown to herself, the dignity of
+demeanour befitting one of her rank and station. She was no longer the
+timid and affectionate girl, only watching to forestall the wishes of
+him to whom she owed duty and allegiance; but the high-born damsel,
+whose gentle purity was more awful in its simplicity than the frown of
+another.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span></p>
+
+<p>The novelty of such a character—the contrast it afforded to those
+which he had previously met with—the unusual mixture of perfect
+confidence in her entire affection for himself, and of perfect
+certainty that a few weeks would make her his wedded wife, with the
+fear of alarming the shrinking bashfulness of one nurtured in such
+utter seclusion,—the desire of winning the unreserved confidence of a
+creature accustomed to reveal the secret workings of her innocent soul
+to her confessor alone, and the pleasure of gently insinuating himself
+into her heart of hearts,—gave a new and singular character to this
+courtship. His own soul seemed to grow fresh, young, and pure by the
+study of hers. He enjoyed once more all the simple tastes and pleasures
+of childhood, which had long ceased to charm him; and he hailed with
+as much delight, as in some cases a lover would the confession of
+reciprocal affection, any detail of the youthful amusements of her
+convent life which he could succeed in luring her to describe.</p>
+
+<p>It was seldom, however, that she spoke herself. She loved to sit
+in her own accustomed and retired seat, apparently occupied with
+her embroidery, while she gave up her whole soul to the rapture of
+listening to his voice, and of drinking long draughts of the new
+and absorbing passion which it was become her duty to feel. If, as
+not unfrequently happened, he addressed himself to her, and asked
+her opinion, her feelings, upon the subject which might be under
+discussion, she started as from a reverie; and unless it was one which
+touched upon some matter of morality, of religion, or of loyalty, she
+could give no opinion, for in truth she had none. She listened for
+the pleasure of hearing his full, sweet, mellow voice; of learning
+his sentiments; and of sometimes stealing an occasion of dwelling
+unobserved upon the countenance, which, in her eyes, beamed with all
+that was noble and intellectual.</p>
+
+<p>On the day preceding that on which the marriage ceremony was to be
+performed by a Catholic priest in the chapel of Poole Castle, the
+Duchess of Powis gave her daughter some of the sage maternal counsel
+which was to fit her to become a virtuous wife, and the head of a noble
+household, at a period when the duties of housewifery really devolved
+upon the mistress.</p>
+
+<p>"Be seated, my dear Winifred, and listen to me attentively.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> You are
+now about to enter upon a mode of life entirely new to you; you will
+have no one to guide and direct you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! madam! think you my lord is likely to be called away from me so
+soon?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my child; it is not on that account I speak, unless indeed our
+gracious master should carry his proposed landing into effect; in such
+a case you would not be a degenerate daughter of the house of Herbert,
+but you would wish your husband to be among the first who flock to the
+standard of our rightful sovereign. But though no such paramount duty,
+to which all others must yield, should call him from your side, there
+are many points connected with your household arrangements in which you
+must act and judge for yourself. Of course, should any circumstance
+occur on which there should be a diversity of opinion between yourself
+and your husband," (the Lady Winifred looked up in her mother's face
+with an expression of unfeigned astonishment,) "remember, Winifred,
+that on such occasions it will be your duty to submit, whether your
+reason is convinced or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is what possible, my child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible, madam, that I should ever hold an opinion contrary to
+my lord's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such things have occurred," resumed the duchess, while a transient,
+almost imperceptible smile passed over her lips. "When you have lived
+more in the world, you may perhaps acquire wishes and sentiments of
+your own. Should subjects of dispute arise——"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! madam!"</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, it is the wife's duty to yield; and remember, that a soft
+word turneth away wrath."</p>
+
+<p>The duchess had proceeded so far with her advice, because she had ever
+deemed it right thus to admonish each of her daughters before they
+entered into the marriage state, when the Lady Winifred exclaimed with
+tears in her eyes—</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! my dearest mother! surely you have not seen in me any signs of
+wilfulness! Heaven knows my heart is all submission towards him to whom
+it has pleased you and my sovereign to unite my destiny. Heaven is my
+witness," she added, clasping her hands, "that I honour him—that I
+revere him, (saving yourself, madam, and Father Albert,) second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> to
+nothing under Heaven! And to-morrow, mother—to-morrow, I suppose,
+I may honour him first of all created beings!" She turned her soft
+and tearful eyes to Heaven with an expression of such enthusiastic,
+such sublime devotion—though the devotion was not at the moment
+all religious, that the duchess looked upon her for a space in mute
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a strange girl," at length she said; "so silent, so reserved,
+and yet so ardent:" and the mother, who had been too much occupied with
+other thoughts to study the real character concealed under the gentle,
+unobtrusive deportment of her child, was surprised and perplexed at
+this unexpected burst of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>After a pause she resumed. "And there is another thing which I have
+never failed to impress upon your sisters, which is, that however
+exalted may be a woman's rank, however ample her husband's fortune,
+she should not disdain to be the diligent housewife as well as the
+high-born lady. I have in this small clasped book a collection of
+family receipts, which I wish you to study carefully, and which
+you will find of infinite service. They descended to me from my
+grandmother, her grace of Somerset; and our family have always been
+renowned for our almond comfits and our spiced cakes. Amy Evans can
+assist you, for she has learned to compose these condiments under our
+faithful Rachel."</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred with gratitude and humility received from her
+mother's hand the small green book with silver clasps which contained
+these valuable documents. The duchess continued: "In uniting you to
+one of the Maxwell blood, I need scarcely fear for your principles of
+loyalty. There can be no doubt that, born of the Herberts, and married
+to a Maxwell, you will live and die true to the king of your ancestors.
+And now, my dear child, may a merciful Providence grant that, firm in
+the faith in which you have been brought up, you may live a virtuous,
+if not a happy life, and that you may die the death of the righteous!"</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Winifred knelt; and her mother having thus advised her upon
+conjugal, economical, political, and religious subjects, kissed her
+fair child's forehead, and they retired to rest.</p>
+
+<p>The next day witnessed the vows of the betrothed pair; and they shortly
+afterwards took up their abode at the Earl of Nithsdale's castle of
+Terreagles, in Dumfriesshire.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The realm from danger to secure,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To foreign aid we cry;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With papists and non-jurors join</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To keep out popery.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Whig Song.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the mutual affection which subsisted between herself and her lord,
+the Countess of Nithsdale would now have enjoyed happiness, as perfect
+and as unalloyed as mortals may look for here below, had not the public
+affairs of the time been to both a subject of deep interest and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>The party of the Chevalier de St. George was strong in Scotland. The
+people in general were disaffected to the government in consequence
+of the Union: a measure against which many signed a protest, which
+was presented by the Duke of Athol; and a measure which, in the
+eyes of many Scotchmen, appeared contrary to the honour, interest,
+and constitution of their country, the birthright of the peers, the
+privileges of the barons and boroughs, and to the claim of right,
+property, and liberty of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>While such feelings tended to produce discontent among all orders, the
+regular troops, under the Earl of Leven, did not exceed 2500 men, many
+of whom upon the landing of the Chevalier would most probably have
+joined him. The castle of Edinburgh was destitute of ammunition; and if
+it had surrendered, the Jacobites would have found themselves masters
+of a considerable sum of money.</p>
+
+<p>The King of France, with the view of making a diversion from the
+Netherlands, and of occupying Queen Anne with disturbances at home,
+had granted considerable assistance to the Pretender. A squadron was
+assembled at Dunkirk under the Chevalier de Fourbin, and a body of land
+forces was embarked under M. de Gace: James was furnished with services
+of gold and silver plate, sumptuous tents, splendid liveries, and all
+sorts of necessaries, even to profusion. Louis had presented him with
+a sword studded with diamonds, and had repeated to him the same words
+with which he had dismissed his father,—that the kindest wish he could
+express towards him was, "that he might never see him again."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Scottish nobles but awaited the moment of the Chevalier's landing
+to rise simultaneously in his favour: though outwardly all was quiet,
+they were on the tip-toe of expectation, when the active measures taken
+by Queen Anne, the vigilance of Sir George Byng, who intercepted the
+squadron before it could reach Edinburgh, and the wind, which prevented
+its ever arriving at Inverness, rendered vain all their hopes and fears.</p>
+
+<p>The Chevalier, after having been tost upon the seas during a month of
+tempestuous weather, returned to Dunkirk; and Sir George Byng sailed up
+the Leith road to Edinburgh, for the purpose of receiving the freedom
+of the city which he had delivered from impending danger.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the Chevalier de St. George's first, and almost ridiculous,
+attempt to recover the throne of his ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>To the Earl of Nithsdale this period had been one of no common
+anxiety: he was too well aware of the dissensions which Colonel Hook's
+imprudence had produced among the Chevalier's most faithful partisans,
+to feel confident of the result under any circumstances; and he knew
+that till the king was actually in Scotland, and was himself a rallying
+point for all his adherents, nothing but mischief could accrue from
+any movement among his friends. He had therefore so conducted himself
+as to escape the notice of government: his disappointment was great
+when he found that a moment, in many respects so favourable for the
+Jacobite cause, had been allowed to escape; but far greater was his
+mortification at finding the monarch to whom he had devoted himself
+could be so easily persuaded to return to dependence on the court of
+France; and his fears for the future affected him still more deeply
+than his vexation at the failure of the present attempt.</p>
+
+<p>His young wife also grieved at the dispersion of their cherished hopes;
+but to her, the object of real and deep anxiety was her husband.
+Sometimes, when, with folded arms, he would gaze vacantly upon the
+blazing fire, his dark brows knit, his lips compressed, his mind
+absorbed in sad retrospections and melancholy forebodings, the un-read
+book would fall upon her knee, or the needle drop from her hand, as she
+watched the expression of his face. On one occasion, when he caught
+her eyes thus fixed upon him, a kind but passing smile illumined his
+countenance; and addressing her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> with the low and mellow voice which
+first made her maiden heart his own,—"My gentle Winifred," he said,
+"you have exchanged a calm and peaceful home, beloved and cheerful
+friends, the sister of your affections, and all the joyous carelessness
+of youth, for an unsettled country, a troubled land, and a gloomy
+husband—who hates himself, dearest, when he thinks his thoughtfulness
+and his abstraction can cast a shade of care over that smooth and
+tranquil brow——"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh my dear lord!" she exclaimed, as she looked up at him, her eyes
+half filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale continued,—"Or that his moody silence can bring tears
+into those dear eyes!" and seating himself beside her, he pressed her
+slender hand in his.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not his silence, but my beloved lord's kind words, that have
+brought tears into these foolish eyes. I can scarce believe that one so
+far above me in wisdom and in knowledge—one whose mind is engrossed by
+subjects of such moment, can take so much thought for such an ignorant
+child as I am. I often regret my convent education; for I feel, my
+lord, that I can be no companion to you; and in these times especially,
+when——"</p>
+
+<p>"Wish not yourself other than you are, my love! It is that purity, that
+heavenly innocence, that confiding simplicity, which render you in my
+eyes so immeasurably superior to all the far-famed beauties of this, or
+any other land. What are their charms, their wit, their talents, their
+learning, their acquired attractions, to that pure blush which even now
+mantles my own sweet Winifred's cheek, to hear her praises, though from
+a husband's lips?"</p>
+
+<p>And Winifred was happy; for she found that in truth her unobtrusive
+affection, her gentle cares, could alone dispel the gloom which hung
+over that beloved husband.</p>
+
+<p>Time, however, changed the nature of his regrets. Lord Nithsdale's
+clear understanding could not fail to perceive that his country was
+quiet, prosperous, and glorious under the rule of its present monarch;
+and the doubt would cross him whether it were the act of a true patriot
+to favour the pretensions of one who must necessarily overturn much of
+what tended to promote that prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>Still, was he not by birth a Jacobite? a Catholic? and therefore bound
+from motives of religion to support a Catholic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> claimant to the throne?
+Moreover, had he not, in his romantic interview with the Pretender,
+pledged himself personally to his service? It was too late to retract!
+If any attempt were renewed in his favour, he could not but join in
+it. Yet the consciousness of being bound in honour to a cause of which
+his reason could not thoroughly approve, oppressed him with a sense of
+care—almost of guilt.</p>
+
+<p>He was a man who wished strictly to act as honour and as duty might
+dictate, and he was not carried away by eager hopefulness, or by
+ambition, or by passion. He saw and balanced so nicely the reasons
+and arguments on both sides, that he was apt to be dissatisfied with
+himself; sometimes to think he was guilty of a dereliction of duty
+towards his lawful sovereign, when his clear judgment forced upon him
+the thriving condition of his country; at others, to feel that he
+was perhaps ready to sacrifice the real good of thousands to his own
+private notions of personal honour.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Nithsdale, with never-failing gentleness, soothed these
+wayward feelings, if wayward they may be called, which were so natural
+to a conscientious man in times such as those we treat of. She would
+chase away his gloom by light and playful converse; she would gather
+around him their friends and neighbours, and lure him to forget his
+careful thoughts in the pleasing duties of hospitality; or she would
+draw his attention to the gambols of their children, the young Lord
+Maxwell and the little Lady Anne, and lead him to join in their sports,
+and thus lose the sense of the conflicting duties which pressed so
+heavily upon his mind. He was always, and at all times, the object
+of her thoughts; and the earl in return hung on her as his stay, his
+support, his consolation.</p>
+
+<p>The bond of their mutual affection thus became more firmly knit than
+if their lives had passed in an uninterrupted flow of happiness. The
+affection which is wearied by sadness, or falls off in sorrow, is one
+which has taken but shallow root in the heart.</p>
+
+<p>It is perhaps to the credit of human nature, that misfortune is not
+the trial under which mutual attachment so frequently gives way as
+under that of unbroken prosperity. When there is any groundwork of
+tenderness, the sight of the object of that tenderness in sorrow, in
+sickness, or in suffering, endears it more and more. The attention is
+fixed; the thoughts are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> occupied: affection is called into action;
+it is not allowed to drop into a slumber, which sometimes ends in
+lethargy. The enduring love of wives to wayward husbands, the exceeding
+fondness of some husbands for capricious wives, may thus be accounted
+for. How natural was it, then, that an anxious and thoughtful temper,
+produced by conscientious scruples, devoted loyalty, romantic honour,
+and disinterested patriotism, should concentrate upon her husband every
+feeling of a soul which, like the Countess of Nithsdale's, was made up
+of duty and of tenderness!</p>
+
+<p>The imprudent boldness with which many Jacobites professed their
+principles and their attachment to the Pretender was to Lord Nithsdale
+a source of much vexation. The Duchess of Gordon sent the faculty of
+advocates a silver medal, representing on one side the Chevalier de
+St. George, and on the reverse the British islands, with the motto
+"Reddite." The duchess was thanked for having presented them with a
+medal of "their sovereign lord the king;" and a confident hope was
+expressed that her grace would soon have an opportunity of offering
+them a second medal, struck upon the "restoration of the king and royal
+family, and the destruction of usurping tyranny and whiggery."</p>
+
+<p>This whole proceeding was afterwards disowned by the faculty, and
+by a solemn act they declared their attachment to the queen and the
+Protestant succession. But such uncalled-for boldness, such weak
+retracting of daring imprudence, in the opinion of Lord Nithsdale,
+augured ill for the cause to which he was bound. Such conduct could in
+no wise forward the hopes of his master, and it only served to keep the
+country in an unquiet and disturbed state.</p>
+
+<p>He disapproved of the measures of his party; and consequently he kept
+himself somewhat retired at Terreagles, associating more with his
+immediate neighbours than courting political connexions. With the
+Earl of Derwentwater alone he kept up a constant and confidential
+intercourse. They together deplored the infatuation of some of their
+friends: in loyalty and patriotism each found in the other a spirit
+congenial to his own.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale's visits to London, or to Edinburgh, were rare; and
+no change occurred to mark the lapse of years, unless we may note
+that which took place in the bearing of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> Amy Evans. She was still,
+as before, high in her lady's favour, who regarded her more in the
+light of a confidential, though humble friend, than merely as a
+waiting-woman. Indeed, Amy in her childhood had been admitted as
+play-fellow and associate to the daughter of an old cavalier who
+resided in the neighbourhood of Poole Castle, and from her youthful
+intercourse with Mrs. Mellicent Hilton, she had acquired a tone of
+feeling somewhat superior to those in her station of life.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale could not but remark that the laughing eyes which once
+sparkled with merriment were now dull and spiritless, and that the
+ruddy cheek had lost its bloom. When she sought the chamber where her
+maidens were employed at their needle, she no longer heard the clear
+voice of Amy, who used to enliven the light labours of her companions
+with the ditties she had learned in her childhood. Her gay laugh no
+longer pealed cheerily on the ear. Lady Nithsdale attributed the change
+which had gradually stolen over the demeanour of her dear Amy Evans to
+her separation from her lover.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sad, dear Amy," she one day remarked to her; "but I think
+I have news that will call up the bloom on those pale cheeks, and I
+shall hear your old Welsh songs carolled with fresh glee. The farm
+of Hetherstone is vacant now, and my lord proposes that David should
+become his tenant;—and then I suppose I must make Jeannie Scott my
+'tirewoman!"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! my gracious mistress, not unless your ladyship is weary of the
+services of poor Amy Evans. I trust that I can still diligently ply my
+needle, and that I can arrange your ladyship's head-gear with as neat a
+hand as Jean Scott at the least."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, you have been a diligent and careful servant to me, Amy, and I
+shall love to see you as careful and diligent a wife; and when I visit
+you in your home, I shall once more see your merry eyes sparkle as they
+used to do."</p>
+
+<p>"No, madam, those days are gone by for me. You shall ever find me a
+true and faithful servant, but I shall never be a wife."</p>
+
+<p>"And what will David do without a housewife to see to his dairy, to
+bake his bread and his bannocks, and to trim his hearth, and keep all
+neat and seemly around him?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p>
+
+<p>"He needs not me for a housewife, madam: he has found one, more to his
+taste, these six months back. He was married, madam, last Lammas-tide;"
+and, though her hands trembled, she still proceeded in the composition
+of the spiced comfits which her lady had come to overlook.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! my poor Amy! And is this true? Can men really be so false?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed can they, madam. And I am not the first girl who has been
+slighted: they all tell me so! But I always held myself high; and it is
+no comfort to hear how, when his wedding morning came, Donald M'Rae was
+nowhere to be found; or how Jockie Smith deserted Kate Armstrong, after
+he had broken a gold piece with her; or how Mary Morrison pined herself
+to death for the loss of Jamie Elliot. But I am not one to pine myself
+to death! David's wife shall never hear that Amy Evans had so mean a
+spirit; no, she shall hear of me cheerful, and contented, madam. And
+why should I not be so, when I have such a good, kind lady, whom I love
+better—ay, better than I once did David himself!" And now the tears
+rained fast from her eyes, which Nature seemed to have intended should
+only express sprightliness and warm affection. "But, I beseech you,
+madam, speak not to Jean Scott or to Annie Bell of my griefs. They have
+never yet seen me weep, and I would not have them know that David's
+falsehood had wrung tears from me. I shall not feel it so much after a
+while, my lady! And when all is said and done, where could I ever be
+so happy as with my kind, my honoured mistress? So you will never say
+anything more, my lady, of making Jean Scott your 'tirewoman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! dear Amy; I should never, never like any one about me so well
+as you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so, my lady; and I told Jean Scott I was sure you would
+never turn me off, though she prides herself so upon her taste, and the
+nimbleness of her fingers, and is always throwing out that the time
+will come when she will have my place!" And Amy was half consoled for
+the loss of David, when she had ascertained that she retained the same
+hold on her mistress's affections. Since the blight which had fallen on
+her first and early love, she valued the favour of her lady above all
+other earthly goods, and watched over it with the jealous tenderness of
+a lover.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p>
+
+<p>Her secluded education, and her own early marriage to so honourable a
+man, had prevented the Countess of Nithsdale's having ever witnessed,
+much more having ever experienced, the caprice and infidelities of the
+other sex. She had heard and read of them, as of matters undoubtedly
+true, but as never likely to come under her own immediate cognizance;
+and she was astonished at Amy's treating a lover's desertion of his
+mistress as an event of common occurrence. She wondered still more that
+pride should, in a low-born country maiden's heart, almost overbalance
+the more instinctive feeling of love. That a noble damsel should resent
+any slight was indispensable to her birth and breeding; and the proud
+blood of the Herberts mantled in her cheeks at the mere imagining such
+a case. But she thought, had she been lowly born, pride could never
+have sustained her under so cruel a blow. She forgot that, in all ranks
+alike, each feels the eyes of his equals upon him,—that the lowest,
+as well as the highest, have their world, before whom to blush is
+degradation.</p>
+
+<p>It was not that the gentle Lady Nithsdale was haughty in her nature;
+the affection which subsisted between herself and Amy sufficiently
+proved the contrary; but as she was imbued with the divine indefeasible
+right of kings, so was she with the innate inherent nobility of an
+ancient family.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VIII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The virtue of her lively looks</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Excels the precious stone,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I wish to have none other books</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To read or look upon.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The modest mirth that she doth use</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Is mixed with shamefacedness.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Attributed to Lord Rockford,</i></span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Anne Boleyn's brother.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Although</span> they differed widely in politics, the Duke of Montrose was one
+of the persons whom Lord Nithsdale looked upon as a true patriot, and a
+young man of great promise. He was the grandson of the great marquis,
+and had been by Queen Anne lately raised to the dignity of Duke of
+Montrose.</p>
+
+<p>The family of the Earl of Nithsdale was, through Douglas, Earl of
+Moreton, nearly connected with that of the duke; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> also, through
+the marriage of Lord Nithsdale's sister, the Lady Mary Maxwell, to the
+Earl of Traquhair, with that of his young duchess, the Lady Christian
+Carnegie, daughter to the Earl of Northesk.</p>
+
+<p>This double connexion had assisted to foster a friendship, which the
+opposite tendency of their political opinions might otherwise have
+prevented from attaining maturity; and consequently, when the young
+Duke of Montrose first brought his fair bride and cousin into Scotland,
+he failed not to present her to a family with which they were mutually
+connected.</p>
+
+<p>The duke was a zealous supporter of the Protestant succession, and was
+at that period high in favour with Queen Anne. His youthful wife had
+shone as one of the most brilliant stars at her court; and gay, lovely,
+and volatile, she had not failed to adopt the style and manners then
+in vogue; she was esteemed the most modish lady about the court; the
+furbelow of her petticoat was no sooner seen than it was copied; her
+commode attracted all eyes, the jaunty air of her hoop was envied by
+all the sex, and she no sooner appeared in one of the small muffs which
+we sometimes see represented in pictures of the time, than all the
+muffs about town were cut in half.</p>
+
+<p>She enjoyed the admiration she excited, as was natural to one who
+was aware, though not vain, of her powers of fascination; and there
+was a grace in her harmless coquetries, and a joyous good-humour, a
+frankness, piercing through the court airs, which had become as it were
+second nature to her, that took captive the hearts of all.</p>
+
+<p>The young duchess would sometimes rally Lady Nithsdale on her
+antiquated notions, her housewife-like avocations, her retired habits;
+she would try to persuade her to follow the fashion of the day, and
+would urge her to taste with her the exciting pleasure of being swiftly
+borne by a spirited steed over hill and vale, dell and dingle: but Lady
+Nithsdale, unaccustomed to such exertions, would shrink from the very
+idea, and trembled when she saw her fair friend mounted on her palfrey,
+and, dressed according to the mode which has excited the indignation
+of cotemporary writers, dash from the hall-door like an arrow from
+the bow; then, turning gaily back, laugh at her timid cousin's fears.
+Her hair, which was suffered to hang at some length on her shoulders,
+was loosely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> tied by a scarlet riband, which played like a streamer
+behind her; her small hat was edged with silver; her dress was of green
+camlet embroidered with the same material; and a cravat of the finest
+lace completed the toilet of the <i>élégante</i> of the year 1711. The
+horse, as though it were proud of so fair a rider, seemed to share in
+her vanity: he was adorned after the same airy manner; and tossed and
+shook his pretty head, as if he despised the silken rein which hung
+loosely upon his neck.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale watched the party of equestrians as long as they
+continued in sight; and Amy, whose blighted hopes enabled her to give
+her undivided affection to her lady, and her undivided thoughts to
+her dress, had not allowed this opportunity to escape of enlarging
+her notions upon the subject of the prevailing mode. Presuming upon
+her favour with her mistress, she had stolen away from Annie Bell and
+Jeannie Scott, and glided to the oriel window of the hall, that she
+might see the great London bride in her new-fangled garb.</p>
+
+<p>"By my troth, madam, but her grace is very fair, and wears a goodly
+dress, and mounts a jennet such as might befit a lady in one of my old
+ballads!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Amy," replied Lady Nithsdale, "the dress is strange, but
+graceful, and well does it suit my gay and sprightly cousin: yet she
+must have a marvellous good courage; I think I never could mount any
+horse, much less a pawing prancing steed such as delights her grace. It
+is strange thus to peril one's life for pleasure!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet, my lady, such a close-fitting jaunty coat as that would
+right well set off your ladyship's slender waist. Trust me, madam,
+but I should like to have the curling of your soft brown hair, and
+the shaking in a thought of powder, (her grace's maid showed me the
+powder-puffs they use now,) and the making it just hang in such
+ringlets as my lady duchess's."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, Amy, such flighty doings are not for me!"</p>
+
+<p>In the evening, when the company were sipping their chocolate, and the
+servants were preparing the ombre-tables, the lively duchess again
+rallied the Lady Nithsdale upon her taste for staying at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we will put you upon your trial," she said, playfully tapping
+her with her fan; "and you, my lord duke, and the Earl of Nithsdale
+himself, and Sir Hector M'Gregor, and Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> M'Kenzie, and my fair cousin
+Crawford of Kilbirny, and young Mistress Rose Scott of Murdiston,
+shall sit in judgment, and pronounce whether I have not passed a more
+profitable morning than our demure hostess there! Now stand forth,
+Countess of Nithsdale, and answer the truth, the whole truth, and
+nothing but the truth!"</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Nithsdale smiled, while the slight colour mounted to her
+cheek, at being called into notice; but she professed her willingness
+to submit to the verdict of so goodly a tribunal.</p>
+
+<p>"After our morning meal," resumed the duchess, "which I grant you was
+somewhat to the credit of the housewife—there was no fault to be found
+with the bannocks, nor with the saffron-cakes, nor the honey, nor the
+marmalade, nor the Finnan haddocks, nor any of the other delicacies for
+which our good land of Scotland is renowned,—after this meal, what
+were my lady countess's avocations!"</p>
+
+<p>"Even such household duties as your grace must needs attend to when
+you reach your own castle of Kincarn. I visited the 'still-room, and
+gave the housekeeper directions for making of some mint-water, and some
+julap, and other simple medicines, which the neighbouring poor are used
+to procure at the castle. And, moreover, this is the season when the
+distilled waters for the year must be made; the elder-flowers and the
+roses are all in bloom."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, stop, my dear countess! This last employment was most vain and
+useless! for who could endure such homely scents? It is impossible
+now to use anything but orange-flower water; so you have indeed
+mis-spent your time most shamefully! Now you, by your own confession,
+did only one thing at a time, while I cultivated my mind and improved
+my beauty at one and the same moment. I studied Locke on the Human
+Understanding, while my woman curled my hair; after which I read two
+chapters on the properties of the loadstone, and—I would fain have
+studied the mathematics, only my wicked lord"—and she shook her fan at
+the duke—"would not give me the lesson he promised." She put on the
+prettiest pout of her ruby lips, while her gay eyes laughed through
+their fringe of eye-lashes, as she looked down her cheeks with a mock
+air of pettish anger; then raising them suddenly on the duke, she
+continued in a reproachful tone, "You know, my lord, you would not wish
+your wife to be quite out of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> fashion; and every lady now talks of
+the mathematics, and speaks but in words with a Latin derivation; and I
+will learn these things too, in spite of you!"</p>
+
+<p>The duke looked upon her with delight and love, while he replied,
+"Learn of our fair hostess how to make a sack-posset, Christian!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless your grace will teach me the mathematics! Now promise, and
+it shall be a bargain, and I will let you kiss my hand upon it."</p>
+
+<p>The duke most gladly availed himself of her permission to imprint on
+the fair hand she extended more than one kiss.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, you are too bold!" she added, withdrawing her hand suddenly,
+and frowning for a moment, while she expressed a pretty anger in the
+eloquent language of the fan, by quickly opening and shutting the
+sticks so as to produce a somewhat sharp noise. "But, my lord duke,
+you interrupt the trial. Silence in the court! The Lady Nithsdale had
+not made an end, when I, to my shame be it spoken, somewhat rudely
+interrupted her. Proceed, fair countess."</p>
+
+<p>"I visited my children for a while, and then I practised to my new
+spinet some of the songs your grace showed me last night; for my lord
+loves sweet sounds so well, that he will sometimes listen to such poor
+music as I can make."</p>
+
+<p>"That is well. But now, fair countess, how did you pass your time while
+I, having duly attended both to my understanding and my person, now
+took heed to my health, by galloping in the clear fresh air, many and
+many a mile, over sweet heath and thymy downs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, after seeing my maidens at their embroidery, I wrote and
+despatched a letter to my dear sister Lucy at Bruges."</p>
+
+<p>"Useless! still vain and useless! If your letter had been addressed to
+some court lady, who might have informed you in return of what colour
+was Mrs. Masham's new hood, and whether the queen had yet adopted the
+fashion of my last commode, and whether her grace of Marlborough had
+yet left off the philomot-coloured petticoat of which we are all so
+weary,—well! But what news can your devout sister send you from her
+dull convent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, your grace is jesting now! Every word that comes from Bruges, and
+tells me of the dear, dear friends of my childhood, is precious to me."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I can well believe it," replied the duchess with a winning frankness;
+"for dearly do I love a letter from old Eupheme Stuart, the sister of
+our minister at Ethy; and I would often rather sit and con over her
+prosy epistle, than dress myself for a court-ball. But you know, Lady
+Nithsdale, that all other considerations must give way before our
+loyalty to our monarch."</p>
+
+<p>"Most true, your grace," answered the Lady Nithsdale, in a tone of
+voice which showed she thought of the "king over the water," while the
+volatile duchess watched her with a laughing and malicious countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dearest countess!" she exclaimed, "do you know you have patched
+yourself in the most factious manner! For Heaven's sake, remove that
+shocking patch on the wrong side of your face! it might lead to much
+mischief. It is an old saying, that extremes meet; and they say that
+some of the discomfited Whigs are even now plotting with the Jacobites.
+This is a season when it behoves every one to be most discreet in such
+tokens of their sentiments, and your imprudent patching might bring
+suspicion on your good lord."</p>
+
+<p>"Does your grace speak of the mole on my right temple?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it indeed a mole? I pray your pardon, dearest cousin. But this is
+very sad! quite a misfortune! Do you not know we all of late express
+our political opinions after this fashion? You may perceive I always
+wear a patch on the left side of my chin, to evince my loyalty."</p>
+
+<p>"If such be the case, my loyalty is born with me, and cannot cease but
+with my life!" replied the Countess of Nithsdale, whose feelings were
+so strong and so devoted she could not jest or banter on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Treason! treason!" exclaimed the duchess: "we shall have to put you on
+your trial for still higher crimes and misdemeanours."</p>
+
+<p>"A prisoner cannot be tried for two offences at once, and your grace
+has not brought the first accusation to an end," interposed the Earl of
+Nithsdale, somewhat anxious to give the conversation another turn.</p>
+
+<p>"To tell the honest truth, my lord, I thought the evidence seemed
+likely to go against myself, and I was not sorry to drop the
+prosecution. We will let judgment go by default! Is that good law,
+my Lord Privy Seal, for you should understand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> these matters?" she
+continued, turning to her husband with an air of mock solemnity.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a mad-cap, Christian!" replied the duke, who, while he half
+attempted to repress her lively sallies, listened to them with pleased
+amusement, and, like the mother of a spoiled child, looked round upon
+the company to see if they also did not applaud her wit and grace.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, though she was somewhat the spoiled child of fortune, no one
+could wish her other than she was. What in another would have been
+frivolous or impertinent, in her was graceful and most fitting. She
+was in the vein for playful malice, and with an air of mock penitence
+replied, "Well, then, my lord, I will be most staid and serious. I will
+not play one single game at ombre to-night, but I will sit by my gentle
+cousin's side, and learn of her to ply my needle as good housewives and
+virtuous matrons should;" and seating herself on a low stool in the
+window, she fell to sorting and choosing shades of silks, till she had
+confused and mixed them all.</p>
+
+<p>"I must look at you, fair cousin," she added suddenly, "to learn how I
+should begin;—but methinks you have not chosen your colours with that
+taste which all admire in whatever else you do. Surely a white rose
+on that pale blue ground lacks contrast: a red rose, or a tulip, or a
+peony, would better please the eye; a white rose is, to my mind, but
+a mean and insipid flower," she added, with a sidelong glance at Lady
+Nithsdale.</p>
+
+<p>"In my eyes it is the fairest flower that blows," replied the countess.
+"This stool is for my mother; and well may the white rose be dear to
+the widow, and the daughter, of the Duke of Powis!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, may it be dear, for it has cost you dear, or rather it might
+have cost you dear, had it not been for our gracious sovereign's
+clemency in restoring to your brother his estates. Now own, sweet
+coz, that never was Old England so great or so glorious as she is
+at present; our navies triumphant, our armies crowned with laurels,
+our commerce flourishing, our colonies prospering, our negotiations
+successful——Anything else, my lord duke? for I often hear a
+recapitulation of our glories, and I ought to know them by heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, dearest cousin, I do not understand such things; but I know full
+well that adverse fortune cannot loose us from our allegiance."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay, constancy to a falling cause is treason, not allegiance; for
+you know</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason?</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That when it prospers, none dare call it treason.'"</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>"Methinks, if any are guilty of treason, it is not those who through
+weal and through woe, through danger and distress, at the risk of their
+fortunes and their persons, preserve their fidelity to the king of
+their ancestors!"</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Nithsdale turned a warning glance upon his wife, whose
+feelings had for a moment outrun her prudence. The blood rushed into
+her face; her eyes filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, dearest cousin, you are moved. Forgive my giddy bantering, and
+trust me, that whether Whig or Tory, Protestant or Catholic, Jacobite
+or not, I love you dearly; and if ever there should arise occasion to
+prove it, you shall not find your cousin Christian Montrose wanting:"
+and she threw her arms around her neck, and embraced Lady Nithsdale
+with a warm-hearted frankness which caused their playful dispute to
+draw still closer the bonds of affection between them.</p>
+
+<p>Although the earl would not have denied his attachment to the exiled
+family, he wished not to be unnecessarily forward in expressing
+his sentiments. He respected the sincere patriotism of the Duke of
+Montrose—he did him the justice to believe that it was from firm
+conviction that he was so strenuous a supporter of the Protestant
+succession; and it was no matter of surprise to him when, two years
+afterwards, the duke retired from the ministry, rather than support the
+Earl of Oxford in measures of which his conscience did not approve.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER IX.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wigton's coming, Nithsdale's coming,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carnwarth's coming, Kenmure's coming,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Derwentwater and Foster's coming,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Withrington and Nairne's coming:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Little wot ye who's coming,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Blythe Cowhill, and a's coming.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Chevalier's Muster-roll.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> queen's health was now declining; and Lord Nithsdale, in common
+with many others of his party, looked forward to the chance of a
+peaceable restoration of the Stuarts.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p>
+
+<p>His impartial judgment acknowledged that, under the rule of Anne,
+England enjoyed a more than common measure of prosperity; and though
+she was not the rightful heir, still it was Stuart blood which ran in
+her veins. He augured, from her silence upon the address of both houses
+of parliament, urging her to press the Duke of Lorraine and her other
+allies to exclude the Pretender from their dominions, and from her open
+disapprobation of the Elector's sitting in the house of peers, as Duke
+of Cambridge, or even taking up his abode in England, that her secret
+inclinations were in favour of her brother.</p>
+
+<p>All these considerations combined to render Lord Nithsdale unwilling
+to disturb the tranquillity of his native land; and it was with
+satisfaction that he found month after month elapse without his being
+called upon to sacrifice either the peace of his country, or the
+principles of loyalty in which he had been brought up.</p>
+
+<p>The moment, however, came at length, in which conflicting duties made
+it difficult for the most conscientious to preserve a fame untarnished,
+or so to conduct themselves as that their motives should not be liable
+to misconstruction. If in times comparatively settled, when loyalty and
+patriotism may and ought to go hand in hand, it is difficult for public
+men to steer clear of suspicion, we should not be too severe on those
+who were exposed to trials, and placed in difficulties, from which all
+are now happily exempt.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Anne died: and it might have afforded a lesson to both the
+claimants to her throne, that she, under whom this country had ranked
+higher in the scale of nations than at any previous period of its
+history—under whom the British arms had been crowned with unexampled
+success—under whom no British subject's blood had been shed for
+treason—that "good Queen Anne," the mild and merciful, sank a victim
+to mental anxiety, a martyr to the harassing dissensions of her
+ministers and of her confidential friends and favourites. But when was
+such a lesson of any avail? The prize was sought by both parties with
+unabated ardour; and Lord Nithsdale's hopes that the title of King
+James the Third might be acknowledged were quickly blasted.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Montrose, true to the Protestant cause, hastened to
+Edinburgh, there to assist in the proclamation of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> Elector; and the
+Jacobites lost no time in communicating with the Pretender.</p>
+
+<p>Both pity and indignation had been roused in the Earl of Nithsdale's
+bosom, when, upon the queen's death, the King of France intimated
+to the Chevalier that it was expected he would immediately quit his
+territories and return to Lorraine; and when, on the other hand, the
+King of England refused an audience to the minister of Lorraine till
+the unfortunate exile was removed from his master's dominions.</p>
+
+<p>That the descendant of a long line of monarchs should thus be hunted
+from country to country—that the lawful sovereign of one of the
+fairest realms of Europe should not have where to lay his head,
+over-came all other considerations; and it was with zealous passion
+that he joined himself with the Earls of Mar, Carnwarth, Kenmure,
+and the other most ardent Jacobites. It was the generous impulse of
+compassion for the injured,—indignation, reckless of the consequences,
+which prompted his conduct, rather than hope of seeing their efforts
+crowned with success.</p>
+
+<p>While others were elated at the unpopularity of the king, whose foreign
+language, manners, and habits were not calculated to please the
+multitude, and who, by the favour shown exclusively to the Whigs, had
+indisposed the Tories, with whom lay the great mass of landed property;
+Lord Nithsdale perceived that the new monarch was determined, spirited,
+and active. While others relied on the secret assistance which Louis
+the Fourteenth, notwithstanding his engagements with England, afforded
+to the Chevalier; Lord Nithsdale was convinced, from the effectual
+measures taken to defeat them, that the Chevalier's designs must be
+by some means communicated to the government: and, in truth, the Earl
+of Stair, the English ambassador at Paris, found means to discover,
+and transmitted to his own court, all the plans and intentions of the
+Pretender while yet in embryo.</p>
+
+<p>Not many months after the king's accession, some tumults and riots
+took place, which tended greatly to raise the spirits of the more
+sanguine; and even to Lord Nithsdale himself seemed to augur well for
+the ultimate result.</p>
+
+<p>Those who celebrated the king's birth-day were insulted; while on the
+following day, which was the anniversary of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> Restoration, the whole
+city was illuminated, and its streets re-echoed with the sounds of
+mirth and rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>The government, aware that the spirit of disaffection was making
+considerable progress, adopted measures of some severity towards the
+Scottish Jacobites; they resolved that all who were in any degree
+liable to suspicion should be summoned to appear at Edinburgh, and
+there required to give bail for their peaceable behaviour.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl and Countess of Nithsdale were one evening on the
+bowling-green of their castle of Terreagles, watching the gambols
+of their children; the little Lord Maxwell, a stout bold boy, was
+exerting all his might to drag one of the garden-seats up the steep
+grass bank. He had turned it upside down; had stuck in it a tall staff,
+with a handkerchief for its streamer; and having christened it "his
+gallant vessel the Royal James," had laden it with all the bowls and
+bowling-pins he could find scattered upon the grass.</p>
+
+<p>The parents for the moment forgot the disputed succession to the
+throne, the claims of James the Third, the dangers which beset their
+country, the perils which awaited themselves—lost in the pride and
+delight of watching the eager spirited boy, whose sun-burned cheek was
+flushed with the exertion, every muscle called into action, every sinew
+strained, as by turns he pushed and dragged, and shoved his unwieldy
+plaything.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a brave boy, is he not, my lord?" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale,
+looking into her husband's face, her eyes teaming with maternal pride;
+"he will not bring disgrace upon the Maxwells! Methinks he may one day
+fight as gallantly for his king and country as his ancestors have done
+before him!"</p>
+
+<p>"God bless him!" ejaculated the earl; and he turned half away, ashamed
+of the emotion which suddenly surprised him.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a servant approached, and delivered to him the summons
+issued by government, requiring his attendance at Edinburgh, there to
+offer bail for his good behaviour, under pain of being denounced a
+rebel.</p>
+
+<p>"Winifred, my love, the decisive moment has arrived," said Lord
+Nithsdale, turning to his lady with a sad, a serious, but a determined
+air. "I am here ordered to Edinburgh—a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> summons I cannot and will not
+obey. I am henceforward a rebel to the existing government. The die is
+cast. Alas! alas! for this poor land! Let the event be what it may,
+ruin and desolation must fall on many. Blood must flow!—the blood of
+our countrymen! Winifred, it is an awful thing to take the first step
+which must inevitably lead to civil war!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay, my lord, if our gracious prince but sets foot upon his
+native land, all loyal hearts will at once acknowledge him. Was not
+his uncle's restoration bloodless? and was not the public mind less
+prepared for such an event than at the present moment? Oh, think more
+hopefully, my dear, dear lord! The 'rose of snow' will be triumphant
+yet!"</p>
+
+<p>The earl shook his head sorrowfully. "I cannot join in the sanguine
+hopes of those who think this matter can be brought to a speedy
+termination. I tremble, Winifred,—nay, do not look at me as though
+you scarcely believed, and yet blamed me," he continued, with a smile,
+in which there was little mirth,—"I tremble for my native land: God
+knows I honestly and sincerely wish for its welfare. During the just
+and mild reign of the late queen, it would have gone hard with me to
+have assisted in any disturbance, for her people were happy; but now,
+when a stranger and a foreigner persecutes my rightful sovereign—when
+he is driven, like a hunted beast, from one land to another—when
+all the persons of note in the country are prosecuted, banished, or
+disgraced—when my honoured friend and cousin, the Duke of Ormond's
+name and armorial bearings are razed from out the list of peers, his
+achievement as Knight of the Garter taken down from St. George's
+Chapel,—no, it is not in mortal man to sit down calmly under this
+tyranny! I should disgrace my name, my ancestors! Let the success be
+what it may, it shall never be said that William Maxwell, Earl of
+Nithsdale, proved false to the cause of his king, through coward fear
+of the event!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale watched his kindling countenance with love and awe: the
+colour flushed into his pale cheek; his eyes, so full of care, gleamed
+from beneath the coal-black eye-brows.</p>
+
+<p>"King James must succeed," she cried; "a few such spirits as my noble
+lord's must carry victory with them. Let the king but set foot in
+Scotland——"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Winifred," he resumed, and an expression of care again stole over
+his countenance; "let the king come in person,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> and come quickly!—but,
+alas! he is in the hands of those who use him for their own purposes.
+I fear—but I scarcely dare own the fear to myself—that he lacks that
+decision, that boldness, that promptitude of action, which in such
+an undertaking are so indispensably requisite! Why is he not here
+even now? Why does not the Earl of Mar receive his commission? Yes,
+Winifred, I tremble. Should we plunge our native land in strife, should
+the 'rose of sna'' be indeed 'steeped deep in ruddie heart's bluid,'
+and should we fail in our object, shall we not have much to answer for?"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the little Lord Maxwell came running to his parents,
+breathless and exulting: "I have towed the Royal James safe to land,
+father; there she is in port!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, take this for a good omen, my lord!" said Lady Nithsdale, kissing
+the boy. Lord Nithsdale shook his head; but bending over the boy, he
+kissed him likewise.</p>
+
+<p>"Winifred, do you not think your sister Lucy, the abbess, would let
+them be pensioners in your old convent? I should engage in this
+business with better heart, if I knew that my boy and poor little
+Annie were safe in any other land. I would urge your accompanying
+them,"—Lady Nithsdale started,—"but I know that it would be in vain."</p>
+
+<p>"Vain indeed!" replied Lady Nithsdale. "In all things else I have been,
+and I will be, a submissive wife; but do not ask me to leave you, my
+lord,—I scarcely think I could obey."</p>
+
+<p>"But the children?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gain but a little time, and we will despatch them to Bruges."</p>
+
+<p>"I will excuse myself from attending the summons to Edinburgh, will beg
+the commissioners to take my bail here, at my own castle. This they
+will refuse; but some days will thus be gained, and we will hope—" he
+added with a sigh—"and we will hope his majesty will either arrive in
+person, or we may be authorised from himself to set up his standard
+openly."</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of this resolution, the Earl of Nithsdale returned an
+evasive answer, in which, under the plea of ill-health, (and indeed the
+mental anxiety which he had of late undergone had somewhat affected his
+health), he applied to those entrusted with the government in Scotland
+for indulgence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> to have his bail received at Terreagles; and, in the
+mean time, the children were despatched, under the care of trusty
+and confidential attendants, to Bruges, and there placed under the
+protection of their aunt, the Lady Lucy.</p>
+
+<p>It may well be imagined that such a separation could not take place
+without a bitter pang to both parents. With Lady Nithsdale it was the
+instinctive tenderness of the mother which suffered at parting from the
+objects of her love; but she looked forward with hope and reliance that
+the long-desired moment had arrived, that they were at last on the eve
+of seeing realised the expectation, which in her mind amounted to a
+kind of religious trust. With her husband the feeling was different.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale wept as she bade her children adieu. Lord Nithsdale's
+eyes were dry. The last sound of their voices, the last embrace, melted
+away the heart of the mother. The father, silent and almost stern,
+scarcely heard their parting words; but as he watched the carriage
+which bore them from their paternal halls, pass under the archway and
+emerge into the brighter light beyond, he felt that the heir of the
+house of Maxwell had for ever quitted the tower of his ancestors; and
+that he, by his own act and deed, was about to deprive his child of
+his home, his heritage, his titles, and his country. Bitter were the
+thoughts which struggled in his soul. He turned abruptly from the
+portal, and strode with a hasty but firm step into the withdrawing-room
+beyond the hall.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale followed with streaming eyes; and winding her arm within
+her lord's, she spoke of the winning words of their boy, of the pretty
+grief of the Lady Anne. For the first time Lord Nithsdale forgot to
+soothe her sorrows, forgot to press the arm that clung to him for
+support; but throwing himself into a chair, he hid his face with both
+his hands, and remained for some seconds absorbed by emotions far more
+painful in their intensity than the tender regret which drew tears from
+the mother's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Those tears were, however, soon dried, for in the fearful grief of her
+husband she found cause for alarm, which changed the current of her
+thoughts. "My lord, my dear lord!" she said, "be not thus moved, the
+children will do well. See! I have dried my woman's tears. They will
+be well cared for by my good sister; and we shall see them soon again
+bounding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> through the hall, we shall hear their gay voices prattling on
+the stairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Never, Winifred, never!" he replied, withdrawing his hands, and
+looking at her with a sad and fixed countenance; "never! I have
+banished my children; I have deprived my son of his lawful patrimony;
+I have now driven him forth to beggary, exile, and dependence. No Earl
+of Nithsdale will ever inhabit these halls again: I know it, I feel
+it! The lands I inherited from my forefathers must pass to others.
+Our castles will be desolate, our name extinct! But this is weakness
+all. I knew I hazarded all earthly goods when I devoted myself to the
+interests of my king. Alas! If I could but feel assured that I was
+truly devoting myself to the interests of my king, <i>and</i> also of
+my country, I would not pause to think of my fair castle, my goodly
+lands!" And his eye glanced quickly round the noble apartment, and
+dwelt for a moment on the smiling prospect from the windows, where the
+Nith danced along the valley through banks diversified with fields
+of waving corn, and luxuriant copses, whose deep green contrasted
+beautifully with the yellow harvest.</p>
+
+<p>During this momentary silence the distant sound of the bagpipe came
+fitfully on the ear, as its wild music cheered the reapers to their
+toil. "Though," he added, "the descendant of a long line of ancestors
+loves the halls where those ancestors have dwelt,—though the man
+loves the spot where he has wandered a child,—though," he continued,
+"a patriot loves the soil which gave him birth; yet," and his voice
+strengthened, his eye flashed upwards,—"gladly, willingly, gallantly,
+would I resign them all, were I certain that I indeed strove to secure
+my country's good, when I seek the restoration of my king."</p>
+
+<p>Neither the countess nor her lord had ever contemplated the possibility
+of their deserting the Jacobite party; but they viewed the probable
+result of the enterprise, in which both deemed it equally indispensable
+to join, with very different eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Even the success of his schemes did not to him hold out a prospect of
+certain good. Though a strict Catholic, he was no bigot; and he could
+not blind himself to the inexpediency of giving a Catholic king to a
+Protestant people.</p>
+
+<p>To Lady Nithsdale, on the contrary, the peaceful restoration of the
+Stuarts appeared to be the universal panacea; and she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> devoutly
+believed that if that object could be accomplished without effusion of
+blood, all orders of British subjects must be good and happy. Little
+used, however, to join in political discussions, little accustomed
+indeed to hear them, she did not venture to urge any arguments of her
+own; yet she could not remain silent when she saw her lord thus moved,
+and timidly suggested—</p>
+
+<p>"You are a true patriot, my lord; and that you yourself could not be
+content under the rule of a stranger and a heretic, is surely proof
+enough that neither could others, who have noble souls, be happy under
+his dominion. Does England boast any man whose name is fairer, whose
+character is more unblemished, than the kind, good, generous Earl of
+Derwentwater? he whose purse is open to the poor, whose hand is ever
+ready to assist the unfortunate? Must not he seek his country's good?
+Is not the Viscount Kenmure's name a noble and an honourable one? would
+he sacrifice his country? But why should I seek other names than my own
+dear lord's? The Earl of Nithsdale's is in itself a justification, and
+a sanction, of any cause he espouses!" she continued with warmth. Lord
+Nithsdale shook his head. "Our noble friend, the Duke of Ormond too! he
+has joined his majesty at Havre."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Winifred! now you have touched the chord to which my soul
+vibrates. Such flagrant injustice must rouse the spirit in all
+honest hearts! Ormond's name must be restored! Ormond's banner must
+be replaced! Yes, we are driven to the course we are pursuing: we
+must proceed. Let us think no more; but blindly follow where honour,
+loyalty, friendship, consistency lead us, without anticipating
+what may be the event! To-morrow we shall receive the answer from
+Edinburgh—to-morrow I am a denounced rebel; I must join the other
+lords who are already seeking the Earl of Mar. But oh! Winifred!
+would any other general were appointed to the undertaking! That man
+has not the head, the heart, nor the character fitting for such a
+situation. He has zeal, but that is all. The honour—the undoubted, the
+unquestionable honour is wanting. Was he not one of the first to make
+protestations of loyalty to the Elector? and now——But there is no use
+in retrospection; we must on—on—on! To-morrow, my love, I leave you:
+how, when, where to meet, is in the hands of Providence."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale's eyes were cast to Heaven, and her hands involuntarily
+clasped themselves in prayer. "And now, dearest wife," he continued,
+"we must to business. You are safe here at present. I shall take
+but four men with me. The inmates of the castle, and the dependants
+immediately around, are more than sufficient to defend you from any
+ministers of the law who might seek to make you answerable for the
+actions of your husband. But, before I go, I must commit to your care
+the title-deeds to the estates, and the other papers, which may secure
+to us and to our children some property in case of the worst."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale then entered into all necessary details concerning his
+wishes and intentions, with a firm, methodical coolness, which proved
+how little he expected ever to return to the happy home of his youth
+and manhood.</p>
+
+ 
+<p class="center">CHAPTER X.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let us think how our ancestors rose.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Let us think how our ancestors fell;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The rights they defended, and those</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They bought with their blood, we'll ne'er sell.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Let the love of our king's sacred cause</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">To the love of our country succeed,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Let friendship and honour unite,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And flourish on both sides the Tweed.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Jacobite Relics.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> messenger returned from Edinburgh, and brought with him such a
+reply as the Earl of Nithsdale had anticipated. Towards evening,
+therefore, he made ready for his departure.</p>
+
+<p>The Lords Athol, Huntley, Traquhair, Seaforth, and others, were already
+gathered round the Earl of Mar, under pretence of joining in a hunting
+expedition; but, after his refusal to attend the commissioners at
+Edinburgh, Lord Nithsdale's making one of the famous "Hunt of Braemar"
+would have betrayed the nature of the meeting. He therefore resolved to
+seek the Earl of Derwentwater at his castle in Northumberland.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Derwentwater was perhaps of all the Jacobite lords the one
+with whom his feelings and sentiments were most in unison: even his
+enemies have never ventured to cast any imputation on the motives and
+the character of a nobleman of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> such known integrity: with him Lord
+Nithsdale felt he could ever conscientiously act in unison.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale assisted her lord in all his arrangements, listened to
+all his instructions: it was indeed fitting she should do so. The time
+was past when the wife needed only to be the gentle housewife, the
+graceful hostess, the dignified countess. Her husband knew well the
+enduring courage, the calm resolution, which were latent in the soul
+of his wife; and in her he reposed entire confidence, on her he placed
+implicit reliance. But she herself was not aware of the qualities which
+slumbered within her; qualities which, had her life been passed in the
+common routine of polished existence, would never have been awakened
+and called into action. She trembled as she heard her lord give the
+directions which he deemed necessary for the security of the castle;
+and she shrank instinctively when she saw him gird on his sword, and
+prepare the pistols which he carried in his holster.</p>
+
+<p>Such precautions, although not unusual in these times, struck her as
+the real actual commencement of war,—of civil war; and an icy chill
+ran through her veins when she heard the balls rattle down the iron
+barrels of the pistols.</p>
+
+<p>The shades of evening had now gathered around: the four domestics who
+were to attend their lord were ready mounted in the court-yard; his own
+stout horse was there, bridled and saddled. Lord Nithsdale, with a firm
+and stately step, traversed the dimly lighted apartments. The time for
+doubt or hesitation was past. There was sadness, but no wavering in his
+eye. His wife was on his arm, but she pressed it lightly; she dared not
+cling to him as her heart would have prompted her to do, neither durst
+he unman himself by giving way to the tenderness he felt.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the door, he paused for a moment; and turning back,
+he looked slowly round the hall, where hung the portraits of his
+forefathers, the battle-axe of Eugene Maxwell, the helmet of Lord
+Eustace, the banner of good Earl Robert.</p>
+
+<p>His eye rested for a moment on the family motto, "Reviresco." "Not
+here, my love, not in these ancient halls, will the Earls of Nithsdale
+flourish again!" and gently pressing both the cold trembling hands of
+his wife between his own, he descended the steps, and, mounting his
+horse, he rode resolutely from out the castle gate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was a glorious summer night. Lord Nithsdale felt, painfully felt to
+his heart's core, the beauty of the scene, as he traversed the valley
+from which he took his title, and the lands endeared to him by early
+recollections, as well as by that consciousness of possession, which
+assuredly has for the mind of man a charm almost magic in its influence.</p>
+
+<p>The moonbeams slept calmly on the towers of Terreagles,—of his home!
+and they sparkled on the waters of the Nith as it bounded through the
+smiling vale with its green sheep-walks and its wild copses.</p>
+
+<p>Avoiding the town of Dumfries, he followed the banks of the stream,
+till he found himself under the very walls of his own far-famed Castle
+of Caerlaverock. It was with a pardonable feeling of pride that the
+fifth Earl of Nithsdale surveyed, for the last time, the noble edifice
+which had been the seat of his ancestors for nearly seven hundred
+years, and which they had rendered famous by many an act of prowess.</p>
+
+<p>The two circular towers which flanked the northern entrance stood out,
+bold and dark, against the deep blue of the moonlight sky; the rippling
+waves were tipped with silver as they broke against the walls of the
+castle, which, built in a triangular form on the point of land where
+the Nith throws itself into the Irish Sea, rose on two sides abruptly
+from the waters.</p>
+
+<p>But though he might cast towards the ruined walls a glance of regret,
+and might bid them in his heart a long and sad adieu, he reminded
+himself that the Lord Eustace had in his zeal for King Robert Bruce
+demolished the ancient fortifications of this same castle, lest the
+English might garrison it themselves; and he thought of Robert, the
+eighth Lord Maxwell, and first Earl of Nithsdale, who had so gallantly
+defended it for his unfortunate master Charles the First: and in the
+glorious recollections of former deeds of loyalty, and in resolutions
+to emulate such deeds, he attempted to drown the sad anticipations
+which crowded on his soul.</p>
+
+<p>But he was alone! No eye was upon him! No enthusiastic Jacobite was
+by his side, before whom he might blush to own a thought which had
+reference to self. Each step, as he advanced, was full of the memorials
+of his ancestors. He passed the Tower of Repentance,—a monument of
+the ostentatious remorse of John Lord Herries. In the distance he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> saw
+the Castle of Hadham, which came into his family by the marriage of
+Sir John Maxwell to Agnes, heiress of the Lord Herries of Terreagles.
+"And the time will come," he thought, "when the Maxwells will be
+forgotten in a country where they have been known and where they have
+been honoured, where they have been feared and where they have been
+loved, for so many centuries! But if remembered, their name shall never
+be coupled with dishonour, with treachery, or with disloyalty:" and
+he spurred his gallant horse, hastening from scenes which, while they
+confirmed him in his devotion to the cause he had espoused, made him
+feel the extent of the sacrifice he was making.</p>
+
+<p>Intelligence little calculated to raise the spirits of the Jacobites
+awaited him upon his arrival at Dilstone Castle, the seat of the Earl
+of Derwentwater. He there found the earl and all his adherents in the
+utmost consternation at the death of Louis the Fourteenth, and the
+refusal of the Regent to assist the Chevalier with arms, men, or money,
+or to do anything which might be considered an infraction of the treaty
+of Utrecht.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Mar, although not yet provided with a legal commission as
+general, had set up the standard of King James, and had gathered around
+it at Braemar three hundred of his own followers. They had all advanced
+too far to retreat; but the most sanguine were dismayed and dispirited
+at the unfavourable aspect of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale alone did not appear affected by the intelligence.
+Most of the other insurgent nobles were actuated by motives either of
+ambition, or of revenge, by discontent with their present condition,
+and by the hope, in the changes consequent upon war, to improve the
+estates which they found inadequate to the support of their rank
+and station. But in Lord Nithsdale's mind no personal consideration
+mixed itself with his conscientious belief that honour demanded his
+adherence to the Stuart race, whether it might be for weal or for woe.
+His hopes were not blasted, for he had never entertained any; and on
+the present occasion it was he who sustained the resolution of those
+around, and reminded them that the change in the policy of France did
+not loosen the bonds of allegiance to their sovereign; that in union
+and in perseverance consisted their only chance of success; that to
+themselves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> alone they must look. "If," said he "the feeling of the
+people is really in favour of their lawful monarch, when once the
+standard is raised, when once the Earl of Mar can show his sovereign's
+commission, they will declare themselves: if, on the contrary, the
+mass of the people is satisfied with the present order of things; if
+Englishmen are indifferent whether a Stuart or a Guelph wear the crown
+of England, provided they may enjoy the comforts of life in security;
+if loyalty no longer survives in the hearts of those who are occupied
+only with selfish considerations, French gold, French arms, will never
+impose upon the British nation the sovereign that nation rejects. In
+that case we are traitors, and we must abide the consequences!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not long, however, before the success which at first attended
+the Earl of Mar's strenuous exertions, elevated the drooping spirits
+of the English Jacobites to as high a pitch of exultation as they had
+before sunk low in despondency.</p>
+
+<p>He had actually raised an army of ten thousand men; he had at length
+received, and read aloud at the head of each regiment, his commission
+as general-in-chief of the Scottish forces; and he had despatched to
+the Chevalier a numerously-signed address, urging the necessity of his
+immediate arrival in Scotland. Mr. Forster and Lord Derwentwater, with
+Lord Nithsdale, had proclaimed King James at Warkworth, Morpeth, and
+Alnwick. They advanced into Scotland as far as Kelso, where they were
+joined by Viscount Kenmure with two hundred horse, and the Earls of
+Carnwarth and Wintoun, who had already set up the Chevalier's standard
+at Moffat.</p>
+
+<p>But these temporary successes could not blind Lord Nithsdale to the
+elements of discord which were found in the very union which gave the
+assembled forces a somewhat imposing aspect; and which, had they with
+one accord proceeded towards Dumfries, made themselves masters of that
+town, thus forcing a communication with the main army under the Earl
+of Mar, might have enabled them to furnish themselves with arms and
+ammunition at Glasgow, and finally to dislodge Argyle from Stirling.</p>
+
+<p>But he saw and deplored, on one side, the obstinate infatuation of the
+English Jacobites, who seemed confident that an immediate and universal
+rising in the northern counties<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> would be the consequence of their
+marching into England; and, on the other, the resolute wilfulness of
+the undisciplined Highlanders, who declared that they would not cross
+the border.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Dumfries continued in the hands of government. The Countess
+of Nithsdale therefore kept herself in strict retirement, nor could
+she often receive direct communication from her husband. A thousand
+vague and unauthenticated rumours daily, nay, hourly, reached her;
+rumours, which, coming through the medium of the royalists, brought
+even exaggerated accounts of the disunion and the want of discipline
+which prevailed among the insurgent forces. Her heart sank within her
+when, through Amy, she heard how the Whigs had exulted at the confusion
+produced among the Jacobites by an incident in itself trifling.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Wogan having mistaken some of their own troops for an advancing
+party of General Carpenter's, inadvertently discharged a pistol, the
+preconcerted signal to warn those behind of an approaching enemy; and,
+until the mistake was discovered, there ensued considerable tumult
+and disorder among the soldiers in the rear. On another occasion,
+the cavalry of the insurgents, which had just entered Jedburgh,
+were hastily marched out again to assist the foot in repelling—a
+party of their own friends who had joined them by another route!
+These, and other occurrences of a similar nature, were subjects of
+mockery and exultation to the Whigs in Dumfries, and failed not to be
+good-naturedly transmitted to the inhabitants of Terreagles. Nor did
+the letters which she occasionally received from her husband tend to
+cheer her. Although, partly from prudential motives, partly to spare
+her the feeling of blank and hopeless self-immolation which pervaded
+his own soul, he refrained from expressing his full conviction of the
+inadequacy of their means, the mismanagement of those means which they
+did possess, the futility of all their endeavours, still she could
+plainly perceive that his fears, rather than his hopes, had gathered
+strength since last they parted.</p>
+
+<p>She was one day seated in the tapestried withdrawing-room, from whose
+large and deep-set windows the Earl had taken his last sad look over
+his vast possessions; her eye was also mechanically following the mazes
+of the Nith as it wound through<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> the valley below; when Amy Evans
+hastily entered, with a joyful countenance, and a thick packet for her
+lady.</p>
+
+<p>"News from my lord!" she exclaimed, all breathless; "and Walter Elliot,
+who is even now from the army, says they are coming to lay siege to
+Dumfries immediately, my lady; and we shall have my lord at home again
+in his own castle. And oh! how glad I shall be to see my lord's own
+noble bearing as he mounts the entrance-steps, and to hear his firm
+tread as he paces his own hall, and to see my own dear lady smile once
+more!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale meanwhile had with trembling hands and a flushed cheek
+opened the packet which Amy hoped would have proved so welcome; but the
+words of gratulation died away on her lips while watching the fallen
+countenance, the blanched cheek of her mistress, as she perused the
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! my good Amy, you are a flattering, but most false, prophet.
+The English counsels have prevailed; they are even now withdrawing
+the troops towards the borders, and have sent to recall the horse
+which had advanced as far as Ecclefechan. I never knew my lord write
+so despondingly. How strange it is, Amy, that when he is there to
+tell them what had best be done, to point out to them the advantages
+of occupying all the west of Scotland, of gaining easy possession of
+Dumfries, of Glasgow, and of Stirling, they should persist in their
+infatuation. Oh! if the king were but in Scotland, he would surely know
+who were his true friends! Then my lord's counsels would be attended
+to, as it is fitting they should be."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, my lady! And are they not coming to Dumfries after all? Why,
+Walter Elliot said it was the talk of all the army; and that the
+Highlanders said they would fight the enemy to the last in their own
+country, but that they never would be marched across the borders, to
+be kidnapped and made slaves of, as their forefathers had been in
+Cromwell's time! And can it be, my lady, that they will really turn
+back, when my lord says it is more advisable that they should advance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! it is only too true! My dear lord also says that all will be
+leaders, and that none will be led. But he adds at the same time,
+that, whether they follow his counsels or not, he will never desert
+the true cause from any personal pique.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> Oh! my own true noble lord!"
+she exclaimed, looking up with tearful yet beaming eyes; "there spoke
+your own high soul! The king in all his army has not another spirit,
+disinterested, uncompromising as yours!" Then resuming her letter, she
+continued, "My lord says that, notwithstanding all the Earl of Mar's
+confident hopes and assertions, he cannot find that the Duke of Ormond
+has landed yet. 'Tis strange! it seems as if all aid from foreign
+shores were spell-bound. He loves his cousin of Ormond! methinks if
+he were with them, my lord would have more heart and hope in what he
+undertakes!" Then, as she proceeded in the perusal of the letter:
+"Nay, did I say that there was not another noble spirit in all the
+king's army? Shame on my lips for uttering such treason! for here my
+lord writes that he and the Earl of Derwentwater think and feel alike
+on all things; and that were it not for his friendship, his support,
+he should indeed find himself alone. May Heaven bless the good Earl
+of Derwentwater, if it is only that my lord finds comfort in him! and
+moreover, I know full well that he is as brave and as kind a gentleman
+as ever trod this earth."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is to become of us, madam, if my lord and all the army are
+gone into England?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must e'en wait, as we have done, my good Amy; and abide the result,
+as we have done."</p>
+
+<p>"And must I still see you pine, and pine, and grow thinner and thinner?
+Alas! alas! these are weary times! I almost think it would be best to
+let King George alone upon his throne, and see if we cannot be as happy
+under him as we were under Queen Anne."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy! you would not be a turncoat, would you? You, Rachael Evans's
+daughter!" answered Lady Nithsdale, in a tone of half-playful,
+half-serious reproof.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, my lady, I would fain be loyal, for you, and my master are so,
+and my poor mother was loyal also to the last; but I can never love any
+king, whether a Stuart or no, as I love my own dear lady, who has been
+to me as mother, sister, friend, and mistress!" and the warm-hearted
+Amy kissed the countess's hand with devoted affection.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good girl, dear Amy; and I do not know how I should bear
+my present anxiety, and the sorrows that may await me, did I not feel
+assured I should ever have one true<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> friend to lean upon in every
+exigency. Let what will come to us, Amy, I think I may count on your
+affection as long as I live."</p>
+
+<p>"While there is breath in this body, while the pulses beat in this
+heart, my lady, Amy Evans shall be true to you and yours, through woe
+and through weal, for life and for death!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale wept soft tears of gratitude; they rolled down her
+cheeks, they dropped on Amy's hands as she pressed them in her own, and
+the true-hearted girl wished not for farther assurances of her lady's
+affection.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There's some say that we wan,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some say that they wan,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some say that none wan</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">At a', man!</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But one thing I'm sure,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That at Sherriff Muir,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A battle there was</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Which I saw, man.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we ran, and they ran,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And they ran, and we ran,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we ran, and they ran,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Awa' man.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Battle of Sherriff Muir.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Duke of Argyle had not yet been reinforced by the Irish or the
+Dutch troops. This would indeed have been the moment for the insurgents
+to have made themselves masters of all the west of Scotland; but, as
+Lord Nithsdale informed his wife, the English counsels prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Letters were confidently asserted to have been received from
+Lancashire, declaring that twenty thousand men would immediately join
+the army upon its appearance in the county; and the various advantages
+attending a speedy march into England were urged with such vehemence,
+that the troops most in advance were suddenly recalled, and appointed
+to meet the main body at Langtown in Cumberland.</p>
+
+<p>But the Highlanders, under the influence of the young Earl of Wintoun,
+who was intimately convinced of the difficulties into which they were
+heedlessly plunging themselves,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> and the favourable occasion which they
+were now throwing away, halted a second time. Many then deserted, and
+chose rather to surrender themselves prisoners, than to go forward to
+what they looked upon as certain destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Wintoun himself, finding that all his efforts to alter the
+destination of the army were fruitless, returned to the main body,
+but from that time he was never called to assist in a council of
+war; indeed, a reckless levity was henceforward visible in his whole
+demeanour, and he seized upon every opportunity of idle amusement which
+chance threw in his way, in a manner scarce befitting one engaged in an
+important and perilous enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Not so Lord Nithsdale; for having little hope that the most prudent
+course could have brought the undertaking to a successful termination,
+he felt less keen disappointment at the rejection of any of his
+counsels. In sad, but conscientious devotedness, without anger, or
+personal mortification, he patiently strove to smooth ruffled feelings,
+to accommodate jarring interests. It was principally through his
+influence that the ardent and intemperate young Earl of Wintoun had
+been induced to rejoin his companions in arms; and it was he who
+prevailed on some of the Highland troops to accompany them, upon the
+condition of receiving sixpence per day from the time they crossed the
+border.</p>
+
+<p>The task of tracing the progress of the insurgents through Carlisle,
+Penrith, Appleby, Lancaster, &amp;c. is relinquished to those who are
+more capable of describing the military movements and the political
+intrigues of such stirring times. It is enough for us that the next
+advices which the Countess of Nithsdale received from her husband were
+somewhat less gloomy in their tenour. Although the expected risings
+in England had not proved so numerous, or so general as the Scottish
+leaders had been taught to expect, still they had met with no serious
+opposition. They had proclaimed King James at Lancaster; they had
+levied the public revenue in his name, and they were rapidly advancing
+towards Preston.</p>
+
+<p>Mar, meanwhile, had established his head quarters at Perth, and he made
+some attempts to fortify that city, as a place of defence in which the
+Chevalier might be received upon his expected landing.</p>
+
+<p>The decisive morning of the 13th of November approached,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> the day on
+which the battle of Sherriff Muir was fought in Scotland, and that on
+which the Jacobites surrendered at Preston in Lancashire.</p>
+
+<p>In the battle of Sherriff Muir the Earl of Mar displayed that energy,
+and that decision, which are requisite qualifications for the head of
+an insurrection. His eloquent and animated address to the chieftains
+in the council awakened a corresponding ardour in the bosoms of all,
+except, perhaps, of Huntley and Sinclair; and when he wound up his
+appeal by briefly stating the question in the words, "Fight, or not?"
+the whole assembly answered at once with an universal shout of "Fight!"</p>
+
+<p>This resolution, reaching the lines as they were drawn up in order
+of battle, was welcomed by loud and continued huzzas, and a general
+tossing up of hats and bonnets.</p>
+
+<p>Such demonstrations of eagerness for the onset promised well for the
+result, and for a time the insurgents bore down all before them. But,
+though the left wing of the Duke of Argyle's army was routed, his right
+wing, in its turn, put to flight the left wing of the Earl of Mar's;
+and to the English remained the solid fruits of victory, inasmuch
+as they retained the position by which they defended the Lowlands.
+Both generals, however, claimed the advantage; and to a party which
+had struggled with so many adverse circumstances, the fact of having
+withstood the royal forces in a pitched battle, gave some confidence
+for the future.</p>
+
+<p>To Lady Nithsdale's hopeful heart the battle of Sherriff Muir appeared
+a glorious victory, which was to change the aspect of affairs. With the
+buoyancy of youth and loyalty, she exulted in the idea that her husband
+and the Scottish army were marching triumphantly through England,
+while the English army was sustaining a defeat in Scotland. She dwelt
+with pride and delight on the individual acts of prowess which came
+to her knowledge; and Amy hastened to her lady with every fresh piece
+of intelligence she could collect from chance-comers to the castle
+gates, thus endeavouring to beguile the tedious hours of sickening
+expectation, and hope deferred, in which her mistress wore away her
+days.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear, my lady, how the M'Leans with one accord joined their
+old chief the moment he set foot among them? for all the isle of Mull
+belongs now to the Duke of Argyle himself."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Amy! And so the tie of clanship was stronger than interest,
+or than duty to their new landlord. And, moreover, Sir John M'Lean has
+been living for many years in France, and on an allowance too granted
+him by Queen Anne."</p>
+
+<p>"However that may be, he soon raised a regiment of eight hundred men,
+and when they were prepared for battle, all the speech he made them
+was, "Gentlemen, yonder stands Mac Cullummore for King George, and here
+stands M'Lean for King James. God bless M'Lean and King James!—Charge,
+gentlemen!" and on they rushed like wild creatures. It was in that very
+charge the gallant young Clanronald was killed by the heavy fire of the
+regulars. But Glengarry would not give them time to be disheartened,
+but cried out, 'Revenge! revenge!—to-day for revenge, and to-morrow
+for mourning!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes! there is some of the true spirit left!" exclaimed Lady
+Nithsdale, exultingly: then, with a changed voice, she added, "But,
+alas! for young Clanronald: he was a brave youth, and, I have heard my
+lord say, a complete soldier; he had been trained in the French guards.
+When he received the Earl of Mar's summons, he replied, 'That his
+family had ever been the first on the field and the last to leave it!'
+and he has proved but too well that he was a worthy scion of that noble
+house!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my lady; and they say that as he fell out of the ranks, after he
+had got his death wound, the Earl of Mar met him, and asked him why he
+was not in front. 'I have had my share,' said the poor young man, and
+dropped dead at the earl's feet. Oh, my lady! a battle is a shocking
+thing! and though one is so glad to hear of a victory, and one thinks
+nothing of hundreds of the enemy being killed, yet when one pictures to
+one's self one fair and gallant youth lying pale and stiff, and cold
+and bloody, on the bare ground, oh! one's heart sickens within one, and
+one wonders how one could ever wish the king should come back among us
+to cause bloodshed and slaughter!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale answered not. The words "pale, and stiff, and cold,
+and bloody, on the bare ground," had conjured up an image to her mind
+which seemed to curdle the very life-blood in her veins. She clasped
+her hands closely, and pressing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> them tightly on her knee, she sat
+with fixed eyes and lips compressed, striving to exclude from her mind
+thoughts which would rush into it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, say no more, dear Amy; I cannot, must not think. Each day, each
+hour, may bring us news of a battle in England. How do we know what
+may be the result? Alas! if it were not for the blood which runs in my
+veins,—if I were not a Herbert,—if I were not married to a Maxwell, I
+too might wish that——But no, I will not utter what would be, in me,
+a dereliction of duty,—treason to the cause my lord upholds. I will
+remember that my lord has done that which he deemed it his duty to do;
+and for the event, we must leave it to Providence. We must submit, and
+only pray for strength to perform the part that may be allotted us,
+whatever that part may be. It is but two days since I received such a
+letter from my dear sister the abbess as should teach me to trust and
+to submit. Oh! if I could but look as she does, on all earthly and
+temporal concerns! but, alas! how can one wean one's self so entirely
+from this world, when it contains one's soul's treasures? Lucy has
+no husband! Lucy has no children! Alas! these ties hold me down so
+tight to earth, that not all her holy counsel, not all Father Albert's
+ghostly advice, are enough to detach my heart from it: I cannot fix my
+thoughts, as they bid me, on Heaven, and Heaven alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, my lady, nor is it fitting you should. It is for priests and nuns
+to be so much better than other people: it would never do for those who
+have to wrestle with the world as it is, not to have their thoughts
+somewhat in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but Amy, the more our affections are set upon things which are
+not of this world, the more thoroughly we shall be enabled to do our
+duty here."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure my lady, there is no need for anybody to do their duty
+better than you do; and whichever way your heart is set, it must be the
+right way;" replied Amy, whose devoted attachment was such that she did
+not like to hear it implied, even from her lady's own lips, that she
+was capable of improvement.</p>
+
+<p>"I must not value myself according to your estimate, Amy," replied
+Lady Nithsdale, smiling, "or I shall be sadly lacking in that first of
+Christian virtues—humility."</p>
+
+<p>It was not many days after the battle, or, as the Jacobites<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> termed it,
+the victory, of Sherriff Muir, that vague rumours reached Terreagles of
+disaster and defeat at Preston.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale was struck with the pale countenance of Amy when she had
+summoned her, ostensibly to assist in arranging some household matters,
+but more, in fact, that she might hear a friendly voice, and look on an
+affectionate countenance. She was still more struck with the haste in
+which Amy wished to depart, instead of gladly lingering, pleased and
+honoured at being admitted to share the counsels and the feelings of
+her mistress.</p>
+
+<p>"Think you not, Amy, that these damask hangings will make my lord's
+apartment look exceedingly handsome? and to my mind the old pictures
+which adorn his study will show well upon the deep crimson. He will be
+pleased, when Heaven vouchsafes him a safe return, to find we have been
+mindful of his comfort. I would gladly turn these hangings to so good
+account. What think you, Amy?" and Lady Nithsdale gazed inquiringly in
+her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madam, in sooth they are as good as new," replied Amy with a
+hurried voice; and her eye avoided that of her lady: her fingers
+trembled as she smoothed the fringe, and she kept her head bent low, as
+though examining the texture of the damask.</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, you have heard ill news that you fear to communicate," said Lady
+Nithsdale, laying her hand firmly on Amy's trembling arm, and looking
+at her fixedly. "Speak! I charge you, speak! I can bear anything
+but suspense. Let me know the worst!" and she grasped her almost
+convulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my lady, do not look thus at me: truly you fright me. In very
+truth I know nothing, nothing for certain."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, Amy, this is not like yourself; you are trifling with me!"</p>
+
+<p>"We must not heed every silly report that comes from so far off, my
+lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is of the army in England!" and Lady Nithsdale dropped into a
+seat "Speak! speak! tell me all!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I have but little to tell. They said there had been an
+engagement: but we have often heard that before, my lady; and people
+make so much of a little thing; and the news comes through Dumfries,
+and the people there tell everything their own way."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span></p>
+
+<p>"And they say, then, that we have been defeated!" continued Lady
+Nithsdale, striving to appear perfectly tranquil. "Tell me, Amy; you
+see I am quite calm."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes; I suppose it is as your ladyship says, for they seem
+marvellously well pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"And are King James's forces retreating?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of, my lady."</p>
+
+<p>"What, do they still hold Preston, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why no, my lady. I believe what they call the Royalists have
+possession of it now."</p>
+
+<p>"Then where is our army?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! dearest madam, I cannot justly say. Indeed, indeed, my lady,
+those who told me do not seem to know themselves, and I dare swear it
+is not half true."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, you have heard more; I am sure you have! Is my lord——? Have
+they told you anything? I cannot, cannot ask. Oh, Amy! answer me, and
+answer the truth, or I think I shall die!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, my lady! They never mentioned my lord's name one way nor
+another; indeed, indeed they did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank Heaven so far!" and Lady Nithsdale closed her eyes for a moment,
+as if to regain composure and resolution.</p>
+
+<p>"And you know, my lady, ill news travels fast enough, and everybody
+hereabouts would be curious enough about my lord: so pray set your mind
+at rest."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale looked at Amy with a sad withering smile. "At rest, Amy!
+at rest!" and pressing her hand upon her bosom, "it is long since this
+heart has been at rest, and I am much mistaken if it will be so for
+many a long day yet. If there is any truth in what the people of this
+country call second-sight, I have much to suffer yet; but I will not
+despair. I place my reliance above; I will confide in Him who will not
+abandon the humble, even when all human succours fail."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When the day is gane, an' night is come,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">An' a' folk bound to sleep,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I think on him that's far awa,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The lee-lang night, an' weep, my dear,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The lee-lang night, an' weep.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Jacobite Song.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is singular how the first vague rumour of a great event travels
+faster than can almost be accounted for by human means, and how
+much time sometimes elapses before the real and authentic account
+is received! Two nights and a day of dread and uncertainty did Lady
+Nithsdale endure before any farther details reached Terreagles.</p>
+
+<p>The honest Amy's face soon betrayed that fresh intelligence had
+arrived, and that intelligence unfavourable. Almost before her lady
+could question her she said,</p>
+
+<p>"My lord is well, madam! my lord is safe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dearest Amy, thanks!" and her eyes flashed with joy. "But why this
+sad countenance then? Look cheerful, girl, for your face belies your
+words. You are not deceiving me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no indeed, madam. He is unhurt: not a wound, nor a scratch, as I
+believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why can you not smile? Oh, Amy! at this moment I feel how weak a
+sentiment is loyalty to one's king, when put in the balance with love
+for one's husband! Still no smile! Why, we have changed characters,
+Amy, and you are going to school me into my due allegiance."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my sweet lady! I joy to see a smile upon your lips; and I dare not
+finish my tale, for I shall banish it more quickly than I have called
+it up."</p>
+
+<p>"You said he was unhurt; not a scratch, you said?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, my lady! but oh! can you not guess what other misfortune may
+have befallen him, and all of us?—oh, my lady!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am dull of comprehension; but I cannot picture any great evil now my
+lord is safe!"</p>
+
+<p>"He is safe, now, madam, unhurt, unwounded; but——"</p>
+
+<p>"But what, Amy? Speak; you distract me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, madam—dear madam—he and all the other lords—are—prisoners,
+madam,—prisoners to King George!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Prisoners!" and she seemed to awake as from a trance. "Prisoners to
+King George! then rebels! traitors! Fool that I have been! and my
+thought never glanced towards this! Oh! to whom can I apply for advice
+or for assistance? Alas, alas! what can a poor weak helpless woman do?
+If I had wings to fly to my lord, then he would tell me how I might
+assist him;—then at least I should be near to soothe and to support
+him! But here, alone, and helpless," she added, wringing her hands,
+"what can I hope? what can I effect?—But you know more, Amy; you can
+tell me more?"</p>
+
+<p>"No more, madam, than that the Scots were the last to come to terms and
+to surrender."</p>
+
+<p>"And they surrendered! yielded themselves up to the Whigs! Oh, my dear,
+dear lord, what must thy noble spirit have endured ere it was bowed to
+this! How must thy counsels have been scorned, thy hopes blasted, thy
+heart crushed! I know thy lofty nature well, and truly my woman's soul
+almost refuses itself to picture what thine must have undergone!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy stood for some momenta bewildered, and unable to offer consolations
+which she felt must be unavailing. Then, resuming her self-possession,
+she urged: "Think, madam, how much worse it might have been! you forget
+that my lord is safe in person."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Amy, what he must have suffered in mind! And what are bodily
+sufferings to the tortures such a mind is capable of enduring!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing, my lady, for which we cannot be too grateful. He
+is now safe from the dangers of battle: think how you felt when we were
+talking of young Clanronald, so fresh, so blooming on the bloody sod!"</p>
+
+<p>"True, true!" and she looked up for a moment. "But—" and she lowered
+her voice—"there are other and more inevitable perils than those which
+are met with in battle. If, indeed, the usurper keep the throne,—if
+the new dynasty prevail—then loyalty is treason, and treason, treason,
+Amy!—Even King James spared not his own nephew; can we expect more
+mercy in the soul of a stranger than in one of our own royal blood?—Oh
+Heaven, be pitiful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, madam, but the Duke of Monmouth was the usurper himself. This
+case is quite different! And then<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> there are so many of them. Mr.
+Forster, and the Earl of Derwentwater and his brother, and the Lords
+Wintoun, Carnwarth, Kenmure, Nairne, and many, many more of noble
+and gentle blood. King George, if indeed he is to be our king, must
+show mercy. He could not have the heart——" Amy dared not finish the
+sentence: she could not have uttered, her lady could not have listened
+to, the termination their imaginations but too well supplied.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale bowed her head in silence, and Amy feared to break in
+upon the sad solemnity of her thoughts. After a pause, the countess
+slowly rose: "I will to my closet, Amy, and there tell my beads, till
+I have regained composure enough to think. But fail not to let me know
+should farther intelligence reach the castle."</p>
+
+<p>Amy opened the door for her lady, and as she passed, she kissed her
+hand in token of obedience to her injunctions. Lady Nithsdale pressed
+her's, and slowly, steadily withdrew. Amy watched the closing door; and
+then giving a full vent to her own repressed feelings, she wept and
+sobbed in freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Every hour now brought fresh reports, each more distressing than the
+last. One told how fourteen hundred men were inclosed in one of the
+churches, where they suffered both hardships and indignities from the
+soldiery; how they were stripped, not only of every article of value
+which they might have about them, but almost of necessary clothing.</p>
+
+<p>These were principally Scotch, who, having been the last to surrender,
+were treated with the greatest rigour; and Lady Nithsdale shrunk with
+almost equal horror from the idea of her noble husband being exposed to
+the insults of the low-born and the mean, as from the more tremendous
+vengeance of the law.</p>
+
+<p>Another report reached Scotland, that the rebels were to be tried by
+martial law, and shot upon the spot. But the alarm which such a notion
+was calculated to excite, was in some measure allayed, by learning that
+this summary punishment was only to be inflicted upon those who had
+actually held commissions under the government, against which they had
+borne arms. Lady Nithsdale was farther re-assured, when the name of
+Lord Charles Murray was the first mentioned as likely to suffer, for
+she knew well that her husband's could never have been omitted had he
+been in danger of such a fate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p>
+
+<p>But still she heard not from himself, and these varying and often
+contradictory rumours almost wore away her soul in feverish anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Dumfries was in the hands of the Royalists, and it was a
+matter of difficulty for the prisoners to transmit any communication
+to their friends, which was not subject to the revision of those who
+were in power. There was time for each hope, in which she had formerly
+indulged, to be successively crushed. That which she had fondly
+imagined to be a victory at Sherriff Muir proved in its consequences to
+be no better than a defeat. Dutch reinforcements joined the royal army;
+while scarcely a day elapsed in which some of the Lowland chieftains
+did not desert the standard of the Earl of Mar.</p>
+
+<p>Still no succours arrived from France. It became known that the regent
+Duke of Orleans had proscribed the Chevalier, and still the Chevalier's
+arrival was delayed.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale roamed about the vast and deserted halls; the un-read
+book dropped from her hands; the once loved spinet remained unopened;
+the needle, which she used to ply so rapidly and so dexterously, was
+still resorted to for occupation; but the flowers no longer grew
+under her fairy fingers, and the falling tears would often tarnish
+the colours of the silks before the leaf had yet assumed its form.
+She started at every noise: the changing cheek, the fluttering heart,
+the trembling finger, the faltering voice, all spoke the heart ill at
+ease. The long, long days wore wearily away; it seemed to her that each
+dismal winter evening closed in more slowly than the last.</p>
+
+<p>Her children were far away; she could not visit their couches, listen
+to their tranquil breathing, and beguile the hours in watching their
+unconscious slumbers. Her existence would have been less irksome had
+there been any duty for her to perform, any exertion to be made; but
+in this forced inactivity of body, while the mind was distracted with
+doubts and fears, she endured, not so much the pangs of hope deferred,
+as those of protracted disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Watching the blazing logs on the hearth, and listening to the incessant
+whistling of the December blast, only varied by the rattling of a dry
+and withered stray leaf against the casement, she had sat through the
+early and lengthened twilight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> of a Scottish winter's evening. Glad of
+the excuse of fading light to indulge in the idleness of vague, dreamy,
+but most sad meditation, she had allowed the night to steal upon her
+unawares, till all without was darkness that might be felt, and the
+stone mullions of the oriel windows alone shone white in the fitful
+blaze of the wood fire.</p>
+
+<p>She was startled from her reverie by the sound of men's voices, and the
+tread of a strange and heavy foot. The attendants entering, explained
+that a peasant was without, who insisted upon seeing the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the countess herself that my business is with," said the stout
+and rosy boor, who forced his way past the serving-men; "I was to come
+to the speech of the lady herself; and if you can certify to me that
+yonder she is, why I am ready enough to give up my packet; but I shan't
+let it go to any of you. How do I know what sort of jackanapeses you
+may be?" and the peasant grinned good-humouredly, with a twinkling eye,
+which led to the conclusion that he had not journeyed so rapidly, but
+that he had taken time to refresh himself by the way. He held a packet
+in his hand: "If it is true that you are that rebel lord's lawful
+wife, why, here's the letter I was to deliver safe into her own fair
+hands—that was, when she gave me the reward I have earned by a journey
+of some hundred and fifty miles."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, give it me! in mercy give it me!" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale; and
+starting from her seat, she would have snatched it at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Softly, fair lady," cried the peasant, withholding it; "where is the
+reward the gentleman promised me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you shall have anything you will, only give it—for pity, give it
+me! Amy!" she cried to Amy Evans, who, never far from her lady's side,
+had by this time made her appearance; "fetch my casket: nay, here,
+take the key, and bring hither my purse; it is in the embossed casket,
+and give the fellow what he will. And now, my friend, the letter—the
+letter."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the lady's one that loves him; but nobody has yet assured me
+that she is his lordship's wife," continued the undaunted boor, with
+a knowing glance round the room: "all wives are not in such a taking
+about their husbands," he added, wishing, with a sort of low craft,
+which he deemed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> prudence, to delay delivering the letter till he had
+made sure of the money.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, trifle not with me! Give it me, as you hope to meet with mercy
+yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here it is, then; the poor soul shall have the letter any how."
+She snatched it quickly from his hand, and throwing herself upon her
+knees before the fire, she hastened to devour its contents. Her eyes,
+blinded by tears, could not decipher the lines as fast as her wishes
+prompted.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring lights!" she exclaimed; "why are there no lights?"</p>
+
+<p>The servants hastened to fetch the tapers; and the peasant remained
+near the door, watching the lady with an expression half compassionate,
+half comic.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough, the poor soul loves that darkbrowed fellow," he muttered;
+"she tucks back her hair, as if she could tear off the curl that falls
+between the fire light and the paper; and she thinks no more of me! But
+I shall not depart without the pay I have been promised, I can tell
+her."</p>
+
+<p>Amy re-entered with the purse at the same moment that the serving-men
+returned with lights; and Amy, showering into the hands of the
+messenger several gold pieces, led the way into the hall, that her lady
+might be left to peruse her packet in privacy.</p>
+
+<p>The peasant clinked the money in his hard palm; then looking cunningly
+at Amy, "Your lady said I should have what I would."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and have I not rewarded you handsomely?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, pretty fairly, pretty fairly; but I should not mind another gold
+piece or so. You must bear in mind that my journey has been somewhat
+perilous, all through the royal armies and the loyal inhabitants, with
+a letter in my pouch from a rebel lord to a rebel lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, you are unreasonable, you should not be covetous: but here are a
+couple more, for my dear mistress will not think anything can be too
+much for one who brings her news from her husband."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, fair mistress! I am one who always keep the eleventh
+commandment, even if I keep no other."</p>
+
+<p>"The eleventh, fellow! Why, Protestant and Catholic agree there are no
+more than ten!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but I know the eleventh, and I know it best of all, and so do most
+people; and if they all kept the ten others as strictly as they do that
+one, why the world would be a better world than it is, that's all!"</p>
+
+<p>"You speak in riddles, friend; explain yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"'Get all you can, and keep all you get.' Did you never hear that
+before, mistress? if you have not heard it, you have practised it, I
+warrant me. But where's your buttery-hatch? I am spent with hunger, and
+'specially with thirst."</p>
+
+<p>While Dickon, the Lancashire ploughman, was restoring the strength,
+which did not seem to be much impaired, the countess was absorbed in
+the long-wished for epistle.</p>
+
+<p>The letter was sad, almost hopeless; but it was from himself, and
+she gazed with delight on every line traced by that loved hand. The
+first impulse was that of joy; it was not till upon consideration
+and reflection, that she found in it matter for deep sorrow and
+despondency. It ran thus.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XIII.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Nor can any men's malice be gratified further by my letters, than to
+see my constancy to my wife, the laws, and religion. Bees will gather
+honey where spiders suck poison.—<i>Eikon Basiliké.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">Dearest Wife</span>,<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">"<span class="smcap">You</span> will have heard from other hands the ill success of our
+expedition. My Winifred, who knows what have been my fears from the
+beginning of this undertaking, also knows that my mind has been
+prepared for the result, and will therefore be aware that among all
+his sorrows her husband has not had to endure those of disappointed
+hope. Let her then be assured that his heart, though grieved, is
+unsubdued; and that his soul is fully made up to meet with constancy
+whatever may occur to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"As my dear wife may well believe, I have suffered much. I have
+seen counsels which appeared to me the most imprudent, and which
+the event has proved to be such, invariably prevail. I have seen
+every opportunity of success neglected. I have seen, without the
+power of preventing it, rashness,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> where prudence should have ruled;
+deliberation, where boldness and decision would have been true
+discretion.</p>
+
+<p>"But, as my Winifred knows, it was not with the expectation of
+ultimate success that I devoted myself to the cause of my king. I
+obeyed what I believed to be the call of duty, but I may have been
+mistaken. When I have seen the blood of my countrymen stain their
+native soil, then indeed I have felt doubts, agonizing doubts, as
+to the correctness of my judgment. I have looked on death before; I
+have served in Germany; I have been an eye-witness of assassinations
+in Italy; I have seen criminals pay the forfeit of their lives; but,
+in the solitude of a prison, it is the image of the first victim of
+civil strife that haunts my imagination,—that moment, when I saw one
+of our own Scots fell with his battle-axe a fellow Scot; when I heard
+one foeman utter a threat, the other a cry for mercy, in the selfsame
+tongue! I still see the dying glance of that blue-eyed youth, the
+life-blood staining his fair crisped curls: in the heat of battle the
+impression was momentary; but now, in darkness and in silence, that
+image rises up between me and sleep!</p>
+
+<p>"It is only to my beloved wife, who has so long read every feeling
+of this wayward heart, that I dare confess such weakness. To my
+companions in arms and in misfortune such sentiments would appear the
+sickly phantasies of a distempered mind: even to her, I will dwell on
+them no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"My Winifred will have learned with pride for the land of her husband,
+that the Scots were the last to yield at the fatal affair of Preston:
+indeed, all our party fought with unequalled bravery; each several
+street was obstinately defended. General Willis's troops set fire to
+the houses betwixt themselves and the barricades; but we still fought
+all night by the light of the conflagration, and we had the advantage
+in every several attack. Yet what could be done by a small body of
+men, cut off from all assistance, and cooped up in a burning town!</p>
+
+<p>"The English were for submission, while our brave men were for rushing
+on death, or regaining liberty by one desperate sally. The English
+accomplished a capitulation; but Forster's life was near becoming the
+sacrifice! Many of our Scots still loudly accuse him of treachery;
+and Murray levelled a pistol at his head when he heard what was the
+mission on which Oxburgh had been sent to the English general. Had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>
+not a friendly hand struck the weapon upwards, Forster must then
+have fallen! But I sincerely believe that he has acted with loyalty
+and sincerity throughout. When the cause is hopeless, is a commander
+justified in wasting the blood of those under his command? Each of
+us, individually, may prefer death to submission; but has a general a
+right to sport with the lives of others?</p>
+
+<p>"Should my Winifred have an opportunity of seeing our king,—who,
+though his coming is now too late, must, I imagine, be by this time
+in Scotland,—it would be but justice towards a man, who, though
+unfortunate and perhaps ill-judged, is, I believe, a faithful servant
+of King James's, to let his majesty know that such is my impression.</p>
+
+<p>"We have not yet been told our ultimate destination; but we conclude
+we shall be conveyed to London, there,—let not my dear wife be
+startled, for she must be aware it is the inevitable consequence of
+defeat—there to take our trial. Let her rather rejoice that it is
+in an honourable, though perhaps a mistaken cause, that her husband
+will appear before the tribunal of his country; and that among his
+fellow-prisoners he may count the noble Earl of Derwentwater, the good
+Viscount Kenmure, and many more of unsullied honour.</p>
+
+<p>"When I make use of the word 'prisoners,' let her not picture to
+herself handcuffs and irons, a dark and damp dungeon: we are poorly
+lodged, it is true, but we are not deprived of necessary comforts. If
+I could see my Winifred——! But that is now impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"She may rely upon my summoning her when there is a hope of her being
+allowed to cheer me with her presence. I should think myself unworthy
+of her true and devoted affection, if I did not place on it the
+implicit reliance which it deserves. Adieu, my beloved! I know that,
+next to Heaven, I am ever in your thoughts; neither do you need to be
+assured that you are loved with equal truth and fervour. Professions
+are needless between those whose souls are united as ours have ever
+been! And yet there is a satisfaction in tracing with my own hand the
+words which I trust will reach my Winifred's eyes,—that whenever,
+however, death may meet me, my last prayer shall be for her, my last
+thought on her, and that I firmly believe the affection which fills my
+soul must survive death<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> itself; that I am, and ever have been, her
+true and faithful husband,</p>
+
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">Nithsdale</span>.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>"P.S. I hope I have engaged a countryman of these parts to convey this
+safely to your hands, under the promise of a handsome reward upon the
+safe delivery of the letter."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Full many a time did Lady Nithsdale read over the assurance of that
+affection which she never doubted. She laid the precious document next
+her heart; and then she summoned once more the English peasant, who she
+thought had probably beheld her lord with his own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He was ushered into her presence; and never did two human beings form,
+in their outward appearance, a more striking contrast, than the pale,
+slender, high-born countess, whose anxious countenance bore the traces
+of deep feeling, whose transparent complexion varied with every word
+she uttered, whose shrinking form seemed as if every breath of wind
+might blow it away, while the light which shone from her eye spoke a
+soul capable of withstanding the storms of adverse fortune; and Dickon,
+who with stout and sturdy limbs, and a ruddy countenance, beaming with
+health and good cheer, mixed with a sort of rustic, merry cunning,
+stood unawed before her.</p>
+
+<p>"You saw my lord your own self, did you not, my good friend?" inquired
+Lady Nithsdale, with a degree of timidity and anxiety in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"An' it please your ladyship," answered Dickon, with a scrape of the
+foot and a pull of the hair, "I saw a many of the rebels, great and
+small, one day, when they were changing their quarters."</p>
+
+<p>"But it was my lord himself, the Earl of Nithsdale, who entrusted you
+with the packet you brought even now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I take it, it was; for the packet was directed to the Countess
+of Nithsdale, and the gentleman told me to take it to his wife, and to
+be sure and give it into her own hands, without fail, myself; and he
+said, if I did, I should be sure to get a handsome reward; that nothing
+would be too good for me, and such like, he said. He was a civil-spoken
+gentleman, and very free of his promises."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been rewarded for your pains, I hope. I gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> orders to my
+waiting-woman to see to your wishes in every respect."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! she is a smart lass, that, and she behaved very civil to me, and
+I'm no ways dissatisfied. Only perhaps a trifle from your ladyship's
+own fair hand; she is but a waiting-woman after all," added Dickon, not
+forgetting the eleventh commandment, and making another scrape, which
+he meant should savour of gallantry.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale slipped some additional gold into his hand. "And did my
+lord look well?" she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, very well, my lady, as far as I know. Just as well as the other
+lords he was along with; only a trifle paler. He did not look, my lady,
+as if he had visited his own buttery-hatch quite so lately as I have."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! was he very pale? Tell me, in pity tell me all the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, madam! don't put yourself in such a fluster. He looked pale, just
+like all the rest of them."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale turned away for a moment. She could scarcely endure to
+commune with one who saw in her noble husband but a man, like other
+men: and yet this peasant had seen him, he had heard his voice; from
+him alone could she hope to learn any particulars. Dickon, who was not
+wanting in natural shrewdness, perceived that his answers did not give
+entire satisfaction; and when Lady Nithsdale again turning towards him
+inquired whether her lord moved with a firm step, or whether his health
+did not appear to have suffered from long confinement, he answered,</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, bless your heart, my lady, he walked as strong, and looked lusty
+and hearty; quite different from the other lords! Oh! he's a fine
+gentleman sure enough, and looked more like a prince than anything
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"He has a noble carriage, in good sooth," rejoined Lady Nithsdale; "and
+sorrow has not yet subdued his lofty bearing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lord save you, my lady! he was quite of a different sort from the rest
+of them. They seemed like rabble by the side of him: anybody might have
+known him among a thousand!"</p>
+
+<p>"They might, indeed. And when he spoke did his voice sound full and
+mellow as ever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he spoke somewhat low, for he did not wish everybody<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> to hear;
+but methought it was a marvellous good voice, quite different from the
+other rebels."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale hung upon his words with delight, and forgot that
+at first she had thought him incapable of estimating her lord's
+superiority over his fellows.</p>
+
+<p>"And can you tell me how my lord was lodged, and how he is attended?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, as I have heard say, very well lodged; not so handsomely as he
+would be here in such a castle as this, but right well lodged as times
+go; and they say that the rebels they live like fighting-cocks, and
+there is revelry of all kinds going on among them. But that's among the
+young lords," added Dickon, who saw he had not now touched the right
+string; "not my Lord Derwentwater and my Lord Nithsdale, they are quite
+of another sort; but some of the young gallants, and young Bottair
+of Athol—Oh! he's a comely young fellow that!—and they do say that
+pretty Kate Musgrave——"</p>
+
+<p>The countess began to think she had conversed long enough with the
+trusty messenger, especially after his supper at the buttery-hatch;
+and repeating her thanks in the manner most satisfactory to the worthy
+Dickon, she dismissed him to seek the repose he must need after his
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>The Chevalier's arrival, which Lord Nithsdale in his letter had
+considered almost certain, had not yet taken place: and although the
+Earl of Mar was resolved, by keeping possession of Perth, to retain at
+least one town where his master might be sure of an honourable and safe
+reception, the defection of the whole clan of Fraser, the advance of
+the Earl of Sutherland, the reinforcements which strengthened the Duke
+of Argyle's army from the regular troops, whose presence was no longer
+required in England, rendered each day the situation of the Jacobite
+general more desperate.</p>
+
+<p>Still, having formally invited the Chevalier to put himself at the head
+of the insurrectionary army, Mar felt himself under the necessity of
+keeping his remaining troops together, to protect the person of the
+prince when he should effect his landing. In this dilemma, he proposed
+a military oath in the name of King James the Eighth; but the attempt
+to bind together those who were only waiting for an excuse to disperse
+proved as unavailing as his previous proposal of an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> association. All
+the principal chiefs and leaders complained that they had been deluded
+by promises which had never been fulfilled. They insisted—and there
+was much reason in their arguments—that they had no more grounds for
+now believing the king was on the point of arriving, than that the long
+promised arms, ammunition, and treasure, should be sent from France;
+and from this period a party was established in the very army of the
+Earl of Mar which declared for opening a negotiation with the Duke of
+Argyle.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XIV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">——Since I parted hence,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I have beheld misfortune face to face;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have mark'd the ills of desolating war</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In all the sad details kings never see.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sun that rises on the peasant's toil</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In happy lands not visited by war,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And gilds their waving harvests with his beams,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With barren splendour glares on desert fields</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Depopulated by the sword.—The gale</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sweeps sullen o'er them, loaded with the cries</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of frantic widows and of orphan babes,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That else had borne upon its gladsome wing</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The careless carol of the husbandman,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tilling in peace and liberty his field.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Gonzalvo of Cordova.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Reports</span> of the indignities to which the noble prisoners had been
+exposed on their journey to London failed not to reach Scotland;
+indignities which, galling enough in themselves, were not likely to be
+softened in the recounting.</p>
+
+<p>Upon their arrival at Barnet, they were all, without distinction
+of persons, pinioned with cords. By some of the younger and more
+hot-headed of the noble rebels this humiliating ceremony was not
+submitted to without remonstrance and resistance. Lord Nithsdale simply
+remarked to the Earl of Wintoun, "Degrade not yourself, my friend, by
+bandying words with those who are appointed to execute the behests of
+their superiors: the disgrace is on them who exult in this unworthy
+triumph; not on us, who are thus triumphed over. Surely, Seaton, you
+would rather endure, than inflict, such insults." Presently, however,
+he added, while he held his hands to have the cords attached, "I grant
+you I should be sorry my wife should witness this. My gentle Winifred!
+thy shrinking, sensitive pride would never brook seeing thy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> husband
+thus manacled. For the first time I rejoice that thou art far, far
+away."</p>
+
+<p>At Highgate the prisoners were met by a large detachment of horse
+grenadiers and foot-guards, and here a halter was placed around the
+neck of each horse, which was held by a common soldier, walking by its
+side.</p>
+
+<p>In this mode did they make their entrance into the metropolis,
+accompanied by a concourse of people shouting at them and reviling
+them; some loading them with abuse, others singing scurrilous songs,
+and many beating upon warming-pans, in allusion to the popular notion
+concerning the birth of the Chevalier.</p>
+
+<p>With these increased indignities the spirit of Lord Nithsdale was
+excited. As he rode on, his carriage became each moment more lofty;
+his dark brow assumed a more awful gloom; his eye, from beneath its
+shade, flashed defiance on the mob; his nostrils dilated; the curl of
+his contemptuous lip plainly expressed how utterly he despised the
+mean taunts of the senseless rabble! Thus erect, undaunted, he passed
+on through the crowded suburbs; but before they entered the streets, a
+separation took place between those whose destination was different.</p>
+
+<p>General Forster and Brigadier Mackintosh were taken to Newgate, some to
+the Marshalsea, some to the Fleet; while Lords Nithsdale, Derwentwater,
+Kenmure, Widdrington, Nairne, &amp;c. were conveyed to the Tower.</p>
+
+<p>The moment of parting from their companions in misfortune, those with
+whom they had shared hopes and fears, with whom they had enjoyed
+triumph and endured defeat, was one of bitterness; a parting,
+too, which to all might be, and to many proved, an eternal one;
+one which took place under the gaze of an insulting populace, and
+under circumstances which admitted of no word of kindness, no last
+injunction, not even the pressure of the friendly hand!</p>
+
+<p>At that moment all former differences of opinion were forgotten; the
+prudent counsel neglected, the headstrong perseverance in contrary
+measures, the impatient rejection of advice, the contempt of timely
+warnings, all faded from the mind. As the different bands receded from
+each other's view, they saw but the trusted companion in arms, the
+fellow-sufferer, endeared by similar misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Nithsdale and the other noblemen proceeded towards
+Westminster Bridge, where, according to custom, they were placed in a
+government barge, and were rowed down the river to the Tower. The boat
+shot London Bridge; it was admitted through the Traitor's Gate; and,
+as it darted from the open day-light under the three low and gloomy
+arches, each prisoner cast a lingering look behind him, and as he
+withdrew his eyes, met those of his companions.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need of words to express the feelings of that moment; each
+read his neighbour's but too plainly in his own; each was aware the
+other felt he had taken his last look at the free bright world without
+the prison walls. And, alas! to more than one was it indeed but too
+truly his last glimpse of freedom; more than one was doomed never to
+pass those barriers, but to take his trial at Westminster Hall, and
+then to mount the scaffold upon Tower Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Not a word was spoken. The plash of the waves against the stone stairs,
+as the sudden entrance of the barge into the narrow landing-place
+caused the muddy sullen water to overflow the bottom steps and as
+quickly to recede, the hollow echo of the oars as they were shifted,
+were the only sounds heard.</p>
+
+<p>The barred gates were unlocked, and the prisoners, one by one, mounted
+the dank steps, and emerged into day-light, opposite the Bloody Tower.
+They heard the portals closed and barred behind them; they heard the
+splash of the portcullis as it was let down into the water, and each
+was then delivered over to the warder in whose apartments lodgings were
+assigned to him.</p>
+
+<p>As long as he remained exposed to the observations of others, the
+most acute physiognomist could not have perceived any alteration in
+the countenance of the Earl of Nithsdale. He had, as it were, set his
+features to an expression of calm contempt and stoical endurance, which
+he would allow no circumstances to alter. With a firm step, a lofty
+unembarrassed air, he followed his guide into the small and narrow
+apartment which was destined to his use. He showed no emotion when the
+cords were removed from his wrists, and he replied with punctilious
+politeness to the civilities of the warder.</p>
+
+<p>At length the door was closed upon him, he was left in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> solitude;
+no eye was upon him, and he was able to relax for a moment from the
+imperturbable composure which he had forced himself to maintain. He hid
+his face in his hands, and allowed the thought of his beloved wife, the
+memory of his innocent children, whom he perhaps was never, never more
+to behold, to rush over his soul!</p>
+
+<p>With what tenderness did the recollection of home over-power him!—the
+thousand every-day enjoyments, which are not prized till they are lost!</p>
+
+<p>The current of these enervating thoughts was checked by the sounds
+of steps upon the stairs, and he had only time to resume the unmoved
+countenance he had before preserved, when the entrance of some menials
+and attendants again forced him to repress the emotions, which, though
+repressed, could not be extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>The bringing in of his few necessary packages, the arrangements for his
+personal accommodation, the preparations for some refreshment, were all
+inexpressibly irksome to him; and he impatiently awaited the welcome
+solitude of night, when he might revel in the luxury of thinking of the
+happy past, the wretched present, the fearful future, without a witness.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this moment of general dismay, when, as we have already
+mentioned, each day saw the gradual diminution of the Earl of Mar's
+army; when the greater proportion of the most zealous Jacobites
+were already in the hands of government; in the midst of increasing
+disaffection among his remaining partisans; that the unfortunate
+descendant of the house of Stuart landed in his native country, at
+Peterhead, on the 22d of December, in the year 1715.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived almost as a fugitive. He had been obliged to traverse
+Normandy in disguise; his retinue consisted but of six gentlemen; and
+when the Earl of Mar, the Earl Marischal, and some others, to the
+number of thirty, went from Perth to kiss the hand of the prince for
+whose cause they were in arms, they found him at Fetteresso, suffering
+with a severe attack of ague.</p>
+
+<p>Neither in body nor mind was he capable of inspiring his adherents with
+the ardour which could alone turn or even arrest the untoward course
+of events. Mutual discouragement was the feeling consequent upon this
+melancholy meeting. The unwelcome news which awaited the Chevalier,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span>
+that, for a month previous to his landing, the resolution had been
+taken to evacuate Perth, did not tend to dispel the despondency natural
+to him; while in the speech which he made to the privy council, whom he
+had immediately proceeded to name, the despairing view which he took of
+his own situation pierced every moment through the words of hope which
+he thought himself bound to utter. He closed his address by saying,
+"That for him it would be no new thing to be unfortunate; his whole
+life, even from his cradle, had shown a constant series of misfortunes;
+and he was prepared, if it so pleased God, to suffer the extent of the
+threats which his enemies threw out against him."</p>
+
+<p>With a spirit thus crushed by repeated disappointments, and a
+constitution impaired by illness, did this ill-fated prince proceed to
+enact the sovereign to a diminished and dispirited party of disunited
+followers.</p>
+
+<p>The intelligence of his arrival was speedily communicated to Seaforth,
+Huntley, and all the other chiefs who had formerly flocked to his
+standard, and who had withdrawn, wearied out by his protracted delay;
+but they were summoned in vain, none of them heeded the notice.</p>
+
+<p>Preparations were made for King James's coronation at Scone; a day of
+thanksgiving was appointed for his safe arrival; prayers were offered
+up for his majesty in all the churches; the currency of foreign coins
+was enjoined; and the convention of the Scottish estates was called
+together.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess of Nithsdale experienced a momentary sensation of hope and
+exultation when she heard that the monarch to whom all belonging to her
+had been so constantly devoted had actually set foot in the realm of
+his ancestors; and her generous heart throbbed with indignation when
+she heard of the nobles who neglected to obey his summons. She thought
+how different would have been the conduct of her own brave lord; and
+she resolved to do as, if he had been at liberty, he would himself have
+done, and as he seemed, by what he said concerning General Forster,
+to expect her to do. She therefore prepared herself for journeying to
+Scone, there to pay the homage she conceived to be due to her lawful
+sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>She travelled privately, not to attract the notice of the royalists;
+but as she passed through the country which lies between Stirling and
+Perth, all was one scene of desolation.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> By an edict of James's, the
+villages of Auchterarder, Blackford, and Dunning, and other hamlets,
+had been destroyed by fire; houses, corn, and forage had all been laid
+waste, lest they should afford quarters to his enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Helpless women and desolate children had been deprived of their homes;
+the blackened walls of the buildings which had been burnt contrasted
+cheerlessly with the snow which covered the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale's journey was one of sorrow and dismay. She thought upon
+the days of her youthful enthusiasm, and she looked into her heart in
+vain to find it there. She remembered how in her Flemish convent her
+girlish heart had beat when she imagined her king actually on British
+land, and herself a witness of the joyous restoration; and her childish
+dream was fulfilled, the king was</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hame, hame, hame—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hame to his ain countree:</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>but misfortune, disappointment, time, had worked their effect; and with
+her husband a prisoner, her children banished, her country laid waste,
+she could not work up her feelings to the pitch of loyalty which she
+deemed it her duty to have experienced.</p>
+
+<p>At length the fair town of Perth rose to her view, and the broad Tay
+swept gracefully around it. She saw the ancient palace of Scone, the
+spot where all the Scottish kings had been crowned, and she tried to
+feel assured that "the king would enjoy his own again."</p>
+
+<p>That night she took up her lodgings in Perth; and the following day she
+repaired to the royal palace of Scone, there to kiss the hand of her
+monarch.</p>
+
+<p>She felt an universal trepidation; not so much from the awe which
+majesty inspires, as from the fear of seeing her king in a condition
+so unbecoming his dignity. A noble mind shrinks from seeing nobility
+degraded; and she felt more abashed at the poor attendance around the
+king, and at the want of state in his appointments, than others do at
+all the pomp and ceremony of the most gorgeous and splendid court.</p>
+
+<p>The Chevalier received the Countess of Nithsdale with what he meant to
+be marked attention; but his manner was subdued, his bearing dejected;
+partly through his late illness, and partly from that consciousness of
+being marked out for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> misfortune, which pervaded his every look, his
+every action. There was a melancholy majesty in his thin person, and
+his handsome but pale features, which (although united with a certain
+stiffness and reserve, little calculated to find favour in the sight
+of the adventurous and the desperate who alone adhered to his cause,)
+interested Lady Nithsdale, while it saddened her.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Mar presented her to the Chevalier, whom, upon her
+entrance, she found engaged in conversation with the Earl Marischal in
+one of the windows that overlooked the flat country between the palace
+and the Tay. She dropped upon both her knees, overcome with emotion
+at finding herself in the actual presence of her king, and with grief
+at the desolate appearance of all around him, of all without and all
+within his residence.</p>
+
+<p>He quickly raised her, and imprinting on her marble forehead a royal
+kiss, he professed his satisfaction at becoming personally acquainted
+with one, whose family had ever been faithful servants to his own.</p>
+
+<p>The measured expressions chilled her; she had never before looked upon
+the sacrifices made either by the Herberts or the Maxwells but as the
+performance of a bounden duty, in which they had not failed; but when
+these sacrifices seemed to be considered in the same light by him for
+whom they had been made, their magnitude and their extent increased in
+her eyes. The Chevalier then inquired whether she had received news
+lately from the earl her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes filled with tears; the inquiry was made in so cold, so formal
+a tone: "But once, sire, since he has been a prisoner;" and had she at
+that moment attempted a longer sentence, her voice would have failed
+her altogether.</p>
+
+<p>"We hope that the worthy lord's health continued unimpaired by
+confinement?"</p>
+
+<p>She struggled with her feelings, and replied, "My lord complained not
+of any personal privation or hardship. His thoughts were all, as they
+have ever been, for his king, his country, and his faith!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is now many years since we once had an interview with the Earl of
+Nithsdale in Flanders; and if our memory does not fail, we were then
+suffering from this same agueish complaint which discomposes us at
+present. Methinks our health<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> is always least fitted for exertion and
+fatigue when circumstances call most imperiously for both! But so it
+has ever been with us!" He sighed, and his eyes instinctively sought
+the ground. Then turning again to the countess, "Is your ladyship's
+seat situated far from hence?" he inquired, for, a stranger to
+Scotland, he knew not the topographical details of the country.</p>
+
+<p>"Please your majesty, I journeyed from my husband's castle of
+Terreagles near Dumfries."</p>
+
+<p>"We hope your journey was prosperous and agreeable, although we fear in
+this weather it must have been somewhat tedious. Dumfries is some days'
+journey hence, I fancy."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale thought upon the villages in ashes, the desolated
+fields, and could not find words for her reply, but contented herself
+with bowing assent. When, turning to the Earl of Mar, the Chevalier
+remarked, that if the present severe weather continued, the Tay would
+soon be completely frozen over. "In that case," he continued, "the
+river will no longer be serviceable as a protection and defence."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither will it be any impediment to the design I have been explaining
+to your majesty," replied the earl in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale soon after retired from the royal interview, discouraged
+and dissatisfied. She had never found the desired opportunity of
+speaking her husband's sentiments concerning General Forster; and she
+now felt intimately convinced how wild and hopeless an enterprise it
+must ever have been, to replace on the throne one who was so little
+calculated to conquer or to win it.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nay, heed them not, fair Margaret; true, they are</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Untutor'd, and in 'haviour surly, rough;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But they have hearts, nor unacquainted are</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With sturdy charities and strong affections—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As oft within the prickly husk lies lapt</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sweetest kernel.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Countess of Nithsdale had intended to return for the present
+to Terreagles, till she could ascertain what course<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> would be most
+pleasing to her husband, when, upon her return from Scone, she received
+a letter from the Duchess of Montrose, which decided at once what was
+the line of conduct it now became her duty, as well as her inclination,
+to pursue. The duchess's epistle was conceived in the following terms:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"Though the late unfortunate events have separated Christian Montrose
+from her dear Lady Nithsdale, her friend and cousin must not imagine
+that she has forgotten the happy days she spent at Terreagles, or that
+the affection she then professed has aught abated. Trust me, dearest
+cousin, I have felt for you, as I am sure you would have felt for me,
+had the cause you have espoused proved successful, and had my husband
+been the sufferer in that which he esteems the just one.</p>
+
+<p>"At my earnest request, my lord duke has constantly made inquiries
+concerning the prisoners in the Tower, and your good lord arrived
+there in health and safety on the 10th. I understand he is not
+inconveniently lodged, and I do not learn that he is in want of any
+necessary comforts; indeed, many of your party who have been slack in
+openly joining the insurrection, make peace with their consciences by
+supplying the Jacobite prisoners with money and luxuries of all kinds.
+I have heard say, that when in the streets it has been difficult to
+procure silver for a guinea, in the various prisons change for large
+sums might be procured in silver and in gold. They say also, that
+among the more wild and thoughtless of the prisoners, much mirth and
+revelry prevail; and, as I hear, they so confidently rely upon the
+merit of their unconditional surrender at Preston, that they trouble
+themselves but slightly concerning their approaching trials. It is
+reported, that the Earl of Derwentwater observed to your good lord,
+that many of his followers were fitter inhabitants for Bridewell than
+a state prison.</p>
+
+<p>"Let not my dear cousin be needlessly alarmed, when I tell her that
+the lords will be impeached on the 10th of January, and that I have
+reason to believe my Lord Nithsdale would not now deem it unadvisable
+that she should repair to London. Indeed, I am informed that his most
+earnest wish is to see her; and I have no doubt that, supposing the
+result should not be so favourable as many of the more sanguine are
+inclined to believe, her presence may prove of service as well as of
+comfort to her lord.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I should advise her to lodge herself privately, as, to my poor way
+of thinking, any appearance of rank or splendour may not be agreeable
+to those in power; and I think I am not mistaken when I say that the
+riotous mode of living of many of those in confinement does not serve
+to forward their cause.</p>
+
+<p>"I would myself have visited the good Earl of Nithsdale, that I might
+have informed you how it fared with him, had it been fitting that I
+should do so openly; but my lord duke deemed such a measure would not
+be advisable; and as to visiting him privately, I feared that you
+and others might have suspected your noble husband of having learned
+from young Bottair of Athol, that a prisoner may be a very dangerous
+gallant, that—</p>
+
+<p>
+'Stone walls do not a prison make.'<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>"'Mad-cap Christian,' as you called me once at Terreagles, is not so
+void of discretion as to run the risk of being taken for one of the
+'divine Altheas' who come 'to whisper at the grate.'</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I am sobered since those days; and these are times which may
+make the most unthinking reflect. Sad or merry, thoughtful or giddy,
+my heart is still with my dear cousin, and she may count on my willing
+services should the time arrive when they may be useful. She will not
+fail to let me know when she reaches London; and meanwhile she will
+believe me her faithful and affectionate friend</p>
+
+<p>
+and cousin,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Christian Montrose</span>."<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This letter had followed Lady Nithsdale from Terreagles, which had
+occasioned some delay in its coming to hand. It had been brought by
+Walter Elliot, an old and trusty servant, who had been ever in the
+confidence of his master, and on whom Lady Nithsdale had relied for
+advice and protection since the absence of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Her resolution was instantly taken; with Amy Evans and Walter Elliot
+she determined at all hazards to set forth upon her journey: but in
+the condition of the country at that period, means of conveyance were
+not easily procured; and it was highly expedient she should escape all
+observation: she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> therefore gladly availed herself of such steeds as
+Walter Elliot could procure in the exigency of the moment, and although
+totally unaccustomed to horse exercise, proceeded in this manner as far
+as Newcastle.</p>
+
+<p>She there parted with the horses, and took the stage, thinking she
+should thus travel more expeditiously; and trusting that, when quite
+beyond the boundaries of Scotland, she was not so likely to be
+recognised. Such had been the tumult of her feelings, she had scarcely
+had time to be conscious of fatigue or cold, or to be aware of the
+strange and unusual companions with whom she was occasionally brought
+in contact. When, however, she found herself enveloped in her cloak,
+her hood brought low over her face, and ensconced in a corner of the
+heavy and lumbering vehicle, she found leisure to think, to feel, and
+to suffer.</p>
+
+<p>The capacious coach contained several other passengers, but Lady
+Nithsdale heeded them not: their discourse turned chiefly on the
+comparative merits of different breeds of cattle and sheep, on Scottish
+Kyloes and Cheviot mutton, and she knew not what words they uttered,
+till her attention was suddenly arrested by one of them remarking, "The
+last time I journeyed along this road was some six months back; I had
+been as far as Hawick to buy some of those famous north-country sheep,
+and, to be sure, all those parts were in a fine disturbed state. I was
+obliged to come back without the sheep. Some thought their property
+was safer in sheep than in money, for whichsoever side got the upper
+hand, butchers' meat would still be wanted; others thought they should
+be sure of a good price when there were two armies, as it were, in the
+neighbourhood, and they asked twice their worth for the sheep. As for
+me, I would not give much hard money for the creatures, which might
+be taken from me, and killed, and then what should I do? There's no
+telling in troublous times what's justly the value of any thing, so
+I had my journey for my pains! and as I came back, those rebel lords
+were going about proclaiming their mock king, and a pretty penalty they
+are likely to pay for their folly. Why could not they be quiet, and
+enjoy themselves at their own great houses, where they say the Earl of
+Derwentwater lived like a prince, and was beloved by great and small:
+and why could not they let us enjoy ourselves too? Farming went well
+while<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> good Queen Anne lived; crops were pretty fair, and prices held
+steady, and I don't know what folks would have more, not I!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it all bids fair to be quiet enough now," replied a
+rough-looking farmer who sat opposite; "they'll settle old scores with
+them all. They have made away with a pretty many of them at once at
+Preston; and I know for certain that the king means to have off the
+heads of every one of those he has got up at London now, so they will
+make no more disturbance!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy turned an uneasy glance upon her lady, whose bosom she could
+perceive heaved rapidly beneath the folds of her cloak; but her face
+was towards the window, and the black hood concealed it from all within
+the coach. She feared to draw attention upon her, and she remained
+tranquil.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, I can't think the king will have all their heads off either,"
+rejoined the first spokesman. "Why, there are as many as twenty lords,
+to say nothing of knights, and gentlemen, and members of parliament,
+and such."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been informed that such are his most gracious majesty's
+intentions," answered the yeoman, with the importance of a
+privy-councillor.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, what is your authority?" exclaimed the Countess of
+Nithsdale, unable any longer to control her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>"Young mistress, I do not consider myself called upon to give up those
+who tell me a bit of news."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, neighbour, you need not be so touchy about your news; who knows
+but the young woman may have a friend among some of the rebels, and
+she need not be the more of a rebel herself! Brothers and sisters,
+fathers and sons, have taken different sides, but they are not the less
+relations for that. Ah! that's one of the misfortunes of these civil
+wars! They're not like a good war with the French, or the Dutch, or the
+Spanish; when you know for certain that every <i>parlez-vous</i>, and
+every mynheer, and every Don, is your enemy. But when people of one
+country take to fighting, why, if you chance to be in a battle, you
+don't know who you may be killing; and if you chance to tell a bit of
+news promiscuously, you don't know whose feelings you may be hurting.
+Folks should not be over free of their speech in these times; and, I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span>
+ask your pardon, neighbour, but you should not be so positive about
+what such as you and I can't know. Don't you look so sad, mistress. How
+should we, any of us, know what the king's thoughts are?"</p>
+
+<p>"But we may know those who do know what the king's thoughts are:
+not that I wish to hurt the gentlewoman's feelings." And the farmer
+relapsed into silence, somewhat offended at the doubt with which his
+annunciation of the sovereign's private sentiments had been received.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you from Scotland, madam?" resumed the good-natured yeoman, whose
+curiosity was somewhat awakened by Lady Nithsdale's evident emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," answered Amy quickly. "My friend and I come from Scotland
+last, but we are natives of Wales;" which, although strictly true,
+would, she imagined, lead their new acquaintances from suspecting who
+they really were.</p>
+
+<p>"And are ye for London now, my pretty lass?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; our friends live in London now."</p>
+
+<p>"If this snow goes on falling at such a rate, why, I think we shall
+never get to York; and as for you, you will never get to London. I'll
+be bound the stage will be stopped to-morrow. I declare there's no
+making out the hedge from the ditch, the snow has drifted so in some
+places. I don't know that I ever remember such a hard winter as this
+has been. My poor ewes!" he continued, shaking his head, "I fear I
+shall have bad luck with them! However, 'tis as the Lord pleases! I
+dare say 'tis all for the best. If we have quiet times, and we have
+nothing to fight against but the seasons, as God sends them to us, we
+shall do well enough. As long as we are in the Lord's hands, and have
+only the troubles He sees fit to try us with, and none of those man
+makes for himself, it will all be right! Is not that true, young woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, sir, I am no judge of public matters," replied Lady Nithsdale
+in a faltering voice, for she felt that it had been the Jacobites who
+had disturbed the public tranquillity; and true and reasonable as was
+the sentiment expressed by the yeoman, she could not echo it without
+throwing blame on those she most loved and honoured, or without belying
+the opinions and the feelings of her whole life.</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" replied the yeoman: "I do not call those public matters. I
+think I have said nothing but what every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> good Christian should say
+amen to. I don't see how anybody can help saying 'tis better to be in
+the hands of the Lord than of men, not I."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I, indeed!" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale with fervour. "O Lord, take
+us into thy hands, and deal with us according to thy mercy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's much what I said, only not in such a way. Verily, if I
+don't believe she is one of the new Dissenters that have sprung up of
+late!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy Evans, anxious to withdraw observation from her lady, asked him
+some question concerning his flock; and, affecting great interest in
+such matters, she was enabled, from her youthful Welsh education, to
+converse with sufficient knowledge of the subject to lead the honest
+unsuspicious farmer into a detail of his own plans and systems, in
+which he readily forgot what had at first excited his surprise in the
+bearing of the silent and serious young gentlewoman.</p>
+
+<p>By the time they reached York, his prediction concerning the weather
+was fully verified: the wheels of the heavy vehicle could scarcely cut
+through the deep snow; and so slow was their progress, that it had long
+been dark before the stage arrived at its destination in one of the
+most dismal streets of the ancient city of York.</p>
+
+<p>The snow continued to fall during the whole of the night, and the next
+morning the roads were found to be so totally impassable, that not only
+were all stage-coaches and carriages of every description arrested in
+their progress, but the post itself was stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale's disappointment amounted almost to despair. Every hour
+was precious. The letter which announced her husband's wish to see her
+had already been somewhat delayed on the road, and the duchess said
+that on her exertions might depend the mode in which his case might be
+looked upon. She thought, too, on his desolate, his forlorn condition;
+she judged from her own feelings how intensely he must desire her
+presence; and she deemed any hardship, any suffering, preferable to
+the mental anxiety of being shut up in York, unable to hear of him, to
+communicate with him, to exert herself for him.</p>
+
+<p>The long period of suspense and of forced inactivity which she had
+passed at Terreagles had been almost insupportably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> irksome; and now,
+when her lord had expressed a wish for her company, when possibly she
+might be of real service to him, to be imprisoned in a dismal room in
+an inn at York:—it was an infliction not to be endured.</p>
+
+<p>She again employed Walter Elliot to procure three saddle-horses; and,
+in spite of his dutiful remonstrances, and all unused as she had
+ever been to brave the inclemencies of the weather, or to encounter
+any bodily fatigue, she set off on horseback, through roads in which
+the snow often came up to the girths of the saddle. To Amy, who had
+been a mountain-bred lass—who had often wandered about her native
+hills on the rough Welsh ponies—the undertaking was not one of such
+difficulty; though she feared the strength of her delicately nurtured
+lady would never stand such hardships; but the soul which animated that
+apparently fragile form was such as to communicate to the frame some
+of its own power and elasticity. As they rode out of the town, the sun
+shone forth in dazzling splendour upon the brilliant whiteness of the
+scene. The roof of each house was clothed with a thick soft covering of
+newly-fallen snow, which the smoke of the town had not yet tarnished,
+though the power of the sun had already melted it in some degree, so
+that each gable was ornamented with a fringe of long pendent icicles.
+As they quitted the town and waded through the obstructed road, still
+the same dazzling whiteness presented itself to their view: the load
+which bent down the branches of the trees was not yet dissolved; and
+when the small birds, twittering in the welcome sunshine, lighted on a
+feathered spray, they shook from it a shower of bright snow-flakes.</p>
+
+<p>To a mind at ease the scene was beautiful and cheerful; and Lady
+Nithsdale in the midst of her sorrows felt grateful for the cheering
+light and for the clear pure atmosphere.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XVI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The drowsy night grows on the world, and now</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The busy craftsman and o'erlabour'd hind</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forget the travail of the day in sleep:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Care only wakes, and moping pensiveness.—<span class="smcap">Rowe.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> sun was now midway through its course, and their progress had been
+but slow. "Is not my dear lady in need of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> rest?" inquired Amy Evans,
+as they approached a small village, at the entrance of which there was
+a newly-painted gaudy sign of the King's Head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Amy, no; I need no rest. The consciousness of drawing nearer to my
+lord is rest enough for me."</p>
+
+<p>"But, honoured madam," interposed Walter Elliot, "it were not ower
+wise in us to push our steeds too hard. They dumb creatures are but
+flesh and bluid like our ainselves; and should they chance to knock up,
+what shall we do, I'm thinking. 'Tis weary wark for them lifting their
+hoofs eighteen or twenty inches through the snaw every step they take.
+An' it please your leddyship, we had better gie them a rest at yon
+bra'-looking inn."</p>
+
+<p>"Not there, good Walter, not there. Look at that flaring sign! A little
+farther on there is another place of refreshment; 'tis but an humble
+one I grant, but at this moment any one will be more welcome to me than
+this." And she averted her eyes from the "King George's Head," in large
+and golden letters, which adorned the front of the building. The place
+she had selected was indeed but a wretched ale-house, and they only
+stayed there long enough to allow the animals necessary food. She was
+impatient to be gone; and as they seldom could proceed beyond a foot's
+pace, they were still some miles from their destined resting-place for
+the night when the short day had closed in; the sun had already set
+crimson beyond the cold snowy fields, and the clear deep blue of the
+heavens was spangled with innumerable stars.</p>
+
+<p>The cold was piercing; and her attendants shivered, and wrapped their
+cloaks closer around them. At length they passed a blacksmith's
+forge; and the bright sparks which darted upwards through the chinks
+in the roof, the ruddy light which flared through the open door, the
+clear blaze of the fire itself, looked invitingly warm. Amy could not
+help remarking to Walter Elliot how comfortable and tempting was the
+interior of the forge.</p>
+
+<p>"Art thou cold, my poor girl?" inquired the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, madam, of a surety the wind is very sharp; I should have thought
+your ladyship would have felt it more keenly than myself, who have
+not been so softly reared. I have been regretting all the day that
+we forgot to bring your mantle lined with sable, which her grace of
+Montrose sent you last winter."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Nay, heed me not, good Amy: I thought not of the cold—But now you
+speak of it, the night is frosty."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been fain to ask you, honoured madam, where your ladyship means
+to abide when you reach London?"</p>
+
+<p>"In truth, Amy, I cannot tell; I thought but of seeing my lord: when
+once in London, I felt I should be near to him; but it is more than
+probable they will not allow me to share his prison, and I suppose
+I must seek lodgings. Her grace of Montrose bade me live privately,
+and advised me not to affect any state in my accommodations: but I am
+little used to the bustle of a crowded city, and scarcely know how I
+must proceed."</p>
+
+<p>"If your ladyship will excuse my boldness, I have been thinking that
+I know of some one who might stand our friend. Does not your ladyship
+recollect, when you were in Wales, just at the entrance of the village,
+about a mile from Poole Castle, a low white house, with a high tiled
+roof composed of many gables and strange angles? Two goodly cypress
+trees grew before the windows on each side of the gravel walk which led
+to the porch, and the trim garden was fenced from the road by a low
+stone wall, and a laurustinus hedge within. Your ladyship must remember
+they were the finest laurustinus' in all the country, and they were
+always the first in bloom in that sheltered spot."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I think I remember the white house, Amy; the sun seemed ever to
+shine upon it, and make it gleam white against the green hill which
+rose behind."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough, madam, that was it. The mid-day sun shone full upon it,
+just about the hour your ladyship and your honoured mother were used to
+take your customary airing. And do you not remember, madam, a tall pale
+gentleman, who wore his hair parted up the middle of his forehead, and
+hanging long over his ears: it was silver-white, for he was very old?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes! I recollect him well, for he used to lean over the gate that
+opened upon the road, and watch our carriage as it drove by. He always
+bowed with a respectful yet a stately air to my mother as we passed:
+and I well remember her saying he had been a cavalier in King Charles
+the First's time, and she regretted that his increasing infirmities did
+not allow him to visit her, for she would have been proud to receive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>
+under her roof one who had been a faithful servant to his master in
+times of trouble. If I mistake not, my mother said that when quite a
+youth he had been one of the gallant cavaliers who rode post, along
+this very road, to carry to the king at York the news of each day's
+proceedings in the parliament. Would we had their steeds, and their
+strength! by this time we might have reached London."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, madam, this old gentleman had a young daughter, who was little
+older than myself. Her mother had died early; and the old gentleman
+had no companion but the merry maiden, and the merry maiden had none
+but her reverend but melancholy father. She made acquaintance with me
+one May morning, when we were gathering cowslips and primroses for our
+garlands. I was to be queen, and she gave me all her posies to help
+adorn my crown; and when we all came round, a troop of laughing girls
+with our garlands, Colonel Hilton gave me a gold piece. After that we
+often met; and as the colonel found that my mother was looked upon more
+as a friend than as a servant by the honoured duchess, and as I was
+somewhat better taught than other maidens of my degree, he would often
+let us pass an afternoon together, and young Mrs. Mellicent Hilton
+would teach me some of her songs, and read to me from her beautiful
+books, and in return I instructed her in many curious stitches and
+rare sorts of embroidery; and thus we whiled away the hours; and she
+promised that we always should be friends, though she was a lady, and
+I but the daughter of a menial. She married a Mr. Morgan a few months
+before your ladyship came into Wales: they said the old cavalier did
+not over well like the match, for Mr. Morgan's family had turned
+against King James the Second; but he was a well-favoured young man,
+and Mrs. Mellicent, poor soul, saw no one else, so it was but natural
+she should incline towards him.</p>
+
+<p>"The poor old colonel died soon after; but before he died he grew quite
+fond of his son-in-law, and he left all he had been able to save of his
+property to him and to Mrs. Mellicent, provided they added his name
+of Hilton to that of Morgan. I have since heard that Mr. Morgan is
+in favour with the new people, and that he has a place about the new
+court, so I think she must have it in her power to serve us; and if
+Amy Evans's old playmate, Mrs. Mellicent, has not quite forgotten<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> the
+pleasures and the pastimes of her youth, I am sure she will have the
+inclination to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"My good and thoughtful Amy! and do you know where Mrs. Morgan now
+resides?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dearest madam. 'Twas only in the last letter I received from
+Wales, that I learned many of these particulars about my old friend,
+and that she was just settled in her new house in Bloomsbury."</p>
+
+<p>"But if her husband is so staunch a Whig, 'tis more than probable she
+will look coldly on me, who am the wife of one whom she thinks a rebel."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, madam, but she loved her good old father dearly, though she would
+have been loth to give up her sweetheart for what then seemed a by-gone
+matter. She would affect you none the less for being of the same way
+of thinking as the parent to whom she was ever a dutiful child; and,
+moreover, the world may work great changes in the hearts of those who
+live in it, but Mrs. Mellicent Hilton's must be sorely changed indeed
+if she is not one whose eyes will overflow at any tale of woe, and if
+she will stop to calculate the chances of success before she troubles
+herself to assist a fellow-creature in distress. Her old father used
+often to bid her have more discretion in her kindness, and to tell her
+she gave her alms to those who least deserved them: but she never could
+say "no" to any one that asked charity in a piteous tone of voice, and
+the very dogs about the white manor-house were kept so fat by Mrs.
+Mellicent that you might tell them from any others by their good case.
+And then, madam, it seems to my poor judgment, that one who knows
+something of the court, and yet is not so very great as the Duke of
+Montrose, or his lordship's cousin her grace of Buccleugh, or the Earl
+of Pembroke, or any of those nobles, may prove of service in a quiet
+way, when such great people might fear to attract notice."</p>
+
+<p>"There is much truth in what you say. You have a pertinent judgment,
+Amy, and it may be of good avail; we will think more of this. But we
+are drawing near our place of destination. See! by the lights gleaming
+from so many windows, this must be a considerable town. Walter, is it
+not here we are to pass the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madam. Your leddyship maun set up here for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> night, an' it so
+please you. I weel know, for one, that my puir nag could na' carry me a
+mile farther."</p>
+
+<p>The snow became less deep as they approached the metropolis, the roads
+more beaten, and they were enabled each day to compass longer journeys.
+On the evening of the 23rd of January they entered London.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale's first impulse would have led her to the Tower, but
+it was too late to hope for admittance, and she thought that from the
+Duchess of Montrose she was most likely to learn how it fared with her
+husband, and what steps it might be most advisable for her to take.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Amy, therefore, to make what arrangements were necessary for
+their accommodation, she instantly took coach and proceeded to the
+residence of the Duke of Montrose. She sent word by a servant to the
+duchess, that a person desired to see her grace upon business of
+importance, and with the message she gave a written billet entreating
+to see her in private. She did not sign the paper, not feeling assured
+how far any communication with the wife of a state prisoner might
+compromise the duchess herself. She was certain that the sight of her
+hand writing would procure her instant admission; and yet the few
+moments she passed waiting in the street were spent in a state of
+mental agitation which surprised herself.</p>
+
+<p>It was a painfully new situation for the daughter of the Duke of Powis,
+who was thoroughly imbued with the indelible nobility of aristocratic
+birth, to find herself alone, in a hired coach, as a suitor at the
+door of one with whom she had ever lived on terms of equality and
+intimacy. It was not that she doubted the kindness, the sincerity, the
+generosity, of her good friend and cousin; but she now felt more lost,
+more unprotected, in the busy, noisy, thronged streets of London, than
+she had done in all the difficulties of her perilous journey.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few moments, however, elapsed before the portals were thrown
+open, and she found herself ushered through the rank of powdered
+liveried domestics, who in those days were deemed indispensable
+appendages to the great, into a small ante-room on the ground-floor.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale sank on a seat, bewildered, overcome. It all seemed to
+her like a strange dream. What news might await her! Three weeks had
+elapsed since the date of the duchess's letter—what fearful events
+might not have occurred!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p>
+
+<p>The door opened; the duchess appeared, beautiful, brilliant, blooming,
+glittering in diamonds and jewels, and rustling in satins and
+point-lace. "My sweet cousin! my dear Winifred!" exclaimed the duchess.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Christian! dearest friend!" and Lady Nithsdale rushed into her
+open arms, and wept upon her neck.</p>
+
+<p>For twelve days body and mind had been upon the stretch, and the words,
+the tones of kindness at this moment of exhaustion, completely unnerved
+her. "How is he?" she inquired, as she sobbed upon the duchess's bosom.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear cousin, well. Compose yourself; why is this, my gentle,
+staid, tranquil cousin of Nithsdale? These tears, this trembling, do
+not promise well for the work you have in hand."</p>
+
+<p>"True, true!" exclaimed Lady Nithsdale, "it is over! 'twas but a
+momentary weakness. I have ridden a weary distance to-day," she
+continued, attempting to smile, and hastily pushing her hair off her
+brow; "and with a heart not well at ease," she added, pressing her hand
+upon her bosom, as if to still its throbbings: "but tell me all; I am
+ready now to hear and to endure. On the 10th they were impeached," she
+said firmly and resolutely; "of course, my lord pleaded guilty."</p>
+
+<p>"He did. Last Thursday, the 19th, when the lords sent in their reply to
+the impeachment, your noble husband, with Lord Derwentwater and Lord
+Kenmure, pleaded guilty to the articles exhibited against them. Lord
+Wintoun alone on various pretences petitioned for longer delay."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew my lord would never deny the share he took in this sad
+business," exclaimed Lady Nithsdale, with a confidence and pride in his
+integrity which for a moment over-came her fears for his safety. Then
+she added, in a tone which seemed to ask for reassurement, "Surely this
+plain-dealing, this honesty, cannot indispose the king! His surrender
+at Preston——"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, we will hope for the best," interrupted the duchess, anxious
+to evade the question, for she was too well aware that the Earl of
+Nithsdale was looked upon with fear and suspicion; and though she
+could not bring herself to crush Lady Nithsdale's hopes, she dared not
+encourage them,—"only be calm and prudent."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me, I am now firm and resolved: I am ready,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> even impatient,
+to be stirring in my husband's service. It was the sight of you, dear
+cousin, and the kind tones of your sweet voice——!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no more of this: I will see you to-morrow, when we will confer
+more at large: I must not now delay. I am to court to-night, as you
+may perceive by all this gay apparel; my lord duke is there already
+in attendance, and I must not be late. But, before I leave you, let
+me enforce one thing; I fear they will refuse you admittance to your
+husband, unless you consent to share his imprisonment: this must not
+be! You must remain at liberty, or we cannot concert our measures;
+you must yourself see and speak with some I will name to you. I have
+assurances that the king will show mercy to several of the prisoners;
+but still we all know the good Earl of Nithsdale has many enemies, and
+there is the more need you should be in freedom to use your influence
+with them. Remember, that for his sake, you must not preclude yourself
+from serving him far more effectually than you could by sharing his
+prison."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me, my dear friend, I will obey your injunctions. Whatever it
+may cost me, I will turn back from his prison-door, if it is for his
+good that I should do so. May Heaven bless and reward you, dearest
+cousin!" and she seized the duchess's hand and pressed it to her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"'Pshaw! silly Winifred, you need not thank me yet," replied the
+duchess, half turning away, and brushing off a tear; "you must not
+make me weep before I go to court, or my eyes will make no conquests
+to-night, and my lord duke, who loves to hear me praised, will be angry
+with you, fair cousin. I must stay with you no longer, or I shall play
+the very fool, and not be fit to show myself at St. James's. One kiss,
+dear cousin, and adieu! It would not be wise that I should absent
+myself from the king's presence just now. For your sake I must not
+linger;" and the fair creature moved away in grace and beauty.</p>
+
+<p>She glided through the hall; the splendid coach drove off; the
+running-footmen, bearing torches, preceded and accompanied her.</p>
+
+<p>"How unjust," thought Lady Nithsdale, "is the common accusation that
+pomp and splendour harden the heart! Where could I find more true
+kindness and sympathy than in my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> dear cousin Christian, whose life has
+been one sunny dream of unclouded brilliancy?" But as she slowly and
+thoughtfully returned in solitude to the temporary lodging which Amy
+had procured for her, she pondered on the duchess's words—"My lord
+has many enemies, she said: how can he have enemies? Surely, if favour
+is to be shown to any, to whom could it be more properly extended than
+to him? Does not the kind duchess alarm herself needlessly? And yet
+she knows the counsels of those in power. She would not wish to excite
+unreasonable fears in my mind. Alas! what can she mean? My lord was not
+one of the first to join the insurgents: Lord Derwentwater was already
+in arms; Forster was at the head of a considerable body of troops; the
+Earl of Mar had set up King James's standard. Neither had he, like the
+Earl of Mar, ever made professions of loyalty to the House of Hanover.
+General Forster is even now a member of King George's parliament. But
+my dear lord is not obnoxious from either of these causes. He has
+never been guilty of treachery, neither has he ever been forward in
+causing disturbances in his native land; but when civil broils became
+inevitable, then—then he was not found wanting to the family for which
+his ancestors have bled and suffered. Oh! would that the morrow were
+arrived! This long tedious night, which must intervene before I can
+see, learn, hear, know, do anything further, how wearisome, how irksome
+is it!"</p>
+
+<p>Upon her return to her lodgings, she found that Amy Evans, on her part,
+had not been idle. She had already sought and obtained an interview
+with her former companion Mrs. Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly ten years had elapsed since Mellicent Hilton had left the Welsh
+valley of her childhood as the bride of Mr. Morgan, and from that time
+the playfellows had never met; for before Mrs. Morgan returned to
+visit her father in his solitude, Amy had accompanied the Countess of
+Nithsdale into Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Morgan was fortunately alone on the evening in question, when Amy,
+half-alarmed at her own presumption, presented herself at her door.</p>
+
+<p>She did not at first recollect, in the Mrs. Evans who was announced,
+the merry Amy of her childhood; neither would Amy have recognised, in
+the tall, slender, modish lady before her, the buxom, rosy girl who
+had climbed the mountain paths, and pulled the wild flowers with her.
+She hesitated for a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> moment, while she assured herself that, although
+the complexion was less brilliant, and the full form had fined into a
+marvellous taper waist, still the laughing blue eye was the same, the
+expression of the free hearty smile the same, although the dimples were
+not so visible in the less rounded cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Morgan, with an air of courtly breeding, bent herself gracefully
+towards the stranger, waiting till she opened her business; when Amy,
+half abashed at the changes which had taken place in the exterior
+of her former friend, half re-assured by the kindly countenance
+which spoke that the heart remained unchanged, after making a low
+and respectful courtesy, began with some hesitation, "that she could
+scarcely hope Mrs. Morgan would still bear in mind the childish
+playmate of Mrs. Mellicent Hilton,—Amy, the daughter of old Rachael
+Evans, of Poole Castle."</p>
+
+<p>"What, Amy, the Queen of the May! is it you, my old friend?" exclaimed
+Mrs. Morgan, holding out her hand with the frankness she brought from
+the Montgomeryshire valley, unimpaired by the intercourse she had since
+had with the world. "Oh! I have often wished to see you again, and
+often thought what happy hours we have passed together, when we have
+laughed even to tears without knowing wherefore, and sung for very want
+of thought and care. But, my good Amy, your looks speak that, since
+those days, you have been made acquainted with thought and care. Your
+countenance is sorrowful. Is your mother, the good Rachael, well? And
+David?—How comes it you are still Amy Evans? Have you been cruel after
+all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, madam! my poor mother has been dead these two years; she scarce
+survived her mistress more than a few weeks: but they were both in
+years; and the good Duke of Powis allowed her to be buried in his own
+family vault, and she lies near her honoured mistress, the duchess.
+And as to David, my dear Mrs. Mellicent, I have not thought of him
+for many and many a year; I should esteem it beneath me to pine for
+him! He showed the truth of the old saying, 'out of sight, out of
+mind;' and I shall never be the one to prove an old proverb false!"
+answered Amy, with a flash of her former spirit. "But, madam, I have
+other cares, and heavier ones, upon my mind. My dear mistress the good
+Countess of Nithsdale's lord is in prison, with the other lords whom<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>
+they call rebels, and my lady and I have rode to London to attend
+him, and, as I hope, to be of some service to him. But we are nearly
+strangers in London; and I thought, madam, that for old acquaintance
+sake, perhaps, you would stand our friend. I knew Mr. Morgan was much
+about the palace; and they say, madam," she continued, smiling, "there
+is nothing like a friend at court; and so I made bold to come to you at
+once. I thought, also, you could perhaps inform us where we might lodge
+respectably, and yet privately; for her grace the Duchess of Montrose
+warned my lady not to live in state, but to keep private."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! good Amy, I fear you are come on a sad errand," answered Mrs.
+Morgan, with a serious countenance. "I fear that the Earl of Nithsdale
+is one whose fate is sealed. I hear no talk of mercy being extended
+towards him. So staunch a Catholic!—so influential a man on the
+borders of Scotland and England!—so forward as his family have ever
+been in support of the exiled race! Alas, for your poor mistress! Is
+she much attached to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, madam!" exclaimed Amy, with a face of consternation, "it will kill
+my mistress if anything happens to my lord! I am sure, quite sure, she
+could not outlive him," she continued, wringing her hands; "you never,
+madam, saw such love as hers; it is not like anything else that ever I
+heard of. I am sure, when I see how she hangs upon my lord's words—how
+she honours and reveres him—how she watches his looks, and lives but
+for him—I cannot think I ever cared anything at all about David. And
+you, madam, you were very partial to Mr. Morgan; and I well remember
+you were resolved to have him" (Mrs. Morgan smiled); "but still your
+love was not like my poor mistress's!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor soul!" said Mrs. Morgan; "what can I do for her? I would serve
+her, or any one in such distress, if I knew how I could do so. More
+especially, I would gladly serve any one whom you seem to love so
+dearly."</p>
+
+<p>"I do indeed love my dear lady with my whole heart, and no one who
+knows her excellence could do otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear Amy, you may count on my exerting what little influence I
+may possess; and Mr. Morgan is so kind, I am sure he will assist us,
+if he can. In the mean time, I can tell you of a worthy family with
+whom your mistress<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span> might be comfortably and respectably lodged. I will
+see Mrs. Mills to-morrow; her house is not far removed from the Tower,
+which would, I think, be a recommendation to the Countess of Nithsdale;
+and she is a gentle, kind soul, who will be ready to weep with your
+lady, and will never wound her by a thoughtless or indiscreet word."</p>
+
+<p>Amy Evans's countenance brightened. "I was right," she exclaimed,
+"when I told the countess the world might work great changes, but it
+would be indeed a great one if Mrs. Mellicent Hilton had not still
+the kindest heart that ever beat. I feared I was making very bold,
+and was presuming too much upon the freedom permitted in childhood,
+when I ventured to come to you; but I thought time could never have
+hardened such feelings as yours, so as to make you resent the liberty
+I was taking. In my honoured lady's name, and my own, receive our most
+grateful thanks, madam;" and Amy kissed the hand which Mrs. Morgan
+cordially extended towards her.</p>
+
+<p>"I will see Mrs. Mills to-morrow morning; and then, with the Countess
+of Nithsdale's permission, I will wait on her, and inform her what
+arrangements I have been able to make."</p>
+
+<p>"Our blessings on you, dear madam!" repeated Amy, as she took her
+leave, and hastened back to meet her lady upon her return from the
+Duchess of Montrose.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale listened with gratitude to all that Amy told her; and
+the kindness they had both met with on their several missions proved
+the best cordial which could be administered to feelings so tried as
+hers had been. Exhausted nature, however, claimed its rights, and she
+slept. The bodily fatigue which caused sleep,—</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Tir'd nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,"</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>to give a respite to the workings of her mind, may have assisted in
+enabling her to bear all that awaited her.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XVII.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> less I may be blest with her company, the more I will retire to
+God, and my owne heart, whence no malice can banish her. My enemies
+may envy, but they can never deprive me of the enjoyment of her
+virtues, while I enjoy myself.—<i>Eikon Basiliké.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As the day began to dawn, and the grey winter light gradually illumed
+the narrow dirty streets, which the remains of snow rendered more than
+usually dreary, the Countess of Nithsdale wound her way to the Tower.</p>
+
+<p>It was still too early to gain admittance, or even to be allowed to
+speak with the porter. The gates were not yet opened: she stood and
+gazed till her feelings were almost intolerably excited, and then
+she paced up and down with a quick and hurried step, till, abruptly
+stopping, she pressed the arm of her faithful companion, Amy, and
+pointing to the antique building, she cried, in an accent of despair,
+"He is there, Amy, he is there, and I cannot be with him!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy looked with awe and vague fear at the spot, which, from our cradle,
+is united in our minds with the ideas of murder, the scaffold, open
+executions, and secret assassination. She trembled at the certainty
+that her dear master actually lay within its fearful precincts; and she
+turned an eye of commiseration on her lady, to think that she was, in
+sober truth, an actress in one of those tragedies of which we are apt
+to hear and read as of fictitious horrors.</p>
+
+<p>They gazed upon the thick and muddy water of the moat, upon the lofty
+wall which rose on the other side, and in which the inhabitants, of
+whose dwellings it formed a part, had here and there opened windows,
+added gabled roofs, and pieced the ancient rough stone-work with brick
+additions of their own. This patch-work took off from its antiquity and
+solemnity, without imparting to such a building any air of comfort. On
+the contrary, it spoke of long residence within the narrow limits of a
+prison.</p>
+
+<p>At length the clock struck the appointed hour, and she hastened to the
+gates to solicit an interview with the Lieutenant of the Tower.</p>
+
+<p>After some delay, the request was granted, when she received the
+answer the Duchess of Montrose had led her to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> anticipate. The orders
+were most strict that none should be allowed to visit the prisoners
+before the day appointed for pronouncing sentence upon them; but hopes
+were held out to her that she might obtain permission to share Lord
+Nithsdale's confinement.</p>
+
+<p>Had it not been for the duchess's caution, it is more than probable she
+would gladly have accepted the conditions: for to feel herself so near
+him, and yet to be withheld from seeing him;—to know that he was in
+solitude and sadness, looking only for her company to cheer him, and
+to refuse to share his prison;—to turn away when she had it in her
+power to look upon his face, to hear again that soft, deep, melodious
+voice,—alas! it was a sore trial! But she was firm in adhering to her
+resolution. Such, however, was her agitation, that as she tottered
+from the lieutenant's apartments, some of the soldiers, moved with
+compassion, offered her a seat for a few moments in the guard-room.
+One kindly brought her a cup of water, for which she did not fail to
+show her gratitude by deeds as well as words. He accompanied her to
+the outer gate; and she succeeded so well in working on his feelings
+of kindness and of self-interest, that she obtained from him a promise
+to exert himself in her behalf, and an assurance that when he was on
+guard, he would not watch too narrowly which way she passed.</p>
+
+<p>With many a lingering look towards the dismal edifice, she tore herself
+away, but it was not without a hope of compassing by stealth the
+interview which she had been refused.</p>
+
+<p>She hastened to her appointment with the duchess, when she did not
+fail to tell her how faithfully she had obeyed her injunctions, how
+resolutely she had even turned from his prison gates, when her heart
+burned to rush to her husband; but at the same time she imparted to
+her the hopes she entertained of seeing him through the means of the
+kind-hearted guard.</p>
+
+<p>"If all that is said be true," answered the duchess archly, "it is not
+so difficult to gain access to the prisoners; a golden key is often
+more potent than an iron bar! Meantime, I would advise your exerting
+all the influence you may possess with my Lord Townshend and the Duke
+of Richmond. My husband tells me they are both likely to advocate
+measures of severity; and yet I should hope the Duke of Richmond would
+remember<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> that the Earl of Derwentwater is his kinsman. The Earls of
+Danby and of Nottingham I spoke with last night, and I trust with good
+effect. They both promised they would second any petition from the
+prisoners. Some will certainly be pardoned; but, dearest cousin, we
+must exert ourselves to the utmost, and yet our zeal must be tempered
+with discretion. The earl your husband has, as I told you, many
+enemies; and I should be a false friend did I not confess to you that
+he is not one of those who are likely to be most leniently dealt with."
+Lady Nithsdale clasped her hands with such an expression of anguish
+that the duchess hastened to add, "But I know not, neither can any
+one know, in truth, what will be the sentence of the court. 'Tis all
+conjecture."</p>
+
+<p>"But why, O why, should conjecture be unfavourable to my lord?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, I cannot say. It may be—a Catholic,—his property on the very
+borders of the two countries,—his family so long attached to the
+Stuarts;—but all may yet be well. Circumstances may arise in his
+favour. Should the sentence be—be such as to blast our hopes,—they
+speak of a petition to be signed by the prisoners."</p>
+
+<p>"My lord will never put his name to anything that may savour of
+dishonour. I know not what this petition may prove; but if it is
+such as should change any sentence that may have passed, I marvel if
+it can be such as it would become my lord to sign,—or such"—she
+added emphatically,—"or such as I could wish him to sign:" her voice
+broke, and she burst into tears at thus, as it were, with her own lips
+pronouncing his doom. "His life," she continued, as if to justify
+herself for what she had uttered, "must not be preserved at the price
+of honour!" and her delicate form reared itself, and her eye glanced
+upwards, as if to seek from Heaven the strength she so much needed.</p>
+
+<p>The duchess sighed. "What a noble spirit," she thought, "is probably
+destined to be crushed! what a generous heart, in all probability, will
+be condemned to drink the bitter cup of sorrow to the very dregs!" She
+cast her dark bright eyes on the ground to conceal her emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale saw the tears glistening in her eye-lashes: "You weep,
+cousin! you are weeping for me! Alas! alas! you know his doom. You
+know the counsels of those in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> power; and you know that they are his
+inveterate foes. You fear to tell me that you know it!"</p>
+
+<p>"On my honour, I know nothing," repeated the duchess with solemnity;
+"but surely we all suspect and fear enough to draw tears from drier
+eyes and harder hearts than mine. My dear cousin knows of old, that
+a little thing will move me to smile, or to weep; so you must not
+augur ill from my childish weakness, but set it down to the account of
+Christian Montrose's variable temperament:" and she strove to smile
+through the tears which now flowed every moment faster down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>After some farther consultation between the friends they parted, and
+at dusk Lady Nithsdale again repaired to the Tower. The accommodating
+guard was in attendance. He quickly and silently admitted her through
+the wicket. As she passed under the first archway, she fancied she
+perceived another muffled female figure who glided quietly on, as
+if accustomed to the way. The sight re-assured her, as it seemed to
+confirm what the duchess had told her of the potency of a golden key.
+In silence she crossed the bridge over the moat: she looked fearfully
+on all sides, dreading lest each form she saw might be that of some
+guard more strict in the performance of his duty; and doubting whether
+in a few moments she might be blessed with the sight of her husband, or
+whether she might be driven forth despairing to her desolate lodging.</p>
+
+<p>When on the bridge, the masts of the vessels lying in the Thames were
+visible over the parapet. She could just distinguish them dark against
+the sky. She cast towards them a lingering look, and thought, "O that
+we were together on board the meanest of those vessels; together, on
+our way to life and liberty!"</p>
+
+<p>They emerged from the gloom of the second archway, and keeping under
+the shadow of the southern wall, they passed, what seemed to her, a
+considerable distance between the lofty buildings. "Those are the
+warders' apartments," whispered the guard, pointing to the high wall
+to the north: "'Tis there that most of the rebels have their lodgings;
+go straight on, till you get to the Traitor's gate,—there, to the
+right,"—she shuddered as the word was uttered, and looked fearfully as
+he directed to the portals which are only opened to admit a prisoner,
+but never to send him forth to freedom;—"when<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> you get there, turn to
+your left through the Bloody Tower,"—a more icy chill ran through her
+veins;—"then to your left again, up the steps, and you will see a girl
+who will lead you where you wish to go. I must not be seen any farther
+than this spot. I shall be on guard just an hour longer. Be sure you
+do not linger beyond that time, or you will never make your way out
+of this dismal place; and as for me! I shall pay a heavy price for my
+good-nature."</p>
+
+<p>"Would I could adequately reward you for your charity!" answered the
+countess, pouring gold into his hand;—"but Heaven will not forget this
+deed of mercy!"</p>
+
+<p>She found the girl upon the steps, as she had been led to expect, and
+she immediately followed her to a door about the centre of the building
+to the south of the court, when, bidding her wait for a moment, the
+girl disappeared. Lady Nithsdale trembled from head to foot: her heart
+seemed almost to stop its pulsations, so agonising was the fear that
+now, on the very threshold, something might occur to disappoint her
+hopes.</p>
+
+<p>Intense as was her anxiety to see her husband, as the moment actually
+approached, a dread came over her at the notion of seeing him under
+such circumstances. Her thoughts were painfully broken in upon by
+the sounds of merriment and revelry which burst from one of the
+neighbouring windows—loud songs and shouts of laughter! They jarred
+upon her ear as something out of tune, unfitting for the place or
+season, and she wondered how gaolers could be so devoid of feeling as
+to indulge in noisy jollity, within hearing of their prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The young girl quickly returned.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the moment, madam. The guards are all engaged; they are going
+to convey those prisoner lords, whom you may hear carousing within,
+back to their several apartments; and now you can slip up unperceived."</p>
+
+<p>"The axe suspended over their heads," thought Lady Nithsdale, "and this
+unseemly recklessness! and shall such as they find mercy, while my
+lord——"</p>
+
+<p>In a few seconds she had mounted the narrow stairs; passed the outer
+room, which was at that moment vacant; and the young maiden having
+gently unbolted the farther door, she found herself in her husband's
+presence!</p>
+
+<p>He was reading by a dimly burning candle, and started at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> the sound
+of footsteps; but before he could ascertain the cause of this
+interruption, his wife was on his bosom, her arms were around his neck.</p>
+
+<p>"I am here! I am with you at last! It is your own Winifred!" she
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Heaven has mercy still in store for me!" he replied.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments neither could speak. Words seemed all inadequate to
+express the strong emotions of joy, and of grief, which struggled in
+their hearts. The Earl of Nithsdale, whose mind was chastened, whose
+feelings were tempered by long confinement, was the first to recover
+his self-possession. "Now I see you, my love, I am indeed no longer
+comfortless! Oh, Winifred! I have passionately longed for this blessed
+moment! It is five long months since we parted, love;—I have counted
+the days, the hours;—there has not been one in which I have not
+required your gentle strength, your trusting patience, to support me
+or to soothe me. Thanks be to Heaven that has vouchsafed to me once
+more the joy of beholding you!"—and he lifted her gently from his
+shoulder, on which her head had sunk.—"And now let me look upon that
+dear face, and from those pure and holy eyes draw faith, submission,
+and resignation." He gazed upon her for some moments with a tenderness,
+which, as he gazed, increased in intensity. "Alas!" he suddenly
+exclaimed, and flinging his arms upon the table, he hid his face in
+his hands—"Alas! it is not thus I shall learn to submit cheerfully
+to my fate! To see you once again!—to hear that voice—to press that
+beloved form once more to my heart—to feel that if my life were
+spared, it would be to pass that life with you, for you! oh! this does
+not reconcile one to what must be——" Then checking himself, he added,
+in a calmer tone, "But are you well, my love? you have not suffered on
+your journey? And the children?—you hear of them? I know not how it
+has fared with them for many, many weeks. Poor innocents!"—And the
+thought that he should never see them more, made his voice quiver as he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they are well, and safe, and happy, in health and freedom, in a
+more favoured land than this!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked up, and a smile illumined his features; but by the dim light
+of the solitary taper his countenance looked wan,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> and the last few
+months had left deep traces of care upon his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"You are ill!" she exclaimed in affright; "you must be ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay," he replied, with gentleness, "my health is unimpaired; and now
+my Winifred is come, my spirits will soon be cheered."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! I have seen you pale before, and I have seen you sad; but never,
+never did I see you look thus!"</p>
+
+<p>"Time will do its own work, dearest! and I am older by some months than
+when you saw me last. My Winifred must not quarrel with her husband,"
+he added, smiling, "because age steals upon him with no gentle hand.
+Oh! is it not our wish, our most earnest wish, my love," he continued,
+with solemnity and tenderness, "to see each other grow old? And do you
+not think that if we should be spared to each other, years would only
+rivet still closer the bonds which unite us; that for every charm which
+may depart with youth, there would arise a thousand recollections of
+mutual kindnesses, mutual sufferings, ay, and mutual joys, (for we have
+known many days of happiness,) which would still render us more dear,
+one to the other? Methinks that when that delicate form shall have
+lost its roundness," and he passed his arm around her slender waist;
+"and when those eyes shall have lost their brilliancy, and that clear
+forehead its smoothness; when these soft curls," and he pressed to his
+lips one of the two or three long curls which, according to the fashion
+of the time, were suffered to fall on her neck,—"when these soft brown
+curls shall be mixed with grey—that my Winifred would be, if possible,
+more precious to my heart than she is even now; for I should remember
+that those eyes have been dimmed with tears for me, that smooth brow
+care-worn on my account." Lady Nithsdale wept softly, unresistingly;
+she struggled not against her tears, for she was almost unconscious
+that they flowed. "Should those blessed days ever come to us, Winifred,
+the recollection of this hour will be sweet; and should there be no
+future for me——"</p>
+
+<p>"There will be none for me," she quickly interposed; "I feel assured,"
+and she pressed her hand against her heart—"I feel assured, there
+would be none for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush, dearest!—remember the children; they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> must not be
+orphans:—but we will not unnerve ourselves. I have still much to hear:
+as yet I have thought but of myself,—I blush that private feeling
+should so wholly have engrossed me. Did you see the king? for thus I
+must still call him, though I well see that he is fated never to rule
+over this land. And I begin to think that it might not be for the
+general weal that he should do so. The sight, the actual sight of civil
+war, makes one view matters in a different light."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dearest lord, I waited on his majesty at Scone; for I imagined
+you would have wished me so to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly, assuredly!"</p>
+
+<p>"Though many whom we believed to be his most faithful adherents heeded
+not the summons to attend him, I thought that my dear lord would be the
+more anxious I should not be backward in my service."</p>
+
+<p>"My Winifred judged of my feelings as she is ever wont. And did the
+king receive you graciously?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, graciously; they told me most graciously: but I know not how it
+was; he seemed ill at case, suffering in body and in mind. He said as
+much, I suppose, as is usual and fitting; and yet, methought, under the
+circumstances, there lacked something of that warmth which might have
+relighted the expiring flame of loyalty in one's bosom."</p>
+
+<p>"The expiring flame of loyalty in your bosom, my Winifred? If I had
+spoken so, having seen all I have seen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but I have seen enough! I passed through the blackened ruins of
+the burned villages,—burned by his own orders. I saw the houseless
+inhabitants of what once were flourishing and happy homes; I saw the
+helpless children perishing in the snow, the old and the infirm without
+a shelter; I saw the desolated fields; and I had heard—oh! I had
+heard how the noblest of the land had been treated on their approach
+to this city, and I felt that it was for his sake that my husband had
+been pinioned, that his hands hail been tied with cords; for his sake
+that he had been exposed to the gibes of the multitude! And there he
+stood, cold and unmoved, and 'hoped my good lord's health continued
+unimpaired!' Oh! at that moment my loyalty died within me! and I
+felt—oh! how agonisingly did I feel—that we had sacrificed all for
+one who was little worthy of the sacrifice!"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! I have, as you know, long feared that such was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> the case. His
+spirit has been early crushed, and it does not possess the elasticity
+to spring up again. They still retain Perth. Do they expect to hold it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The proclamation orders that a public thanksgiving for King James's
+safe arrival should take place on the 26th; but there were vague
+rumours that the Earl of Mar had resolved to evacuate the town; still
+these were only rumours."</p>
+
+<p>"A thanksgiving for his safe arrival!" Lord Nithsdale repeated with
+a faint sad smile; "one for his safe departure would be more to the
+purpose, I fear. Did you see the king but once?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was on my return from Scone I received the good duchess's letter,
+and you may well imagine I did not linger on the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Some one told me the roads were impassable from the snow; that all
+carriages were stopped, and that even the post was delayed; so I did
+not look for you to cheer me yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I rode from York," she replied, "with Walter Elliot and our faithful
+Amy Evans."</p>
+
+<p>"You, Winifred, who never could be persuaded to mount the gentlest and
+best-paced palfrey!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I forgot those foolish fears, those fears which were bred of too
+much happiness, and of being too tenderly cared for; I never thought of
+any fear but one—that of being delayed on my journey."</p>
+
+<p>"My own love! that soul of thine will ever have the mastery over that
+fragile form."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark! The clock strikes. I have but a few moments more. The hour is
+wearing away. I have seen the duchess, and she has told me to whom I
+must most strenuously apply; and she has warned me that I must not
+do what, as you may well believe, my heart would prompt,—share your
+prison. I must be at liberty to act in your service: but I have bribed
+a kindly guard, and he will admit me when it is possible. I understand
+others, without the holy claim I have, gain access to some within
+the walls: so trust me, I shall soon be here again; and, as I hope,
+with news to cheer us both." Lord Nithsdale shook his head slightly,
+but then, with an assumed cheerfulness, listened to what she had to
+communicate. "Lord Danby and Lord Nottingham are friendly; the Duke of
+Richmond, though not friendly, cannot be forward in the prosecution,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>
+related as he is to Lord Derwentwater; and I feel persuaded the next
+news from Scotland will be such as to quiet the fears of government."</p>
+
+<p>"And is the time come when one calculates upon the failure of the cause
+to which oneself and all one's house have ever been devoted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay! can I now think of any cause but my own dear lord's? such days
+are past, and gone forever! To accomplish all that may he compassed
+with honour is now my first, my only object!" and she tore herself from
+the husband who, whatever might be her devotion to him, repaid her with
+the love and reverence he might feel for a guardian angel.</p>
+
+<p>She was gone! He remained in his solitude, gazing upon the door through
+which she had disappeared, and almost doubting whether he had been
+blessed with her actual presence, or whether it had not been a cheering
+vision vouchsafed to him in mercy.</p>
+
+<p>How often had he thought that were she near to console and to support
+him, he could meet his fate without a murmur. He fancied that the
+bitterest part of his present condition was the entire separation
+from her who was the partner of all his feelings, the depositary of
+his sorrows, the sharer of his anxieties. But alas! while life was so
+dreary, so joyless, so irksome, it was far less precious to him than
+when the sight of her had brought before him all he was to lose. He was
+sad, hopeless, resigned before. He felt that, if wrong, he had not been
+wilfully so in the course he had pursued; he consoled himself with the
+reflection that no stain could rest on his fair fame; that, though his
+name might be attainted, he left behind him to his children a character
+of unblemished honour. He had deliberately, and with little hope of any
+better result than the present, upheld the pretensions of the prince
+for whom he was now suffering; and he felt it would not become him to
+repine at an event to which he had always looked forward as probable.</p>
+
+<p>An honourable death in battle, a more awful one on the scaffold, or at
+best an eternal banishment, were the alternatives which he had ever
+contemplated; and he thought he had schooled his mind to acquiesce
+calmly in the fulfilment of that which awaited him, although it might
+be the least welcome of the three.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span></p>
+
+<p>Once more to see his beloved wife, to pour forth all his thoughts
+and feelings into her bosom, to deliver to her his last injunctions
+concerning his children, to arrange with her some plan for her future
+life, to give and to receive the last adieux, and then placidly and
+composedly to lay his head upon the block,—such had been the course in
+which he had guided his feelings and his reflections.</p>
+
+<p>He had seen her! He had felt how dearly he was loved! He had felt what
+charms life still possessed for him! He had also felt how utterly
+impossible it was that she could ever acquiesce as he did in his fate,
+how completely her happiness was bound up in his! And where were
+now the resignation,—the cheerful submission,—the philosophical
+indifference with which he had brought himself to anticipate his
+probable sentence?</p>
+
+<p>Never since the first night he had become an inmate of the Tower, had
+he experienced such a struggle of conflicting feelings! The picture
+which he had himself drawn of the gradual approach of age, of the
+happiness of descending hand in hand into the vale of years, had
+awakened a desire of life which he had hoped no longer lurked within
+his bosom, and it required the aid of prayer to subdue, and all the
+pride of man to conceal, the agitation of his mind.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XVIII.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>It is God's indulgence which gives me the space, but man's cruelty
+that gives me the sad occasion for these thoughts.—<i>Eikon
+Basiliké.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> greater part of the night which succeeded the Earl of Nithsdale's
+interview with his wife, was spent by him in restlessly measuring with
+hasty strides the mean apartment to which he was confined.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning he obtained permission to refresh himself by walking
+on the leads over the warders' lodgings, an indulgence occasionally
+granted to the prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The fresher air, all chilly as it was, and loaded with London smoke,
+revived him; and as he paced the narrow limits, his eye turned
+involuntarily towards the vessels which crowded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> the river up to
+London Bridge. As he watched, he saw one who sesails were beginning
+to be unfurled, while all was bustle, hurry, and confusion on board:
+she was getting under weigh, and he sighed to think how impossible to
+be surmounted were the obstacles which interposed between him and the
+vessel which seemed so near.</p>
+
+<p>His eye dropped, and rested on the Traitor's Gate, and he almost
+thought he once more heard the jarring sound of the iron bolts and bars
+which had closed behind him.</p>
+
+<p>As his eye passed on, it was arrested by the Bloody Tower, which, as
+some say, was the spot in which the tragic murder of the young princes
+was enacted. "They knew not the pains of life," he thought, "neither
+knew they its joys! They knew not that mutual affection which so
+painfully yet so sweetly attaches one to existence! But there," and he
+looked upon the stone which marks the place where Lord Guildford Dudley
+and Lady Jane Grey were executed,—"there did two pure creatures, bound
+to each other by every holy tie of faith and love, yield up their
+innocent spirits. They who had scarcely tasted of happiness,—the cup
+was snatched from their lips ere they could fully know its sweetness!
+They would have esteemed themselves most blessed, could they have been
+assured of as many years of mutual affection, of wedded bliss, as I
+have already enjoyed. Alas for ye, innocent victims of the ambition of
+others! when I remember you, I must not repine! And there, again!" as
+his thoughts followed the objects on which his eye dwelt,—"that was
+the prison of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn,—wounded in her affections,
+in her honour,—pampered with flattery, surrounded with pomp, enervated
+by splendour, only to be the more cruelly and suddenly plunged into
+the depths of misery and disgrace. No! no! I must not repine!"—and he
+again schooled his mind to resignation and submission. "I have neither
+met with falsehood nor with ingratitude! my honour is not impeached! I
+must not, will not, repine!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale meanwhile was not inactive. She visited the Countesses
+of Derwentwater and Wintoun; and they agreed that, should the sentence
+not prove favourable, they would together present a petition to
+parliament, and in the intervening space of time that each should exert
+her private influence with those in power, to win as many as possible
+to their interest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span></p>
+
+<p>She visited her husband's cousin, the Duchess of Buccleugh, and
+obtained the duke's promise to present a petition should the necessity
+occur; and having taken every measure that prudence could dictate, she
+had but to await in tremulous anxiety the sentence which was to be
+pronounced on the 9th of February.</p>
+
+<p>She frequently contrived to see her lord, though she was always obliged
+to do so by stealth. These visits, although so ardently desired by
+both, were to both hours of bitter anguish.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Nithsdale, fully aware of the feeling which prevailed
+against him, anticipated but too justly the sentence which would be
+pronounced, and could not bring himself to echo the hopeful sentiments
+with which his wife buoyed up her spirits; neither had he the heart
+fully to express to her his own more gloomy apprehensions.</p>
+
+<p>He listened to the details of all she had done, and all she projected,
+with a gentle, hopeless gratitude, which saddened and dispirited her;
+although she could not, she would not, adopt his view of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>This produced a certain reserve. She felt he restrained his own
+feelings for her sake, that he smothered the anticipations of which
+she could not endure to hear the utterance; and the open communion
+of thought was at an end! She dared not allude to the future, his
+countenance so plainly expressed there was no future for him; and they
+both shrunk from a recurrence to the joys of that dear home which
+neither hoped again to inhabit.</p>
+
+<p>To a third person it would often have appeared strange that, under such
+circumstances, a wedded pair, so devotedly attached, should be able to
+dwell at such length upon the public affairs of the day, and to discuss
+with so much interest the movements in Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>But the earl could not be indifferent as to what befel the prince to
+whom he had sacrificed himself; while Lady Nithsdale, on the contrary,
+since her interview with the Chevalier, in which her feelings had
+been so little gratified, had looked on him as the unworthy object
+for which her happiness had been wrecked. As her sorrows pressed more
+heavily upon her, she felt more and more that he had seemed careless
+of the sufferings of others. As her fears increased, and as her hopes
+diminished, she more and more resented the cold inquiry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> after "the
+health of the earl her husband;" and the behaviour, which at the time
+had only seemed measured and unsatisfactory, assumed, as she dwelt upon
+it, the character of selfish hardness.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! the keen edge of sensibility must have been blunted long ere
+this in the heart of the unfortunate Chevalier de St. George! Inured
+to misfortune, he appears to have been stupified by it. With the
+resolution already taken to evacuate Perth, three days after that
+appointed for the general thanksgiving, did the infatuated prince carry
+on the pageant of royalty.</p>
+
+<p>The address then offered up—"O Lord, who hast preserved and brought
+back our dread sovereign King James safely into his own dominions, to
+the comfort of all those who, in obedience to thy holy word, 'fear
+God and honour the king'"—could to none present have appeared a more
+sickening mockery than to the dispirited, despairing descendant of a
+hundred kings.</p>
+
+<p>Surrounded by a scanty train of heart-broken attendants, in the midst
+of those very counsellors who had declared the absolute necessity of
+abandoning the only town of importance which they yet held,—the very
+spot where they were assembled in prayer and thanksgiving,—did he
+listen to the words, "Bow the hearts of all his subjects as one man, so
+that they may only contend who shall be the first to bring the king to
+his own house."</p>
+
+<p>When, upon the approach of the Duke of Argyle, a vague rumour arose,
+that it was purposed to retire before the enemy without striking a
+blow, the indignation of the Highlanders knew no bounds. The love of
+fighting, inherent in that hardy race, had caused them to look forward
+with joy and alacrity to the desperate conflict which they imagined to
+be approaching.</p>
+
+<p>But when they found that the unwelcome report was only too true grief
+and disappointment turned all to rage, and they assailed their officers
+as they passed in the streets with every species of reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do?" was the answer of one who was supposed to be
+intimately acquainted with the counsels of the Earl of Mar.</p>
+
+<p>"Do!" replied the Highlander. "Let us do that for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> which we were called
+in arms, which certainly was not to run away."</p>
+
+<p>Nor was the retreat carried into effect without meeting with strenuous
+and vehement opposition, even in the council of the Chevalier;
+although, after much violence of discussion, at length it was agreed by
+the majority, that to attempt the defence of Perth would be an act of
+desperate chivalry.</p>
+
+<p>To appease the feelings of those who appeared most irritated, it was
+given out that a halt was to take place at Aberdeen, where supplies of
+foreign troops were expected.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the 30th of January, the anniversary of his grandfather's
+martyrdom, that the Chevalier's Highland army filed off upon the ice,
+which, as the Earl of Mar had anticipated, rendered the Tay, if of no
+avail as a protection, no impediment to the movement which he even then
+projected.</p>
+
+<p>The town was immediately occupied by a body of the Duke of Argyle's
+dragoons. The Chevalier arrived at the sea-port town of Montrose, from
+whence it was his intention to make his escape by sea. To mask his
+design of thus relinquishing his ill-concerted attempt, and abandoning
+the faithful few who still adhered to him, his equipage and horses
+were brought out before the gate of his lodgings, and his guards were
+mounted as if to proceed on the journey to Aberdeen.</p>
+
+<p>But before the hour appointed for the march, James had secretly gained
+the shore, and, accompanied by the Earl of Mar, had safely reached a
+small vessel which had been prepared for their reception. Thus did
+he for the second time abandon the shores of that land over which so
+many of his ancestors had reigned, and in which so many of them had
+given proofs of personal prowess and manly courage. As some of his
+cotemporaries have observed, the only purpose accomplished by this
+expedition seems to have been that of bringing off in safety his
+general, the Earl of Mar.</p>
+
+<p>On General Gordon devolved the unwelcome and difficult task of leading
+to Aberdeen the remains of the Highland army, who were only restrained
+from acts of insubordination by knowing that the Duke of Argyle's
+forces hung upon their rear. At Aberdeen a sealed letter, which
+had been entrusted to General Gordon, was opened according to the
+Chevalier's instructions. In this, after expressing his thanks for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>
+faithful services of his adherents, he gave them full permission to
+treat with the enemy, or to disperse to their several homes, as might
+best suit the exigency of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the rebellion, which proved so fatal to many of the noblest
+houses both of England and Scotland! And the Countess of Nithsdale felt
+almost relieved when each day brought intelligence of the hopeless
+condition of the insurgents; for she judged, not unwisely, that the
+less cause there remained to fear them, the less need would there exist
+of intimidating them by measures of severity.</p>
+
+<p>The 9th of February, on which day the lords were to receive their
+sentence in Westminster Hall, was fast approaching. On the 8th, Lady
+Nithsdale passed some hours with her husband. The hopes to which she
+had so long and so pertinaciously clung had gradually given way before
+the cold and constrained demeanour with which all her inquiries and
+intercessions had been met. Evasive answers, professions of inability
+to be of service to her under the present circumstances, declarations
+that they must not flatter her, were all the satisfaction she could
+procure from those who might be supposed to know the probable decision
+of the court.</p>
+
+<p>The earl, always hopeless, looked upon the worn and anxious countenance
+of his wife, till every feeling for himself was lost in commiseration
+for her wretchedness: "It will be better for you, my love, when it is
+all over."</p>
+
+<p>"What mean you?" she replied quickly, wilfully misapprehending his
+meaning, which it would have been too painful to comprehend, and
+vaguely trusting that he would not dare to explain his thoughts more
+clearly.</p>
+
+<p>"I only mean, this state of suspense, dearest Winifred, has almost worn
+you out. I shall be glad when the morrow is past, for any certainty is
+preferable to suspense; though," he added in a lower tone, "I cannot
+say it is suspense that I feel."</p>
+
+<p>"Spare me, spare me!" she said; "to-morrow is soon enough! But there is
+hope!—There must be hope! Man is not a wild beast that he should find
+pleasure in destruction! When self-preservation no longer impels to
+cruelty, human sympathies will again influence the heart. James's hasty
+retreat must set their fears at rest. I must—I will hope!"</p>
+
+<p>"Against all reason, dearest!" he added, with a smile,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> taking her
+cold passive hand in his. "My Winifred's firm and well-ordered mind
+has always hitherto been the stay and the support of mine: it has
+been from her gentle lips that I have learned true piety and real
+submission; from her that I have learned, or tried to learn, to bend
+my will to the decrees of Providence! Her support will not now, in my
+utmost need, be withdrawn from me! she will not make my task more hard!
+neither will she say or do aught that shall unsettle my mind, or render
+me unfit for what is to be done to-morrow. She would not have her
+husband appear in Westminster Hall before his assembled peers, before
+the court, and before the people of England, with excited feelings and
+nerves unstrung! And trust me, when I gaze on you, it is no easy task
+to face death with composure, and to brace my mind to hear unmoved the
+sentence which awaits me to-morrow. The love of life, of life with
+you, is only too strong within this bosom. Speak not to me of hope! I
+must not admit the notion; but speak to me of that heaven where we may
+be re-united! Tell me that by unrepining submission I may best make
+myself worthy of once more meeting you, my love; tell me that life is
+short, and that we have already enjoyed many years of happiness; that
+we have already mounted the hill, that we must soon descend it; that
+probably we have known the best years of our existence; that before us
+may be a future of sickness, sorrow, suffering,—the death of friends!
+the loss of children!" He paused; then overcome with pity, he added,
+in a broken voice, "Alas, alas! and shall your gentleness be left to
+meet these sorrows alone? to buffet with fortune alone? Oh, my poor,
+poor Winifred! pardon me for having indulged in such sad anticipations;
+pardon me for having pictured sorrows which can only be alleviated
+by being shared! for sickness would not to me be suffering if tended
+by you! grief would lose half its sting if you were near to whisper
+consolation; and who but the beloved of one's heart can administer
+comfort under the other deprivations to which I so cruelly alluded?
+Alas for you, my poor, poor Winifred!"</p>
+
+<p>And the composure which he had so striven to preserve completely gave
+way when he thus painted to himself the desolation of her whom he
+should leave behind. He pressed the hand he still held to his lips; and
+the tears which he could no longer restrain, fell fast upon it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush! not another word," she said; "I will speak neither words
+of hope nor fear! my own noble lord shall bear himself in the sight
+of his fellows as it is fitting he should. No weakness of mine shall
+enervate that manly mind; though my heart-strings crack, I will be
+composed and firm. And now we will part for the night; we will each
+to our prisons: prayer and solitude will best strengthen us for the
+morrow. Should your anticipations prove only too correct, there is yet
+much to be done, and I will seek confidence and calmness from that
+Heaven who will, I trust, take thee this night, and ever, into its holy
+keeping!"</p>
+
+<p>"Amen to thy good wishes, love!"</p>
+
+
+<p>END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">VOLUME THE SECOND.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="ph2">WINIFRED, COUNTESS OF NITHSDALE.</p>
+
+<p class="ph6">(CONTINUED.)</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XIX.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The heroine assumed the woman's place,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confirm'd her mind, and fortified her face.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Dryden.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Lady Nithsdale arrived at her lodgings, she there found Mrs.
+Morgan, who from the moment she first, through Amy Evans's means,
+became acquainted with her, had proved herself a kind friend, and a
+strenuous and efficient agent.</p>
+
+<p>As the countess entered the apartment, the haggard expression of her
+countenance struck the little party of friends who had been awaiting
+her return. Amy hastened to support her lady, whose steps appeared
+to totter as she advanced. "Thanks, dear Amy; but I need not your
+assistance," she replied, with a forced composure: "I am not ill, my
+good girl; I do not need these attentions; I am well and strong. You do
+not know how strong I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"Would not your ladyship be better near the fire?" inquired Mrs. Mills,
+rising from her chair; "the evening is chilly."</p>
+
+<p>"Disturb not yourself, my good friend; I am well here;" replied Lady
+Nithsdale, sinking into a seat.</p>
+
+<p>"How fares it with my lord, madam?—Is he of good cheer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Amy, right well; he is well in health, and will bear himself
+gallantly to-morrow, as the grandson of the brave defender of
+Caerlaverock castle should bear himself," answered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> the countess,
+with a forced air of resolution; for she had employed Mrs. Morgan to
+procure for her a seat in some obscure part of Westminster Hall, from
+whence she might be a witness of the trial; and she feared, if she now
+betrayed any weakness or emotion, even the yielding Mrs. Morgan might
+not comply with her wishes.</p>
+
+<p>"And now I must ask my dear Mrs. Morgan, whether her friend the Earl of
+Dorset has been as good as his word;—may we hope for seats in the Hall
+to-morrow?" she inquired, in a tone which she meant should be steady.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dearest Lady Nithsdale; he says that if you really are resolved
+upon being present, he can accommodate us; for you must allow me to
+accompany you, and also our faithful Mrs. Evans; I could not allow you
+to stir without her."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Amy! no; I am too well assured of her affection not to be
+always the better if she is near." Lady Nithsdale's eyes were for a
+moment suffused, for it often happens that a slight emotion draws tears
+which are frozen in their cells by stronger and deeper ones. "The spot
+is a retired one, I trust; not within sight of the prisoners: I would
+not that my lord should guess or suspect that I was present!"—she
+clasped her hands,—"it might unman him; his voice might falter; his
+lips might quiver; and the world might fancy it could be through fear!
+Oh! he must not, must not see me!" she repeated with earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought of that," replied the considerate Mrs. Morgan, "and the
+seats provided are near the door—a back entrance—through which you
+may easily withdraw whenever you may see fit. But still I doubt whether
+I am a true friend in assisting you in this business. I fear it is
+rather yielding weakness, than true kindness, as my poor father used to
+say.—The scene will be too much for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did not Lady Russell act as her lord's secretary during his trial?
+Woman's affection in her over-came woman's weakness. She wavered not,
+she trembled not, at the time;—though afterwards she wept herself
+blind!—And was her husband more worthy of a wife's devotion than is
+mine? Did she, could she, love him with more passionate fervour than
+I do my own dear, dear, noble lord?—Oh no! for she had loved before;
+he was not the first and only object of the concentrated affection of
+a whole life! She had been bound by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> previous ties! She had known joys
+and sorrows unconnected with him; but I—my existence was a blank till
+it was wound up in his! Depend upon it, dear Mrs. Morgan, what woman's
+love has done, what woman's love can do, the love that warms this bosom
+can accomplish! You need not doubt me. I will not expose myself, nor
+you, to observation or remark."</p>
+
+<p>The colour had returned into her pale cheeks, her eye gleamed with a
+holy brilliancy, her brow assumed an air of lofty resolution, and all
+present felt assured that, however strong might be her feelings of
+tenderness, she possessed the courage which could subdue them to her
+will.</p>
+
+<p>The next day she found herself, as had been previously arranged, in
+the seats prepared by the Earl of Dorset, who himself conducted them
+through the crowd. The Earl of Pembroke also, who was nearly related to
+the Powis family, was not wanting in every kindness and attention.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess of Nithsdale's deportment was perfectly collected. The
+dress of the day, which allowed much of the form to be concealed by a
+black silk mantle, and the face to be buried in the hood, enabled her
+to escape all observation.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable time elapsed before those of whom the court was composed
+were seated in their due order, and that the prisoners were summoned.
+She had time to look round with awe upon the innumerable heads with
+which the floor of the Hall seemed, as it were, to be paved.</p>
+
+<p>At one o'clock, the gates at the end of the vast and antique building
+were thrown open, and the lords entered walking two and two. Then
+followed the Garter King at arms, and other officers of the crown, in
+their robes of state. Then the masters in chancery. The Lord Chancellor
+Cowper, Lord High Steward on the occasion, walked alone, his train
+being borne by his attendants to the wool-pack, on which he seated
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>The peers then uncovered themselves; and they, as well as all others
+present, stood uncovered during the time occupied by the reading of the
+commission.</p>
+
+<p>All listened in breathless silence. The moment was awful in itself; but
+the accompaniments of solemnity and state rendered it, if possible,
+more so.</p>
+
+<p>When the commission was gone through, the serjeant-at-arms cried with a
+loud voice, "God save the king!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span></p>
+
+<p>These words excited an undefinable sensation in the bosom of Lady
+Nithsdale. She felt in good sooth that he, in whom resided the power to
+call together and to control the imposing assemblage before her, was
+monarch of the realm. She felt that he, for whose sake they were placed
+in their present desperate situation, had proved himself little worthy
+of their devotion;—yet the words grated harshly on her ear,—her heart
+still refused to acknowledge them.</p>
+
+<p>The herald, and gentleman usher of the black rod, after making three
+reverences, kneeling, presented the white staff to his grace, who,
+attended by the herald, black rod, and the seal-bearer, made his
+proper reverences to the throne, and removed from the wool-pack to an
+arm-chair which was placed on the uppermost step but one of the throne,
+when, seating himself, he delivered the staff to the gentleman usher of
+the black rod, who stood on his right hand, while the seal-bearer held
+the purse, standing on the left.</p>
+
+<p>After a proclamation enjoining silence under pain of imprisonment, the
+serjeant-at-arms proceeded: "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Lieutenant of the Tower
+of London, bring forth your prisoners to the bar, according to the
+order of the House of Lords to you directed."</p>
+
+<p>Each of these words fell, as it were, actually, palpably, knocking upon
+Lady Nithsdale's heart. For a moment she wondered how she could have
+willingly placed herself in her present situation; but she remembered
+the strong motives she had to try her powers of self-command, and she
+also remembered her promise to Mrs. Morgan, and she subdued the rising
+tumult of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>Her companions, also breathless with anxiety, stole a fearful glance
+towards her as the prisoners were brought to the bar by the deputy
+governor of the Tower. When the axe, which was brought before them
+by the gentleman jailer, first made its appearance, they saw Lady
+Nithsdale for a moment close her eyes, as if unable to endure the
+sight; but she recovered herself, and when her lord himself made his
+appearance, her looks were so intently fixed upon him, that it may be
+questioned whether her powers of vision took in any other object.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners, when they approached the bar (after kneeling), bowed
+to his grace the Lord High Steward, and to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> House of Peers, which
+compliment was returned to them both by his grace and by the House of
+Peers.</p>
+
+<p>The Lord High Steward then ordered the articles of impeachment to be
+read; after which, he asked them severally what they had to say for
+themselves why judgment should not pass upon them according to law?</p>
+
+<p>Lord Derwentwater spoke at some length; and after him the Earl of
+Nithsdale, and the Viscount Kenmure. They all pleaded guilty; but
+expressed their hope that the assurances of clemency held out to them
+at Preston would not prove fallacious.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale concluded with professing, what his wife well knew he
+spoke in sincerity and truth, that if mercy were extended towards him,
+"he should, during the remainder of his life, pay the utmost duty and
+gratitude to his most gracious majesty, and the highest veneration and
+respect to their lordships and the honourable House of Commons."</p>
+
+<p>The Lord High Steward, who did not hear distinctly, inquired whether
+the Earl of Nithsdale had pleaded anything in arrest of judgment; to
+which the earl replied in a clear sonorous voice, whose mellow tones
+seemed to thrill through the whole assembly, "No, my lords, I have not!"</p>
+
+<p>The Lord High Steward then stood up. Every breathing was hushed!
+Such stillness reigned throughout the dense mass of living creatures
+congregated within the spacious hall, that each rain-drop might be
+heard as it pattered against the windows. But there came a singing,
+rushing sound in Lady Nithsdale's ears: at first she could scarcely
+distinguish the awful words which were slowly, clearly, solemnly
+pronounced.</p>
+
+<p>"The sentence of the law must be the same as is usually given
+against the meanest offenders in the like kind. The most ignominious
+and painful parts are usually omitted by the grace of the crown
+to persons of your quality; but the law in this case, being deaf
+to all distinctions of persons, requires I should pronounce, and
+accordingly it is adjudged by this court, that you James Earl
+of Derwentwater,"—the Lord High Steward paused between each
+name,—"William Lord Widdrington,"—her husband's had not yet been
+pronounced; the countess leaned breathlessly forward,—"William Earl of
+Nithsdale,"—she covered her face with her hands, but she spoke not;
+she did not sob, she did not faint; her companions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> would have led her
+out, but she motioned them to be still. The Lord High Steward meanwhile
+continued in the same clear and unmoved voice,—"Richard Earl of
+Carnwarth, William Viscount Kenmure, and William Lord Nairne, and every
+of you, return to the prison of the Tower, from whence you came; from
+thence you must be drawn to the place of execution: when you come there
+you must be hanged by the neck, but not till you be dead, for you must
+be cut down alive; then your bowels must be taken out, and burnt before
+your faces." They looked again upon the unfortunate countess; but she
+had fainted with her back supported against the wall, and she had not,
+it is hoped, heard the last few words. They feared to excite attention,
+and they sustained her in the position in which she sat, till in the
+general movement of the court breaking up, they might be able to remove
+her quietly from the dreadful scene. Still the same stern and brazen
+voice proceeded:—</p>
+
+<p>"Then your heads must be severed from your bodies, divided each into
+four quarters, and these must be at the king's disposal. And God
+Almighty be merciful to your souls!"</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant-at-arms then repeated: "Oyez! Our sovereign lord the king
+strictly charges and commands all manner of persons to keep silence
+upon pain of imprisonment." After which the Lord High Steward stood up
+uncovered, and declaring there was nothing more to be done by virtue of
+the present commission, broke the staff, and pronounced it dissolved.</p>
+
+<p>For some moments after the whole was concluded, the silence which had
+been so strictly but so needlessly enjoined continued unbroken. The
+prisoners, the peers, and all the court, then retired in order as they
+entered, and an universal buzz of voices and general movement took
+place.</p>
+
+<p>There were sounds of sorrow; feelings long repressed found vent; and in
+the confusion, Mrs. Morgan and Amy Evans removed Lady Nithsdale into
+the freer air. She gradually revived, but at first she looked wildly
+around.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas!" said Mrs. Morgan, "I have been to blame in yielding to your
+wishes. How could I permit you to expose yourself to such a scene? and
+all the while I felt assured that you miscalculated your own strength.
+Oh! it was too dreadful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" answered the countess; "I know all—you need<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> not tell me; I
+heard enough; I knew it, I expected it. And now I must remember all I
+had previously resolved upon."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the Lords Pembroke and Dorset approached, with
+countenances expressive of deep commiseration. She pressed both their
+hands in silence. They conducted her down the steps to the coach which
+awaited her. Before she entered it, she turned to them:—</p>
+
+<p>"You have each promised me your good offices in case of need. That hour
+of need is fast approaching; you will not forget your promises!"</p>
+
+<p>They bowed assent upon her hand; and having respectfully, nay almost
+reverently, placed her in the carriage, they turned hastily away to
+conceal the emotion which overpowered them.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XX.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Certainly</span> virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are
+incensed, or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but
+adversity doth best discover virtue.—<i>Lord Bacon's Essays.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Morgan and Amy Evans expected that the control which the
+unfortunate Countess of Nithsdale had as yet exercised over her
+feelings would have completely given way when no longer exposed to the
+gaze of indifferent persons: they prepared themselves for tears and
+fainting; and were surprised when Lady Nithsdale, although silent,
+remained firm and collected.</p>
+
+<p>Reared in a foreign convent, from which she had only been removed to a
+retired Welsh castle, and from thence to a life of domestic privacy in
+Scotland, or, if she occasionally mingled in the busy world, accustomed
+to look up to her lord for advice, to hang upon him for support, to
+rely on his judgment for the guidance of her own, it seems wonderful
+that under such trying circumstances as those in which she was placed,
+she should have possessed the worldly wisdom, the courage, the
+discretion, and the decision, to act for herself and for her husband,
+and to proceed, without wavering or irresolution, to take every measure
+that prudence could dictate.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached Lady Nithsdale's lodgings, the kind-hearted Mrs.
+Morgan took her leave, after having given Amy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> and Mrs. Mills a
+thousand directions and injunctions as to the tenderness with which the
+countess should be treated, the possets which she hoped might compose
+her to sleep, and the julap which should be placed by her bed-side.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale listened to all her good-natured counsels with a
+placidity which astonished and almost alarmed Amy Evans, although to
+Mrs. Morgan it appeared but the effect of exhaustion, and, as she
+trusted, only augured that she might be restored by some calm and
+refreshing sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Amy, who better knew her mistress, and knew that with increased danger
+and distress her strength and courage proportionably rose, was not
+surprised when, upon Mrs. Morgan's departure, and Mrs. Mills's leaving
+them to prepare the posset so earnestly recommended, Lady Nithsdale
+laid her hand upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Amy, your true affection, in which I have the utmost
+confidence,—I rely on it almost as on my own to my lord,—now it is
+going to be put to the test. He must not die! and we must save him!
+you and I, Amy, must save him! You start, and look as though you
+feared that all I have heard and seen this day" (she pressed her hand
+over her eyes) "had turned my brain, but it is not so; for many weeks
+I have considered the plan, which is now almost matured within my
+head. Prisoners have made their escape from places as strong and as
+well guarded, before now! If others have succeeded in rescuing those
+most dear to them, why should not we succeed? Promise me, my good and
+faithful Amy, that you will assist me to the utmost of your power; and,
+above all, promise that you will offer no argument to dissuade me from
+my purpose. I tell you before-hand it will be of no avail: should you
+refuse to serve me, it will only drive me to confide in others who will
+not deserve my confidence so well."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, madam! do you doubt me? and do you think Amy Evans would leave
+undone what others could be found to do? I started, for I remembered
+those high walls, that broad deep moat, those guards who pace about
+each avenue to the Tower, and I thought what could we hope to effect?
+But, madam, command me, and I will diligently execute your behests, and
+scrupulously keep your counsel."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, dear Amy; I was fully assured you would prove<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> true, and I
+know not why I spoke for a moment as if I could doubt your devotion.
+Forgive me! but the necessity is so absolute that all who meddle in
+this undertaking should be able to answer for themselves under all
+circumstances, that I would not have you enter into it thoughtlessly,
+or unadvisedly. Even myself, to-day, I thought I could have heard
+unmoved, or at least without betraying emotion, the horrible, horrible
+words that were uttered; but I misjudged my own strength, my woman's
+nerves failed! And yet I bore a great deal, Amy, and wavered not. I
+saw the axe, the glittering axe; and I saw my lord, and I heard his
+voice; and I heard part of that sentence! I bore much without betraying
+myself; and, at last, I was only stunned, confused, for a time. Yes,
+I think I may rely on my own fortitude; and you, Amy, you never for a
+moment lost your self-command,—and you have always had a ready wit;
+oh, we shall succeed, I am sure we shall!"</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven grant we may, my honoured lady! If zeal and perseverance can
+effect my lord's preservation, we shall succeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Then listen:—You must purchase at various shops, and on various
+occasions, not to excite suspicion, all that is necessary for female
+dress, and we must make it up, complete, the size to fit my lord. I
+have one in my thoughts whom he may personate: she is very tall; and
+though slender, her present condition makes her appear more stout than
+usual, when wrapt in a loose cloak. She suspects not my design,—nor
+must she;—for she is timid, and might betray all by her fears. She
+must not know till too far engaged to retreat.—And now, Amy, send
+Walter Elliot to the Tower to inquire of the lieutenant at what hour
+to-morrow the Countess of Nithsdale may be admitted to visit her lord.
+I am informed that, after the sentence, we are to be allowed to see the
+prisoners freely; and it will be best we should do this openly. Alas!
+the hardest task of all will be to work on my lord to consent."</p>
+
+<p>"And, madam, think you I also shall be admitted to see my lord?"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly, I hope so; I trust we shall procure admission for many of
+his friends: it is upon that understanding I build my hopes. I have
+been informed that when sentence is once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> passed, such has usually
+been the custom. And now away; let us be stirring. I would there were
+something to be done every hour in the day. It is in solitude and
+inaction that my sorrows press upon me most heavily. But to-night there
+is no more I can effect; I must even wait for the morrow!"</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the Earl of Nithsdale had been reconducted to his lodgings
+in the Tower, he heard the striking of the chapel-clock: "It is now
+more than an hour," he thought, "since the court broke up. By this time
+the news has reached her. By this time my dear wife knows my sentence,
+and those hopes which she was resolved to cherish, and which she never
+would allow me gradually to undermine, have been destroyed at one rude
+blow. Would I could know how it fares with her, how she supports the
+shock! To-morrow I shall see her; and strange is it, but I dread to
+see her—I dread the sight of her despair. Oh! were it not better to
+pass unloved into the grave, than to feel that one's fate inflicts such
+exquisite anguish on her, to spare whom a pang such as she now suffers,
+one would willingly endure any lengthened torture. Yet could I wish to
+lose one particle of that affection which alone suffices to make life
+so precious? It may be cruel,—it may be selfish;—but no! I cannot
+wish her love to be less! After all, we part but for a time! I do not
+doubt that we shall meet where the weary are at rest. And now that
+all hope is over, my Winifred will assist me to prepare my soul for
+the great change; and she will bear to speak placidly and composedly
+of those happy regions where the fear of parting will never embitter
+the enjoyment of each other's presence! and I shall be able calmly and
+cheerfully to fulfil my destiny, if I can see her resigned!"</p>
+
+<p>But when the morrow came, and Lady Nithsdale was admitted, he found
+her far indeed from placidly acquiescing in the fate which he esteemed
+unavoidable; but neither was she bewildered with despair, nor
+dissolved in tears: she was altogether different from anything he had
+anticipated. Her cheeks were flushed, her eye was brilliant, her manner
+resolved. He was surprised; but he rejoiced that his own fortitude was
+not put to the trial he had dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>"My Winifred will assist her husband to bear himself as becomes a man
+and a good Catholic: I see she will avoid unnerving me by her grief;
+and among my many causes of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> gratitude to her, I may still add this,
+that she will smooth my passage to a better world. Thanks, my own love,
+thanks!"</p>
+
+<p>"And does my lord imagine I could speak, stand, look, move, as I now
+do, if I believed it would be carried into effect—that sentence, that
+horrible sentence! For I was there—I was in Westminster Hall—I heard
+it; I saw the axe! and I saw you, my own dear husband,—I saw you, and
+I heard your voice,—that voice which thrilled through all the court,
+which must have penetrated to the inmost recesses of every heart!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Winifred! I could almost chide my best beloved for having
+wantonly, without any adequate motive, exposed her feelings to so
+needless a trial!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was not needlessly; it was not without a motive that I did so: I
+had the strongest earthly motive. It was with a view of ascertaining
+my own strength, my fortitude, that I courted what I should otherwise
+have shrunk from. It was with a view to the accomplishment of that
+plan which I have long been forming, and which not all the arguments
+you can adduce shall prevent me from pursuing. It was with a view to
+self-preservation,—for is not my life wound up in yours? Think you, in
+honest truth, think you, I can exist without you? Do you not believe
+that if you perish, I shall not survive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay, my love," he replied, almost smiling at her vehemence, "I
+do believe your affection for me is as strong as ever warmed the pure
+soul of devoted woman; still I cannot but think and hope that you will
+live many, many years, to be a guide and a protectress to our children.
+Remember, you but share the fate of many other fond and loving wives!
+Have not the other condemned lords wives, fond and loving wives; and
+must not they endure——?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no! Speak not of them! they do not, cannot love their husbands
+as I love you; for have they husbands so worthy of their love? What is
+the wild Lord Wintoun, the Lord Kenmure, or the good old Lord Nairne?
+The Lord Derwentwater, I grant you, is a worthy gentleman;—but what
+are they, any of them, when compared with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"But, my sweet Winifred, to die is the doom of all created beings.
+Many have loved before; and of all who have ever loved, one must
+survive. It is a sad, it is a painful truth;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> but it is a most plain
+and undeniable one. Then why should not this be borne as patiently as
+the same bereavement by any other means? A long illness would reconcile
+you to the event! and yet would you wish me to endure lengthened
+bodily ills? Should you not rather rejoice that I shall thus be spared
+all the protracted sufferings of sickness, and that, comparatively
+speaking, I shall thus be exempted from the pains of death; that I
+shall pass from earth with all my intellects unimpaired, in the full
+enjoyment of my faculties! Could there be any satisfaction in marking
+the decaying mind, the enfeebled spirit, the soul waxing weak, as the
+body sinks under the effects of some wasting malady? Yet how often has
+the most devoted affection watched all these humiliating and painful
+harbingers of death, till the mourner has been brought to look upon the
+dreaded bereavement almost in the light of a blessing? But is there any
+consolation in this? Would one not rather choose that the memory of the
+departed should be undimmed, unpolluted by the recollection of mortal
+decay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your words are beautiful! I love to hear your voice! it thrills like
+music through my heart! The thoughts are noble, lofty, pure, and holy;
+but they persuade me not! As I gaze on you, as I listen to you, I only
+feel the more, that life without you is not life: it is a blank!—a
+dark and dreary chasm into which I dare not look: that I must, must
+save you; and that if you love me, you will give heed to me, and that
+you will agree to what I shall propose."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Winifred! this is cruel kindness. It is cruel to wean me from the
+thoughts of death, which I have almost taught myself to love, to lure
+me back to those of life, which, alas! possesses only too many charms
+for me!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a tenderness in the tone and the manner which gave her hope
+that she had worked upon him. She felt that love for her, and pity for
+her sorrows, might at this moment induce him to listen; and she opened
+to him the plan she had formed for his escape.</p>
+
+<p>But she had scarcely detailed her proposed measures, when he vehemently
+refused to engage in what he thought could not be carried into
+execution without compromising others. Desperate at the ill-success
+which attended her efforts, she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> abandoned herself to grief: she strove
+not to control her feelings; she wrung her hands, she wept in hopeless
+agony.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile he paced the apartment in anguish not less acute. He accused
+himself of cruelty towards her when he witnessed her desperation; and
+yet he could not bring himself to agree to measures which he deemed
+degrading, and in the success of which he placed little reliance.</p>
+
+<p>Such moments comprise a greater sum of suffering than is spread over
+many a common life. At length he stopped before her.</p>
+
+<p>"Winifred, my wife, my honoured wife! Urge me not to anything unworthy.
+Call up that noble spirit, which has ever deserved my respect, my
+admiration, as much as your beauty and your tenderness have won my
+love! Now listen to me in return!"</p>
+
+<p>In a moment her attention was riveted. She scarcely breathed; she
+listened as though she would devour each word that fell from his lips,
+in ardent hope that he might himself have struck out some plan which
+she might execute.</p>
+
+<p>"I have ever been unwilling to present petitions to the king, or to the
+government. All that I could in honour urge in self-defence, all that
+I could in honesty profess for the future, has been already stated in
+my answer to the impeachment, and in my address to my peers yesterday.
+I have been, and still am, unwilling to crave mercy at the hands of
+one who owes me nothing; from whom I have no right to expect it;—but
+that you should not reproach me with wilfully neglecting any means of
+safety, I will consent to a petition being presented to King George
+by you yourself. If anything can move him, it must be the sight of
+distress such as yours,—and in such a form as that!" he added, looking
+upon her, as, like a marble statue, she sat with lips apart, her
+slender throat bent forward, and her eyes fixed upon him. "He cannot
+behold thee unmoved! It may avail thee something in future, if it serve
+not me!" he murmured in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! do not trust to the pity of those who have already proved
+themselves so ruthless: trust rather to the zeal of your own wife, and
+our faithful Amy Evans!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will trust to your zeal, my love, but let it be employed in such a
+manner as befits us both; and doubly precious will life be to me if
+'tis to you I owe it!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p>
+
+<p>"And if, as I expect, the king is obdurate? for he fears you; he fears
+the unconquerable fidelity of your family to the Stuarts, and he fears
+the influence of your high character: he fears,—therefore, will not
+pardon you!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is the general petition to parliament, to which I have agreed to
+put my name."</p>
+
+<p>"And if that should fail?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then, my love, you must prove that you are a Christian, and a
+Catholic, and that you have not forgotten the exhortations to faith,
+submission and patience, which good Father Albert gave you in your
+youth, and which you tell me he has so often repeated by letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, nay. If all these fail, then promise me that you will not reject
+the means I will offer you; that you will not be more merciless than
+the king himself; that you will not obstinately refuse to save from
+despair one who has ever loved you with most true faith!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Winifred!"</p>
+
+<p>"Promise that you will listen to my plans; that you will maturely
+consider them; that, if practicable, you will not reject them; and I
+will present the petition, I will cling to the knees of the king, I
+will wring mercy from him if it be possible; and if he pardons you, I
+will honour him, I will love him, and I will ever esteem him worthy to
+be the monarch of these fair realms by the qualities of the heart, as
+I already believe him to be so by those of the head! Only promise me
+that, if all this should fail, you will not condemn me always to plead
+in vain, that you, at least, will not turn away from my prayer, that
+you will listen."</p>
+
+<p>"If all other means should fail, then—then, my love, I will listen
+attentively, calmly, to all you may urge."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, I am satisfied," replied Lady Nithsdale, resolved to interpret
+his measured expressions into an implied assent to all her wishes: "and
+now prepare the petition, my dearest lord, and I will lose no time in
+taking measures that it should reach the king himself. These hands
+shall give it him. I know how I may gain access to his presence. I will
+see him with my own eyes; and he shall refuse me with his own lips, if
+he cannot be worked upon to mercy. When will it be ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Patience, my love. I must consult with those who can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> assist me in so
+wording it that I may not risk giving offence. In some days it shall be
+drawn up."</p>
+
+<p>"Why such delay? Time is precious. Talk not of days. To-morrow, or, at
+farthest, the day after,—the twelfth. Tell me when, that I may seek
+the kind Mrs. Morgan, and with her arrange all for my admission to St.
+James's."</p>
+
+<p>"Gently, gently, dearest Winifred. We must do nothing rashly. By
+the thirteenth the petition shall be ready, and we will hope it may
+find such grace as shall spare you all further fears on my account.
+Meantime, compose yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, am I not composed? Surely I think I must be a stock, a stone,
+thus to preserve my senses, and move, act, speak, like other people. I
+sometimes fancy I must lack natural feeling; for it is not grief that
+possesses my soul, but hope and fear so strangely blended that there is
+no space left for grief!"</p>
+
+<p>"My Winifred need not tax herself with coldness!" replied the earl
+tenderly, but sadly, smiling as he looked upon her. Then, resuming a
+calm and business-like tone, he added, "The Lord Nairne's lady, as I
+understand, is also to present an address to the king, and there seems
+good hope that hers may be graciously received. If you could accompany
+her it might be well; for she is a staid and discreet person, and has
+been much used to courts. She was for some years in great favour with
+Queen Anne. She may support and guide you; and, indeed, Winifred, you
+must not overtask yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>He was half alarmed at the reliance she seemed to place on her own
+strength, and feared it might proceed from a feverish state of
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait upon the Lady Nairne to-day," resumed Lady Nithsdale. "I
+will do anything, everything, you suggest, now you have promised in
+return to listen to my arguments."</p>
+
+<p>She instinctively worded his promise as vaguely as he had done himself,
+fearing to alarm him into a declaration that he had only promised
+to listen to, not to comply with, her wishes. Without being exactly
+conscious that she was endeavouring to cheat him into attending to his
+own safety, she hoped to accustom him to the idea, that if she adopted
+every plan he proposed, he was thereby pledged to follow hers upon the
+failure of his own.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XXI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy bosom hath been sear'd by pride of state,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hard, cold, and dead to nature's sympathies;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor know'st thou virtue's awe—nor gentleness,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How sovereign 'tis! Nor hast thou felt</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The nameless fear and humbleness of mind</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Gender'd by sight of others' misery.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>MS. Play.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> the Countess of Nithsdale quitted the Tower, she lost no time in
+despatching to her lord the lawyer in whose discretion he had most
+confidence, and who had previously assisted him in drawing up his
+written answer to the impeachment.</p>
+
+<p>She then waited on the Lady Nairne, whom she found surrounded by her
+family; a quiet and sober matron, upon whose composed countenance,
+and in whose well-ordered deportment, it would have been difficult to
+detect the passions that might, or might not, affect the soul within.</p>
+
+<p>The countess was introduced with all the form of those more ceremonious
+times, and the Lady Nairne received her with due attention. It was not
+till Lady Nithsdale had made many apologies for so sudden a visit to
+one with whose acquaintance she had not previously been honoured, and
+had begun to explain the cause of her intrusion, that the vehemence
+of her emotion made her break through the trammels imposed by custom;
+and she adjured her, by her own hope of saving her husband's life, by
+her own hope of preserving a father to her children, to give her the
+support of her company and countenance to the king's presence.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Nairne at first hesitated, for she was not, like the Duchess
+of Montrose, the ardent, devoted friend, nor, like Mrs. Morgan, the
+creature of impulse; but a sober and prudent lady, past the age of
+enthusiasm, occupied with her own interests, and discreetly intent on
+availing herself of every means calculated to preserve a father to her
+numerous family.</p>
+
+<p>After some moments spent in consideration, she came to the conclusion
+that in all probability the king would be loth, in the very outset of
+his reign, to reject at once the prayers of two disconsolate wives; and
+that, of the two, there was every reason to believe that her lord was
+likely to be more favourably looked upon than the Earl of Nithsdale;
+and that, consequently,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> his countess's presence might rather advance,
+than mar, her own chance of success.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus reflected, she politely acquiesced in the Lady Nithsdale's
+wishes; nor need we imagine she felt no sympathy for a fellow-creature
+in distress so similar to her own. On the contrary, she was happy
+to afford her any assistance that did not tend to injure her own
+cause; but bred in courts, and accustomed to repress all outward
+demonstrations of unusual feeling, she replied in so measured, though
+not unkind a tone, that the glowing expressions of gratitude, which
+were ready to overflow from the countess's heart, were frozen on her
+lips, and her thanks were couched in terms scarcely less measured than
+the Lady Nairne's consent.</p>
+
+<p>Having, however, arranged that when the petitions of their lords were
+ready they would again meet, and that meanwhile Lady Nithsdale should
+procure the assistance of a friend who was well acquainted with the
+king's person, (for his outward appearance was equally unknown to both
+the Jacobite ladies,) the Lady Nairne accompanied the countess to the
+head of the stairs, and, with all the courtly forms of good breeding,
+dismissed her guest.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale then hastened to the warm-hearted Mrs. Morgan, and,
+explaining to her the nature of the service she required, obtained her
+cordial assurance that she would be in readiness to accompany Lady
+Nairne and herself to St. James's on the evening of the 13th, when
+she had no doubt she should be able so to place them as that they
+might personally present their petitions to his majesty. The expansion
+of heart, the melting sympathy of Mrs. Morgan, were a balm to Lady
+Nithsdale's feelings, after the coldness and prudence of the Lady
+Nairne. But deep grief is in its nature selfish.</p>
+
+<p>It may be true, that unclouded prosperity sometimes hardens the
+heart, or, at least, renders the impressions made by sorrows which
+have never been felt, and are consequently ill understood, but slight
+and transient; and it is also true, that the having once known grief
+opens the heart to the full comprehension of the feelings of one's
+fellows,—but then it must be a grief that is past. While writhing
+under present anxiety, while smarting under present agony, the warmest,
+the most capacious heart is unable to take in the sufferings of others.
+Human nature, in all things limited, can feel but to a certain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> extent;
+and when every faculty of the soul is absorbed by present, actual
+evil, there is no power left to feel that which is not personal. Mrs.
+Morgan, happy and prosperous herself, had leisure to give herself to
+the sufferings of Lady Nithsdale; she adopted them as her own—she
+entered into them heart and soul! While Lady Nairne, with all most dear
+to herself at stake, could not but consider the concerns of another as
+of very secondary interest, and would not have felt herself justified
+in allowing compassion for a person, in no way connected with her,
+to interfere in the slightest degree with her duties as a wife and a
+mother. Lady Nithsdale would have been the first to admit such views
+to be most just and fitting; but still the expressions of gratitude,
+which had before been chilled, poured forth in eloquent profusion when
+addressing Mrs. Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>Upon her return to her own lodgings, she perceived that Amy Evans
+learned with satisfaction, that a petition was to be presented to
+the king, before the attempt was made to effect her lord's evasion.
+Although resolved to assist to the utmost in carrying her lady's
+plan into execution, she felt that escape from the Tower must be
+impracticable; while, on the contrary, it seemed to her impossible that
+any being with human affections could resist the voice, the words, the
+pleading looks of her dear mistress!</p>
+
+<p>The 13th arrived. Lady Nithsdale attired herself in deep mourning,
+considering such a habit most suitable to a person under her
+circumstances; but Amy gave an involuntary shudder as she looked upon
+her lady in this ominous garb. The expression of her countenance did
+not escape Lady Nithsdale's observation: "Start not, dear Amy, at this
+sad-coloured dress. If it betokens anything, 'tis but the failure of
+my this day's business. But it is not on the result of this day that I
+rest my hopes. I wait on the king, for my lord wishes me to do so, and
+I cannot choose but execute his behests; but I have slender hope of
+moving him by my entreaties. It is to ourselves that we must look; to
+our own efforts, Amy, aided by that Divine Providence, who deserts not
+the humble in their need. I feel hope, strong hope, within my bosom;
+but it is not of finding favour at the court. No! it is to a higher
+power I look for salvation,—on Heaven that I place my reliance!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly, most honoured madam. But it is right to try every means
+that Providence places within our reach."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Amy, and I will leave none untried."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Morgan and the Lady Nairne were now announced, and the Countess of
+Nithsdale entered the coach to proceed with them to St. James's.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Morgan found no difficulty in procuring their admission to the
+antechamber through which the king must necessarily pass in his
+way from his own apartments to the drawing-room. The ladies placed
+themselves in the recess of the middle window of the three, which
+occupied one side of the apartment; and, somewhat concealed by the
+curtains, they there awaited the coming of the king.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the most trifling occasions expectation makes the heart beat:
+the watching the opening of a door, the entrance of any particular
+individual, excites a certain emotion. What must then have been
+the feelings of the countess as, with her eyes riveted upon the
+folding-doors through which his majesty was to enter, she fancied every
+moment she saw them move! And when they unfolded, and some of the lords
+of the bed-chamber passed forth, she each time turned an anxious,
+inquiring glance on Mrs. Morgan, to know if this might be the king.</p>
+
+<p>While she was thus in breathless expectation, the Duke of Montrose
+approached to cheer her, by a few words of kindly encouragement; but
+she made him a sign not to claim her acquaintance; for the Earl of
+Pembroke having, at the time he promised to interest himself in her
+favour, desired her not to address him in public, she deemed that any
+exertion the duke might subsequently make for her, would come with the
+more effect from one who did not appear in the light of a personal
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>Every moment seemed to Lady Nithsdale an age. Even the composed Lady
+Nairne changed colour: and Mrs. Morgan looked from one to the other,
+and frequently pressed Lady Nithsdale's hand, and bade her be of good
+cheer and not lose courage. She assured her the king would not long
+tarry; that he was usually most punctual in his habits; and, in an
+agitated tone, uttered all the consoling nothings, which are poured
+into the ear of those, whose highly-wrought nerves are expected to give
+way at the moment it is most needful they should be collected.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p>
+
+<p>At length the door again opened: there was a general stillness. Every
+one who could command a view of the persons approaching, arranged his
+countenance, composed his demeanour; the court gossip, which had been
+buzzed around, was suddenly hushed, the lounging attitude relinquished,
+the droll anecdote suspended, and the laugh silenced.</p>
+
+<p>A pale man, with a good, rather than a dignified aspect, entered the
+apartment. He wore a tie-wig. His dress was plain, and all of one sober
+colour, with stockings of the same hue.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale read in Mrs. Morgan's glance that it was the king, and
+she hastened from the recess of the window. She threw herself on her
+knees before him, as he reached the middle of the room, telling him
+she was the unfortunate Countess of Nithsdale, who implored mercy for
+her husband. She spoke in French, as the king's knowledge of English
+was very imperfect. She held up the petition with both her hands,
+entreating him to read it; but the king waved her off, and attempted to
+proceed.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Nairne also was not backward in pressing her petition, and the
+king impatiently thrust them both from him, and passed on towards the
+opposite door; but the Lady Nithsdale clung to the skirts of his coat.</p>
+
+<p>As she pleaded, and pleaded in vain, she grew desperate,—almost
+maddened. Still in vain! The king listened not to her prayers. She
+would not let go her hold, and was actually dragged in her agony from
+the middle of the antechamber to the door of the drawing-room, when one
+of the lords in attendance forcibly wrested the king's dress from her
+hands, while another took her round the waist and raised her from the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner did she feel the touch of a stranger than all her dignity and
+self-possession returned. Quickly disengaging herself from his grasp,
+she stood for a moment looking on the door by which the monarch had
+retired. Her bosom swelled with indignation—the blood of all her noble
+ancestors mantled in her face. That she, the daughter of the Duke of
+Powis, should thus be treated! rejected!—cast off like the scum of
+the earth! when it was well-known the king received the petitions of
+the meanest of his subjects!—that she should be dragged on the very
+ground—that she should be spurned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> from his feet—that she should be
+forcibly seized by rude hands!</p>
+
+<p>All around seemed to swim before her eyes; and had it not been for Mrs.
+Morgan's kindly help, she must have fallen on the floor. Her friend
+gently assisted her to a seat, and then a flood of tears came to her
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the petition which she had attempted to thrust into the
+king's pocket had fallen to the ground, and one of the gentlemen in
+waiting brought it to her. The Lady Nairne had already succeeded in
+delivering her's to one who promised it should reach the king; and the
+Lady Nithsdale, when somewhat recovered from the agitation of this
+strange scene, hastily wrote a few lines in pencil, addressed to the
+Earl of Dorset, who was the lord of the bed-chamber then in waiting,
+and entrusted it, with the petition, to Mrs. Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>Her friend left the countess for a while, and entered the drawing-room;
+but to one so zealous, so devoted, so warm-hearted, the brilliant
+circle seemed for a moment a confused and bewildering scene. She had
+just parted from a fellow-creature, whose soul was harrowed by the most
+agonising emotions, her face pale and haggard, her dress disordered;
+she had just been witnessing grief,—desperation in its most touching
+form; and in one moment she found herself among gay and thoughtless
+creatures, all intent on their own objects of vanity and amusement! The
+studied attire, the conscious simper, the pretty blush, the down-cast
+lid, the bewitching smile, the graceful turn of the swan-like throat,
+the brilliant flash of the sparkling eye, the affected flutter of the
+fan, the thousand varied attractions, were all put in requisition
+to charm, to dazzle, or to subdue. She heard around her the playful
+banter, the witty repartee, the implied compliment, the softened
+whisper, the politely turned attack, the sharp retort; and she wondered
+for the moment how such frivolities could possess so absorbing an
+interest!</p>
+
+<p>She was threading her way through the gay and dazzling throng, when her
+progress was arrested by the circle around the king himself. She was
+compelled to wait with outward composure, although she was secretly all
+impatience to execute the commission entrusted to her, and to return
+quickly to Lady Nithsdale. As she stood watching for an opportunity
+of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> slipping past unperceived, she found herself within sight, though
+scarcely within hearing, of the Duchess of Montrose.</p>
+
+<p>Two young men were evidently paying her the sort of homage permitted
+by the gallantry of the day. She was answering each with animation and
+spirit. There was the passing frown, the lightening smile, the assumed
+air of absence if anything was said which she wished not to hear.</p>
+
+<p>The attention of one of the gentlemen being presently withdrawn by
+some of his acquaintance, it appeared to Mrs. Morgan that the other
+continued the conversation in a more earnest tone than before. She
+fancied she saw a blush mantle on the cheek of the duchess,—for a
+moment she appeared distressed. The duke, who was near, and was engaged
+in deep and serious discourse with the Earl of Pembroke, had taken no
+part in the playful conversation which was passing behind him. But
+the duchess, making some light evasive answer, suddenly tapped her
+husband's arm with her fan, and caused him to turn round. She then
+seemed to be detailing to him the point in dispute, and applying to
+him as umpire. Mrs. Morgan watched all these little manœuvres; for
+she could not help wondering how one who professed friendship for the
+Countess of Nithsdale could thus give herself up to worldly vanities
+and interests. When first she caught a view of the Duke of Montrose's
+countenance, it bore the traces of sadness; but as he listened to his
+graceful and lively wife, it brightened into a bland expression of
+amusement. Upon the duke's being thus called to join in the discourse,
+the young gallant seemed discomposed but for an instant, and apparently
+recovering himself, at once entered into the spirit of the duchess's
+bantering; and Mrs. Morgan again thought of the countess's despair, and
+mentally exclaimed, "If she could see how gaily her friend, the lively
+duchess, can smile even now!" But she did not long feel thus. In a few
+moments the duke, in a low voice, made some communication to his wife,
+which had the effect of chasing the roses from her cheeks, and dimming
+the brilliancy of her smile. The dark and laughing eyes no longer
+sparkled with the gay consciousness of charming, but were fixed on her
+husband's face with an expression of dismay and woe.</p>
+
+<p>She looked round as if wishing to make her escape; then, perceiving
+Mrs. Morgan, she rushed to her:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mrs. Morgan!" she exclaimed, "is this all true? You were with her,
+were you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, your grace; I was with the Countess of Nithsdale, even now, in
+the antechamber."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she still there? I must go to her; I must go instantly to my poor
+cousin Winifred!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stay, dearest Christian!" interposed the duke; "Lady Nithsdale
+herself, this very evening, motioned me not to speak to her; and the
+Earl of Pembroke says, the less we put ourselves forward unnecessarily,
+the more effectually we may be able to serve her. Be not so rash and
+thoughtless. That warm heart of yours carries you beyond the bounds of
+prudence, dear Christian!"—but the duke looked at her with pleasure
+and kindness while he checked her.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! and is it true that the king dragged her all across the room,
+and would not give heed to her petition?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most true, your grace!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my lord duke! but indeed this was not kind and right in his
+majesty," said the duchess, turning once more towards her husband an
+appealing glance.</p>
+
+<p>"We must not speak treason, dearest Christian, here, in the royal
+presence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay! I cannot but think this was cruel:—and may I not go to her? Is
+she still in the antechamber, Mrs. Morgan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but she will be gone in a few moments; and your grace may rest
+assured that the countess shall meet with every kindness and attention."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good, kind soul," said the duchess; "and my poor cousin has
+many times told me how much she owes to your friendly sympathy."</p>
+
+<p>The king had changed his position, and the passage was now free. Mrs.
+Morgan, after briefly explaining her errand to the duchess, passed on
+to where the Earl of Dorset was engaged at cards with the Prince. She
+contrived, however, to give him the packet; and received his assurance,
+that when the game was over, he would peruse and attend to its contents.</p>
+
+<p>As she wound her way back, she found that the king's rejection of the
+Ladies Nithsdale's and Nairne's petitions had been rapidly communicated
+from mouth to mouth; and that, except in the immediate hearing of the
+king, no other subject was discussed. She could scarcely make her way
+through the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> crowd, so anxious was every one to learn from her each
+detail of what had really passed. All were eager, some indignant; but
+some urged, that if his majesty once received a wife's petition, it
+would be most difficult then to refuse, and that unless he had made up
+his mind to pardon treason—proved and acknowledged treason—he had
+no other course to pursue than to avoid witnessing grief he could not
+alleviate; that his sudden, though somewhat undignified flight, did
+not by any means bear the character of hardness, but, on the contrary,
+might lead a candid mind to believe he durst not trust himself to
+witness the desperation of two disconsolate wives.</p>
+
+<p>It was with difficulty that Mrs. Morgan regained the door, and hastened
+back to the friend who stood so much in need of her consoling sympathy.
+Slowly and drearily did they retrace their steps.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Nairne, who had secret information that her application
+was likely to be successful, was comparatively composed, and bore
+what should have seemed an equal disappointment with equanimity and
+resignation.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess of Nithsdale, exhausted, humbled, indignant, mortified,
+grieved, was for the time more thoroughly subdued than she had ever
+been before.</p>
+
+<p>And yet she had not been sanguine as to the result of this petition;
+those means on which she most relied were still available; but to her
+lofty spirit, the contempt with which she had been treated, in sight of
+all the court, gave her a painful sensation of degradation. It was some
+slight consolation to her to learn from Mrs. Morgan, what the Duchess
+of Montrose the next day confirmed still more strongly, that when the
+circumstances which had occurred without became generally whispered
+through the drawing-room, the harshness of the king had been the topic
+of conversation the whole evening.</p>
+
+<p>With her gentleness there was blended a certain degree of pride, a
+consciousness of being the scion of an ancient stock, which would
+have rendered it impossible for a mean thought even to pass through
+her mind, and which ever enabled her to entrench herself in dignified
+reserve, should others neglect to pay that respect due to noble birth,
+which, unless forgotten by them, would never be remembered by herself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XXII.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Distress is virtue's opportunity.—<i>Southern.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Earl of Nithsdale felt even more keenly than did the countess the
+indignity with which she had been treated in her interview with the
+king.</p>
+
+<p>His dark eye flashed, he bit his compressed lip till the blood almost
+started; he paced the apartment with hasty strides, as he pictured to
+himself his graceful, his delicate, his shrinking Winifred, on whose
+fair form he would scarcely allow the winds to blow too roughly,
+dragged along the floor, the rude hands of strangers round that slender
+waist; and it was then he felt indeed that he was a prisoner, powerless
+to defend her whom he had sworn to cherish! The bars, the bolts, the
+high walls, the moat, the guards! oh, how his soul rebelled against
+them all! How agonising was the impotent indignation which possessed
+his every faculty.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale grieved to see his agitation, and yet from his very
+agitation she gathered hope that she might eventually work him to her
+wishes.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, with the assistance of Amy, she had procured most of the
+articles necessary for the disguise of her husband; and although
+resolved that every other means of safety should be tried, she still
+kept her mind fixed upon this last resource. The consciousness of
+having still a point to look to, something still to rest upon when all
+else failed, sustained her courage; but at the same time it prevented
+her attempting to submit to an event, which, in the judgment of others,
+was now inevitable. She could not even think of resignation; on the
+contrary, with this secret hope in her heart, and this plan in her
+mind, she would have been alarmed at her own want of reliance in that
+plan, had she tried to school her feelings to acquiesce in the fatal
+doom.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the countess's unsuccessful application to the king,
+the resolution was taken in council that the sentence passed upon the
+rebel lords should be carried into execution without delay, and on the
+18th the necessary warrants and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> orders were despatched, both to the
+Lieutenant of the Tower, and to the Sheriffs of the city of London and
+Middlesex.</p>
+
+<p>There was a startling reality in these measures that for the moment
+shook her inmost soul; yet she would not allow herself to dwell upon
+the intelligence; she scarcely gave herself time to reflect, but all
+the more strenuously busied herself in seeing that her preparations
+were complete; and she strove to interest herself in the attempt made
+the following day by the Countess of Derwentwater to move the king to
+mercy. Accompanied by the Duchesses of Cleveland and of Bolton, and
+by many other ladies of rank, she was introduced by the Dukes of St.
+Albans and of Richmond, to the king's presence, and humbly implored his
+clemency; but her application met with no better success than the Lady
+Nithsdale's more passionate appeal.</p>
+
+<p>It was therefore arranged by the wives of all the condemned lords,
+that two days afterwards, on February the 21st, they should repair to
+the lobby of the House of Peers, and there implore the intercession of
+their lordships with the king.</p>
+
+<p>More than twenty other ladies of the very first distinction accompanied
+them. It might have moved the most unfeeling to behold so many of
+the fairest and the noblest of the realm in such deep and unfeigned
+distress. But though among the mourning group there were many
+countenances which bore the traces of intense anxiety, many whose
+expression of grief amounted almost to despair, some perhaps who might
+boast of greater positive beauty of feature, on none did sorrow sit
+with so touching a grace as on the Countess of Nithsdale. The wan
+transparency of her naturally pale complexion, the refined cast of
+her features, which seemed moulded only to express the highest and
+purest affections of the soul, assorted well with the situation of deep
+interest in which she was placed.</p>
+
+<p>But on this occasion the hearts of all seemed steeled against them.
+Their application met with little attention: no measures were taken, no
+motion made, in consequence of their petition. In blank disappointment
+each sought again her disconsolate, her widowed home.</p>
+
+<p>Dispirited, but not utterly hopeless, they on the following day, the
+22d, repaired again to Westminster Hall, and with them a still greater
+attendance of the first, and the noblest, of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> the ladies who adorned
+the British court; and with still more passionate earnestness they
+appealed to both houses of parliament.</p>
+
+<p>In the Commons their petitions met with no success. Notwithstanding an
+eloquent address on the part of Sir Richard Steele, the court party
+moved that the discussion should be adjourned to the 1st of March, and
+carried it by a majority of seven voices.</p>
+
+<p>With the Lords they found more favour. Although the Duke of Richmond,
+even when presenting the Earl of Derwentwater's petition, declared
+that he would himself vote against it, yet others spoke warmly and
+eloquently in behalf of men, who, though mistaken, had still acted from
+conscientious motives.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Danby, moved with pity for the Lord Nairne's numerous
+family, urged strongly that the petitions of the several lords should
+be received and read. The Lord Townshend and several others, who
+upon all occasions had given undoubted proofs of their attachment to
+the present government, supported the contrary opinion; when, to the
+surprise of many, the Earl of Nottingham declared in favour of the
+petitions being read. As president of the council he drew with him many
+peers, and the motion was carried by nine or ten voices.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the question whether in the case of an impeachment the king
+possessed the power to reprieve. It was now that the Earl of Pembroke
+redeemed his pledge of exerting himself in Lady Nithsdale's favour. His
+animated and eloquent address carried with him the sense of the house;
+and, with the assistance of the Duke of Montrose, the king's power to
+pardon was carried in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>This was followed by a motion for an address to the king that, as he
+had the power to do so, he would be pleased to grant a reprieve to the
+lords who lay under sentence of death, which, although opposed by the
+firmest friends of government, was also carried.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale's heart bounded within her; hope for a moment danced
+in her bosom, and lighted up her cheek with a passing bloom. Her joy
+was however doomed to be evanescent, for another lord represented that
+"though clemency was one of the brightest virtues which adorn and
+support<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> a crown, yet in his opinion the same should be exercised only
+on proper objects;" and he therefore moved, "that they should address
+the king to reprieve such of the condemned lords as deserved his mercy,
+and approved themselves worthy of this intercession, and not all
+indiscriminately."</p>
+
+<p>The amendment was carried by two voices only, but it was carried;—and
+her heart once more sank within her. This salvo blasted all her hopes.
+She was assured it was aimed at the exclusion of those who would
+not subscribe such a petition as some of the peers had themselves
+prepared,—a thing she knew her husband would never submit to; nor, as
+she herself declared, would she have wished to preserve his life on
+such terms.</p>
+
+<p>Still, however, the address to the king had passed generally, and she
+thought she might turn this circumstance to account in lulling the
+vigilance of the guards. She lost no time in quitting the House of
+Lords, and hastening to the Tower; where, affecting an air of joy and
+security, she told the soldiers as she passed, that she brought joyful
+tidings to the prisoners, for that the petition had passed in their
+favour. She then gave them some money to drink to the lords and his
+majesty; but she prudently made it but a trifling sum, hoping thereby
+to secure their good-will, without awakening in them any suspicion of
+design on her part.</p>
+
+<p>And now there remained but the one last resource. She trembled as
+she thought that, though all was in her own mind prepared, the most
+difficult point remained yet to be accomplished,—her husband had
+not yet consented to the disguise she proposed; and although he had
+not retracted his promise of giving her proposal a fair and patient
+hearing, she had in fact extracted from him nothing more. If he should
+now pertinaciously refuse to accede to it! Oh, no, it was impossible.
+He could not doom her to such hopeless, unutterable misery!</p>
+
+<p>Trembling, agitated, yet worked up to the utmost pitch of courage and
+resolution, she reached his apartment. She staggered into the room; and
+flinging herself into his arms, she sobbed convulsively on his bosom.
+She could not speak: but after a few moments he said, with hopeless
+composure and tenderness,—</p>
+
+<p>"So, my poor Winifred, both houses have then rejected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> our prayers!
+Alas for you, my love! would I were able to give you consolation! would
+I could alleviate your sorrows!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can! you can! You, and you alone, can now save me from despair!"
+she exclaimed with passion. Her eyes were dry, her cheek was flushed,
+her whole countenance seemed suddenly inspired: "My life, my existence,
+are in your hands! You have but to will it, to make me the happiest
+of wives, of mothers! If I am doomed to the early death of the
+heart-broken," she continued almost in a threatening tone, "or if I am
+doomed to drag on a weary, joyless existence, a lingering death-like
+life, in which the welfare of my soul—yes, the salvation of a precious
+soul, is in peril, for I shall murmur, I shall repine—there is no
+resignation here—I feel I shall not submit as it would be my duty to
+do:—if such is the fate before me, it will be <i>you</i> who doom me
+to it! I can save you—I am sure I can! If you refuse to lend yourself
+to the measures I propose, it will be <i>you</i> who destroy my
+happiness in this world, <i>you</i> who peril my salvation in the next!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a restless fire in her eye, an energy in her manner, a
+fearful inspiration about her, that awed, while it touched him. He
+could not but think what must be the strength of those feelings which
+could so transport her out of herself; which could change the mild,
+timid, shrinking wife, into the inspired threatening Sibyl!</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush, my love! you know not what you say!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked wildly and doubtingly around her; then bursting into
+tears,—"Alas! alas! what have I uttered?"—and falling on her knees,
+with clasped hands raised to heaven,—"Pardon, O most merciful Being;
+pardon for my wild and wicked words! O Thou on whom my reliance is
+placed, Thou in whose providence I trust,—cast me not off for these
+hasty words, wrung from me by insufferable anguish! And thou, my lord,
+my love, my husband, urge me not to despair! This brain may become
+unsettled, reason may give way, I may again be hurried into impious
+ravings!—Oh, take pity upon me, dearest, dearest husband!" She clung
+to his knees; she stretched her beseeching arms towards him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do with me what thou wilt, Winifred. If this is weakness, I am weak!
+If this is cowardice, I am no longer brave! Command me! guide me!—I
+am but the instrument in thy hands, my wife! I would sacrifice my life
+to honour; but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> if there is dishonour in my attempt to escape, I will
+sacrifice honour itself to you, my love!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not the sacrifice of your honour I demand; yourself cannot value
+it more highly than does your wife. They carried the address to the
+king, but it was coupled with an amendment that it should only apply
+to those who would sign a petition of their own framing. I knew you
+would not—I do not ask you to do so. Your honour is precious to me as
+your life—more precious than your life!—but there is no dishonour in
+escaping from a cruel and an ignominious death!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not ignominious, Winifred; an honourable death!"</p>
+
+<p>"From a cruel and an unjust death!—a treacherous death! Was it not
+upon the understanding that your lives were to be spared that you all
+surrendered at Preston? Was it not to avoid useless effusion of blood
+that you yielded? and that you advised others to yield? Would it not
+have been easier and sweeter to have perished in battle, than to die on
+the scaffold, as your fellow prisoners must? No! there is no dishonour
+in escaping from tyranny!" She spoke with energy, for the first time
+uttering the words of "death" and "scaffold," which had never before
+found their way to her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I not said it, my love? I am ready to follow your injunctions. Do
+with me what you will."</p>
+
+<p>"You have promised it, you have sworn it!"—and her face was radiant
+with joy. "My own love! you are mine once more! We shall not be
+parted;—we shall live and die together,—we shall grow old together!
+Oh, thanks! thanks!" and her imagination had overleaped all the bars
+and bolts, the dreary boundaries of the prison. She felt they were
+at large to roam over the wide world together. He gave her one sad
+and grateful kiss, and walked to the window to conceal his emotion;
+but she saw the expression of his countenance as he slowly surveyed
+the court-yard, and his eye rested on each sentry as he paced in his
+appointed spot.</p>
+
+<p>She perceived the almost mocking smile which passed transiently over
+his lips; and she plainly read how vain he thought her hopes, how
+unavailing would prove the consent she had extorted from him.</p>
+
+<p>"You think my schemes all visionary!—you think me scarcely in my right
+senses!—you deem me already crazed with grief!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Nay, my love, I think your wishes run beyond your judgment, and I fear
+you are only preparing for yourself a more bitter disappointment. The
+blow will fall the heavier for coming upon you in your present state
+of excitement. It would tend more to your future peace of mind if,
+discarding all worldly thoughts, you would fix your hopes, and would
+assist me in fixing mine, on heaven, and heaven alone."</p>
+
+<p>"And think you it could tend to my future peace of mind, the reflection
+that one hour of bold prudence, one hour of steady perseverance in the
+execution of the scheme already formed, might have led to a reunion for
+life?—perhaps a long and happy life! You would not surely retract the
+vow so solemnly made, even now?" she added in a reproachful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"No! I have promised; and I will keep my promise!"</p>
+
+<p>She pressed his hand in token of gratitude. "Then I must away. There
+are still some with whom I have need to communicate. Do not look for
+me early to-morrow: I shall not be with you till towards dusk,—and
+then——"</p>
+
+<p>"Not till evening? The last day must I be deprived of your presence
+till evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"The first day of your deliverance, my love!—the first of many days of
+liberty and happiness!"</p>
+
+<p>He dropped his eyes. He would not sadden her by his own forebodings.
+And yet he felt he should be permitted to look on her for so short a
+space, that it was with difficulty he could bring himself to lose sight
+of her for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>It was already night; but he watched her from his prison window, and
+fancied he could detect her beloved form as she glided down the steps
+leading to the archway. He stood gazing at the spot till tears suffused
+his eyes; and he flung himself upon a seat, determined to wrestle with
+his emotions.</p>
+
+<p>When alone,—when not exposed to the influence of her tenderness,—he
+looked on death with perfect composure, and almost wished his course
+was run, and that the inevitable moment was arrived. The hopes with
+which she strove to inspire him unsettled and distracted him; and then
+he reproached himself for such weakness. Yet how collect his thoughts?
+how temper them down to a tranquil, firm, unmoved acquiescence in his
+doom, when all his energies would be required for the enterprise which
+was to restore him to life,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> to love, and to liberty? He strove to
+forget the plan in agitation. He tried to abstract himself in prayer;
+but when most he hoped to have spiritualised his meditations, visions
+of the future would flash across his mind, painful anticipations of
+what would be his Winifred's desperation upon the failure of her
+attempt, agonising shame at the idea of being discovered and caught
+in the act of evasion, dread of appearing in the undignified position
+of a reclaimed fugitive, dragged unwillingly to the block, instead of
+the loyal martyr, boldly, firmly, with an unconstrained step, mounting
+the scaffold, to consummate the sacrifice he had of his own free will
+chosen to make.</p>
+
+<p>He almost repented the promise he had given; he longed for the repose
+of hopelessness.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XXIII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Methinks my soul is rous'd to her last work,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Has much to do, and little time to spare.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Dryden.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Countess of Nithsdale had quitted her husband. She wound her
+solitary way through the dreary purlieus which had become only too
+familiar to her. She had gained the long-wished-for consent; she had
+extracted a vow, a solemn vow, from her lord, and she feared not that
+he would break it: but never did the difficulties of her undertaking
+appear to her so appalling as at the present moment; the sentries so
+innumerable, the guards so alert, the way so long, the walls so lofty,
+the moat so broad!</p>
+
+<p>While his consent was to be gained, all else seemed easy, but now the
+dangers rose up in fearful array before her!</p>
+
+<p>But this was not the time to waver. Where could she look for support
+but to her own unshrinking soul? Amy, she knew, considered her plan
+impracticable. To no one else had she imparted it.</p>
+
+<p>During the short time which intervened before she reached her home, she
+had recovered her confident reliance on the protection of Providence,
+and on the strength which that Providence would vouchsafe to her; and
+with a firm countenance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> she informed Amy that her lord's consent was
+obtained, that every difficulty was smoothing itself before her, and
+that they had but to go on and prosper.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank Heaven that my lord has consented," answered Amy; "but, dearest
+madam, is this, in truth, the only hope now left? Here is a packet
+which arrived even now from the Duchess of Montrose. Who knows but it
+may contain good news?"</p>
+
+<p>With trembling hands the countess tore it open; but Amy saw with a
+glance that there was no hope administered by its contents. "No worse
+news, I trust, madam?"</p>
+
+<p>"No worse than I expected; but read yourself, good Amy. I have nor
+voice nor eye-sight," as she brushed off a tear, "nor strength. All the
+strength I possess must be reserved for to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>The duchess's letter told her that the petition from the Lords had
+received no more favourable answer from the king than "that on this,
+and all other occasions, he would do what he thought most consistent
+with the dignity of his crown and the safety of his people." The
+duchess added, that this answer would next morning be formally
+announced to the public, but that meanwhile she had hastened to
+communicate it to her friend, thinking she might deem it advisable to
+adopt some farther measures, although she scarcely knew what measures
+to recommend.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of this information, Lady Nithsdale resolved, as a last
+resource, in the event of her scheme proving unsuccessful, to prepare
+for still presenting one more private petition to the king. To this end
+she appointed Mr. M'Kenzie, an old friend of her lord's, and, through
+her sister Lady Seaforth, a connexion of her own, to await her on the
+following evening, at her lodgings. She felt secure of his friendly
+support in any emergency. She also applied to the Duchess of Buccleugh;
+who promised, if Lady Nithsdale called upon her to do so, she would be
+in readiness to accompany her to court.</p>
+
+<p>She passed what remained of that evening, and the early part of the
+following morning, in completing every arrangement in case of either
+contingency. Even had not these manifold cares occupied her time,
+she could scarcely have trusted herself with her husband. Constant,
+incessant business was absolutely necessary to her. If she had sat down
+to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> think, to calculate the chances, it would have been impossible to
+her to have preserved the self-command so indispensable to the success
+of her undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till towards the afternoon of this trying day, the 23rd,
+that she desired Amy to request Mrs. Mills would favour her with her
+company for a few moments.</p>
+
+<p>The compassionate Mrs. Mills instantly obeyed her summons, though
+almost dreading to find herself in the presence of one whose grief she
+feared to witness. But Lady Nithsdale was perfectly calm and collected.
+After thanking her for her constant kindness and hospitality, she at
+once entered upon the subject; and telling her that having had such
+experience of the goodness of her heart, she did not doubt but she
+would continue to prove herself the kind friend she had ever found her;
+and that she would not refuse to accompany her that day to the Tower,
+in order that, as she was not personally known to the guards and those
+in attendance, her lord might the more easily pass for her. She then
+detailed to her the whole plan for his escape, and urged that as this
+was the very evening preceding the execution, there was no time for
+doubt and hesitation. She told her all other hope was now at an end.
+Reprieves had been despatched for the Lords Wintoun, Widdrington, and
+Nairne; but at the same time orders had been given for the execution,
+the next morning, of Lord Derwentwater, Lord Kenmure, and of her
+husband! She spoke with a firm voice; and such was her excited state of
+hope and resolution, that the words which struck through Amy's heart,
+which made Mrs. Mills shrink and tremble, seemed as if they were to her
+but a matter of business.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mills, all agitated and confused, promised to assist to the best
+of her ability, and Lady Nithsdale instantly overwhelmed her with
+thanks; and having despatched Walter Elliot to Mrs. Morgan, to request
+she also would instantly visit her, she then occupied herself in
+ascertaining from Amy Evans the exact situation of the house where they
+were to meet, when she should have succeeded in placing her husband
+beyond the precincts of the Tower.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Morgan delayed not to wait on the countess, who found little
+difficulty in gaining her consent to any plan which might serve one
+whom she had quickly learned to love with all the warmth of her
+enthusiastic heart. Indeed, both she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> and Mrs. Mills were so taken by
+surprise, the case was so pressing, the plan to be so instantly carried
+into execution, that there was no time for indecision or reflection.
+They must either doom the Earl of Nithsdale to certain death on the
+morrow, and his wife to utter despair; or they must lend themselves to
+the scheme so warily, so judiciously, so discreetly contrived.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale begged Mrs. Morgan, who was of a peculiarly slender
+make, to put under her own riding-hood that which she had prepared for
+Mrs. Mills, who was to leave hers in the prison for the earl.</p>
+
+<p>She then hurried them both into the coach; and repeating her
+directions, enforcing her counsels, she allowed no pause in the
+conversation, during which they might have leisure to reflect and to
+repent.</p>
+
+<p>In their hurry and their astonishment, they thought not of the possible
+consequences, but submitted to obey Lady Nithsdale in all things, who
+guided them with the overawing mastery which, at the moment of trial,
+the stronger mind invariably exercises over those of a more feeble and
+yielding temperament.</p>
+
+<p>The coach stopped at the Tower. Lady Nithsdale had permission to
+introduce but one person at a time; and leaving Mrs. Mills in the
+carriage, she took Mrs. Morgan with her.</p>
+
+<p>She had not seen her husband since the preceding night, and this was
+the eve of execution! If she failed, the morrow would see her a widow!
+But she drove such thoughts from her mind;—she hurried Mrs. Morgan
+along,—she almost pushed her into the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale rushed to his wife, and pressed her to his bosom. "Oh,
+Winifred!" he exclaimed, half reproachfully; "this long, long, weary
+day, and I have not seen you!"</p>
+
+<p>She disengaged herself from him.</p>
+
+<p>"I must not look on you," she said; "I must not listen to you—I must
+not think—we must now act, and not a word must be uttered that is not
+to the purpose! Here is my good, kind, dear Mrs. Morgan! She is, and
+has been from the first, a true and faithful friend; and now, dear Mrs.
+Morgan, we must lose no time in speech or compliment."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Morgan took off the hood, and soon disencumbered herself of the
+dress, which had been put on over her own.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span></p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale meanwhile stood by, passive, but miserable. The long
+morning had appeared to him interminable. The early February twilight
+had seemed as if it never would arrive. He still looked upon this day
+as his last on earth; and his feelings, though not his reason, were
+almost disposed to murmur at his wife for not being with him during
+the few remaining hours which they might have passed together. He had
+to remind himself that she was toiling in his service, not to feel
+abandoned by her. It was with a strange and mixed sensation that he had
+watched the waning light. He was impatient for the shades of evening,
+which he trusted would bring to him the beloved of his soul; and yet,
+as he dwelt upon the last rays of sunshine, he felt loth to part with
+them for ever,—to think that he should never again see that glorious
+luminary fulfil its course in splendour, and shed its brilliancy on
+all around; hateful to him as was the dreary prospect from his prison
+windows, he now thought with regret that he should never again see its
+western beams gild the square turrets of the White Tower. At moments he
+felt life was worth one desperate effort; but more frequently he hoped,
+when his Winifred did come, it would be to tell him that her scheme was
+impracticable, to release him from his vow, and to allow him to meet
+his fate with dignity and resignation.</p>
+
+<p>She came, and all was turmoil and confusion within his bosom. He
+was pledged to obey her. Indeed there was no time for argument or
+remonstrance. She would have listened to none.</p>
+
+<p>Those who stand upon the threshold of the grave—those to whom in a few
+hours the mysteries of a future existence may all be unfolded—seem as
+it were a link between the living and the dead, and are ever regarded
+with a certain awe, as Mrs. Morgan experienced when looking on him of
+whom she had heard so much—on him for whom, though unknown, she had
+felt so keenly—on the stranger for whom she was now incurring, what
+might prove to herself, no inconsiderable peril.</p>
+
+<p>That pensive countenance, that noble brow, those lofty features, all
+spoke a soul within, which might well justify his wife's devotion, and
+she felt that such a creature must not perish. She repented not of her
+consent; but gladly, willingly, incurred the present risk.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span></p>
+
+<p>When the change in her dress was effected, Lady Nithsdale conducted
+her back to the staircase; begging her, in the hearing of the guards,
+to lose no time in sending her maid to dress her, and expressing the
+greatest fear lest, if she did not come immediately, she should be too
+late to present the last petition that night.</p>
+
+<p>She presently afterwards descended the stairs to meet Mrs. Mills, who,
+according to their previous arrangement, concealed her face with her
+handkerchief, as if in tears. When the door was closed she made her
+take off her own hood, and put on that which Mrs. Morgan had left for
+her; and then bidding her assume a more cheerful countenance (in order
+that when her lord appeared in her dress, he might the more easily
+personate the lady who had entered weeping and afflicted), she took her
+by the hand, and led her out of the earl's chamber. In passing through
+the next room, she said with all the concern imaginable,</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mrs. Catherine, go in all haste, and send me my waiting-maid.
+She certainly cannot reflect how late it is. I am to present my
+petition to-night; and if I let slip this opportunity, I am undone, for
+to-morrow will be too late; hasten her as much as possible, for I shall
+be on thorns till she comes."</p>
+
+<p>The guards, to whom the countess's liberality the preceding day had
+endeared her, disturbed her not, but allowed her to pass and repass
+with her company: the more freely also, as, having been told by her
+that the imprisoned lords were likely to obtain their liberty, they
+were not so strictly on the watch as they had hitherto been. All in the
+outer room, who were chiefly the guards' wives and daughters, seemed to
+compassionate her exceedingly; and the sentinel himself opened the door
+for them. There was nothing in the appearance of the fair and florid
+Mrs. Mills which could excite the slightest suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>Having seen her safe out, Lady Nithsdale returned to finish dressing
+her lord. She had prepared false hair of a fair colour; the more to
+resemble Mrs. Mills, whose hair was inclined to be flaxen. She coloured
+his dark eye-brows with light paint; and she also painted his face
+with red and white, for there was no time to shave his dark beard. She
+dressed him in some of her own petticoats, and in the hood Mrs.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> Mills
+had worn. As the evening had by this time closed in, and she feared
+that the light of candles might betray them, she hastened him from the
+apartment. She led him by the hand, whilst he held his handkerchief
+to his eyes; and being dressed in the same dress, and his hair and
+complexion being made somewhat to resemble those of Mrs. Mills, he
+easily passed for the weeping young lady whose affliction at having
+parted for the last time from a dear friend might very naturally be
+even more over-whelming than when she entered a short time before.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale spoke to him in the most piteous tone of voice, bitterly
+bewailing the negligence of her maid Evans, who had ruined her by her
+delay. Yet, while she spoke, it almost went against her to accuse of
+negligence the devoted Amy! Still, addressing the earl, she continued:—</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mrs. Betty, for the love of God run quickly, and bring
+her with you. You know my lodging, and if ever you made despatch
+in your life, do it at present. I am almost distracted with this
+disappointment."</p>
+
+<p>The guards opened the door. She was permitted to pass with one friend
+at a time: they had not kept exact account of the number who had
+entered, satisfied that all was right while she was accompanied by only
+one female, and one also whom they believed to have seen so lately
+enter the chamber within. She went down with him, still conjuring him
+to make all possible haste.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he had cleared the door, she made him walk before, lest the
+sentinel should take notice of his walk; and she still continued to
+press him to make despatch. At the bottom of the last outer step, she
+met the faithful Amy Evans, and into her hands she committed him.</p>
+
+<p>She had before engaged Mr. Mills to be in readiness before the Tower,
+to conduct him to a place of safety, which at that period might be
+the more easily effected, as, instead of a clear and open space
+without the walls, the purlieus were choked with mean habitations,
+with close and narrow alleys. The gates were no sooner passed, than
+they found themselves in the throng of the most dense and busy part of
+the London population; but Mr. Mills had looked upon the affair as so
+very unlikely to succeed, and his astonishment threw him into such a
+consternation when he actually beheld them, that he was bewildered and
+quite out of himself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span></p>
+
+<p>Amy Evans perceived his confusion, and with that presence of mind which
+had so justly entitled her to her lady's confidence, instantly decided
+on her own line of conduct. She took no notice of his agitation, lest
+she might attract the attention of the passers-by; and she feared that
+possibly the earl might mistrust them, if he should perceive wavering
+and uncertainty in those to whom he was confided. She therefore at once
+took him to some friends of her own, on whom she felt certain she might
+rely; and leaving him with them, immediately returned in search of Mr.
+Mills.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Lady Nithsdale had in safety regained her lord's
+apartment. As she passed, all sympathised in her distress, and pitied
+her for the disappointment she had met with.</p>
+
+<p>She closed the door, and then kept up a conversation as if her lord
+had been really present. She answered her own questions in his voice,
+as nearly as she could imitate it. She walked up and down the room, as
+though they had been conversing together, till at length she imagined
+the earl and Amy must have thoroughly cleared themselves of the guards.</p>
+
+<p>During all this time she had not allowed herself once to pause or
+to reflect. She had contemplated nothing but success—she had not
+permitted herself to anticipate failure—she had not suffered her mind
+to glance towards the fatal morrow. Still calm and collected, she now
+calculated that she might with safety depart herself. She neglected
+no possible precaution: she opened the door, and standing half within
+it, so that those without might not have an opportunity of commanding
+a view of the interior, she bade her lord a formal farewell for the
+night, saying, "That something more than usual must have occurred to
+make Evans negligent on this important occasion, who had always been so
+punctual in the smallest trifles;"—she added, "there was no remedy;
+but that she should go in person; that if the Tower was still open when
+she had finished her business, she would return that night; but bade
+him be assured she would be with him as early in the morning as she
+could gain admittance, and, as she flattered herself, should bring him
+favourable news."</p>
+
+<p>Then, before she shut the door, she pulled through the string of the
+latch, so that it could only be opened from within; she closed it with
+some force, to make sure that it was well fastened; and as she passed
+she told the servant he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> need not carry candles to his master till his
+lord sent for them, as he desired to finish some prayers.</p>
+
+<p>She descended the stairs. She found herself in the open air; for a
+moment all seemed to reel around her; she scarcely dared trust her
+senses that he was really free. She trembled as she passed on. She
+thought each sight, each sound, might be that he had been discovered,
+overtaken, and that they were now leading him back to captivity and
+certain death.</p>
+
+<p>She feared to excite suspicion by looking too eagerly and curiously
+about her, and yet she fancied every moment she heard hurrying
+footsteps in pursuit of her. She reached the outer gates at last—she
+passed them! There were several coaches on the stand: she called one,
+she threw herself into it, and drove to her own lodgings.</p>
+
+<p>It was all true! He was free! She had saved him! The joy seemed too
+great for endurance—her heart felt bursting! But there was still much
+to be done, she must not yet relax.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XXIV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all extremes how link'd! Do we not weep</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For joy?—and laugh, ay, laugh, for anguish?</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A hideous laugh, that tells of sorrow, more</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than tears and sighs!</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>MS. Play.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Lady Nithsdale arrived at her lodgings, she found poor Mr.
+M'Kenzie in waiting to accompany her to present her last hopeless
+petition, had the attempt, in the success of which she had so
+confidently, and, as it proved, so justly relied, proved ineffectual.</p>
+
+<p>She told him, with exultation, there was no need now of any petition,
+as her husband was safe out of the Tower, and out of the hands of his
+enemies, as she supposed; although, she added with truth, she knew not
+where he was.</p>
+
+<p>It was also necessary to inform the Duchess of Buccleugh that she
+should not require her good offices that evening, but at the same
+time she was unwilling to spread the news of her lord's escape. She
+had discharged the coach which had conveyed her from the Tower; but,
+sending for a sedan-chair,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> she resolved to go immediately to the
+Duchess of Buccleugh's. She inquired if she was at home; and being
+answered in the affirmative, and that she was in expectation of the
+countess's arrival, but was at that moment engaged with another
+duchess.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> Lady Nithsdale declined going up stairs, but desired to be
+shown into a chamber below, begging at the same time that the duchess's
+maid might be sent to her.</p>
+
+<p>She was glad to escape being questioned by the duchess herself, and
+bade the maid acquaint her grace that her only reason for not waiting
+upon her was her having been informed she was engaged with company.
+She charged the maid with her most sincere thanks for her grace's kind
+offer of accompanying her to court, but desired her to say, she might
+spare herself any further trouble, as it was judged more advisable to
+present one general petition in the name of all: still, she should
+never be unmindful of her particular obligation to her grace, which she
+hoped soon to acknowledge in person.</p>
+
+<p>She had dismissed the chair which brought her to the Duchess of
+Buccleugh's, lest she should be pursued and watched; and she therefore
+now desired one of the servants to call another, in which she proceeded
+to the Duchess of Montrose's.</p>
+
+<p>Upon hearing of Lady Nithsdale's arrival, the duchess was seized
+with such a panic,—she so dreaded the notion of witnessing her
+despair,—that she suddenly quitted the apartment, and hastened to
+deny herself. Her husband, seeing her abruptly break from her company,
+anxiously followed to inquire the cause of her evident agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot see her," she exclaimed: "I could not bear to behold my poor
+cousin of Nithsdale's anguish. I have no power to save her, and I have
+not courage to contemplate the agony I cannot alleviate. Oh! make some
+excuse for me! I am weak and helpless; I cannot preach resignation.
+Alas! alas!" she continued, wringing her hands, "I know too well
+what must be her feelings; I am too well aware of what a nature is
+her devotion to her lord; it would be mockery in me to bid her be
+patient,—to tell her time will temper her despair. I know it will not:
+I could but feed her grief! It must be some stronger, firmer mind than
+mine that dare face such agony as hers!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span></p>
+
+<p>Even while she spoke, the servants, who had not understood the order to
+deny their mistress, and who were accustomed at all hours to admit Lady
+Nithsdale, entered the apartment to inform her grace that the countess
+was below.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do?" exclaimed the duchess, in dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to her, dear Christian," answered the duke; "though you may not
+be able to inspire her with firmness to bear such affliction, your
+sympathy must soothe."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is true! Yes, I will go to her, poor soul! Assuredly I would
+rather die than be unkind; and have I not promised she should always
+find a friend in Christian Montrose. But if you knew how fearful her
+grief is when she is so resolutely calm, you would not wonder that I
+shrink from seeing her under her present circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>The duchess slowly, hesitatingly, descended, and fearfully entered the
+apartment where Lady Nithsdale awaited her.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of the harrowing image of despair, which the duchess had
+pictured to herself, she saw the countess with glowing cheeks and a
+countenance brilliant with joy, who rushed into her arms in her ecstasy
+of delight. The duchess stood appalled. She apprehended that her
+cousin's troubles had, indeed, unsettled her reason, and that it was
+the light of madness which flashed from her eye. She shrank in fear and
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"He is safe!" exclaimed the countess. "My husband is in freedom!—he is
+restored to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"My gentle cousin, my sweet Winifred!—Alas! you are not well; be
+seated, and let me entreat you to compose yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"You do not rejoice with me!" she cried, seizing both the duchess's
+hands. "Why do you not congratulate me? I am the happiest creature in
+the whole world!" she exclaimed, bursting into a flood of tears. The
+duchess's alarm increased every moment. "I tell you, Christian, he is
+out of prison!—he has escaped them all!—he is, I trust, safe from all
+discovery. Oh! Heaven has been very merciful to me!" she continued,
+bowing her head with a meek fervour, which somewhat re-assured her
+friend, and made her hope the countess's words were not all the
+hallucinations of a maniac.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees she became more composed, and gave some account of how her
+lord's escape had been effected: then, indeed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span> did the duchess mingle
+tears of joy with hers, and smile to think how she had misconstrued her
+friend's expression of happiness.</p>
+
+<p>When they had sufficiently recovered themselves to converse with some
+composure, the duchess informed Lady Nithsdale that the king was so
+much incensed against her for attempting to force her petition upon
+him, that she advised her to keep herself as closely concealed as
+possible. She told her she would herself go to court that evening,
+that she might the better judge how the intelligence of the Earl of
+Nithsdale's evasion was there received: and the friends once more
+parted.</p>
+
+<p>The countess, as before, had discharged her chair, and now procured
+another, in which she proceeded to the house at which she had appointed
+to meet Amy Evans.</p>
+
+<p>The duchess repaired to St. James's, where she found the king much
+irritated, and declaring that such a thing could not have been effected
+without a conspiracy: he that night despatched two persons to the
+Tower, to ascertain that the other prisoners were well secured: and on
+all sides the duchess heard different surmises as to the mode in which
+the earl's evasion could have been accomplished. Some threw the blame
+in one, some in another quarter,—none glanced at the true mode.</p>
+
+<p>The duchess alone was acquainted with the countess's part in it; and
+if she had not still felt too deep an anxiety for the ultimate fate
+of such dear friends, she could almost have smiled at the confident
+assertions, the contradictory reports, the consequential hints, which
+were either loudly spoken or mysteriously whispered in all directions.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed it has been a singular circumstance that an event of
+considerable importance, and one of such recent occurrence, should for
+many years have been enveloped in such mystery!</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Lady Nithsdale had been the first to reach the appointed
+spot; but Amy Evans soon joined her. She told her how, after having
+placed the earl in temporary security, she had returned in search
+of Mr. Mills; how she had traced him to his own home, which he had
+regained when he recovered from his astonishment; and how they had
+then removed her lord to the house of a poor woman, directly opposite
+the guard-house. They imagined that, having changed the disguise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> in
+which he had made his escape, all means of tracing him would become
+difficult; and that the last place which would be searched would be one
+so near the Tower itself.</p>
+
+<p>The poor woman had but a single small room to spare, up one pair of
+stairs, and which was almost destitute of furniture. Guided by Amy,
+the countess hastened to this humble abode, and there she had the
+inexpressible happiness of finding herself re-united to her husband.</p>
+
+<p>There are moments of agony too intense to bear description; there are
+also moments of bliss which baffle the power of language to paint.
+And if it is sometimes a relief to think the woes that excite our
+sympathies too acutely are fictitious woes, there ought to be pleasure
+in reflecting that the happiness which these two devoted spirits then
+enjoyed was real;—that this is no fiction, but a plain and simple
+narrative of what has actually occurred.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[A]</a> These details are from Lady Nithsdale's letter.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XXV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But I, that knew what harbour'd in that head,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What virtues rare were temper'd in that breast,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Honour the place that such a jewel bred,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And kiss the ground whereas the corpse doth rest!</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lord Surrey on the Death of Sir Thomas Wyatt.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Lady Nithsdale, after all the varied sufferings of many weeks, the
+painful excitement of the few preceding days, the agonising violence
+she had done to her feelings for the last twelve hours, at length found
+herself pressed to her husband's bosom, when she knew that she was
+supported by his arms, over-wrought nature gave way, and she fainted.</p>
+
+<p>With the assistance of Amy, however, she soon revived, and in a state
+of blissful exhaustion she wept freely on his shoulder. Few words were
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>When her lady seemed more composed, Amy stole away, for she feared to
+excite the notice of the other lodgers.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us pray, my love!" said Lady Nithsdale when the door was closed:
+"let us together pour forth our souls to that Providence who has this
+day extended over us so special a mercy. It will relieve my bursting
+soul to give utterance to the gratitude which almost oppresses it;" and
+they both sunk on their knees in humble adoration.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span></p>
+
+<p>For a time, nor doubt nor fear disturbed the full security of their
+gratitude and their joy! It was not till the first grey light began to
+dawn, and that the twitter of the sparrows on the house-tops, and the
+discordant sounds of London streets, again broke the stillness which
+had reigned, that the difficulties and dangers that still surrounded
+them recurred to their minds.</p>
+
+<p>The earl sighed when first he saw the rays of the sun shine on the
+taller chimneys of the adjacent buildings, and that the tiled roofs of
+the surrounding houses became visible from their narrow window, for
+he remembered his own feelings as he had mentally bidden adieu the
+preceding evening to the sunbeams; and, mixed with gratulation and
+thankfulness for the different circumstances under which he now hailed
+the cheering light, came the recollection of his fellow-prisoners. He
+thought on the good Earl of Derwentwater, and on his old friend Lord
+Kenmure.</p>
+
+<p>His wife watched the expression of his countenance. She read what
+passed within. "Alas!" she said, "I have been a very egotist in my joy.
+I have not been able to think of those who are now marking in agony and
+desperation the dawning of this fatal day, who turn from its glorious
+light in sickening, loathing despair. Alas for them! The extremes of
+grief, and of happiness, both make us selfish creatures. And yet can I
+really think of aught but you? How can I grieve, when I can gaze as now
+upon you, rescued from that dismal place, restored to me and to your
+children? Oh! we shall together hear their clear young voices; we shall
+together, with delighted eyes, follow them in their graceful sports;
+we shall both feel their twining arms around our necks; we shall
+together guide and direct their young minds; we shall watch the opening
+intellect develope itself, and ripen into all that is noble in man, all
+that is lovely in woman! Oh, my love! my husband! what happiness is
+there in store for us!"</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale listened in deep-felt rapture: he hung upon her words;
+he let his soul go to the delightful picture she drew; he drank in the
+musical sounds of her soft voice; he looked with love and tenderness
+upon the sweet though wan countenance, which, in its delicate paleness,
+bore the traces of past suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"What happiness indeed!" he echoed. "What unutterable happiness!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p>
+
+<p>"And how tall our noble boy will be! We shall scarcely know him, except
+by those clustering fair curls which contrast so prettily with the dark
+brows, which are all your own, my love! Oh, those blue eyes! how they
+used to dance from beneath the shady brow! And Anne, my darling Annie!
+she will not have forgotten us, I trust; she will not have forgotten
+to climb your knee, and nestle into your bosom, as she was used to do,
+while you still remained absorbed in meditation."</p>
+
+<p>A smile, a pleased, a tranquil, tender smile, played over his lips as
+he said, "My own sweet children, I dare think of you now! Yesterday
+it was with such painful regret that the image of your innocent
+endearments rose before my mind, that I strove to banish you from
+my thoughts. My gallant, stout boy! my pretty Annie!" and a silent
+but sweet tear stole down his manly cheek. "And yet, my love, are we
+not almost presumptuous in looking forward thus confidently? Though
+no longer within a prison's walls, we must not deem ourselves too
+secure——"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, one loud, deep, sonorous toll of a bell was heard. Lady
+Nithsdale started. The colour, which the joyous picture she had drawn
+had summoned to her cheeks, gave way to a ghastly paleness. Lord
+Nithsdale did not finish the broken sentence: both sat in mute horror.
+Several moments elapsed; they heard no more. They began to fancy some
+accidental sound had startled them, when again the clear, deep sound
+struck on their ears—their hearts! She looked upon him with a fearful
+inquiring glance.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be so," he said; "this is the very hour!" He clasped his hands
+firmly together; and, dropping his head, he pressed them against his
+bosom. "My friends, my noble, my true-hearted friends!" he ejaculated
+in a low and smothered voice.</p>
+
+<p>"O God! and is it over?" she exclaimed, and she wound her arms around
+him; she clung to him with desperate energy; she pressed him closely to
+her, while she gazed wildly at the closed door, as if she every moment
+expected to see it burst open, and the ministers of the law rush in to
+bereave her of the loved being she had rescued.</p>
+
+<p>"They shall not tear thee from me! No, no! I feel this woman's arm
+could hold thee with so firm a grasp, that no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> earthly power could
+sever us. They shall not, they cannot wrest thee from these arms!"</p>
+
+<p>Again the awful toll of the minute-bell rung upon their ears! "Does it
+mean all is over?" she again slowly whispered in trembling horror.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! not so! they are even now on their way to the scaffold," he
+said. "He breathes yet! my friend, my noble Derwentwater yet breathes
+this vital air! The healthful blood still flows through his veins! That
+gallant heart still throbs in its mortal clothing! He is yet alive; and
+on this vast globe there does not beat a heart more gallant,—a spirit
+more undaunted dwells not on this earth!"</p>
+
+<p>Again that toll struck on their hearts,—that toll for which they
+listened, till they almost fancied each must have been the last; when,
+no! the next awful sound struck their very frame, jarred on their every
+nerve, even more painfully than that which preceded it. They were half
+tempted to stop their ears to exclude the torturing clang, but a power
+which they could not resist compelled them to listen with redoubled
+intensity.</p>
+
+<p>"By this time they must have reached Tower Hill!" he murmured. If
+he had seen the fearful expression of her countenance while he thus
+pictured what would have been, what still might be, his fate, he would
+in pity have been silent; but his thoughts were at that moment all upon
+his friends, his companions, his fellow-prisoners. Though he pressed
+her to his heart, he looked not upon her, and was still absorbed by the
+scene which he knew was enacting.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! all is silent! the bell has ceased!" No: it came again! its
+brazen clang again sounded. They still listened in breathless silence!
+At length it really ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"What means this stillness?" she faintly asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is even now," he replied, in a smothered tone, "they must have
+reached the spot!" He pressed his hand upon his eyes: "My friends! my
+friends!—my dear, my noble friends!—I should not have abandoned ye;
+I should be there to share your fate; I ought to be with ye now!" he
+exclaimed in passion.</p>
+
+<p>"My husband! my life! my love?" she softly whispered, in an appealing,
+a deprecating tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! no, no! I did not mean to say so! This is my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> home! here is my
+resting-place!" and his head dropped upon her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Minutes elapsed: neither could keep count of time; it might be moments,
+it might be hours!</p>
+
+<p>Again the awful, the horrible bell resounded; it seemed to crack his
+heart-strings. He started up; he shook her from him: he paced the room
+with hasty strides.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all over!" he exclaimed,—"it is consummated! They are now
+bloody corpses! head-less trunks!"</p>
+
+<p>She seized him by the arm: "Hush, hush; in mercy hush! speak not with
+such ungoverned earnestness. Did not Amy forbid us to stir for our
+lives?—did she not bid us converse in subdued tones?—did she not
+bid us avoid every movement that might betray that this apartment was
+occupied? Are there not other lodgers in the house? If you do not value
+life yourself, take pity on me. Spare me! oh, spare me the horrors
+you have just brought so vividly before me! Be still, I implore, I
+command,—by all I have done, all I have ventured, all I have endured!"
+and she dragged him to the wretched bed on which they had been seated,
+and which was the only article of furniture the chamber contained. He
+unresistingly yielded to her gentle force, and re-seated himself.</p>
+
+<p>The dreadful certainty that the fate of his companions in misfortune
+was sealed completely dispelled the gleam of secure happiness which had
+shone through the hearts of both.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale thought on the Countess of Derwentwater; on the Lady
+Kenmure; and while she closely clung to her husband's arm, to assure
+herself in very truth that he was safe, and to prevent his making any
+movement which might betray him, she pictured to herself the unavailing
+agonies of the other ladies, till her very brain went round!</p>
+
+<p>It now seemed to her she had as yet accomplished but little. She felt
+there was no security in their freedom; the fact that they were still
+within so short a distance of the fatal spot, which had this moment
+been brought only too forcibly home to the feelings of both, made her
+impatiently await further intelligence from her faithful friends—made
+her feel that nought was done till the seas rolled between him and his
+enemies!</p>
+
+<p>She listened breathlessly, hoping each step might be Amy's, or Mrs.
+Mills's; and yet she dreaded each sound that reached her, lest it might
+prove the approach of guards, who, having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> traced his steps, might have
+succeeded in discovering his retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale, on the other hand, thought not of himself; his feelings
+were all for the departed. His imagination rapidly ran over his former
+intercourse with his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw him from that day," he murmured thoughtfully; "we parted
+at the second gateway when we returned from Westminster Hall, on the
+9th. As we were in the coach, on our way home, he regretted having
+pleaded guilty; 'for,' he said, 'it is not treason that we have
+committed! it would have been treason in us to have acted otherwise
+than we have done. Yes,' he continued; 'all, save the prisoners, all
+the multitudes who crowded the vast Hall—all, all were traitors,
+except ourselves!' And when I urged that the expression thus used was
+but the form in which we conveyed that we denied not our share in the
+business, 'But I am not a traitor to my lawful king, and I should not
+have allowed the word,' he replied with earnestness. We were then led
+from the coach to our separate lodgings," continued the earl, following
+the current of his own melancholy thoughts, "and as we parted,—for
+the last time parted,—he pressed my hand, and said, 'Nithsdale, we
+have been friends through life, should we be parted in death? (which I
+do not think we shall be, we shall probably share the same doom!) but
+should one survive, let me live in your remembrance, as, I promise, you
+shall in mine!' And so he shall! never, never will I forget you, my
+noble Ratcliffe; here shall your memory dwell," he added, striking his
+bosom,—"here, while the life-blood throbs through this heart!"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, and Lady Nithsdale for a while feared to disturb the sad
+recollections in which he so naturally indulged; but at length she
+gently ventured to whisper:—</p>
+
+<p>"And if you thus feel for him who was your friend, think what would
+have been my condition had the husband of my love shared his fate!
+Control your voice! Speak but in whispers. Think should you now be
+dragged from me!" she continued in a meek and supplicating tone.</p>
+
+<p>"True, true, my gentle love!" he softly answered. "I will be
+prudent,—calm and prudent; I owe it in gratitude to my deliverer."</p>
+
+<p>She had scarcely thus tempered down his emotions, when<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> they were both
+startled by the sound of footsteps; but they were soft and stealthy.
+There was no heavy tramp, no sound of arms, no rough voices.</p>
+
+<p>There came three gentle taps upon the door; Lady Nithsdale hastened to
+it; Amy gave the preconcerted sign, and she admitted her.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was pale, almost livid; her eyes seemed starting from her
+head; she staggered into the room, but she failed not carefully to
+close and double-lock the door behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"I came to tell you all that we have arranged," she said, in a broken
+voice; "and——I will speak in a moment...."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, merciful Heaven! Do they suspect? Have they traced him?" cried
+Lady Nithsdale, in tremulous agony.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! it is not that: my dear lord is safe,—I trust,—I hope; safe
+from that dreadful doom!" and Amy closed her eyes for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"For pity's sake explain yourself,—dear, dear Amy!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis nothing,—it will pass. 'Tis nothing more than we all know.
+We knew this was the fatal morning; and I waited till all was over,
+for I dared not willingly risk seeing anything dreadful. I thought I
+might now venture here, for Mr. Mills, who was there, told me all was
+accomplished. I came to tell you we have hopes for my lord's speedy
+departure. But oh! I did not wait long enough! The scaffold is still
+up," she continued, shuddering at the recollection, "all hung with
+black cloth; and the block, the huge—bloody—wooden block,—and the
+saw-dust! Oh! my soul sickens!"</p>
+
+<p>Deep as was her anxiety for her lord's escape, the countess herself
+could not command words to inquire what were the hopes of accomplishing
+it, to which Amy alluded. All remained for some moments speechless,
+with eyes fixed on the ground, fearful to meet those of the other.</p>
+
+<p>At length Lady Nithsdale stole a glance towards her husband to see how
+he bore what Amy had just uttered. His face was concealed by both his
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>Amy was the first to recover herself: "The Venetian ambassador sends
+his coach next week to meet his brother at Dover; and we hope to
+persuade his excellency's servant, M. Michel, to take charge of my
+lord. He is one on whom we may depend. He is under great obligations
+to Mr. and Mrs. Mills, and would do anything to repay them; and when
+once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> he is safe away, he is not responsible to those in power here.
+Yes, dearest madam, I have good hope that all will turn out right,"
+continued Amy, striving to shake off the horror which had overpowered
+her when first she entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, my faithful, true friend!" and Lady Nithsdale tenderly
+embraced her.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nithsdale appeared not to heed what they had said; but, in a low,
+hollow voice, inquired, with his face averted,—for he shrunk from
+showing to any eye but his own Winifred's, the traces of deep emotion
+which he could not master,—"Did Mr. Mills mention any particulars?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing very particular," answered Amy, shuddering at the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Did the lords address the people?" he again asked, his face still
+averted, and with a forced calmness in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe they did, my lord."</p>
+
+<p>"Was Mr. Mills within hearing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear master; but why harrow your feelings by listening to
+these details? Surely it were better to think of the future, and bend
+your mind to all that there remains to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, I must hear; I must learn all I can of my lost, lost friends!" he
+exclaimed, turning upon them a face so awful in its noble grief that
+none dared for a moment to resist his wishes. "Tell me all; let me hear
+everything!"</p>
+
+<p>Unable to oppose, or to resist, his firm and solemn command, Amy began
+her tale: "They were taken, my lord, in a hackney-coach from the Tower
+to the Transport Office. It was a little before ten o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," he answered. "We heard the bell!" he added in a sepulchral
+inward voice.</p>
+
+<p>"The Earl of Derwentwater was the first; and though he seemed somewhat
+pale, his bearing was resolute and sedate, Mr. Mills said."</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly it was!" said the earl, almost angry that it should be
+deemed possible his friend could have borne himself otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>"After some time spent in prayer he obtained the sheriff's leave to
+read a paper. He came forward to the rails, and he asked pardon of
+those whom he might have scandalized by pleading guilty at his trial."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew that weighed upon his mind," murmured the earl.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p>
+
+<p>"He said he was sensible he had by this made bold with his loyalty to
+King James; but that he had been told it was merely a form, and that
+there was nothing of moment in so doing."</p>
+
+<p>"They told us all so;—that, having been undeniably in arms, pleading
+guilty was but the consequence of submitting to mercy."</p>
+
+<p>"He said he died a Roman Catholic, and was in perfect charity with
+all the world; and he added, that if the prince, who now governs, had
+spared his life, he should have thought himself obliged never more to
+take up arms against him." Amy was silent Lord Nithsdale, after a pause
+of some moments, said, in a voice scarcely audible,</p>
+
+<p>"Did he suffer? Was it quickly over?"</p>
+
+<p>"At one blow, my lord," answered Amy, shuddering as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, good Amy,—I pain you; but I must know. And Lord Kenmure?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did not speak to the people; but in his devotions he prayed for
+King James. He apologised for his dress; saying, he had so little
+thought of dying so soon, he had not provided a black suit. Mr. Mills
+says he showed great resolution and firmness in his carriage, though,
+to his mind, he was not so calm within as the Earl of Derwentwater."</p>
+
+<p>"I can endure no more!" at length exclaimed Lady Nithsdale, as all
+these details so horribly pictured the scene: "I cannot, cannot bear
+it! Amy, in mercy cease!"</p>
+
+<p>"I crave your pardon, dearest wife; but they were my friends—my best
+friends,—and they are gone! But we will hear no more!" And he again
+buried his face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>Amy told her lady that Mrs. Mills would soon be with them, and bring
+the answer of M. Michel. She was even now at the Venetian ambassador's,
+and hoped to have arranged everything according to their wishes.</p>
+
+<p>The countess pressed Amy's hand, and they silently awaited Mrs. Mills's
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>It was late before she arrived; but she told them that on the following
+day, the Saturday, Lord Nithsdale might remove to the ambassador's,
+where M. Michel undertook to conceal him in his own chamber; that on
+the Wednesday in the following<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> week, his excellency's coach-and-six
+was to go to Dover to meet his brother, when M. Michel could easily
+take Lord Nithsdale in his master's livery as one of his retinue.</p>
+
+<p>All seemed to promise well, and the countess breathed more freely.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mills had considerately brought with her some bread, which, with a
+loaf and a bottle of wine which had been provided the evening before,
+was all they had to subsist upon for the two days and nights they spent
+in their present lurking-place.</p>
+
+<p>On the Saturday they parted, according to this arrangement. To both,
+such a parting was a severe trial!</p>
+
+<p>The countess feared every possible and every impossible danger must
+beset his path when she could no longer see him with her own eyes.
+He found the task a hard one to tear himself again from her, when
+so lately re-united; but he also felt how incumbent it was on him
+to accept with gratitude so favourable an opportunity of escaping.
+They were both aware that to linger in England was risking all their
+hardly-earned happiness. In trembling hope, they parted.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be sinful in us to mistrust Providence," he said; "we have
+been so mercifully dealt with, we ought to feel confidence that we
+shall be preserved to a safe and joyful meeting!"</p>
+
+<p>"True, true, my love. I would not detain you one moment in this fatal
+land! I wish you gone! And yet—and yet—it is so painful, so very
+painful, to part! But you shall go—even now,—this moment! It is not
+for me to doubt the mercy of Heaven."</p>
+
+<p>She gently disengaged herself from him: he pressed her once more to
+his bosom, and then followed Mrs. Mills to the door. He there paused
+to take one more look at her as she stood half supported by Amy. She
+watched him through the doorway,—she listened to his step as he
+descended the stairs,—she heard the street-door shut:—"He is gone!"
+she said; "but I must not repine. Oh, what a parting it might have
+been! When I think of Lady Derwentwater and of Lady Kenmure, I feel
+how blessed I am! I will not weep—I will not grieve: I must allow no
+feeling but that of gratitude to find a place within this bosom!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XXVI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">La nef qui déjoint mes amours</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">N'a cy de moi que la moitié.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Une parte te reste, elle est tienne.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Mary Queen of Scots.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Countess of Nithsdale lost no time in quitting her present retreat,
+and she took up her abode at the house of a quiet honest man in Drury
+Lane, where, in the utmost privacy, she awaited the news of her
+husband's safe arrival on the Continent.</p>
+
+<p>After the intense agitation of the foregoing week, she experienced a
+kind of listless stupefaction; she was totally incapable of employing
+herself. Although her mind was comparatively at ease, yet a thousand
+vague horrors shot across it. The inaction was oppressive and irksome
+to her. She wished every hour, every moment, to know how it fared with
+her lord; and yet she was fully aware that the only prudent course
+to pursue, both for his sake and her own, was to keep herself quite
+retired, and to avoid being seen by any.</p>
+
+<p>On the Wednesday the Earl of Nithsdale, as had been previously
+concerted, accompanied the Venetian ambassador's coach to Dover, where
+he arrived without detection or danger.</p>
+
+<p>When there, M. Michel hired a small vessel, and immediately set sail
+for Calais.</p>
+
+<p>Was it a moment of unmixed joy to Lord Nithsdale when he set foot upon
+the vessel which was to bear him from the land in which his life was
+forfeited to the laws,—from the land in which he was proscribed, to
+seek one which held out to him all the charms of life and liberty?</p>
+
+<p>It was not so:—for that land was the land of his birth,—that land
+contained her to whom he was bound by stronger ties than ever attached
+man to woman!</p>
+
+<p>As the swift bark bounded over the deep, he gazed upon the receding
+shores with tenderness and regret. The breeze was favourable, the ship
+skimmed the waters, the passage was performed in so short a time that
+the captain remarked, "the wind could not have served better if his
+passengers had been flying for their lives."</p>
+
+<p>Until the countess received assured intelligence of his safe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> arrival
+at Calais, she had been able to turn her thoughts to no other subject.
+She felt he might at any moment be discovered; it was still possible
+that all the horrors and the sufferings with which she was only too
+well acquainted might still be in store for her. At moments she accused
+herself of wanting that reliance she ought to feel in Heaven; at
+others, she thought she was presumptuous in fancying herself too secure.</p>
+
+<p>But when once she knew he was safe from all pursuit, other cares beset
+her mind.</p>
+
+<p>The feelings of the mother rose strong within her. Every paper, every
+document, which might secure to themselves, or to their children after
+them, any means of existence, had been left at Terreagles. While
+fearing for his life, all other considerations had been forgotten; but
+now that all-absorbing interest was at rest, anxiety for the fate of
+her children took possession of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>She resolved, if possible, to revisit Terreagles. If she had exposed
+her life for the father, she thought she could do no less than hazard
+it once more to save her son from beggary.</p>
+
+<p>After the great events of the last month, her mind seemed to stand in
+need of some strong excitement; she was almost glad to feel called upon
+by duty for a fresh exertion.</p>
+
+<p>She hoped, through the means of the Duchess of Buccleugh, she might
+obtain leave openly to visit Terreagles; and she wrote to her, telling
+her that she understood some suspected her of having contrived her
+lord's escape, but that she imagined a bare suspicion, destitute of
+proof, would never be held sufficient ground for her being punished
+for a supposed offence, although it had been motive enough for her to
+remain in concealment. She entreated her grace to procure permission
+for her to depart freely upon her business.</p>
+
+<p>But her application, far from being granted, rather roused in
+the government the desire to secure her; and she owed to the
+Solicitor-General (who, though an utter stranger to her, had the
+humanity to plead her cause,) the decision, that as long as she evinced
+such respect to government as not to appear in public, no search should
+be made for her; but that, if she showed herself in England or in
+Scotland, she should be forthwith secured.</p>
+
+<p>This was but poor satisfaction. Having been so suddenly summoned from
+Scotland, she had not been able to arrange<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> any thing at Terreagles;
+but before she repaired to Scone to wait upon the Chevalier, not
+knowing in such uncertain times what might occur during her absence,
+she had taken the precaution of burying in the ground the family
+papers, which her husband had committed to her charge, and other
+articles of most value.</p>
+
+<p>It was fortunate she had done so, for the house had been searched after
+her departure; and, as the countess herself expresses it, "God only
+knows what might have transpired from those papers!"</p>
+
+<p>If these documents were to be preserved, it seemed absolutely necessary
+she should repair to Terreagles, and that she should do so without
+delay, and as privately as possible.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose she again provided herself, Amy and Walter Elliot,
+with saddle-horses, and retraced her way to Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>It was no longer the inclemency of the season which constituted the
+danger of the journey, but the fear of being discovered. On this
+occasion, however, it was but for herself she feared: after her long
+seclusion in the most confined parts of London, as she rode forward,
+inhaling the clear country air, with the delightful certainty that her
+husband was in safety and in freedom, instead of being a prisoner,
+in danger, distress, and loneliness, within the Tower walls, she
+contrasted the buoyant spirit with which she looked upon this merely
+personal risk, with the horrible oppressive weight which lay at her
+bosom as, two months before, she had traversed the same road.</p>
+
+<p>Her spirits almost rose with the danger; and she gladly yielded herself
+up to the enjoyment of the early spring.</p>
+
+<p>The hedges were already beginning to be partially clothed in their
+green livery; the meadows in the neighbourhood of London were fresh
+and bright; the birds twittered, and sprang from twig to twig; the
+primroses and wild violets already peeped forth on the more sunny
+banks. The unusually hard winter had been followed by the rapid
+bursting forth, the flush, of an early spring. As she advanced, the
+new-cut copses were spangled with wood anemones and the blue harebell;
+cowslips, and daffodils painted the fields. All nature seemed to smile
+before her. Her journey was one of positive enjoyment, notwithstanding
+the degree of fear which induced her prudently to avoid the large
+towns, and the considerable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span> inns, at which she was likely to be known,
+and to put up only at the smallest and humblest resting-places.</p>
+
+<p>To Amy, the naturally light-hearted Amy, the joyous laugh was no
+longer a stranger. Her eye danced once more with gaiety, and she even
+occasionally trilled a snatch of one of her old Welsh ditties.</p>
+
+<p>Her lady smiled kindly upon her: "I scarcely thought ever to have heard
+that sound again, Amy. It does me good to hear it; and yet," she said,
+"there is much pain mingled with the pleasure it affords. It brings
+back with over-whelming tenderness past days of happiness;—past, never
+to return!" and her eyes filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"My dearest madam, I could chide myself for my silly song if it makes
+you weep."</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear Amy, sing on. I love to hear the melody, although it draws
+tears: they are not bitter ones."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, madam, I can sing no more; my voice is gone:" and they rode on in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>After several more days of continued journeying, Lady Nithsdale
+ventured to repose herself for two nights at Traquhair; where, with her
+sister-in-law, and Lord Traquhair, she enjoyed the happiness of a free
+outpouring of the soul, and where, to willing ears and open hearts, she
+gave every detail of their brother's escape.</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant of the county being an old and tried friend of her
+lord's, she felt assured that he would allow no search to be made for
+her without forwarding to her due warning to abscond.</p>
+
+<p>She did not send any notice of her return to Terreagles, that the
+magistrates of Dumfries might not be prepared to make inquiries about
+her; but she suddenly made her appearance there, feigning that she had
+the leave of government to do so. The better to persuade them that
+it was with permission she was there, she sent to her neighbours and
+invited them to visit her; while in the interim she busied herself in
+securing the papers.</p>
+
+<p>The gardener alone knew where they had been buried, and with the
+assistance of the faithful old Hugh she recovered them. They were as
+yet unhurt; but, although in the highest state of preservation after
+one very severe winter, they could not have remained much longer in the
+ground without prejudice.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was, as Lady Nithsdale herself says, a particular stroke of
+Providence that she made the despatch she did, for the magistrates of
+Dumfries soon suspected her.</p>
+
+<p>The indefatigable Amy, whose ears were always open, whose discretion
+was never slumbering, learned by a fortunate accident that one of them
+was heard to say, he should, the next day, insist upon seeing the
+Countess of Nithsdale's leave from government.</p>
+
+<p>There was not a moment to be lost: Lady Nithsdale resolved to depart
+before daybreak. She forwarded the rescued documents by a safe hand to
+Traquhair, and on the following morning set forth again for London.</p>
+
+<p>It was now that she bade a fond, lingering, last adieu to her home: she
+knew that it was for ever she quitted it! When all were at rest, she
+gently visited each well-known apartment. She repaired to that which
+her children had usually inhabited: she looked with sadness upon the
+vacant room. She thought how often she had there heard their prattling
+voices—there bent over their quiet slumbers. She paused at the door,
+and the tears gushed from her eyes. A thousand trifling incidents
+crowded on her mind: there was not a spot that was not alive with
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p>"Truly," she thought, "did my dear lord say, as he parted hence, 'Our
+castles will be desolate, our name extinct!'" She looked upon the
+motto, 'Reviresco:' "Truly did he say, 'Not here will any Earl of
+Nithsdale flourish again!'—but he is safe; our children are safe; and
+we shall be happy, in all the charities of domestic life. 'Twere sinful
+to allow such regrets to stifle for a moment the gratitude which ought
+to over-power all other emotions."</p>
+
+<p>But when, ere the early dawn appeared, they prepared to mount their
+horses, and she saw the faithful old gardener, with his blue bonnet
+in his hand, respectfully hold the bridle rein, enacting the part of
+'squire, the tears would flow unbidden: "Thanks, my good Hugh! I am
+glad to see you once more; for, alas! Hugh, I shall never, never,
+return to this dear home again! Heaven bless you, and all, all, who
+dwell around!" she continued, looking around her at the scattered
+cottages on the hill-sides; "may you and yours be well and happy!"</p>
+
+<p>"I feared how it was, my leddy; I fancied, if I was not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> here betimes,
+I should never look on your leddyship's fair face again. Eh! madam,'tis
+an awful thing when the head of an ancient house flits for ever from
+the home of his ancestors. 'Tis an awsome thing for a' the puir folks
+about! and as for me and my gude wife, why, I think it will go nigh
+to break our hearts! But that's neither here nor there: what maun be,
+maun be; and I dinna' mean to make your leddyship down-hearted! I only
+thought I would see the last o' ye;" and the old man brushed away a
+tear. "I just made bold, my leddy, to bring wi' me a little o' the seed
+of our famous kale, which my lord used always to praise. I thought, in
+the outlandish countries my lord is like to abide in now, he might not
+meet with any such; and I guessed 'twas next to impossible that, with
+so much upon your mind, your leddyship should give it a thought."</p>
+
+<p>"Give it me, good Hugh; and depend upon it your kind recollection of my
+lord shall not be forgotten. I will tell him that his old friends here
+have not put him from their minds yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nor ever will, my leddy; that's not the way with a true Scot. We shall
+keep the Maxwells in mind as long as you and yours remember Scotland,
+and, may be, longer too. But yonder's the grey light in the east; I
+must not be keeping your leddyship."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale could not speak; but she pressed the old man's hard
+weather-beaten hand in her own soft delicate fingers, and she hurried
+from the castle. It was in vain to struggle longer with her tears; she
+yielded to the natural impulse, and suffered them to flow.</p>
+
+<p>As on their former journey, they only stopped at the poorest inns; and
+at one of these they were compelled to take their evening meal in the
+room where the other travellers were also accommodated. They remarked
+a sturdy farmer who looked hard at them, and by the blaze of the fire
+they recognised the yeoman with whom they had conversed on their way to
+York. He soon renewed acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, is it you, my demure puritan? What brings you this road again so
+soon? Did you not find a hearty welcome, that you are so soon for the
+north country again? How fared it with your friends in London?"</p>
+
+<p>"It fares well with some of our dearest friends, I thank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> you; far
+better than when last we met," answered the countess.</p>
+
+<p>"There have been great doings going on in London since you went this
+road; and what my companion said, though it was roughly said, has come
+out pretty true: they have made away with a good many of the rebel
+lords."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"But the king did spare some of them, and they say would have spared
+more if his ministers would have let him; but a good many took French
+leave. There was half a dozen broke out of Newgate at once, they say;
+and though some were taken again, there was one Hepburn found out where
+his wife and children were abiding, by spying his own family tankard,
+the Keith tankard, as they call it, which they had stuck in the window
+just for that very purpose: he was a lucky fellow! And Forster, he is
+safe in France, they say. And pray, young woman, you can't tell me how
+'twas the Earl of Nithsdale got away?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale started. "Nay, sir! how should I know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you have been in London, and I thought folks must have talked
+enough about it there; for, to my mind, 'twas a strange thing, and
+that's the truth. Do you think the guards were in the secret?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no! they knew nothing!" exclaimed the countess, anxious to
+exculpate them from such a charge.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I thought you knew nothing!" answered the yeoman, with a cunning
+glance; "but if you do, you need not stand in fear of me; I should
+never wish to say anything of anybody to their prejudice."</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard any suspicion of infidelity thrown out against the
+guards," answered Lady Nithsdale, in a more composed manner; "but
+I have left London some time, and other circumstances may have
+transpired."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't know that 'twas the earl's mother that brought him the
+clothes in which he disguised himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! indeed I did not," answered the countess, with a glance at Amy,
+which she could not control.</p>
+
+<p>"They say that's a positive fact!" proceeded the farmer: "and perhaps,
+then, you have not heard, what they tell me is equally true, that on
+the 24th,—yes, it was the 24th, was it not, that the rebels had their
+heads off?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span></p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale bowed assent.</p>
+
+<p>"On the 24th of last month, the very day the Earl of Derwentwater was
+beheaded, the water in the moat round Dillstone Castle turned as red as
+blood! That was very singular, was it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Strange indeed!" ejaculated Amy, with a countenance in which awe and
+wonder were honestly visible; "on the very day he suffered!"—and
+the thought of the scaffold, and the blood, of which she had caught,
+or fancied she caught, a sight, flashed across her mind. She turned
+so pale, that the countess, now the most self-possessed of the two,
+hastened to withdraw attention from Amy, lest her emotion should become
+too apparent.</p>
+
+<p>The feminine horror of blood, and the superstitious terror with which
+she listened to so unnatural a portent, had thrown her more off her
+guard than circumstances of real peril would have done.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Nithsdale inquired whether the Earl of Wintoun's trial had yet
+come on, and the yeoman, proud of his superior information, told her
+that it had, and that he had received sentence of death; but he added,
+"he seemed so wild and strange that half the world thought he was not
+in his right senses."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Amy Evans had recovered herself, and the countess was glad to
+seize the first opportunity of retiring, and of avoiding any further
+observation.</p>
+
+<p>Upon her arrival in London, she found from her friends, the Duchess
+of Montrose and Mrs. Morgan, that the king was even more than ever
+incensed against her, for having, against his prohibition, made her
+appearance in Scotland; and that if he should succeed in securing her,
+there was every reason to fear that she would be proceeded against
+according to the utmost rigour of the law. And this, she heard from
+some of the best law authorities, would be no other than, in a case of
+high treason, to make the head of the wife answerable for that of the
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>It therefore became necessary that she should take measures for her own
+speedy departure. But, before she left her native land for ever, she
+ventured to have one more interview with her good cousin, Christian of
+Montrose. It was, however, by stealth that the duchess visited her, and
+in sorrow that she bade her farewell.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I fear to injure you by my visit, dear cousin," she said; "and yet I
+longed to bid Heaven prosper you on your journey. You will let me know
+when you are really restored to your husband and your children. Though
+we may never meet again, it will be sweet to me to fancy you enjoying
+perfect happiness with those who are so dear to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall indeed be happy; but, alas! dear Christian, this heart will
+ever yearn towards its island home. I love the very soil of England;
+and, as I pass along, I look with fond regret at every house, at every
+tree, and think with sorrow that I am henceforth to be an exile; that I
+can never, never, look on them again. As for my friends—such friends
+as you, dear Christian!——But think you in very truth there is no hope
+of our being ever allowed to revisit our dear England?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! the king is still so angry with you individually. He has granted
+the Viscountess Kenmure 150<i>l.</i> per annum for the education of her
+children; the Lady Nairne too has met with favour; but, dear cousin,"
+she added, smiling, "he says you have given him more trouble than
+any other woman in Europe; and although I verily believe many of the
+other prisoners who have made their escape have not been over-strictly
+guarded, yet both the warders who had charge of the earl your husband,
+and only they, are likely to be punished for neglect of their duty."</p>
+
+<p>"They deserve no punishment on that score," replied the countess.
+"Neither do I owe them gratitude, nor need the government visit upon
+them the good deed in which they did not participate."</p>
+
+<p>"But from all I tell you, dearest Winifred, it is plain you should not
+linger here!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be gone to-morrow, Heaven favouring me," replied the countess.
+"This evening I bid farewell to two dear friends, and to-morrow I
+am gone!" And with many tears, and last farewells, and promises of
+communicating by letter, the cousins parted.</p>
+
+<p>The friends to whom Lady Nithsdale alluded were Mrs. Morgan and Mrs.
+Mills, whose names she did not care to mention even to the duchess,
+lest it might ever transpire that they had assisted in her lord's
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>To them she scarcely knew in what terms sufficiently to express her
+gratitude; and it cast a gloom over the prospect<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> of speedy reunion to
+the objects of her dearest affections, to think that she should never
+more see the persons to whom, under Providence, she was indebted for
+that happy prospect.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XXVII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But I wad rather see him roam</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">An outcast on a foreign strand,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And wi' his master beg his bread,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nae mair to see his native land,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than bow a hair o' his brave head</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To base usurper's tyrannye,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than cringe for mercy to a knave</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That ne'er was owned by him or me.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Jacobite Song.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lady Nithsdale's</span> voyage was performed in safety; and at Paris she
+joined her husband and her children, whom he had conveyed thither from
+Bruges to await her coming.</p>
+
+<p>The happiness which they had almost feared to picture was at length
+realised. They together gazed upon their noble boy;—she saw the little
+Lady Anne nestled in her father's bosom,—she gave herself up to the
+joy of gazing on them, with no fear that this joy should be snatched
+from her by any power except the immediate will of Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of May they reached Avignon, where all his adherents flocked
+around the Pretender,—the Earl, or, as he was there styled, the Duke
+of Mar, the Duke of Ormond, and many others, to the number of thirty
+lords.</p>
+
+<p>But the petty broils, the dissensions, and the jealousies of this mock
+court assorted but ill with the feelings and habits of Lord and Lady
+Nithsdale. They soon left Avignon, and proceeded to Italy, where they
+lived in privacy, with no wish beyond each other's society and the
+company of their children.</p>
+
+<p>After all which they had endured, it was enough to be together; and for
+weeks, nay, months, the delightful certainty of being restored to each
+other, stood in lieu of all things else.</p>
+
+<p>But human nature is so constituted that the continued possession of
+that which we have long enjoyed, and that which we no longer fear to
+lose, will not alone be productive of lively, positive happiness; other
+thoughts, other desires, find room within the heart.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p>
+
+<p>As their children advanced in years, they could not but feel that they
+were doomed to vegetate in a foreign soil,—they could not but feel
+that their position in life was very different from that to which they
+had been born.</p>
+
+<p>The remembrance of home, the images of absent friends, the memory of
+departed ones, were treasured up in their minds: and Lady Nithsdale
+would, unperceived, dwell on the pale sad brow of her lord as, hanging
+on his arm, she paced with him the shores of the Mediterranean; and she
+could easily read that his thoughts had leaped over intervening time
+and space, over years gone by, and over the mountains, plains, and seas
+that interposed between them and their home, and were sadly fixed upon
+the past, and the distant. He caught her eye, as tearfully, fondly, it
+was turned on him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "my thoughts were far from hence. The clear pure heaven
+above us is unbroken by a cloud, but dearer to my eyes the misty sky
+of Scotland; the deep blue of the unruffled sea is beautiful, but to
+my feelings the dusky waves that dash against the ruined walls of our
+own Caerlaverock are more sublime in their wild grandeur. The distinct,
+defined outline of yon purple mountains may be more brilliant, but my
+heart yearns for the softened hazy outline of our own Scotch hills,
+melting into the pearly hues of our watery sky!"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, a light bark glided rapidly by, and the boatmen kept time
+with their oars as they chanted, in their musical tongue, Italian
+poetry to Italian melody.</p>
+
+<p>"And dearer to my ears," said Lady Nithsdale, "the simple ballad of a
+Scottish maiden, than even these sweet sounds as they are wafted to us
+over the waters!"</p>
+
+<p>They stopped to listen to the song as it died away; and, as they
+listened, another and more awful sound struck upon their ears.</p>
+
+<p>The bell of one of the small chapels, often constructed on the shores
+of Catholic countries, was tolled for the soul of a departed mariner.
+As it happened, the tone was not unlike one of which they both retained
+only too vivid and painful a recollection.</p>
+
+<p>The countess felt her husband's frame quiver beneath the stroke. There
+was no need of words. With a mutual pressure of the arm, they returned
+upon their steps and sought their home.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p>
+
+<p>Unconsciously their pace quickened. They seemed to fly before the
+stroke of that bell! Such suffering as they had both experienced leaves
+traces in the soul which time itself can never wholly efface.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>To those who may have been interested in the fate of the two persons
+who form the subject of the foregoing memoir, it may be satisfactory
+to know, that the Lady Nithsdale was not parted by death from her
+beloved husband till many years afterwards, when, in the year 1744,
+he died, in his exile, at Rome. She survived him five years: but she
+had the comfort of knowing that, by her exertions in her last visit to
+Terreagles, she had succeeded in securing a competency to her son, who
+married his cousin the Lady Catherine Stewart, daughter to the Earl and
+Countess of Traquhair. Her daughter, the Lady Anne Maxwell, became the
+wife of Lord Bellew.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">THE HAMPSHIRE COTTAGE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER I.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And still it was her nightly prayer</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To live to close his sightless eyes;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For this her torturing pains to bear,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then sink in death ere morning rise.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who, were she gone, the staff would guide</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With which he feels, amiss, his way?</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who, careful, lay the stone aside,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That might his tottering footstep stay?</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who lead him to the shelter'd stile</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That fronts the sun at noontide hour,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And watch the western clouds the while</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To warn him of the gathering shower?</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Ballad from Nature.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> one of the last cottages of the village of Overhurst, dwelt Nicholas
+and Sarah Foster. There, in their accustomed seats, did the neighbours
+for many years find old Nicholas, still bending over the embers of his
+humble hearth, and Sarah still gazing through the casement window, in
+patient endurance of the evils with which each was visited.</p>
+
+<p>They rest now in their quiet graves; but those who have known that
+ancient couple will not easily forget their appearance, or that of all
+around them: they will remember the well-polished wooden chair in which
+the old woman sat, both her hands pressed tightly against her right
+side, as if to quell the tortures of an agonizing and mortal complaint
+which had long preyed upon her: they will remember the very dress she
+wore,—such as is rarely seen of late years. But Sarah was an English
+peasant of the olden time, and she changed not with the fashion of the
+day. Her cap had a narrow, close, stiff border; the crown was high
+and well-starched; and round it was tightly pinned a broad piece of
+dark-purple ribbon. Her grey hair was turned back over a roll,—one of
+the last remaining specimens of that mode of dressing the hair. Her
+waist reached to her hips; her sleeves were tight, and ended at the
+elbow. The gown was open in front; and the apron, which was of spotless
+white, always seemed to be just out of the folds.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span></p>
+
+<p>Her usual seat, by the long casement of their clean and decent kitchen,
+commanded a view down the village street; before her was a clean deal
+table, which ran the whole length of the window, and upon it lay her
+spectacles and a book of prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Her countenance bore the traces of extreme suffering, and her brows
+were always contracted; but on her lips dwelt a patient smile. She
+swayed her body incessantly backwards and forwards, as if to allay her
+pain; but her voice was invariably cheerful, and even lively,—for
+Nicholas was blind;—and to cheer his days of darkness was her constant
+task of love.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas in his youth had been a hedger, and he still wore the
+brown leather coat peculiar to his calling. His place was in the
+chimney-corner; his back towards the light, his two hands resting on
+his staff, his chin upon his hands, and his sightless eyes fixed on
+vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>Tempted by the beauty of the sunset, the 'squire's family one evening
+extended their walk to the village, and, as they frequently did, paid
+a visit to Master Foster and his dame. Sarah's face lighted up with
+a momentary expression of joy as they trooped in, filling the humble
+dwelling; and the old man smiled upon them the patient placid smile of
+blindness.</p>
+
+<p>There was the 'squire's lady, the gentle and kind Mrs. Mowbray; and
+her blooming daughter, the young Alice, in the full flush of maiden
+loveliness; and the tall, slender, merry Fanny, just verging on
+womanhood; and two stout schoolboys; and the rosy little Emma, who had
+quickly gained possession of the tortoiseshell cat, and was trying high
+its powers of endurance by her childish mode of fondling it. Besides
+this, the usual party, there was also a dark and handsome youth, who
+appeared to be all attention to Mrs. Mowbray; while the young Alice's
+cheeks were more brilliant even than usual, her smile more animated,
+and her eyes more down-cast.</p>
+
+<p>Old Sarah Foster soon perceived that the village report, which said the
+'squire's eldest daughter was likely to be early settled, was better
+founded than is usually the case with such reports.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Susan this evening?" inquired Mrs. Mowbray.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis Freshfield fair to-day, madam," answered the dame, "and all the
+young people hereabouts are gone to see the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> humours of it: and so
+her father and I thought poor Susan should take a little amusement
+for once. She has but a dull life with us, so poorly as I am, and so
+helpless as my good man is!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you look rather better this evening, Dame Foster," said Alice,
+who was in that happy frame of mind when it is painful to be obliged
+to believe others less fortunate than one's-self, and when one had far
+rather be called upon to sympathise in their joys than in their sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Miss Alice," replied the old woman, while a sudden pain
+caused the smile, with which she tried to receive Alice's kind words,
+to die away on her lips, and her brows involuntarily to become more
+contracted.—"Thank you, my dear young lady, I am much as usual; but I
+do not mind my pains as long as I am able to do for my poor Nicholas. I
+know his ways so well. Susan, herself, could not guess all his thoughts
+as I can. Blindness is a heavy affliction, ladies. He wants some one
+who can speak comfort to him at times, when he gets thinking his sad
+thoughts; some one who can talk of by-gone days, when we had every
+thing to make us happy; and one who can remind him of that better place
+where we shall be happier than even the happiest are in this world.
+Morning and night I pray to be spared as long as my poor Nicholas
+lives, however hard my pains may be to bear; and morning and night I
+pray that, when he is gone, I may never see another sun rise."</p>
+
+<p>A silence of some moments ensued. All were touched by the pure and
+devoted affection so unconsciously expressed by the old woman. Alice's
+eyes had filled with tears; for one instant they were raised to those
+of the youth to whom she was betrothed, but they as quickly fell again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, dame, you are a pattern for all wives," at length added
+Mrs. Mowbray.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, the sound of distant merriment was heard; and parties
+of young folks, the slant western sun shining on their holiday apparel,
+were seen trooping down the head-land of the opposite hill, under the
+shelter of the hazel copse.</p>
+
+<p>"My Susan will soon be at home," said the dame, "for I told her to be
+sure and not stay late at these merry-makings. I always hold that no
+good comes of too much pleasure, madam; and, in my young days, girls
+had not half the liberty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> they take now. I can't say, however, but that
+Susan is a good girl, and minds what we old folks say to her: but she
+is light-hearted, poor thing, and has not known trouble yet—God grant
+it may be long before she does! There she comes, poor girl! Ah! time
+was when I could move as nimbly as she does, and laugh as heartily. You
+must excuse her, ladies: she little thinks what visitors we have in our
+cottage, or she would know better than to be so free of her jokes,"
+added the dame, as Susan and her lover reached the garden gate, and she
+laughingly shut it against him, and ran into the cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Upon finding herself in the presence of the 'squire's family, she
+stopped suddenly, while the blood rushed over her face; and she dropped
+a court'sy, graceful in its awkwardness, and took refuge close to her
+mother's chair. George Wells meanwhile had followed; and, threatening
+that he would steal a kiss in revenge for the trick she had played him,
+burst into the cottage after her. His shame-faced look of dismay when
+he perceived the company assembled was irresistibly comic: Mrs. Mowbray
+smiled, Fanny tried to be serious, the two boys laughed outright,
+while Alice and Captain Harcourt each maintained a countenance of
+imperturbable unconsciousness.</p>
+
+<p>The visit was now speedily brought to a conclusion; and Susan and her
+lover were left to settle their little quarrel, relieved from the awe
+inspired by "the gentlefolks."</p>
+
+<p>They had already kept company, as it is termed, two years. George had
+saved enough to furnish a cottage decently; and Susan had already
+provided the linen, blankets, and counterpane, which, among the better
+sort of poor people, and those who think it necessary to make any
+provision before they enter into the marriage state, is reckoned the
+proper dowry of the bride. They only waited to hear of a cottage which
+they might rent, before they were asked in church.</p>
+
+<p>George Wells was invited to stay supper, and the quick and lively Susan
+had soon arranged the humble meal. The rashers of bacon were fried,
+the smoking potatoes were on the table: she had placed her father's
+chair, and she gently led him from his chimney-nook, and settled him
+comfortably to his supper; then, gaily kissing him on the forehead, she
+began to tell him of the wonders they had seen at the fair. The old
+man turned his sightless eyes towards her, and, leaning forward as he
+listened, smiled placidly to hear of all the brilliant things which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> he
+might never gaze on again; and the dame forgot her pains for a while,
+rejoicing in the happiness of her child. "But, mother, you do not know
+why I am so overjoyed to-day! I have such a piece of news for you!
+I think you will be as pleased as I am; and father too! Won't they,
+George?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe they will, if it comes true."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mother, guess."</p>
+
+<p>"I never was a good guesser, Susan, not in my best days; and I shall
+never begin now."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, father, do you guess, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord save you, child! how should I know? Maybe 'tis that the 'squire
+will give away coals gratis to the poor this Christmas?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, 't an't that; 'tis something that will make us happy at Christmas
+and at Lady-day, at Midsummer and at Michaelmas, and all the year
+round, as long as we all live."</p>
+
+<p>"If so be that it comes true; but we are not sure yet, Susan,"
+interposed the more steady George, who did not run away with a notion
+so quickly as the light-hearted Susan.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, George! I know they will give up the cottage; you will see if
+they don't. They say, father, that Master Mumford is going to set up
+carpenter, and that he is to move to Mr. Peters's shop, and Mr. Peters
+is to be a great cabinet-maker at Turnholme; and then what should
+hinder us taking Master Mumford's cottage, and living next door to you?
+I should not mind marrying if I was to go no farther than that from
+you and mother; for then I could do for you as well as I can now, and
+mother need only just trouble herself with little odd jobs that will be
+rather a pleasure than a trouble to her."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Susan, we don't know, even if Master Mumford should set up at Mr.
+Peters's, whether the 'squire will let the cottage to us. If you run
+off so at score, maybe you'll only meet with a disappointment. However,
+I am willing to go to the 'squire's to-morrow morning, and see what I
+can do."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, George!" exclaimed the eager Susan; "that's what I have
+been wanting all along!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I never said I was against trying; only I a'nt for making too
+sure of a thing before we have got it. You have heard, maybe, Susan, of
+counting your chickens before they are hatched!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't you make game of me, George! I'll answer for it, the 'squire
+is not the man to say no to us; he has always been a kind friend to
+father:" while the suspicion that he seldom missed an opportunity of
+asking her how she did, and taking a look at her sparkling black eyes,
+may have increased her reliance on his kindness to her blind father.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be glad enough if we are so lucky as to get the refusal of
+it," replied George; "for I see little chance of our finding any other
+place hereabouts; and I would never be the man to take you into another
+parish, with your parents such poor afflicted creatures as they are!
+I'm not one of your high-flown, flighty folks; and I've never read any
+of such fine books as you and your school-fellows sometimes get hold
+of, Susan; but I can read my Bible pretty middling, and I know what
+is the duty we owe to our parents, who took care of us when we could
+do nothing for ourselves, and I would never wish my wife not to be a
+dutiful child."</p>
+
+<p>Old Sarah Foster looked approvingly at her future son-in-law; and
+Nicholas said, "You are a young man with good principles, and it will
+be a pleasure to give our Susan to such a one as you. When I die, I
+shall rest quiet in my grave if I know she is married to you."</p>
+
+<p>"They did not always speak so of you, George!" answered the merry girl.
+"You used to say I was a wilful girl, did not you, father, when I said
+I would have George, or nobody? So, after all, I have got an old head
+on young shoulders, though nobody has given me credit for it yet!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not many weeks after Freshfield fair, when the village of
+Overhurst was all alive with another and a greater jubilee. The church
+bells rang a merry peal from the very sunrise; the village maidens,
+in their most trim apparel, were in waiting to strew flowers on the
+path of Alice Mowbray and Captain Harcourt; an ox was roasted whole
+in Overhurst Park, and the beer flowed as beer should flow on such
+occasions.</p>
+
+<p>The 'squire had promised Master Mumford's house to George Wells, and
+he had obtained Susan's consent that they should soon be asked in
+church. Susan was all blushes and smiles, as among the other maidens
+she scattered flowers on the path; and she court'sied with a pretty
+confusion when the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> bride gave her a nod of recognition, as she hurried
+past into the travelling carriage at the gate.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto, all had seemed to smile on Susan; for, having been
+accustomed to them from her youth, her father's blindness and her
+mother's ill-health did not dwell upon her mind as misfortunes; while
+the wish to enliven her parents, and the pleasure they took in her
+sprightliness, had rather tended to increase the natural gaiety of her
+disposition. But on this, the happiest day of her life, a change came
+over the destiny of Susan Foster.</p>
+
+<p>The festivities of Overhurst Park concluded with a dance on the green;
+and Susan, gay, blooming, and thoughtless, seemed to be the reigning
+village belle.</p>
+
+<p>The scene was one which could not be looked upon without interest.
+There the good-natured Mrs. Mowbray might be seen, moving about among
+her humble guests, with a kind word for each. She was flushed and
+agitated, breathless and tearful; but she had given her daughter to
+a son-in-law whom she thought perfection, and she was as happy as
+a mother can be who has for the first time parted from her child.
+The simple congratulations of the poor people over-came, while they
+pleased, her. The tears started into her eyes when she heard the
+hearty "God bless Miss Alice!"—"May the captain make her a good
+husband!"—"May Miss Alice be as happy as she deserves to be!" which
+greeted her on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>Half ashamed of her own emotion, she turned away to a demure and staid
+matron, who sat somewhat apart, watching the young ones as they footed
+it merrily on the grass to the music of the village band: "Well,
+Dame Dixon, I hope you have enjoyed yourself, and that you have had
+everything you wished for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everything was beautiful, I am sure, madam," replied Mrs. Dixon,
+rising respectfully from her seat: "his honour has treated us with the
+best of everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Is your daughter among the dancers?" inquired Mrs. Mowbray, as she saw
+Mrs. Dixon's eye glance frequently towards the country-dance.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madam; Jane is very partial to dancing—almost too partial," she
+continued, as a bouncing couple came flying by beyond the double hedge
+of dancers. "Jane," said the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span> mother, as she clutched the maiden's red
+elbow, "don't you see that madam is here? Where's your manners, girl?"</p>
+
+<p>Jane stopped short, dropped a sort of court'sy, and composed her
+laughing countenance, while the partner disappeared among the crowd,
+with the sheepish bashfulness which characterises an English clown,
+especially in his youth.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid we have stopped their dancing," said Mrs. Mowbray. "Pray
+do not mind me, Jane. I hope I have not frightened away your partner;"
+and the kind hostess glided on.</p>
+
+<p>"What is become of Will Smith?" asked Dame Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," replied Jane; "and what's more, I don't care. I'm
+very tired," she continued, as she let herself drop on the bench by
+her mother's side; while her countenance relaxed into as decided an
+expression of sadness, as it had previously worn that of uncontrolled
+merriment.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am sure, Jane, I wish you would not make so free with him, nor
+with half-a-dozen other young men. You have too much to say to them by
+half."</p>
+
+<p>"It won't do to sit and mope," cried Jane, starting up, as George Wells
+and Susan Foster were slowly advancing to join the dancers, with a
+lingering step, as though they were loth to have their conversation
+broken in upon. Jane was off like a startled deer; and in a few moments
+Dame Dixon saw her dancing away with more spirit than ever, having
+already provided herself with another partner.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mowbray meantime had stopped Susan Foster to speak to her, and she
+was blushing and court'sying under the compliments he was paying her on
+her bright skin and her black eyes, and George was shifting from leg to
+leg under the compliments he was paying him upon his good taste and his
+good fortune.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mowbray had an eye for beauty, and certainly felt the glow
+of charity more strongly in his bosom towards the young and the
+good-looking of his parishioners, than towards the old and the
+ill-favoured: at least he was apt to think Mrs. Mowbray understood the
+wants and the sorrows of the latter better than he did.</p>
+
+<p>"And who is that buxom lass?" said he to his wife, who was looking on
+upon the scene; "she is a light-hearted one. How indefatigable she is!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span></p>
+
+<p>"That is old Dixon's daughter, Jane, to whom you always used to give a
+shilling for opening the gate, because her eyes were so blue."</p>
+
+<p>"So she is! Faith, she has turned out a fine creature! But, bless me,
+who is this pretty woman? Quite an <i>élégante</i>, I declare! Where
+can she come from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, from our own farm of Holmy-bank, to be sure. Do you not see
+Farmer Otley close behind her? and do you not know he has been married
+this year, though they are only lately come to the farm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why you know, my dear, I have a taste for the beautiful, and not for
+the sublime; and I quite overlook everything else when there is such a
+pretty woman as this to be seen."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, if you are thinking of beauty, Mr. Otley is almost the
+handsomest man I ever saw in my life; and if she looks like a lady with
+her smart dress, he looks ten times more really distinguished, with
+those fine features, and his head like an antique gem, though he is
+dressed as befits his station in life."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, you may admire Mr. Otley if you like it: it is only
+fair to allow me to admire his wife. I have just recollected, I have a
+great deal to say to Farmer Otley," continued Mr. Mowbray, laughing;
+and he was soon in deep conversation with his tenant about his course
+of cropping and his stock: while Mrs. Mowbray secretly reflected, "Mr.
+Mowbray is growing too old to talk so much about beauty. I feel quite
+uncomfortable when he goes on so before the children."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mamma!" interposed Fanny; "don't you think Susan Foster is much
+prettier than Mrs. Otley? Her eyes are much larger, in the first place;
+and then she is so quiet, and does not look up and down so; and then,
+as for her nose——"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, Susan Foster is a very respectable, worthy young woman, and
+very good-looking; and now do not let us hear any more about beauty. I
+am really sick of the subject."</p>
+
+<p>It was not that Mrs. Mowbray was jealous, for Mr. Mowbray was a kind
+husband, and she knew it was only "his way." She knew that his foible
+was not to "affect a virtue though he had it not;" but rather to talk,
+as if he were far less scrupulous than he really was. It was only
+before the children, or in the hearing of strangers, who did not know
+"his way," that Mrs. Mowbray felt seriously annoyed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Otley was of course gratified when his landlord wished to be
+introduced to his wife; and Mr. Mowbray, with twinkling eyes and gay
+smile, was soon inquiring into the condition of her pigs, her poultry,
+and her dairy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir!" she replied, with a tender look at her husband; "you must
+not ask me about the pigs: Mr. O. says I am a sad fine lady;" (and she
+looked up for applause;) "but I never could bear the smell of those
+creatures," (and she looked down with a refined cast of countenance:)
+"but I am very fond of my dairy; am I not, Mr. O.? and I slip on my
+clogs every morning, and step into my dairy; don't I, Mr. O.?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, Lizzy, you do that, to be sure; but my mother used to see to
+the scouring of the milk-pans herself, and would never let father have
+any peace if there was not always plenty of wood-ashes to clean them
+with, every morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, Mr. Otley! don't you go off now about that dear good old
+soul, your poor dear mother. I am sure Mr. Mowbray will not care to
+hear what she did twenty years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I had always rather hear about a pretty young woman of the present
+day, than about an old one, be she ever so good, of the past day,"
+replied Mr. Mowbray, with a bow; and Mrs. Otley simpered, and blushed,
+and looked down, and removed a curl which fell a little too much over
+her eyes, and then added, turning to her husband,—</p>
+
+<p>"You know, Mr. Otley, I have promised to be very good about the
+poultry, and to look after the eggs every morning, as soon as you have
+made a raised path across the farm-yard to the hen-house. But really,
+sir, the farm-yard is in such a pickle, that nobody but the labouring
+men could think of crossing it."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible that Mr. Otley can have so little gallantry as to wish
+those pretty little feet should step into the farm-yard! He would not
+be such a Goth!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I am always telling Mr. O.," added Mrs. Otley,
+turning round exultingly; "I am always telling him he is a Goth and a
+Vandal; and then he says he does not know who the Goths and the Vandals
+are; and then I laugh, and tell him he is more of a Goth and a Vandal
+than ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Lizzy! you must not mind everything his honour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> says; he is
+pleased to joke sometimes. But he knows well enough that a farmer has
+need of his head, and both his hands too, and that a farmer's wife
+should be a stirring body: he knows well enough they are the sort who
+pay their rent to the day, and keep their land in good condition."</p>
+
+<p>"You, and your father before you, have been very good tenants, Master
+Otley; no landlord need wish for better: but here comes Mrs. Mowbray.
+My dear, you must allow me to have the pleasure of presenting you to
+our new neighbour, our friend Mr. Otley's pretty wife."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Otley simpered, "Mrs. Mowbray had already done her the honour——"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not introduce us, Mr. Mowbray," answered Mrs. Mowbray, with
+a shade of asperity in her tone, which amused her husband; "I have
+already had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Otley's pretty farm, and her
+sweet little boy: Emma and I walked to Holmy-bank a few days ago, and
+Mr. Otley showed us all about the place."</p>
+
+<p>"How are the dear little calves, Mr. Otley," exclaimed Emma, "that
+Fanny and I were feeding?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are growing nicely, thank you, young ladies," replied the farmer;
+"and I shall be proud to show them to you again, if you would favour us
+with a call."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Mrs. Otley, what a pleasure the calves must be to you! I dare say
+you pass half the day feeding them: I am sure I should!"</p>
+
+<p>"They are pretty innocent creatures, indeed, miss; and if our old
+Daniel would keep the pens a little cleaner, I should have no objection
+to looking at them oftener than I do. But, if Mrs. Mowbray should
+honour us with another visit, I think I could show you something that
+would please young ladies more than such common, every-day creatures
+as calves. I have got two beautiful green parrots, that can chatter,
+and will repeat anything. And I am sure it would please you to see the
+curious Gothic castle, all made of shells, and the lady at the window
+playing on the guitar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I should like another walk to Holmy-bank of all things; but it
+would be to see the dear calves: I like them much better than parrots."</p>
+
+<p>"My girls are very homely in their tastes, Mrs. Otley; they are quite
+country lasses;" and Mrs. Mowbray glided on,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span> a little provoked that
+her husband should find so much to say to such a would-be fine lady as
+the farmer's pretty wife: "and he has never remembered to speak once to
+good old Mrs. Williams, our own steward's mother," she thought, as she
+proceeded towards Mrs. Williams, in order to make up for his omission.</p>
+
+<p>The evening was now beginning to close: the cockchafers were humming
+under the beech-trees, and were flying into the faces and among the
+hair of those who had taken refuge under their shade. Much was the
+merriment they gave rise to, and many a rustic coquette affected a
+little more fear than she really felt of their harmless, though sticky,
+claws; while Jane Dixon laughed rather longer and louder than the
+occasion seemed to require.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had quite sunk below the horizon; and the vapours, which had
+been rising during the heat of the sultry day, were suddenly condensed,
+and hung on the lower grounds, looking silvery-white under the light of
+the summer moon.</p>
+
+<p>Susan and some other village girls, tired with dancing and the
+excitement of the day, mounted an empty waggon which was returning
+homewards, and the merry group of thoughtless young creatures thus
+made their entry into the quiet village street. Susan had, in the
+exuberance of her spirits, danced the longest and the latest; the day
+had been oppressively hot, but with the evening came a heavy dew, and
+the air was chilly. When Susan arrived at home, her mother thought she
+looked pale; and scolded George for having allowed her to return in the
+waggon, after having heated herself with dancing.</p>
+
+<p>"Time enough for me to mind him, mother, when once we are married,"
+answered the joyous girl; "I have but a little while longer to be my
+own mistress, and I must use my liberty now, or never!" and the gay
+creature laughed, conscious of her power over father, mother, and lover.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother, we have been so happy! I never was so happy before, and,
+maybe, never shall again! never, at least, if you teach George that I
+am not to have my own way!" and she turned her beaming eyes from her
+mother to her lover, while old Sarah hoped she had many days in store
+for her of more true happiness, if not of such flighty gaiety. Alas! it
+was well for them they could not look into futurity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span></p>
+
+<p>The next morning Susan woke with a heavy cold, and an unusual pain in
+her eyes; they were bloodshot and inflamed. The dame reproached her
+with her imprudence: and doctored her with that degree of discretion
+which is usual among the poor people. Her eyes became hourly more
+painful.</p>
+
+<p>As he returned from work, George paid her his accustomed visit. He
+wished she would see the doctor; but she laughingly replied she should
+be well to-morrow, for old Dame Jones had given her an infallible
+remedy for all complaints of the eyes.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER II.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O dolce Amor che di riso t' ammanti</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Quanto parevi ardente in que' favilli</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ch' aveano spirto sol di pensier santi.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Dante</span>, <i>Paradiso, cant.</i> 20mo.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dame Jones's</span> infallible remedy rather increased than diminished the
+evil; and Susan's spirits began to fail her at the continued suffering,
+the enforced idleness, and also in some degree at the disfigurement
+occasioned by the dimming of her brilliant eyes; for she was not
+without a share of female vanity,—vanity which is indulged as almost
+a laudable feeling when it is for the sake of another that personal
+attractions are valued.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday on which Susan and her lover were to be asked in church was
+fast approaching, when she half sadly, half sportively, thus addressed
+him: "You had better go to Mr. Sandford, George, and tell him not to
+say any thing about us in church. It would never do to be a bride
+with such eyes as these;" and she tried to smile, though she was more
+inclined to weep.</p>
+
+<p>"There will be plenty of time for your eyes to get quite well, Susan,
+before we are out-asked."</p>
+
+<p>"They must begin to mend, George, before we need talk of their getting
+well," replied Susan with a sigh; and then she playfully added, "Do you
+remember your telling me when Miss Alice, that was, walked down the
+church-yard, looking so blushing and beautiful, that you would show
+them a prettier bride before long; and that, though she would not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> have
+such a smart lace-veil to hang over her face, she would have a pair of
+brighter eyes to shine out of her bonnet. You must wait a bit, George,
+before your words can come true."</p>
+
+<p>"Not long, Susan, not long; I am sure you will be well before three
+weeks are over; that's a long time."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is, George,—a long, long time to be as I am! But the folks
+shan't laugh at you for having such a homely half-blind bride. I should
+not like you to be ashamed of your wife, upon the wedding-day at all
+events;" and she tried to carry off her sadness and her mortification
+by an assumed air of sprightliness.</p>
+
+<p>Still poor Susan's eyes did not mend; her mother's applications, and
+Dame Jones's wonderful remedy, proved equally unavailing. Susan's
+spirits quite gave way: she often sat and wept when her mother's back
+was towards her, and her sightless father could not perceive how sad
+his once light-hearted girl was now become. After Alice's marriage, the
+family of the Mowbrays had left home for some time, and Mr. Sandford
+was old and had been ill, or Susan's sufferings would never have been
+allowed to continue so long, without her having been provided with
+better medical attendance. The old couple themselves had derived so
+little benefit from the advice of doctors, that they, as is frequently
+the case among the poor, reposed more confidence in the doctoring
+of Mr. Sandford, or of any other gentleman or lady, than in that of
+the first physician in the land. They all felt anxious that the good
+minister should recover his health, and visit them; and they flattered
+themselves he would soon afford Susan some relief. When he did call,
+he was shocked at the alteration in the poor girl's appearance, and he
+instantly sent for the best medical practitioner in the neighbourhood,
+deeming the case much too important a one for his own unassisted advice.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sandford's countenance first excited alarm, serious alarm, in
+Susan's mind: for the first time she trembled for her eye-sight; and an
+icy chill ran through her when she thought of her future fate.</p>
+
+<p>George called as he returned home from work; and, on hearing that Mr.
+Sandford had visited the cottage, his countenance brightened: "Then now
+we shall see you begin to mend! What has our good minister told you
+to do, Susan? Am I to go to his house to-night to fetch any stuff for
+you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span></p>
+
+<p>"No, George, no. He says I must see the real doctor. He says he can't
+do any thing for me himself." George looked amazed and confounded. "He
+says he does not understand such things himself;" and she added, in a
+tone which she tried to make perfectly calm and composed, "he says he
+is afraid I shall not be well for a long time."</p>
+
+<p>George was in despair. He thought, if Mr. Sandford could not cure a
+complaint, it must indeed be a bad one! He turned his eyes towards the
+old dame: she sat, as usual, rocking herself backwards and forwards,
+with her hands pressed to her side, in mental as well as bodily
+suffering, for she too had been struck by the manner of their pastor.
+"We shall hear what the doctor says to-morrow, George! I am sorry now
+that we kept waiting and waiting for Mr. Sandford to get well; but I
+have had enough of doctors in my time, and I was loth to begin again
+with them. We must hope for the best, and not be down-hearted."</p>
+
+<p>"She is young, poor thing!" added old Nicholas; "and 'tis to be hoped
+she won't be afflicted at her age as I am. I was near three-score when
+I lost my eye-sight, and I thought it a heavy affliction. It would be a
+deal worse for a young thing just turned her one-and-twenty," continued
+the father, at once uttering in plain English the utmost extent of
+their fears, in the simple straightforward manner common among the poor
+people, but which would sound harsh and unfeeling to the sensibilities
+of the more refined.</p>
+
+<p>"I only hope I may be able to bear my trials as well as you do, father,
+if I am to be so afflicted," exclaimed Susan, as she burst into an
+agony of tears, rendered the more violent by her having previously
+attempted to control herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Susan, Susan, you must not take on so," said George, anxious to soothe
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll do your poor eyes more harm if you cry, Susan," said her
+mother, "than the doctor can cure in a week. You must try not to give
+way, Susan dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cheer up, my child," added Nicholas. "We do not know yet what the
+doctor will say; perhaps it may not be so bad after all."</p>
+
+<p>Susan dried her tears, and tried to be composed; but the inmates of
+Nicholas Foster's humble cottage retired to rest that night with
+sadness in their hearts, which was not destined to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span> be much alleviated
+by the doctor's visit the next day. He talked of time and patience,
+of a cooling diet and soothing applications, a tranquil mind and the
+necessity of not fretting,—of all injunctions the most difficult to
+obey! He gave them hope certainly, which, though not enough to relieve
+Susan's mind, was eagerly caught at by George, and he was beginning to
+urge that it could do no harm if they were asked in church.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet, George, not yet. Wait till I begin to mend. I should be but a
+useless wife to you at present. I have given up the thought of making
+a pretty bride," she continued in a tone almost of bitterness; "but I
+must be able to do for you, and to keep your house tidy: so there's no
+use in talking about being asked in church, George."</p>
+
+<p>George desisted, for her manner was so resolved he felt it impossible
+to oppose her.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER III.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E l'aspettar del male è mal peggiore</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forse, che non parrebbe il mal presente.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Tasso.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Susan</span> was a good-hearted girl, but she had a high spirit. She had a
+generous temper, but it was not always under control. Of all qualities
+a sweet temper is perhaps the one least cultivated in the lower ranks
+of life. The peculiar disposition is not watched; care is not taken to
+distinguish between the passionate child, the sulky, the obstinate, and
+the timid. The children of the poor are allowed a latitude of speech
+unknown among the higher orders, and they are free from the salutary
+restraint imposed by what is termed "company."</p>
+
+<p>When in the enjoyment of full health and strength, the ungoverned
+temper of the poor is one of their most striking faults, while their
+resignation under affliction, whether mental or bodily, is the point of
+all others in which the rich might with advantage study to imitate them.</p>
+
+<p>Susan's spirit was not yet tamed by affliction. There were moments when
+she could not bear, without impatience, the pain her eyes occasioned
+her, and the weight of care which oppressed her mind.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was towards George that she most frequently evinced any signs of
+captiousness; and yet it was on his account that she most poignantly
+felt her present affliction, and her future prospects. She was more
+unhappy than she quite ventured to own to herself, or to him; more
+apprehensive of what might be the result. She feared he would not
+always continue to be as kind as he now was. She could not expect it;
+and she sometimes received his simple attentions as if she was more
+surprised, than touched by them.</p>
+
+<p>One evening he brought her some flowers from his father's garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! I shall be able to smell," she said, "even when I shall not
+be able to see; but perhaps, George, you will not go on bringing me
+flowers then! What beautiful double-stocks these are! we can't get any
+to grow like these in our little bit of garden."</p>
+
+<p>"I raised them for father myself, Susan; so I don't see why we should
+not have some, just as fine, and finer, when we have a garden of our
+own!" And poor George looked pleased at her praise of his pet flower.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say you will never get any to come so thick and so double
+another time,—even if you should try," answered Susan despondingly;
+for she thought, "when could she hope to have a home of her own?"</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think I shall not try, Susan, to make my wife's home as
+nice as father's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe you will,—and I may not be there to see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Susan, I do not know what is come over you; there is no pleasing
+you. I thought you would like my flowers!"</p>
+
+<p>"And so I do, George; and I am very much obliged to you for them," she
+continued in a tone of gratitude almost beyond what the occasion called
+for. Presently she added, in a sad, low voice, "You are very good to
+me, very good indeed."</p>
+
+<p>Just at this moment Nicholas and his dame were seen approaching the
+garden-gate. She was leading him from the stile over which he loved
+to lean, and to feel the warm sun on his eyes, and turn his face in
+the direction of the setting orb. Sarah was hobbling back, guiding the
+blind old man, whose firmer step assisted in supporting her suffering
+frame. George<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> opened the cottage-door to admit them, and the slant
+beams of the sun glanced through the opening upon poor Susan's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The sudden light pained her; and although she had one moment before
+reproached herself with not being sufficiently grateful for the
+kindness shown her, she exclaimed somewhat pettishly, "Don't you know,
+George, how it hurts my eyes to have the light glare upon them all
+at once?" at the same time pushing back her chair with an impatient
+movement, which was accounted for, but not justified, by the pain which
+she suffered.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of her poor blind father, and of his meek expression of
+countenance, recalled her to herself. She hastened to him and helped
+him to his chimney-nook, and then assisted her mother to her usual
+chair. They each thanked her in a kind and gentle voice, and she felt
+inwardly rebuked by their patience and their submission.</p>
+
+<p>George had stood aloof, awkward and mortified. She drew near him. "I
+beg your pardon, George," she murmured: "George, I do not know what is
+come to me;" and she burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Never fret, Susan; I don't mind. 'Tis very natural, I dare say, that
+you should be a little testy or so: don't cry, your mother says 'tis so
+bad for you. I don't mind, though, to be sure, you do sometimes hurt my
+feelings a little." Dame Forster thought she saw him brush off a tear
+with the back of his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's the matter, Susan? Sure you and George have not been
+falling out, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! not a bit of it, dame!"</p>
+
+<p>"George is very good to me, mother; but I don't know how it is, I
+believe sometimes I am hard to please;" and she strove to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my poor girl," said Nicholas, "trouble is hard to bear when first
+it comes; but the back gets used to the burden. If you are a good girl,
+and say your prayers as should be, God will give you strength to bear
+what it is his pleasure to lay upon you. Won't He, dame? I am sure we
+have found it so. He is very merciful; and if He gives us trouble, He
+sends us comfort to make up for it. If it has pleased Him to afflict me
+with blindness, He has given me a good wife—ay,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span> the best of wives;
+and if she is afflicted with her side, poor soul! why He has given
+her, and me too, dutiful children, and children who, some of them, are
+likely to do very well. There are our two boys, though they are settled
+in distant counties, they are very good to us, and have never let us
+want for anything, but have kept us off the parish as yet; and that's
+what few people can say for their sons. If we do but look the right way
+for them, we shall all find we have our comforts; though we may not be
+so sharp to find them out, as we are to find our troubles."</p>
+
+<p>Among Susan's causes of uneasiness there was one which she did not like
+to dwell upon to her parents. She had been used to assist towards the
+maintenance of the family, by taking in needle-work. She had now for
+many weeks been obliged to give up her occupation; and she felt that,
+though her brothers provided for the comfort of their parents, it was
+hard upon them to have a helpless sister also to support.</p>
+
+<p>She was allowed to be much in the air if she wore a shade over her
+eyes; and she frequently made use of this liberty to visit an old
+neighbour, who had long been bedridden, and who earned herself a decent
+livelihood by knitting stockings for the poor, and muffettees and
+handkerchiefs for the gentry, who admired the intricate and curious
+stitches with which she adorned her work.</p>
+
+<p>Susan, who already contemplated the probability of being eventually
+condemned to blindness, thought it would prove useful if, while she
+still retained some eye-sight, she was to make herself acquainted with
+old Nelly's art; and accordingly she applied herself diligently to
+acquire the requisite proficiency. She would sometimes close her eyes
+and try whether she could thus accomplish the difficult stitch; and
+then, when she opened them for the purpose of ascertaining where lay
+her mistake, she would sigh to think the time might soon arrive when
+the darkness would be eternal.</p>
+
+<p>Susan's visits to Nelly Warner had a considerable and not unfavourable
+influence upon her future character.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman was naturally of a querulous disposition, and was more
+inclined to dwell on the many privations to which her complaint
+condemned her, than on the superior comforts which fell to her lot
+beyond others who were equally afflicted. She had an attentive
+grand-daughter, who was devoted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> to her; and she was not in want of
+what might in her line of life be deemed comforts, for the neighbouring
+gentry showed her much kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Susan could not but compare the patient endurance of her mother,
+the placid submission of her father, with the fretfulness of Nelly
+Warner; and when she answered her complaints with such arguments for
+resignation as naturally occurred to her mind, she could not but apply
+the words she uttered to her own case.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are come at last, Susan," said old Nelly, in a reproachful
+tone; "I have been expecting you this half-hour. The church clock
+has gone three, I do not know how long. Young people should not keep
+old folks waiting, more especially when they want them to do them a
+kindness."</p>
+
+<p>"It is only ten minutes past three, Nelly; I looked as I came by; but
+I am sorry I was not quite to my time. The bright sun dazzled my eyes,
+and I went back to get mother to alter my green shade."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! young folks always have some excuse or another which they
+think mighty good themselves. It fidgets a poor body like me to lie
+wondering, and expecting, and listening to hear the door open! When one
+is helpless and ailing, as I am, folks should take care not to worry
+one. It is bad enough to bear one's own miseries. Here I lie, and what
+pleasure have I from one week's end to another?"</p>
+
+<p>"Little enough of pleasure, indeed, dear Nelly, except the pleasure
+of doing a kindness by me," said Susan, as she took out her knitting
+needles. "Then you have little Patty to help you, and to bring you all
+you want, and she is a good child. Some people, Nelly, have not the
+comfort of such a good little girl to attend to them: sure you have
+much to be grateful for."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell what I have to be grateful for. There's Master Thompson,
+he is two years older than I am, and he is hearty and well, and goes to
+his work regularly, and earns as much as a young man. And there's my
+own sister Pratt, why she's ten years older than I am, and she can walk
+to market."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but, Nelly, the way to be contented is to compare our condition
+with those who are worse off than ourselves. You want for nothing; you
+are able to earn a good deal yourself. Now, I can't earn anything yet:"
+she added in a very low voice; "and people are very good to you."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span></p>
+
+<p>"They like my warm muffettees well enough; but I need not thank them,
+but myself, for that."</p>
+
+<p>Susan felt shocked at Nelly's ill-temper and ingratitude, and she
+thought what a hard task it must be for Patty to study the humours of
+such a discontented old woman.</p>
+
+<p>She remembered how kind her mother had always been to her, she
+remembered how patiently George had borne with her, and she resolved
+she would not put him to such trials any more.</p>
+
+<p>The uncertainty in which she remained concerning her future fate,
+sometimes appeared to her harder to bear than the knowledge of the
+truth would be, and she made up her mind she would some day ask the
+doctor what was his real opinion of her case. But many a visit passed
+over without her summoning the requisite courage. If he should destroy
+all the hopes she still indulged, what should she do? How ought she to
+conduct herself towards George? Could she wish him to be 'cumbered with
+a blind wife?</p>
+
+<p>While all these contending feelings were working in her mind, she found
+it difficult to be always gentle and placid, and yet she was ashamed
+before her good resigned parents to give way to impatience. They never
+tutored her, they never gave her advice; but</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>'Example more than precept weighs,'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>and their whole lives were one continued moral lesson.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was one day sitting at home, with her back towards the light,
+diligently plying her long needles, when she suddenly addressed her
+mother: "Mother, do you think I shall ever get well?"</p>
+
+<p>"There's no saying, my dear Susan; such things are in the hands of
+Providence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, has the doctor ever told you anything?" she asked, with a
+great effort.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my child, he has never said anything for certain: but how do you
+feel your eyes yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"No better, mother, no better; I don't think they will last long, and
+that's the truth of it," she said, relieved by giving utterance to what
+had been so long preying on her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Susan! The Lord have mercy upon you, and bear you up under
+this affliction!—and He will, my child,—depend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span> upon it, He will. But
+it goes harder with me, Susan, to see you so, than it has to bear all
+the other troubles I have ever been visited with."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mother, don't fret; we will hope," said Susan, alarmed
+herself at the alarm she had excited in her mother's bosom, and half
+disappointed at not meeting with more reassurement; but Sarah had
+long perceived with grief that her daughter made no progress towards
+amendment, and the melancholy truth had gradually forced itself upon
+her mind.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor called one day, when the dame was leading her good man to
+his usual stile, and Susan was therefore alone. She determined to put
+the question to him, and to be assured whether she ought, or ought not,
+to relinquish all hope. Having thus armed herself with resolution to
+hear the worst, she framed her question with such apparent composure,
+and as if she entertained so little expectation of recovery, that
+the doctor thought there was no occasion to deceive her, and did not
+attempt to deny that her fears were only too well grounded. She dropped
+him a respectful court'sy, and only said, "Thank you, sir." He praised
+her for her strength of mind, advised her to seek fortitude whence
+alone it was to be found, and recommended her being as much as possible
+in the open air, that her general health might not suffer.</p>
+
+<p>When he had taken his leave,—when poor Susan found herself quite
+alone,—then all her strength of mind forsook her. She relieved her
+bursting heart by floods of tears; and had scarcely recovered any
+composure, when her father and mother returned from their evening
+stroll to the neighbouring stile. That night Susan could not sleep, but
+she pondered deeply on the future.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER IV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But not to understand a treasure's worth</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Till time has stolen away the slighted good,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is cause of half the poverty we feel,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And makes the world the wilderness it is.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Cowper.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> her conversation with the doctor, Susan applied herself more
+diligently than ever to her knitting, and succeeded in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> acquiring
+such dexterity, that she nearly equalled her mistress. She took every
+opportunity of walking in the fields, for she thought she should
+like to see the beautiful face of nature as long as it was permitted
+her to do so. George found that all peevishness had disappeared; his
+kindnesses were received with gratitude, and any little omission on
+his part did not seem to be perceived. The days had become so much
+shorter that she could no longer take a walk with him each evening when
+he returned from work, but on Sundays they still wandered through the
+fields together. He one day remarked how long the oaks had kept their
+leaves this year.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see that the woods look thick," she replied; "but I cannot well
+distinguish their colour. However, I am glad the leaves last late this
+autumn, for I shall never see them again; before spring I shall be
+quite dark, George. I shall be very sorry not to see the young lambs:
+I used to like to watch them skip about upon the head-lands, when the
+sun shone out on a spring morning; and I shall be sorry not to see
+the primroses in the dell by Fairmead Shaw. O dear! I shall tie up no
+more bunches of violets in Oldash Lane, where the banks are always
+so blue with them! I did not know at the time how much I enjoyed all
+those sights. And the pretty young shoots of the sallow, that we used
+to gather for Palm Sunday! Oh! we are all giddy thoughtless creatures,
+George, and do not half value the common blessings of life while we
+have them. I think sometimes of such things till my heart seems ready
+to burst; and then I remember poor father, how patient and contented
+he is; and I know how mother bears all her pains, and I remember that
+I have not much pain to bear; for I do not suffer now, except, to be
+sure, in my poor mind. I feel a great deal sometimes, George,—more
+than I like to talk about; and I think a great deal; and the time must
+come when you must think too. I know this is not the way for a young
+man to wear away his life; I know it all, and I do not mean to hold you
+to your word; only, as long as I can walk about and see the old places
+at all, I should like to walk with you, and see them with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Susan! you go near to break my heart when you talk so beautifully.
+But you know I wanted long ago that we should be married, and you know
+I am ready to work night and day to keep you; and there will be Master
+Mumford's house at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span> liberty by the spring. I am ready and willing to do
+my best for you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, George, it won't do; such a poor helpless creature as I shall be
+by the spring must not think of taking care of a family. Hark how that
+robin is singing! There is one comfort: I shall be able to hear the
+birds sing, and I shall know when the spring comes by hearing them;
+and listening to their songs will put me in mind of all the pretty
+sights there are in spring time. I will tell you what is worst of all,
+George,—that I shall never be able to see the faces of those I love
+again. I cannot justly discern the favour of any one now; that is what
+I miss most. I cannot be sure now when you look at me, except by a kind
+of guess. Oh, George! sometimes I think how vain and foolish I used to
+be, and how much I prided myself upon looking pretty of a Sunday, when
+I thought I should meet you, and it all seems to me now to have been
+such vanity; and I am sorry now I did not read my Bible more when I
+could read. It would be a comfort to me to have more texts by heart, to
+repeat to myself when I feel as sad as I often do."</p>
+
+<p>They walked on in silence till they passed under a large holly which
+grew on the steep bank of the road. "Is not that the old holly from
+which we used to gather the branches to stick in our windows at
+Christmas? I think it looks black against the sky."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear Susan, that is the very holly."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there many red berries upon it this autumn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there's quite a sight of berries."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could see them!—but that can't be. As I was saying George,
+about the Bible,—be sure you read a chapter every Sunday: it will do
+you good: as poor Mr. Sandford used to say, the Bible is the poor man's
+best friend. Poor Mr. Sandford! I am sorry he is so bad. It would have
+been a good thing for me if he had been able to go about as usual, and
+to talk to me, and give me good advice. Perhaps I should never have
+been so pettish as I was for a little while; but I have got over that
+now. He will be very much missed in the parish when he is gone; but
+he is a great age, and we all must go when our time comes. The place
+won't seem like itself when he is in his grave, and 'Squire Mowbray
+in foreign parts; for they say he is not coming back, but is going
+somewhere for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span> Miss Fanny's health, and to finish the young ladies'
+education, now Miss Alice is married. Poor Miss Alice! To be sure, how
+well I remember her wedding! and truly enough did I say I should never
+spend so happy a day again; but I did not think so when I said it.
+I thought I should spend many and many much happier days when I was
+married to you, George, for all I was so flighty that evening." And
+Susan smiled, and then sighed to think how light-hearted she had been.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that was a happy day!" said George; and he shook his head
+sorrowfully, as he led poor Susan home to her father's cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Each succeeding week saw Susan's blindness gradually increase; and as
+her sight became more and more dim, she became more than ever gentle
+and uncomplaining. Of all the visitations with which human nature is
+afflicted, none assuredly has such a tendency to calm, to purify, and
+to refine the heart, as blindness. The absence of all external objects
+to distract the attention, forces the soul to look back into itself,
+to subdue its passions, to control its emotions, to chasten all its
+feelings. It is seldom that the countenance of a blind person does not
+bear the stamp of a meek and resigned spirit within.</p>
+
+<p>Old Mr. Sandford died, and was replaced by a worthy common-place
+clergyman, who did the duty in a respectable common-place manner; who
+attended the schools, and visited the poor people, and was sorry for
+the blind young woman; but, not having known her previously, took no
+particular interest in her case. Susan and her father lamented the
+death of Mr. Sandford. To them the loss of the voice to which they had
+been accustomed was a deprivation far greater than to others, for to
+them a voice was everything.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was one day seated at her usual hour with her knitting by Nelly's
+side, when Mr. and Mrs. Otley paid the old woman a visit.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Nelly, "I warrant me, they are coming for some job of their
+own. It's seldom any one opens my door to keep me company, or to cheer
+my lonesome days: that's the way of the world,—every one for himself."
+Then addressing Mrs. Otley as she entered: "Well, ma'am, and what queer
+new-fangled piece of work do you want to set me about now?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I have brought you a new pattern, Nelly," replied the good-humoured
+Mrs. Otley; "these knit boas are quite the fashion at Turnholme; and I
+thought if you got some done before they grow common, it would be such
+a good thing for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"And can you tell me how I am to set about making such an
+out-of-the-way thing as this?" said Nelly, as she held up the boa with
+a disdainful air.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I cannot tell you how to do it; but you are so clever at such
+matters, I thought you would know directly."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I may find out, as there are few stitches I do not know,"
+replied Nelly, her temper a little soothed through the medium of her
+vanity; "but when I have made them, I do not see who there is to buy
+them, now Mrs. Mowbray and her family are gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! in the first place, I will take one; and then Miss Mincing will be
+glad to take any number, if you let her have them a trifle under the
+usual price."</p>
+
+<p>Nelly nodded, with a half-pleased, half-cunning air, as if she had
+proved right, and Mrs. Otley had her own ends to answer in her apparent
+good-nature. "And, perhaps," continued Mrs. Otley, "the Mowbrays may be
+at home before next winter."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Nelly, "not a bit of it. That's all a pretence about the
+young ladies' education. They have had some losses out, there away, in
+them sugar-mines, and they won't be at home these two years," replied
+Nelly, with the dogmatical air of one whose superior information could
+not be doubted.</p>
+
+<p>"That's sad news, Mrs. Nelly," interposed Mr. Otley; "'tis a wonder Mr.
+Williams did not say a word about it yesterday, when I called, about
+stocking up that hedge."</p>
+
+<p>"The news only came this morning; but I believe you will find it's true
+enough; though people think an old woman can know nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm loth to credit such bad news about such good people," answered Mr.
+Otley.</p>
+
+<p>"They may be good, for aught I know to the contrary; but I am sure it
+is little enough I have profited by their goodness."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nelly!" exclaimed Susan, "did not they keep you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> always in
+employment; and if you had nothing else to do, did they not bid you
+always be knitting stockings for them, which they afterwards gave to
+the poor?"</p>
+
+<p>"And much good that did me! I was none the warmer. They paid me for my
+work, sure enough; and what thanks do I owe them for that? It would be
+a pretty thing indeed, if gentlefolks ordered goods of poor people, and
+then cheated them out of their money."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nelly!" cried Susan, and she longed to add, "how ungrateful!" but
+she remembered she was old and sick, and she restrained herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I always thought it would come to this. I always thought the 'squire
+would run himself into debt with the warm house he kept, and his dances
+on the green to giddy boys and girls;"—(Susan sighed)—"and then the
+grand company that visited at the Park! I am sure it has kept me awake
+many a night to hear the carriages rolling by after a dinner-party. It
+won't do to burn the candle at both ends. I have always said so; but
+nobody minds me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, Nelly," interposed Mrs. Otley, "Mr. Mowbray saw no more
+company than was proper and becoming for a gentleman of his birth and
+connexions: and it would have been a sin and a shame if he had let his
+daughters mope at home without allowing them to see a little of the
+world; and as for his losses in his West India property, he could not
+foresee that his crop of sugar-canes would fail, or that a hurricane
+would ruin his plantations."</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about sugar-canes, nor hurricanes, not I; but I know
+that if they are things that pay one year, and don't pay the next, you
+should reckon accordingly, and not live as if sugar-mines paid every
+year as regular as sheep or corn."</p>
+
+<p>"Not sugar-mines, Nelly. Sugar grows in plantations."</p>
+
+<p>"Sugar-mines, or salt-mines, it is all one to me; that's no business of
+mine," replied Nelly doggedly, "and it makes little difference to me.
+If them losses out, there away, hinder the 'squire's family from coming
+home, and I have no regular sale for my stockings, it matters little
+what keeps them in foreign parts."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mrs. Nelly," said Mr. Otley, "you are not the only person who
+will miss Mr. and Mrs. Mowbray. All who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> are willing to work will wish
+for the 'squire back again, and all who are sick or sorry, will miss
+Mrs. Mowbray's kind words, and kind deeds; and I am sure I shall miss
+those sweet young ladies, with their smiling faces, and their affable
+manners, running about my yard, and playing with the dogs, and the
+cats, and the calves, and all the dumb animals."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am sure I shall miss Mr. Mowbray's elegant manners and agreeable
+conversation, though I own it struck me there was something rather high
+about Mrs. Mowbray's ways, though she was such a dowdy in her dress.
+Well, Nelly, you do not seem to like the idea of knitting boas, so I
+will take away the pattern."</p>
+
+<p>"And if I don't get employment from Miss Mincing, who am I to look to
+now?—but if you are against leaving it with me for a day or two, why I
+don't wish to be beholden to anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"I borrowed it on purpose from Mrs. Knotaway, and if you succeed in
+making them, I shall be very glad to buy one," added Mrs. Otley, as she
+took her leave.</p>
+
+<p>Almost before the door was closed, "There," said Nelly, "I told you
+how it was. She thinks she can get her flaunting boa a trifle cheaper
+than if she bought it at Miss Mincing's. I know her well enough. People
+think I can't see through them, because I am old and helpless; but I
+have not lost my senses."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Nelly," said Susan, "Mrs. Otley ordered one, out of
+good-nature."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think, if my work was dearer than the shop-price, she would
+think so much of being good-natured?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nelly! we should not be looking out for bad motives to kind
+actions. It will be a great advantage to you to find a market for your
+goods at Miss Mincing's, and I am sure Mrs. Otley meant to do you a
+service; and if it had not been for your good, Mr. Otley would never
+have let her propose it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Otley, indeed!—He just lets his flighty wife take her own way."</p>
+
+<p>"He is very kind; but my cousin, Sophy Foster, who lived with them
+half-a-year, says he can be firm enough when there is need for it,
+and that he rules in all great things, though he does not like to be
+jarring about trifles."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how it is, Susan, you are always contradicting one. You
+always have something to say in defence of everybody. It is a very
+disagreeable trick in a young woman to be contradicting her elders."</p>
+
+<p>The spring had now stolen on; Master Mumford's house was free; and
+Susan thought it her duty to tell George that she released him from
+his engagement. She was quite blind. No hope was held out to her of
+recovery. Her becoming the wife of a poor man, the mother of a poor
+man's children, was absolutely out of the question. She took the
+opportunity one day, when her father and mother were both present,
+to say to him, "The time is come, George, when I must give you up.
+You have been very good to me, and I shall feel your goodness as long
+as I live; but I cannot make you such a wife as a poor man ought to
+have: and now, George, here, before my father and mother, I give you
+back your word. The house next door is free, and you must give the
+'squire's steward your answer; and so you had better go to Mr. Williams
+and give it up at once. I can never live there with you; and if—if
+you should—if you should marry another girl, George," she continued
+resolutely, though with a choking voice, "I could not bear to have
+her live there—no more could you, I am sure you could not; so you
+had better go to the 'squire's steward and tell him how it is!" She
+stopped, exhausted with the effort she had made.</p>
+
+<p>George stood by, grieved, distressed, uncertain how to act, or what to
+say. He loved Susan dearly, as dearly as ever; but it was true, she
+could not take care of a poor man's house. He was but a labourer; it
+was impossible he should earn enough to support her, and a person to
+do for her and the family they might have. It would be bringing her
+into a state of hopeless poverty and distress. He had no arguments to
+adduce, and yet he could not bear to break off his engagement. "What is
+to be done, dame?" at length he said, with the tears in his eyes. "I
+love your Susan, there, as dearly as ever I did, and I can't bear the
+thoughts of giving her up; and yet I have nothing to say against the
+reasons she has been bringing up against me. I am fairly puzzled what
+to do," he continued, rubbing his forehead. "I would not mind, if I
+thought I could keep her creditably; but if she and her children were
+to be brought to want, and I not able<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span> to earn a decent maintenance for
+them, why, I do think that would be worst of all."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to be done, dear George, but what I tell you. We
+must break off with one another, and you must try to forget by-gone
+days: that will soon be easy enough for you. As for me, I do not see
+there is any need for me to try to forget, for I may as well think over
+everything that is pleasant; and it will always be a pleasure to me to
+think how kind you have been to me, and how true you have been to me!"
+and she held out her hand in the direction where he stood, moving it
+slowly towards him as blind people do. He took her hand, he grasped it
+firmly; he pressed it between his own hard palms, occasionally patting
+it, in silence for some minutes, till at length he let it fall, and
+dropping his head upon the deal dresser, he burst into an agony of
+uncontrollable sobs.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER V.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These orbs, that Heaven's gay light no longer know,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor meet with kindred beam affection's eye,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Long, long denied each grateful ministry!)</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still own the tear that flows for others' woe!</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Susan</span> sat dissolved in silent tears. The dame had clasped her hands
+in prayer. Old Nicholas's head rested on his staff, while tears also
+rolled from his sightless eyes. It is not a new remark, but it is
+always a touching reflection, that eyes which have long forgotten to
+minister to pleasurable objects should still retain the faculty of
+weeping.</p>
+
+<p>Few more words were spoken that evening by the party assembled in
+Master Foster's house. It was necessary that George Wells should
+decide whether he meant to take the neighbouring cottage. There was no
+alternative, and he was obliged to give it up. But he still continued
+to visit Susan.</p>
+
+<p>The summer came on, and he often led her carefully forth to walk in
+their accustomed paths. He thought in his heart that he should never
+marry, and he was sure he could never like any girl as well as Susan.
+He sometimes told her so, and she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> gladly believed him; and she
+found herself, when thus convinced of his continued affection, less
+unhappy than she had imagined it possible to be under her melancholy
+deprivation. Her skill in knitting almost exceeded that of her old
+mistress; and although she could not earn as much as she formerly had
+by needle-work, still the farmers' wives patronized her; some of the
+gentry in the nearest country town bought her muffettees as fast as she
+could make them; and she was able to assist her parents in some degree.
+The household cares fell heavier on old Sarah, but she had a willing
+spirit, and grudged no labour for those she loved.</p>
+
+<p>One of Susan's most constant customers for her worsted manufactures
+was Mrs. Otley, who thought, in the absence of the Mowbrays, it was
+incumbent upon her to patronise their favourites. Though her husband
+rented but a small farm not exceeding a hundred acres, she was not, in
+her own estimation, a personage of small importance. She was possessed
+with that desire of aping her betters, which is the misfortune of many
+in her condition.</p>
+
+<p>Because a man with a capital of ten or twelve thousand pounds chooses
+to invest that capital in a large farm, and consequently lives
+himself, and brings up his family, as he would be entitled to do if
+the same fortune was invested in any other speculation or profession;
+why should the small farmer, who can barely stock his forty or fifty
+acres, and by the utmost industry ought not to expect a profit much
+beyond the earnings of a good labourer, think himself called upon to
+emulate his richer neighbour? Like him he keeps his greyhounds to go
+coursing, or his nag to ride hunting; while his wife and daughters
+appear at church attired in the extreme of the fashion, and at home
+display in their best parlour the elegancies of a drawing-room; such as
+diminutive cupids bearing gigantic candlesticks, <i>petits objets</i>
+on a small table, a flower-glass containing an artificial bouquet,
+and not unfrequently a piano-forte. Farmer Otley himself was not one
+to whom these remarks were applicable, but he had married a woman
+who was the very type of a fashionable farmeress. She had received a
+boarding-school education, could play on the piano-forte, spoke French,
+wrote a delicate hand with a steel pen, embroidered muslin, was really
+a pretty and not a vulgar-looking woman, and having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span> brought him a
+decent fortune, felt herself entitled to be as refined as books and
+backboards could make her.</p>
+
+<p>She had been struck by Mr. Otley's personal beauty, and had fallen
+in love with him as being more fitted by his appearance to enact the
+hero than any one else with whom she associated. He was certainly a
+singularly handsome man; and although (after marriage) she sometimes
+reproved him for allowing his voice to go beyond what she thought the
+true pitch of romance, and his laugh to become too hearty, she consoled
+herself by finding many examples in novels and poems, where strength,
+manliness, and courage are the requisite attributes of the lover, and
+the delicacy and refinement are only indispensable in the lady-love.</p>
+
+<p>When she married him she imagined all farmers must move in the same
+sphere of gentility; and as Mr. Glover, who rented and cultivated
+highly a thousand acres in her native parish, drove his wife and
+daughters to church in a phaeton with two pretty ponies; as the
+Miss Glovers were dressed as well, or nearly as well, as the Lady
+Larkingtons; as Mrs. Glover frequently dined with the clergyman's wife,
+and Mr. Glover occasionally at Larkington Hall, she concluded that when
+she also was united to a farmer, Mrs. Otley would be as great and as
+genteel a personage as Mrs. Glover.</p>
+
+<p>Much has been said, and much has been written, both against the farmers
+of the present day, and in their defence. Surely the condemnation and
+the approbation have both been too general. It is often urged that
+all the distress among that class of people is owing to their altered
+notions, their finery, and their ambition. It has also been urged with
+truth, that there is no reason why a large capitalist who invests his
+money in agricultural speculations should be condemned to eat bread and
+cheese, and to wear a smock-frock; and his wife to churn, bake, and
+feed her chickens.</p>
+
+<p>The fault appears to be that sufficient regard is not paid to the
+difference of capital requisite for a large and a small farm. The
+small shop-keeper in a narrow alley does not feel himself called upon
+to make the same appearance, or to indulge in the same luxuries, as
+the proprietor of one of the brilliant magazines in Regent Street, or
+Bond Street; but the small farmer strives to vie with the large one,
+and would be ashamed to see<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span> his family appear at church less well
+dressed, than that of a man whom he considers in the same rank of life
+as himself.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Foster was, as usual, one afternoon sitting at her cottage window,
+whence she commanded a view down the village street, which enabled her
+to beguile the tedious hours by reporting to her blind companions each
+little village incident. She saw Mrs. Otley draw near, accompanied by
+her children, and a girl who attended upon them. Old Sarah could not
+help remarking that Mrs. Otley was more dressed out than ever Mrs.
+Mowbray used to be. "It is a pity folks do not know their own places. I
+remember the time when Mr. Otley's mother—old Mrs. Otley that's dead
+and gone—used to wear her black satin bonnet and her red cloak just as
+I did; only her cloak was handsomer, and the satin was a richer satin,
+and she was never forced to wear them till they were shabby. She looked
+respectable at all times; and she kept as warm a house as anybody in
+the parish—plenty for her own family and for anybody who was in want.
+When you were courting me, Nicholas, you used to work with old Farmer
+Otley, and I dare say, if you had gone on with him, you would not have
+married for some years longer. I don't justly mind how it was, but you
+and he came to words, and you went off to Farmer Lightfoot, and he did
+not board nor lodge his men; and I remember well you said 'twas all so
+different from old Mrs. Otley's comfortable hot suppers, and her good
+clean bed, and her warm fire-side to sit by of an evening, that you
+resolved you would have a home of your own, and you said it would not
+cost you much more to have a cottage to yourself than to hire a single
+room. Ah! it was all very well, and we got on pretty middling; but it
+was a good while before we gathered things comfortable about us. We
+often used to say that if we had waited another two or three years we
+should have begun quite before-hand with the world. Do you remember,
+Nicholas, how pleased we were when we got our nice clock at last? It
+was a hard matter to save up enough for the clock, with a growing
+family coming on!"</p>
+
+<p>When old Sarah had advanced thus far in her reminiscences, she
+perceived that Mrs. Otley crossed the road and directed her steps to
+their cottage. She entered the humble apartment with a graceful slide,
+and her silk gown rustled, as Nicholas said, till he almost thought she
+must be the minister's lady. Her little boy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span> was dressed in a Polish
+coat, with a cap from which dangled a smart tassel. The little girl,
+who was just able to toddle, had a boa round her neck; and the brawny
+country-girl who enacted nursery-maid, seemed to have been tutored into
+taking as mincing steps as her mistress. Mrs. Otley came to bespeak
+some handkerchiefs and muffettees like those which Mrs. Parkins, the
+oracle of fashion in the town of Turnholme, had ordered; and she begged
+Mrs. Foster's permission to wait at her house till Mr. Otley passed by
+from market, and would drive her home in "his chaise,"—a term which
+serves some people to designate every gradation of one-horsed vehicle,
+from a stanhope to a tax-cart.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before Mr. Otley was seen approaching in the
+market-cart, which Mrs. Otley denominated his chaise; and she sent
+the girl to the garden-gate to stop him on his way. The good-natured
+husband quickly dismounted from his cart, and entered the cottage,
+fearing something might be the matter. "Why, what's this, Lizzy? You're
+not ill, to be sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my love," answered the lady; "only fatigued with my walk: but do
+not speak so loud, if you please, my love; you forget my nerves."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord bless you, Lizzy, I can't remember those things I know nothing
+about: but I am sorry you are so troubled with them. I am sure if they
+are a trouble to you, they are a trouble to me too; for they won't let
+you do any of the jobs that want doing about a farmhouse. Why, what's
+this queer bit of a rat's tail you've twisted round little Lizzy's
+neck?" he continued, laughing, as he held up the child's Lilliputian
+boa.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, dear Mr. Otley; the poor child will take cold if she is
+without her boa. Mrs. Foster will think you quite a savage," she
+continued, in a mincing half-tender tone, to carry off his rough
+manners.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, she won't," he replied! "Dame Foster knows me of old; and
+Nicholas, he was the first that taught me how to take a wasp's nest. Do
+you remember, Nicholas? You had left working for father then; but you
+were always partial to me, and I remember well you used sometimes to
+come at after-hours, and help me wasp-nesting, or bat-fowling, or such
+like."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Master Otley! you were a smart sprig of a lad, and I always had
+a liking for you. You always were sharp and active; and when you were
+quite a child, you would be helping your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span> poor mother when she was busy
+at her dairy, or her poultry-yard, or when she was particular busy on
+baking-days."</p>
+
+<p>"There, Lizzy; you see I always told you how mother used to set her
+hand to everything, and never thought any useful work was beneath her.
+That's the way to make farming answer. 'Tis the small profits and the
+small savings we must look to, if we mean to get on in these hard
+times."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mr. Otley, I do not like to hear you talk so. Anybody would think
+you quite mean and niggardly to hear you. I am often telling you you do
+not do yourself justice."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, wife! that's all very well; but it is just because I want to do
+myself justice that I talk so. But come along. Up with you into the
+cart, and we'll be jogging home. The more the merrier," he added, as he
+took the little girl in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Otley! when will you get me a little pony-chaise, or something
+decent, to go about in? I have never been used to such a shabby
+conveyance."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry for it, my dear! When I have the money, you shall have
+just such a chay as you may fancy; but mean time you must put up with
+this. Good night to you, Master Foster!" he continued, as he left the
+cottage. "Good night, dame! good night, Susan! I saw some rare fine
+worsted in a shop-window at Turnholme to-day. You shall have some, next
+time I go to market. I did think about bringing some to-day. It would
+be just the thing for your work."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you kindly, sir. You are very good," answered Susan.</p>
+
+<p>"Well to be sure, she looks too much of a lady to be getting up
+into that common cart," remarked Sarah, as she watched Farmer Otley
+carefully assisting his wife into the "chaise," and dutifully saving
+the silk gown from coming into contact with the wheel. "There's no
+particular harm in the woman if she was married to some one who only
+wanted a wife to look at; but how she is to keep everything going
+about a farm, is more than I can tell! She needs somebody to look
+after her, instead of her being able to look after others. There's
+her veil flying, and her bit of fur that she calls a boa slipping off
+among the spokes of the wheel, and her smart shawl almost shaken off
+her shoulders as the cart rattles down the street. Now the wind takes
+her bonnet, and it is blown quite back! Old Mrs. Otley used to look so
+decent and respectable as she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span> came home from market by her husband's
+side, with her warm red cloak held tight round her, and her close black
+bonnet fitting to her face, it was a pleasure to see her. Well! after
+all, this young woman's a good-natured soul, and gives you a good price
+for your work, Susan; and for all she is so fine herself, she is not
+proud nor haughty to others," added the kind-hearted Sarah; for though
+the habit of sitting at her window, watching all that took place in
+the village, and making her remarks and her calculations thereon, had
+unavoidably caused her to be something of a gossip, her heart was so
+good, that she always qualified any fault she might find with her
+neighbours, by discovering some counterbalancing merit.</p>
+
+<p>It is almost impossible that those whose lives are passed in
+ministering to the mental cravings and the amusement of the infirm and
+the unoccupied, should avoid talking too freely of others. However
+amiable their intentions and their feelings may be, so many words
+cannot be uttered without sometimes doing mischief, if it were only by
+magnifying trifles into matters of importance.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When Love's afraid, do not that fear despise;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flames tremble most, when they the highest rise.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>D'Avenant.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">George Wells</span> still took his Sunday walk with Susan; and Susan, having
+once told him distinctly that she should never marry, and that she
+gave him back his troth, having even alluded to the probability of his
+marrying another woman, felt she had done her duty, and that they might
+still be, and ever might remain, friends. But friendship between man
+and woman seldom exists without an admixture of love, past, present,
+or to come. The feeling that begins in friendship often leads on to
+love; often, too often, love is indulged under the garb of friendship;
+and sometimes, but more rarely, love leaves behind it a regard which
+subsides into friendship. Such, as Susan flattered herself, was the
+case with George; and she therefore hoped that she should always
+experience from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span> him the same kindness and the same attention. But it
+was not friendship, it was still love, that George felt for Susan: and
+it was a touching sight to mark the young man leading his once plighted
+wife, the blind Susan, on her way from church; tenderly watching that
+the merry urchins who were playing in the path did not run against her
+in their sport, or carefully pushing aside with his foot any loose
+stone which might cause her to stumble. He would often bring her a
+nosegay too; and Susan might generally be seen with a bowpot placed
+near her, containing the common flowers of the season, backed up with
+southern-wood and marjoram enough to drown the scent of all the roses
+and pinks of which the foreground was composed. George loved to see
+the smile with which his present was greeted; and still looked with
+admiration at the silken eye-lashes which shaded the eyes that could no
+longer beam upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The summer thus glided by; the autumn was equally tranquil; and Susan
+learned to listen for the accustomed step; to know, without attending
+to the village chimes, the very hour at which he usually dropped in,
+and to recognise his hand upon the latch. But as the winter advanced,
+and the days became short and the weather severe, when they could no
+longer walk together in the fields, and that his visits were as much
+to the old people as to Susan, he did not call so regularly; and Susan
+listened in vain for the sound of his step on the gravel, or the turn
+of his hand on the latch. In vain did she now count the hours and the
+quarters most accurately. The usual time had long elapsed when he did
+call, and sometimes he omitted to do so altogether. She could not
+wonder; she told herself she ought to be grateful for all the kindness
+she had met with; she was aware she had no right to reproach him, but
+yet she felt her sorrows more acutely than before.</p>
+
+<p>Old Nicholas was the first to remark upon George's frequent absence.
+Some rumours had reached Susan's ears that George was not so steady as
+he had formerly been; but she hastened to defend him and to account for
+the manner in which his time was occupied. Though she might feel hurt
+herself, it was painful to hear him blamed, and she dreaded hearing
+herself pitied.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, is not that seven o'clock?—five, six, seven,—yes, sure enough
+it is seven o'clock," said old Nicholas, one Sunday evening just after
+Christmas,—"and no George!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span> He was not here last Sunday neither. I am
+got so used to the young man, it seems quite dull when so many days go
+by without his giving us a call."</p>
+
+<p>"Young men must take a little pleasure sometimes, father! 'Tis always
+the same thing here, and I dare say he likes a little change."</p>
+
+<p>"That's quite true, Susan. I've been young in my day, and have had my
+pleasure; and Sarah, she has known what it is to be light-hearted; and
+we must not grudge young people what's natural at their age;"—then,
+after a little while, he added, "but you, my poor girl, trouble is come
+upon you before its time. It is all as it should be for us to bear our
+trials and wait patiently till it pleases God to take us; but you, not
+yet turned your two-and-twenty"——</p>
+
+<p>"Don't pity me, father! that's just what I can't bear. I do very well
+when I'm not pitied," exclaimed Susan, with a little touch of her
+former petulance: "Thank you all the same, father, for thinking so
+much about me," she added, in a few moments, with a subdued manner.
+"But, hark! I hear his step! I know the sound of his nailed shoes on
+the gravel;" and her head was raised, and her face turned to the door,
+while a smile almost angelic in its sweetness played around her mouth.
+"I am glad you are come, George," she said, "for father missed you so
+much. Come in, and sit down by him, and tell him all the news."</p>
+
+<p>This was just what suited George; for he felt conscious that he had
+been somewhat neglectful of late, and he found it easier to entertain
+old Nicholas with the village news, than to sit by Susan and explain to
+her how his evenings had been occupied.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard plenty of news, and bad news too, at the Cart and Horses
+t'other night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, George! you have not taken to going to the public-house, sure? You
+never used to do such a thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bless you, Susan, a man can't work all day, and take no amusement
+when his work is over. What can a man do that has not got a home
+to go to?" This went to Susan's heart, but she said nothing. "As I
+was telling you, they said at the Cart and Horses—no, 'twas at the
+Chequers—Tuesday evening."——</p>
+
+<p>"So he frequents both public-houses!" thought Susan.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p>
+
+<p>George continued: "Master Smith said there was a talk of breaking up
+the benefit club."</p>
+
+<p>"The benefit club!" exclaimed Sarah; "why, what will my good man do if
+the benefit club should go! His half-pay is almost all we have had to
+live upon for many a long year!"</p>
+
+<p>"That will fall heavy upon us, indeed," said Nicholas. "Why, what's the
+meaning of this? I never heard any talk of the club being so low."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, they say the members are all growing old, and so many of them
+keep coming upon it that it can't hold out, unless they consent to take
+less pay."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" cried Nicholas; "I always was afraid how 'twould be, and I was
+very sorry to be such a burthen to it myself. That was why I agreed
+that, as my affliction was not like a common illness, of which one
+might hope to be cured, but as I must look for no other than being on
+the club as long as I lived, I would take only half-pay, walking-pay,
+as they call it. My two sons are very good, they always make up the
+money to me out of their earnings. I am sure I would not wish to be too
+covetous, and to break my club."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope 'tis only talk: it will do well enough, I dare say, if we can
+get some new young members into it that are not likely to be any drain
+upon it yet. Well! I have put in for four years, and never drawn a
+farthing yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, George, you should be very grateful to think what a
+blessing God has granted you, in giving you such good health all these
+years."</p>
+
+<p>"True enough, Susan: in that sense I should be glad never to have any
+of my money back again. And I am sure, Master Foster, I am glad enough
+to be in the club, and help to keep it going, if it is only for your
+sake."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, George; that's kindly said," answered Susan, while a tear
+trembled in her eye-lashes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Master Foster," said George, "I must be going; for I promised to
+meet Will Dixon at the Chequers this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, George! you are not going to pass your Sunday evening at the
+public-house!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, don't scold, Susan; I promised to meet Will Dixon; and though
+we want to have a bit of talk together, we need not make too free
+with the beer, you know;" and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span> George was gone. Susan remained
+with an indefinite sensation of uneasiness for which she could not
+satisfactorily have accounted to herself.</p>
+
+<p>The following week they saw no more of George, neither did they on
+the Sunday; but in the succeeding week he again called. The alarm
+concerning the benefit club seemed to have subsided: Nicholas's mind
+was set at ease upon the subject; and Susan timidly asked George
+whether he and Will Dixon had had a merry bout of it at the Chequers.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Susan, you want to get me to tell tales out of school!
+we drank no more beer than was good for us, and then I went home with
+Will Dixon to supper." Did these few words re-assure Susan that George
+was not likely to fall into the habit of frequenting the ale-house,
+and did they consequently restore her mind to its usual tranquillity?
+On the contrary, a sensation shot through her which she had hitherto
+been spared. She remembered that Will Dixon's sister Jane was a pretty
+girl with bright blue eyes, and one who had for a short time divided
+George's attentions with herself, before she had finally fixed them.
+She remembered thinking that Jane Dixon was very partial to George,
+and she remembered that the neighbours had joked Jane Dixon about
+wearing the willow. Jealousy for the first time darted through her
+heart, and she was alarmed and roused by the keenness of the pang. With
+the rapidity of lightning she pictured to herself George in love with
+Jane,—George, Jane's accepted lover,—George her bridegroom,—George
+her kind and affectionate husband! It was with difficulty she
+could bear her part in the conversation, and her smile was sad and
+constrained.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think you seem right well, Susan. Are you ill, Susan?"
+inquired George kindly and affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you, dear George; I am quite well—only I feel a little
+dull—I think 'tis the weather. Mother said she felt heavy this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe it is. Jane Dixon was saying, Sunday, that this mild weather
+was not seasonable, and that she liked a good sharp frost, and a good
+long walk." Susan quivered as the name came from George's lips. But
+George was not yet in love with Jane, and no consciousness prevented
+his uttering the name freely. Susan had almost said, "So, you were
+walking with Jane Dixon, Sunday!" but she checked the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> remark, mentally
+saying, "and why should he not walk with Jane? and why should he not
+marry Jane? Why should I fret? I ought to hope Jane may draw him away
+from idle companions and bad company. I fretted when I thought he was
+taking to such courses; surely I ought to be glad if anybody else gets
+the power I have lost to lure him from evil ways. Poor fellow! he would
+never have thought of such things if I had not been afflicted as I am.
+If he had married, and had a comfortable home, he would have gone on
+being steady. Yes, I ought to hope he may marry Jane Dixon, and make
+her a good husband." But, school herself as she would, she did fret;
+and all the placidity of mind which she had laboured to acquire was
+gone. Night and day did she think of George and Jane, and constantly
+did she fancy them walking through the same lanes, strolling up the
+same field-paths, loitering along the same head-lands, where she had
+so often wandered with George. Long before such things did occur, had
+she imagined them. But in the course of a few months, that which her
+reason wished, but her feelings dreaded, came to pass. George's visits
+became more and more rare; and when he did look in, Jane Dixon's name
+was never breathed.</p>
+
+<p>There was an awkwardness in his manner, and he almost exclusively
+addressed himself to Nicholas. Susan was all gentleness, and
+invariably, when he took leave, thanked him for calling, in a subdued
+manner, which showed how entirely she felt it was from motives of
+charity, and not from preference, that he now visited them. George,
+without decyphering what caused the change in her tone, was aware that
+she read his mind, and he became ill at ease in her presence.</p>
+
+<p>Jane Dixon had originally liked George; and now that he was free again,
+and that Susan Foster had, as it was well known, refused to marry
+him, she saw no reason why she should not put forth all her store of
+rustic allurements to win back her first love. George was by nature
+steady and domestic: he had for two years been engaged to Susan, and
+had therefore been in the habit of considering a wife, a family, a
+home, as the enjoyments to which a poor man should look forward; and
+although he had latterly been led to mix more with companions of loose
+character, though he had loitered away many an evening at bowls or in
+the ale-house, he was not happy while leading such a life. At first,
+it was for the loss of Susan<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> herself that he grieved; but in time
+his regrets became less sentimental. He pined for a fire-side of his
+own, his own chimney-nook, his hot rasher of bacon for supper, and
+the kind attentions of a wife, even though that wife were not Susan
+Foster. He was in a state of mind which laid him peculiarly open to
+such attractions as Jane Dixon possessed; a tolerable share of beauty,
+extreme good-humour, and, above all, a very decided predilection for
+him, which she was at no pains to conceal. No wonder, then, if after
+two years of hopeless attendance upon poor Susan, he should now find
+himself engaged to Jane Dixon, and that the only difficulty which
+remained, was to break the event to Susan.</p>
+
+<p>Every time George entered their cottage, to bid them a hurrying good
+morning, or to wish them a hasty good-night, Susan thought the moment
+was arrived when he was going to announce to them the step he had
+taken;—for she felt that he would not allow them to learn it only from
+common report; and she judged rightly. Once, or twice, after having
+wished them good night, he had lingered with his hand upon the latch
+of the door, or had returned to ask some trifling question, and then
+had hurried suddenly away. Each time she felt that the decisive moment
+was come, and she worked herself up to receive the intelligence as she
+ought. She thought she wished it over, and her mind at rest; and yet
+she felt relieved when the door was closed, and she heard his step
+receding along the little gravel path, and she might still think of him
+as her George, and not as the promised husband of another.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behold the herbage rich, in pride of June,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pranked with gay flowrets dancing merrily</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beneath the sunbeams of the sultry noon,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While slumbering in their cells their perfumes lie.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But when the scythe sweeps on right sturdily,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Laying their sweet heads low, their spirits fling</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pure incense on the breeze ere yet they die;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So doth the chastening hand of sorrow bring</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Virtues and graces forth, by joy left slumbering.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was rather more than two years from Alice Mowbray's wedding-day,
+when George Wells lifted the latch of Master<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> Foster's door, and,
+closing it after him, walked into the house, seated himself on the
+polished wooden chair opposite old Sarah's, and said in a hurried
+voice, "I am come, neighbours,—I am come to tell you a piece of news
+which I should be loth you should hear from anybody but myself."</p>
+
+<p>Susan's heart died away within her—her head drooped more than ever
+over her knitting; Dame Foster took off her spectacles, and, wiping
+them, laid them within the sacred book from which she had been reading
+some texts to her husband and her child; old Nicholas half turned
+himself upon his settle: but none spoke. Susan felt that the silence
+must be distressing to George; and exerting herself the first, she
+replied, "If it is any news, George, that concerns yourself, you may be
+sure there are no friends who will be more rejoiced to hear of any good
+likely to befall you, or more grieved to hear of any misfortune. You
+have scarce any older friends than father, and mother, and myself; so
+you need not be afraid to speak."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Susan, thank you; that's just like you. I was sure you
+would take it so. And yet, after all that has passed between us, I
+felt—I don't know how I felt. But it seems strange I should marry
+anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"I gave you back your word, George, and this is what I have long
+expected; and long tried to make up my mind to," she added, with some
+effort. "I could not expect you to go on always tending upon a poor
+blind girl like me. 'Tis better, much better, than getting any ways
+unsteady. God knows, I have not a word to say against your marrying
+Jane Dixon."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Susan, thank you," he repeated; "I feel easier now! Susan,
+this has been a great trouble to me; for I could not bear deceiving you
+like, and yet I did not know how to tell you there was any courting
+going on between me and Jane."</p>
+
+<p>"You know, George, I gave you back your word from the first."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, so you did; but for a long time I did not believe I should
+ever think of any girl but you: but I do not know how it is, a man
+wants a home—does he not, Master Foster?—and he wants a wife to see
+to him. And then, Jane Dixon, she's a tight lass; and I don't know how
+it was,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span> I never came home from work without meeting her going of an
+errand somewhere; and then she is a bustling girl, and one who will
+keep things nice and tidy in a poor man's house."</p>
+
+<p>"Her mother was a thrifty, bustling body, and I hope she will make
+you a good wife, George," said Dame Foster, in a tone which she meant
+should be very kind; but her thoughts were so much occupied with Susan,
+that she had no feeling to spare for any one else.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you happiness, George," said Nicholas; "you have behaved very
+well by my poor girl; and, if it had not been for her affliction, you
+would have married her, and made her a good husband, I warrant. It is
+the will of God it should all be as it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you kindly, Master Foster."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Susan had been feeling upon the little shelf on the wall
+close to where she sat, for a small book, which at length she found.
+"George," she said, "I have a book here which I ought to give you back.
+'Tis those Watts's Hymns which you gave to me a few days before Miss
+Alice's wedding;" she could not repress a sigh. "If you remember, you
+wrote both our Christian names upon it,—and then said you would add
+the surname when one name would do for both. I don't think it is right
+I should keep that book, and you the husband of another; and yet I
+could never find it in my heart to destroy it. Besides, I can't read
+all the beautiful hymns that are in it; but you can, and sometimes it
+may do you good perhaps to read them."</p>
+
+<p>George indeed remembered giving Susan the little book: he had that day
+obtained the promise of Master Mumford's house, and he had that day
+gained her consent to their being speedily asked in church. They had
+then written their names in the manner described by Susan, and had
+talked over their future prospects, with the assurance of soon being
+indissolubly united.</p>
+
+<p>As George took the book from Susan's hands, he felt them tremble.
+He was scarcely more composed himself. The appearance of the little
+volume, the sight of the writing, annihilated for a moment the
+intervening two years; and he saw Susan as she then stood beside him,
+radiant with health, joy, and tenderness.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span></p>
+
+<p>Jane Dixon would not have been pleased had she known with what pain he
+received this present, with what regret he looked back upon the image
+thus conjured up to his mind. The tears were in his eyes as he held it.
+"If it is not right for you to keep the book, Susan, I do not think it
+is right I should; for I am sure I shall never look upon it without
+wishing,—without remembering——Oh! Susan, how happy we were when I
+gave you that book!" His voice broke, and he passed the back of his
+hand several times over his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Strong emotion in a stout and sturdy peasant, whose feelings we are
+sure are thoroughly genuine, and in which we are satisfied there is no
+touch of sickly, morbid sensibility, is always an affecting subject
+of contemplation. It was almost too much for old Sarah, who now wept
+like a child; while Susan experienced among the poignant regrets which
+overpowered her, a mixture of satisfaction to find she was so tenderly
+recollected. "I did not think you would have minded it, George; but if
+it makes you think too much of by-gone days, why, perhaps, 'twill be
+best you should give the book to mother to keep. I would not wish you
+to think any more about me now; it would be no ways right." But it was
+a comfort to Susan, though she was not aware of it, that she had to
+tell him not to think about her.</p>
+
+<p>George still held the book, awkwardly shifting it from hand to hand:
+at length he held it out; "Take it, dame," he said, "take it; for
+I'm going to be married to Jane Dixon, and I must not think any more
+about Susan, nor about the days that are passed and gone; it won't
+do," and he pushed the book towards Dame Foster, and abruptly opened
+the door. "God bless you, George," and Susan held out her hand. He had
+closed the latch, and was gone. Her hand dropped to her side, but she
+was not mortified. She scarcely knew how it was that she felt so much
+less miserable than she expected she would have done, when George was
+about to be married to another,—when an eternal barrier was about to
+be placed between them,—when she had broken the last link that bound
+them to each other. Alas! it must be confessed that if the causes of
+her more resigned frame of mind were accurately analyzed, there might
+be discovered, among better feelings, a slight admixture of vanity,
+which had been soothed by finding George<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span> still remembered her with
+affection, and by feeling that he did not love Jane Dixon so well as he
+had once loved her.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was a good and a generous girl; but in her nature there was a
+portion of that quality which, although subdued and chastened by heavy
+affliction, is seldom entirely rooted out of the human heart. She did
+not wish George to be unhappy on her account; she heartily hoped Jane
+would prove a good wife to him; and yet, after having experienced
+considerable mortification in the course of his unavoidable neglect of
+her, it was a balm to poor frail human nature to feel that she was not
+relinquished without a pang.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor girl," said Sarah, after she had watched George's hurried
+steps along the road, over the stile, and into the fields beyond the
+village,—"my poor girl! I must no longer pray, as I have done, never
+to see another sun rise when once my poor Nicholas is in his grave, for
+what will you do without me? As long as George was single, I felt you
+would never want a friend; but now I must hope to be spared still for
+your sake! I once thought, when you were George's wife, and my good man
+was at rest, that old Sarah Foster's task would be finished, and that
+she might pray the Almighty to release her from these pains. But God's
+will be done!" and she bowed her head in meek submission.</p>
+
+<p>George Wells had instinctively avoided the village; he dreaded to meet
+his betrothed. Susan had risen up to his mind as she had been in her
+best days: those days once more became so present to him, that all his
+former love seemed to return with fresh force, and he wondered how he
+had become entangled with Jane Dixon. But a few weeks more, and she
+would be his wife; and among the lower orders that name is more sacred
+than among the higher, where the gradations between virtue and vice
+are softened down, and the line of demarcation not so absolute. He
+remembered that he had promised to walk with Jane that very evening,
+and he somewhat slowly and unwillingly returned towards the village
+by a path which led nearer the dwelling of his new love. He had not
+advanced far when he met her gaily approaching in search of him. He was
+scarcely yet in a frame of mind to meet her gladly, and he wished she
+had not been quite so affectionate in her disposition towards him. She
+certainly was not coy. He had never been called upon to sue; he had
+but to receive the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span> advances she was disposed to make. "Poor girl!" he
+thought, "it is not her fault, if I once liked Susan so much. She has
+always been partial to me: I must make her a good husband. It would
+never do to be anywise unkind to her now; besides, the parish begins
+to talk, and the best thing we can do is to be married out of hand."
+And the result was that they agreed he should wait on the minister, and
+inform him they wished to be asked in church.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VIII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let fowk bode weel, and strive to do their best,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nae mair's required; let Heav'n make out the rest.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Allan Ramsay's</span> <i>Gentle Shepherd</i>.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Susan</span> was somewhat agitated and perplexed the next Sunday morning,
+debating in her own mind whether George and Jane were likely to be
+asked that very day, and whether she could hear their names called over
+with the composure which befitted so holy a place. She did not like
+to absent herself from church on that account; for to those who have
+acquired the habit of never failing in their attendance, the omission
+appears a dereliction of duty. She therefore summoned up her courage;
+her mother, as usual, arranged her bonnet, and pinned her shawl with
+due attention to neatness. The dame, as usual, turned the key of the
+door, and placed it in her pocket; then, taking Nicholas's arm with
+one hand, she guided him safely on his way, while with the other
+she supported her own feebler steps with her polished staff. Susan
+followed, led by a neighbour's little girl, who always came to attend
+her to church.</p>
+
+<p>This afflicted family, so decent in their apparel, so respectable in
+their behaviour, were never seen drawing near the house of worship
+without exciting a feeling of pity and veneration in all whose souls
+were not callous to every good emotion. They had arranged themselves as
+usual in their pew. The service had begun; and when the close of the
+second lesson drew near, poor Susan's heart beat almost audibly. Her
+head was held low, and her face was partly concealed by her bonnet: but
+she strove to maintain as unmoved a countenance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span> as possible; for she
+knew that the opposite seat was occupied by gay young girls who would
+feel a curiosity about her, and she was unable to tell when, or when
+not, her countenance might be the subject of remark to others.</p>
+
+<p>The last words of the lesson were read; the large Bible was closed with
+a heavy noise; there was a moment's pause, but the clergyman proceeded
+with the service, and Susan was spared for that Sunday. A sort of hope
+shot through her mind; and yet what did she hope? She had herself
+relinquished George, she had herself anticipated his marriage, she knew
+he was engaged, she knew he could not with honour break off with Jane
+Dixon; if he did, was not she as unfit for a poor labourer's wife as
+when she first gave him back his troth? It was all so, and yet she felt
+relieved.</p>
+
+<p>The following Sunday she was again seated in her accustomed place, and
+she again listened as the clergyman read the service. This time the
+names were read,—"George Wells, bachelor, and Jane Dixon, spinster,
+both of this parish." The girls opposite might have seen her lips
+quiver; and the hands which were habitually meekly clasped upon her
+knee, were slightly raised, and fell again immediately.</p>
+
+<p>That day Sarah herself led Susan from church, and gave up the guidance
+of Nicholas to the little girl. They reached their home; and before old
+Sarah busied herself in the preparation for their humble repast, she
+sat down to rest herself. Susan heard her mother sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother!" she said, "you are fretting about me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to say fretting, Susan, for we heard no more than what we expected
+to hear; but I thought it was a great trial to you to hear their
+names in church. I was afraid whether it might not be almost too much
+for you. And then I sighed to think, when we were gone, what a poor
+desolate creature you would be; and I was wishing we could any way
+provide for you. I should not like you to come on the parish, and yet I
+don't see how we can save any thing,—we, that can't earn a shilling.
+Next time Farmer Otley calls, I will ask him about the Friendly Society
+he was mentioning; and I have heard talk of insuring one life against
+another, and perhaps we might get your brothers to help," continued the
+old woman, her thoughts gradually led from the wound Susan's affections
+had received, to the blasting of her worldly prospects.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span></p>
+
+<p>When, as among the lower orders, the provision necessary for existence
+is at stake, the most tender regrets must often be mixed up with other
+considerations; but Susan could not yet comprehend any sorrow but that
+of losing the lover of her youth. "Never trouble your head about me in
+that way, mother; I don't care nor think anything about such matters."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well for young folks who have always had their
+fathers' roof over their heads," interposed Nicholas, "and a bit to eat
+as long as their parents had it; but it is the duty of parents to look
+forward for their children. You will find it very different when we
+are in our graves, and you have to find yourself board and lodging and
+everything. It frets me so, sometimes, I can't go to sleep! I and my
+old woman used often to say we should be at rest when we were beneath
+the sod, and we did not care how soon our time came; but now I quite
+dread to think we may be taken any day."</p>
+
+<p>"And so may I, father, be taken any day. It often happens that the
+youngest goes first; and as 'tis all in the hands of Providence, there
+is no need for you to make yourself unhappy about me in that way.
+Besides, who knows but God may raise me up friends if my time of need
+should ever come?—It is not my board nor my lodging that troubles me,"
+she could not help adding with an irrepressible expression of grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I know what 'tis that troubles you. 'Tis just what I am often
+thinking of. In my affliction I have a kind helpmate to cheer me, and
+keep up my spirits, and save me from ever feeling lonesome; and I have
+you, Susan, and I love to listen to your voice, though it has not its
+cheerful tone, and though I never hear the laugh that used to make
+my heart glad within me. You, my poor girl, you can never have these
+comforts, and that weighs upon my mind, though I do not like to say
+much about it."</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be helped, father, and I hope I submit as I should. It has
+pleased God to visit me as He has done, and I am sure I have done no
+more than my duty in not letting George burthen himself with me for a
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, it is all right; you have done your duty, that's certain."</p>
+
+<p>"And when we have done that, we must leave the rest to Providence."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Otley called soon afterwards with some of the worsted which he was
+now in the constant habit of procuring for Susan. Dame Foster took
+the opportunity of getting her mind enlightened concerning annuities,
+and friendly societies, and all the other modes of provision for the
+poor which were established at Turnholme. But all required a larger
+monthly sum, or a more considerable deposit, than they could possibly
+contrive to pay. "I wish, Mr. Otley," said Susan, "you could persuade
+father and mother not to think so much about me; if 'tis anything about
+themselves, they always say we should rely on Providence: tell them
+they should do so for me, as well as for themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite right, Susan, you should speak as you do, and feel as you
+do; but it is quite right too that your parents should be willing to do
+the best they can for you. I am sure I wish I could put them in the way
+of making some provision for you; but when people get to be in years,
+all the insurances are so high: that is a thing people should think of
+when they are young and in health."</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite just, Master Otley, and so I did when I was young; for
+I put into my club as soon as I was turned nineteen,—as soon as I got
+anything like man's wages; and a good job it has been for me that I did
+so: but, you see, one could not reckon upon such an affliction as poor
+Susan's."</p>
+
+<p>"And that's quite just too, Master Foster; and I'll be bound that if
+ever she should be in want, the gentry, ay, and the farmers too, would
+not grudge her some help,—such a good girl, and such a patient girl
+as she is! and so young too, and so well-favoured as she is! I often
+tell my mistress I don't care how many warm handkerchiefs she buys of
+Susan, 'tis all money well spent; though I will say I wish she would
+not always be making me drive her over to Turnholme, that she may learn
+the new fashions. What do the fashions signify? say I; where is your
+red cloak? say I; and where is your checked apron? say I: and then she
+is so mad with me! But she is a good-natured soul, and always comes
+round after I've laughed a bit. And then then she is not so hearty and
+strong as I am, and she can't bustle about. Well, good night, Nicholas!
+I must be off. I must not forget this package though: Miss Mincing, at
+the shop, told me I must be sure and carry it very carefully, for the
+least touch would spoil it." And<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span> away went the good-natured farmer,
+carrying the parcel very carefully to the cart, but then putting it at
+the bottom of the vehicle among many other articles of great size and
+weight, where it was jumbled in a manner which would have agonised Miss
+Mincing had she witnessed it, and which did agonise Mrs. Otley when she
+extracted it from among its travelling companions, and upon examination
+found the beautiful cap, with its wires, and its bows, more fit to
+adorn a May-day chimney-sweeper, than the head of so refined a lady as
+she was.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Otley, how could you!" she exclaimed, in an accusing voice to
+her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"How could I do what, Lizzy, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look at my cap!" she said; "I am sure Miss Mincing must have told you
+to take care of it."</p>
+
+<p>"So I did, Lizzy; I held it up between my finger and thumb, as tenderly
+as if it was a plum with the bloom on it, till I laid it quite light at
+the top of everything else in the cart."</p>
+
+<p>"And then you went rattling away as hard as you could drive, without
+once looking behind you to see how all the articles rode in the chaise!
+I do think you must have been a little too gay at market, Mr. Otley,"
+she said, in a small voice; "you must have made a little too free with
+some of your coarse drinking companions:" and she drew herself up.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit of it, Lizzy; none of your insinuations! I just wetted my
+bargain, as everybody should, and that was all. I'm sorry your cap is
+tumbled."</p>
+
+<p>"Crushed, spoiled, <i>abeemy</i>," (query <i>abîmé</i>?) "as Miss
+Mincing says."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'll tell you what: it is a sort of a flashy thing I can't abide,
+and I had rather by half see you in such a cap as old Dame Foster
+wears."</p>
+
+<p>"My love, you are quite uncivil: you have quite lost your manners. I am
+sure you are saying what you do not think, and I am sure that all the
+while you like to see your wife look neat and genteel."</p>
+
+<p>"Neat, I do, and neatness is gentility enough for me. Come, I'll buy
+you a new cap after my own fashion; and then if you take half the bows,
+and all the flowers, off this queer thing," and he held the cap up
+aloft, dangling by one of its strings, "you will have two decent caps,
+instead of one out-of-the-way concern."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span></p>
+
+<p>"You have no taste, dear Mr. Otley!" said poor Mrs. Otley, as she
+pinched, and pulled, and tried to squeeze the unfortunate cap into its
+pristine shape. Mr. Otley watched her as she put her head first on this
+side, then on that, looking distressfully on the cap, and every now and
+then giving it a masterly twitch.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, what puzzles me, Lizzy, is, when you look to wearing this cap:
+you can't go to church in it, and you can't drive out in the cart in
+it; and hang me if I know when you mean to put it on."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, Mr. Otley, every woman should have something decent to wear if
+visitors should come."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure Farmer Dobson will never know what sort of a cap you have on
+your head, and Mr. Higgins is quite a plain sort of a man; and 'tis but
+seldom they call in, except just in the way of business."</p>
+
+<p>"But Mr. Dobson has a wife, and daughters too," answered Mrs. Otley
+triumphantly; "and Mrs. Higgins's lace-veil, last Sunday, was quite the
+talk of the whole church. I am sure I heard of it three times before
+I could get down the church-yard and into our chaise; and I saw all
+the bonnets moving in all the pews as she came up the aisle with her
+beautiful veil hanging down almost to her knees."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Otley had nothing to reply, and Mrs. Otley remained in possession
+of the field.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER IX.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Cancel all our vows;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, when we meet at any time again,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be it not seen in either of our brows</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That we one jot of former love retain.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Michael Drayton.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">George Wells</span> and Jane Dixon had been asked for the last time, and the
+wedding was fixed for the Wednesday following. George Wells had not
+again visited the family of the Fosters. His mind was more at ease
+since he had spoken to Susan; but he found that the sight of her meek
+countenance, the sound of her gentle voice, and the recollection of
+former days, unsettled him. Neither did Susan desire that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span> he should
+call any more. She was never again to consider him but as the husband
+of another, and she wished for time to accustom herself to this idea
+before she again heard his voice: she wished to school and calm her
+feelings, so as to be sure her heart would not beat when she heard his
+step and recognised his hand upon the latch.</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose in the full effulgence of a September morning, and all
+seemed gay in the village of Overhurst: the children were all sporting
+in and out of every cottage-door: the bells began to ring a merry peal
+while the Fosters were yet at breakfast; and Betsey Smith, who was
+Jane's particular friend, was seen by old Sarah, in her white gown and
+her new shawl and ribands, carefully picking her way across the road,
+as she came from her home, in the outskirts of the parish, to join the
+rest of the party at the Dixons. Susan and her father did not see the
+bridesmaid in her gala dress; but they heard the merry chimes of the
+bells, and Susan with difficulty swallowed the cup of tea her mother
+had prepared for her. The chime of church bells is of all sounds that
+which conveys the most melancholy, or the most joyous impressions to
+the heart, according to the circumstances under which it is heard, and
+the associations with which it is connected. If the feelings are not
+in accordance with their peal, there is no sound so unutterably, so
+unaccountably sad as that of a merry chime. It may well be imagined
+that to Susan, that morning, it was more sad than a funereal toll, and
+it was a relief when the ringers relaxed from their exertions. Dame
+Foster's eyes were frequently turned upon her daughter with increased
+tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>The countenances of the mother and of the daughter formed a singular
+contrast. The old woman, who bore her bodily sufferings without
+uttering a complaint,—who never allowed her voice to fall into a
+cadence, which could express pain, or peevishness, or vexation,
+lest she should grieve the two objects of her love,—had, from the
+knowledge that they could not read her looks, allowed her features to
+set themselves into a form expressive of intense agony, and constant
+anxiety. Those of the daughter, on the contrary, who was aware that
+her feelings might be the subject of observation to others if suffered
+to show themselves on her face, seldom, if ever, varied in their
+placidity. She knew not when her mother might be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span> gazing upon her; and,
+from the fear of grieving her, she had learned to wear a gentle smile,
+whatever might be her mental sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>The village noises gradually subsided. Susan felt that the wedding
+had drawn off the idle children and the village loungers in another
+direction. Neither Nicholas nor Sarah spoke. There was no sound except
+the incessant and buzzing hum of the autumn flies in the sunny window.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a beautiful day, is not it, mother?" at length inquired Susan.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear; a beautiful sunshiny day," answered the dame, with a
+deep-drawn sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it was, for the flies buzz so. I am glad of it. It is a pity
+when a wedding comes on a bad day. I hope 'tis a good omen for poor
+George!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard say, that the duller the day, the brighter the marriage;
+not but what I wish well to George and his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be very wrong in us not to pray for his happiness, mother;
+for I have not a word to say against his behaviour to me from first to
+last."</p>
+
+<p>"Jane Dixon is a lucky girl. He's sure to make a good husband, for he
+has good principles."</p>
+
+<p>"And he her first lover and all, too!" replied Susan. "She <i>is</i> a
+lucky girl! I used to feel sorry for her, when first George slighted
+her for me; for I saw she did not laugh and joke with him as she did
+with the other men. Now 'tis her turn to be sorry for me, and perhaps
+she is, though she has given up calling to see me almost ever since I
+have been afflicted. But it was not to be wondered at, when she began
+to think of George again. That was one thing made me almost sure what
+would come to pass at last."</p>
+
+<p>"Why 'twas to be expected that things should fall out much as they
+have done. But I do not know how it was, when I found George seem so
+attentive and so constant for such a long time, I thought, mayhap,
+he would always go on as he did then. I believe it is the way with
+parents, they can't help fancying their own children something beyond
+other people's; and so I began to count George would never be looking
+out for any body else. However, 'tis my belief he will never love Jane
+Dixon, as he has loved my Susan."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span></p>
+
+<p>"If he does not yet, mother, he will soon. George will be sure to love
+his wife, and he will grow to love her better and better every day,
+and then he will quite forget me; but that is all as it should be. Do
+you think, mother, I shall ever forget him? I mean to try hard to do
+so; and I don't mean to talk over what has gone before, even with you,
+mother; and then do you think at last, mother, I shall quite forget to
+think of him, except as a friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you may, my child; but it is always harder for a woman to
+forget than it is for a man: and 'tis harder still for you, who have
+nothing to draw off your mind. I have often heard old folks say, that
+scarce anybody marries their first love; and, if that is true, many and
+many must have got over such things. But I can't justly say myself, for
+I never kept company with anybody but your father, and we have been
+married so long that I can't frame to myself a notion of anything but
+being his wife."</p>
+
+<p>Susan sighed. "And that's just what I used to feel about George; and I
+always thought he and I should be just such another couple as you and
+father."</p>
+
+<p>Susan had indulged herself in thinking and speaking of George as
+her lover till the images of the past had usurped the place of the
+realities of the present. The growing hum of voices struck her quick
+ear. The village was all alive again. The shouts of children and the
+steps of passers-by recalled her to herself, and painfully dispelled
+the recollections which had taken possession of her mind. It was over,
+and he was now the husband of another; and she felt wicked in having
+given way to such thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, we must not say any more: the time is come when it is not
+enough for me to put a guard upon my words and my actions; I must
+now set a watch over my thoughts. I do not often talk as I have done
+to-day; and I felt as if it would do me good to speak of him once
+more:—but there's an end now."</p>
+
+<p>Towards the afternoon the bridal party paraded the humble street,
+as is the custom among the peasantry. The bride and bridegroom, and
+the bride's-maids and bride's-men, dressed in their holiday apparel,
+and paired for the day, perambulated the most frequented parts of
+Overhurst; the laughing blushing bride received the hearty, if not
+refined, congratulations of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span> her neighbours; and, probably, among some
+of the wedding guests the foundations were laid for another festival of
+the same kind.</p>
+
+<p>George had as much as possible curtailed the usual march of the little
+procession, and had contrived that only once did they pass before
+Master Foster's cottage. He was ashamed on his wedding-day to say he
+wished to avoid that part of the village, and yet his heart sunk within
+him as he approached it. He almost rejoiced for a moment that Susan
+could not <i>see</i> the merry troop; and, as he passed, he dared not
+raise his eyes in that direction.</p>
+
+<p>Many remarked that day, that Jane was all joy and smiles as would have
+befitted the bridegroom, while George's down-cast looks would better
+have suited the bride.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Foster was at her window, and saw the party advancing. Susan
+heard them almost before her mother perceived them, and inquired if
+the wedding procession was not passing. Her mother answered in the
+affirmative; and could not help adding, that she had not believed
+George would have been so unfeeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see him, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there he is, Susan, sure enough!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother, how does he look? I gave him a handkerchief two years ago
+last summer, and he said he should keep it for his wedding-day. He has
+not got that on, sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis a checked brown and yellow he wears round his neck."</p>
+
+<p>"No! 'twas a spotted blue I gave him."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the dame, in a more kindly tone; "he holds
+down his head, and now he looks the other way,—quite away from his
+bride, up the hill. Poor fellow! he can't bear to turn this way after
+all. I'll be bound he does feel it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jane must know all that has been between him and me," said Susan with
+some bitterness; "and I do think she need not have led him this way
+neither! But I am glad you have seen him, mother. I like to know how he
+looks; for I may still wish him well." Susan's fingers resumed their
+knitting, and the dame proceeded with her darning.</p>
+
+<p>George would have silenced their merriment had he had the presence of
+mind to do so; but a peasant bridegroom is of all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span> creatures the most
+awkward, the most shame-faced: far from bearing himself as the man who
+has won the prize he sought, he has the air of one who has been fairly
+caught in the snare, and has no longer a chance of escape.</p>
+
+<p>George, however, felt it impossible to again march, as it were in
+triumph, by Susan's door; he led Jane the back way into the village: it
+was nearly the same path he had taken the day he had told Susan of his
+marriage: and it is to be feared that Jane did not find her George the
+more gay or the more tender for being removed from the observation of
+others. Presently the sounds of gay voices once more grew upon the ear
+as the party returned on their steps.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Foster again put down her spectacles, and gazed through the
+window: "God bless him!" she exclaimed; "he could not stand it again,
+and he is not with the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Not gone away and left Jane?" inquired Susan in a tone of
+alarm,—"that would not be right."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, she's gone too. I warrant me, they've taken the back way round
+to Master Dixon's, and I like him all the better." The dame felt more
+in charity with him than she had done a few minutes before; and Susan
+was gratified, and yet grieved, that George should not be thoroughly
+happy. "He will be so soon!" she thought, however;—and so he was.</p>
+
+<p>He enjoyed the comforts of a tidy home, a blazing fire, a warm supper,
+and a smiling wife to greet him on his return from work. His days were
+occupied in his accustomed labour; his after-hours were filled up by
+cultivating his garden; and the helpmate who received him kindly, and
+provided him with comforts, became daily more endeared to him. The
+birth of a child gave him a fresh object of interest, and George was a
+happy man.</p>
+
+<p>Susan also was calm, if not happy. He was another woman's husband—he
+was a married man—and all was over for her. The barrier was so
+entirely insuperable that her feelings did change, that she did learn
+to think of him, merely as of a kind friend, and that the past did at
+length appear to her only as a dream.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER X.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">——And now, their wanderings o'er,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They, 'mid embowering trees, descry their home once more.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Home, thrilling sound! To the time-sobered breast,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thronged with remembrances, not sweet alone</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But sacred, and with sadder thoughts imprest</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of cherished sorrows, and dear hopes o'erthrown;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While to young hearts, that yet have only known</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The hey-day joys, and buoyancy of spring,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It speaks of happiness again their own:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of throbbing bosoms, bright eyes glistening,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And laughter's merry peal, that through the hall shall ring.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Three</span> years had elapsed since the Mowbrays had left Overhurst, and all
+the parish was now joyfully expecting their return. Again the village
+bells rang a joyful peal, again the village children shouted, and all
+was animation in Overhurst and at the Park.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was the first to hear the carriage-wheels. "Yes, sure enough,
+here they are!" said her mother; "three carriages full: and such a
+load, and the horses so jaded, poor things! And there's Mrs. Mowbray
+nodding as she goes along; and there's Miss Fanny—no—why, I declare
+if it is not Miss Emma, with her head quite out of the window. Well,
+I'm glad enough to see them all come home again. And there's the
+'squire on the box; he turns round to speak to Mrs. Mowbray; he looks
+hearty still. And there is such a queer foreigner behind, with such
+black whiskers. And sure that can never be Jenny Simpson? Her very face
+seems Frenchified! I'll be bound her own mother will hardly know Jenny
+when she sees her." Not long afterwards the dame's eyes were again
+attracted to the window. "Why, sure, there can't be another carriage
+full of them! Why, if it is not Captain and Mrs. Harcourt! And there
+is the baby! May the Lord bless them all! It will be a happy evening
+at Overhurst Park!" And Dame Foster sighed while she rejoiced in their
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>And heart-felt joy and social gaiety did reign in Overhurst Park. The
+delight of finding themselves again in Old England, the joy of meeting
+after a long separation, the raptures of Mrs. Mowbray over her first
+grandchild, the pleasure of visiting their old haunts, occupied the
+ladies for the first day<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span> or two; but Mr. Mowbray had been looking
+about him, and had made himself acquainted with all the village gossip.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after their return, he bustled into the drawing-room,
+where his wife and daughters were eagerly displaying to Alice and
+Captain Harcourt their relics from the various places they had visited
+in their travels, and were explaining the exact point of view from
+which such a drawing had been made, or directing their attention to an
+invisible dot in a pencil sketch, which stood for 'imperial Rome' in
+the distance, or helping out by descriptions <i>vivâ voce</i> the tints
+which did not express the roseate hues of evening upon the glaciers.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what all the pretty women in the parish have been
+thinking of while we have been away," interrupted Mr. Mowbray. "There's
+poor Susan Foster! Have you heard, my dear, about poor Susan Foster?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. I have been so occupied with Alice and her baby, and so
+full of our own travels, I have not had time to go into the village.
+What has happened? You quite alarm me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I really am put out about it myself. She is gone blind! Pretty
+Susan, with the bright eyes! I am quite vexed. If it had been any
+other girl in the village, I should not have felt it so much. Those
+soft brilliant eyes, that could sparkle so merrily too. And then, that
+pretty Mrs. Otley! she is going into a consumption."</p>
+
+<p>"Susan—Susan Foster blind!" exclaimed the ladies all together.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" cried Mrs. Harcourt; the hopeful, happy, Mrs. Harcourt.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite true, my dear Alice: she is blind! and what's more, George
+Wells has jilted her, and has married Jane Dixon. The fellow has some
+taste, I will say that for him. She was as fine a girl as ever I saw,
+though hers is not such a high style of beauty as Susan Foster's. Susan
+Foster, if she had been a lady, would have looked well anywhere; now,
+Jane Dixon would never have told in a ball-room: and then, she is so
+altered; she is grown coarse; and blue eyes soon lose their blueness
+and turn grey, while black eyes retain their brilliancy——"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mowbray might have proceeded at greater length in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span> discussing the
+comparative merits of black eyes and blue, but neither filial piety,
+nor conjugal devotion, could enable the listeners to keep silence any
+longer. "Oh, papa!" exclaimed Alice, "George Wells married to another
+girl! and Susan Foster blind, and jilted! and I had fancied her so
+happy in that cottage close to her parents! I remember begging you so
+to let them have it, because I thought how I should have liked to live
+close to you and mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear Alice! I have seen Susan myself; and there she sits
+knitting, by the side of her blind father. I declare it was almost too
+much for me. I got away as quickly as I could, for I hate seeing sad
+sights when one can do no good; I always make it a rule to get out of
+the way."</p>
+
+<p>"But do you think it impossible we should be able to do her any good?
+Let us go and see them, mamma; perhaps we may think of something. I
+always was so fond of Susan, and we were to have been married the same
+month! Poor dear Susan!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes!" cried Emma; "at all events it will please them. Old Nicholas
+used to be so fond of me. How well I remember he used to put his hand
+upon my head to feel how much I was grown! Do let us go directly, and
+pay them a visit, dear mamma."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mowbray was shocked and grieved at Mr. Mowbray's intelligence, and
+the whole party was soon in motion along the well-known paths.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder how Susan looks!" said Emma, in a low voice, while a
+sensation of awe stole over her youthful mind at the prospect of an
+interview with a person who had undergone a great misfortune since she
+had seen her last.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Foster soon recognised the visitors she had been watching for.
+"Here they are!" she exclaimed; "I was sure Mrs. Mowbray would come
+and ask after us before long. And there's Miss Alice—Mrs. Harcourt I
+should say—looks prettier than ever;—and Miss Fanny! I'm sure she
+does not seem as if anything had ever been the matter with her;—and
+Miss Emma, why she is almost a woman now." Susan sighed, and thought
+what sad changes had taken place in her fate since last they had
+received a visit from the 'squire's family.</p>
+
+<p>As they approached the little garden-gate, the bearing of all the party
+became subdued and saddened; and they gently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span> opened the door, and
+followed each other quietly into the cottage. The dame and Susan both
+rose, and Susan court'sied, but not exactly in the direction in which
+Mrs. Mowbray stood. She soon made them resume their seats, and then
+inquired after old Sarah's health.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you kindly, madam, I am still able to get about, though
+sometimes I think my pains make me grow weaker; but I must try to the
+last to do for these poor afflicted creatures, madam. You have heard, I
+dare say, madam, of all our misfortunes. And there's my poor girl now,
+no better off than her old father. But 'tis as pleases God, and it is
+not for us to murmur."</p>
+
+<p>The old dame had at once entered upon the subject in the plain, direct
+manner usual to the poor, and the restraint which might have rendered
+such a meeting distressing among the higher orders was soon dispelled.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Susan!" said Mrs. Mowbray, going up to Susan, and taking her
+by the hand, "I have only this moment heard of your afflictions, or I
+should have been here sooner. I wonder such sad news should not have
+reached me abroad, but the death of poor Mr. Sandford has been a loss
+to us all. He knew my village friends, and he would have told me about
+you. And you, Nicholas, how are you? How do you bear up against these
+trials?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty middling, madam; pretty middling: I am quite used to my own,
+and I don't think anything at all about them; but I can't say I have
+rightly got over hearing my poor girl ask her mother whether 'tis a
+fine day or not, or who it is going by the door, and whether her shawl
+is pinned straight, or her cap as it should be. Them things go hard
+with me. But, as my good woman says, 'tis as it pleases the Lord! Are
+all the young ladies with you, madam?" he added, after a short pause.
+"I warrant me they are grown very tall," and he stretched out his hand:
+"I should like to put my hand on Miss Emma's head once more, bless her
+heart!"</p>
+
+<p>"You must put it a good deal higher," said Emma, as the old man was
+feeling at the same height he had been used to feel, three years
+before; and she took his brown withered hand and lifted it to the crown
+of her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" he exclaimed in almost childish wonderment.</p>
+
+<p>Alice meanwhile had been talking to Susan, and had extracted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span> from her
+some account of the mode in which her eyes had been attacked, although
+it was with pain she was brought to allude to anything connected with
+Alice's wedding-day and the happiness which at that time was hers.
+She could not help an inward shudder when she heard Captain Harcourt
+address his wife: "Alice, my love, I think you should return home to
+the baby; I would not have you out too late." The picture of home
+happiness, wedded love, maternal affection, all the visions in which
+she had indulged as almost realities on that day, rushed over her mind;
+but she remembered that George was the husband of another, that another
+was the mother of his child!</p>
+
+<p>When they returned home, Alice eagerly recounted to Mr. Mowbray an
+instance of a person, whose blindness had been described as somewhat
+resembling Susan's, having been restored to sight by an oculist with
+whom Captain Harcourt was acquainted. With the sanguine disposition of
+youth, she felt convinced that something might be done; that Susan need
+not be condemned to perpetual blindness.</p>
+
+<p>The more sober part of the company did not enter quite so warmly into
+Alice's hopes, but all were equally ardent in their wishes that Susan
+might recover her sight. Captain Harcourt's friend had the care of an
+eye-hospital; so that Alice declared it would be the easiest thing in
+the world to secure Susan's admission, and the most certain thing in
+the world that she would be immediately cured. The only difficulty that
+remained was to get over the prejudice entertained by many of the poor
+against hospitals in general, and the horror they had of parting from
+their friends.</p>
+
+<p>"But Dame Foster is so reasonable!" exclaimed Alice; "and Nicholas is
+so quiet, he will never oppose it; and as for Susan, what would one not
+do to recover one's sight? To be sure, her lover is married now, and
+even the restoration of her sight cannot restore her to happiness, poor
+thing! But still! think of the joy of seeing the blue heavens and the
+green fields again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, dear Alice," answered Mrs. Mowbray, "if we could indeed
+restore to Susan her eye-sight, she might look forward to many happy
+years. She is still young, and she is so pretty, that I dare say she
+may yet marry comfortably."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma!" exclaimed Alice reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to have shocked you, my love! and if you wish it so much,
+we will suppose that Susan shall never marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, you speak as if marrying was marrying, and as if it did not
+signify whom one married."</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly, my dear! but I do imagine it just possible that after
+a certain number of years have elapsed, a woman may be happy with a
+man who was not her first love. But now we will not disturb ourselves
+concerning the use Susan may make of her eyes when they are restored
+to her. We will first adopt all possible means to accomplish this most
+desirable, but, I fear, improbable event."</p>
+
+<p>"She has had no advice yet but that ignorant man's at Turnholme.
+Captain Harcourt shall write to-day, and the moment we get the answer,
+I will undertake to persuade Susan and her parents to consent to our
+proposal."</p>
+
+<p>All prospered according to Alice's wishes. Her <i>protégée</i> was
+to be admitted into the hospital, where she was to meet with every
+kindness and attention. Susan gladly agreed to any plan which might
+possibly enable her to assist her parents more effectually than she
+could at present; old Nicholas thought it so "against nature" that
+the young should be afflicted like the old, that he was pleased and
+hopeful, while Sarah assented, but assented despondingly.</p>
+
+<p>"If it is God's will our poor child should be blind, why there is no
+use in man's fighting against Providence. Howsoever, there's no saying
+these may not be the means by which God has ordained she is to be
+cured; so it is not for us poor mortals to say any thing against it: we
+will try, and hope for the best; but it is an awful thing to have our
+blind child go quite away from us to that great town."</p>
+
+<p>"But we will send somebody with her, dame, who shall see her safe into
+the hospital."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, madam, you are very good; and let it turn out which way it
+will, we shall always be grateful."</p>
+
+<p>The evening before Susan's departure, Farmer Otley called: "I thought
+I would just look in and wish you good luck, Susan; we shall all be
+heartily glad to hear of your doing well, though my good woman will
+miss your nice worsted-work. She would have come down to see you too,
+but that she is not quite as she should be. She has got a nasty cough
+that keeps plaguing her. I tell her 'tis because<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span> she will wear such
+smart thin shawls, instead of a good warm cloak; but young women they
+will have their own way: I dare say you have a way of your own too,
+Susan, though I don't know what it is."</p>
+
+<p>Susan smiled. "I believe I was as headstrong as other young folks once;
+but a poor helpless creature like me, who is quite dependent upon
+mother's goodness, has no business with any fancies now."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Susan, I hope you will come back with a will of your own, that's
+all: and I dare say, dame, you won't mind."</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Susan! I should be glad enough, indeed, to see her her
+own sprightly self again; and 'tis our duty not to throw away any
+opportunity that God puts in our way."</p>
+
+<p>Susan was safely conveyed to the hospital, and from thence the
+reports, which were received by Mrs. Harcourt, and duly transmitted to
+Nicholas and Sarah Foster, were satisfactory. The hopeful Alice was
+not disappointed in her eager desire to serve Susan; and before six
+weeks had elapsed, she was able to run breathless to the cottage of
+the Fosters, with the surgeon's letter in her hand, announcing that
+Susan's sight was safe, and that in another month she might return to
+her friends, in health and happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Old Sarah clasped her hands in speechless joy; the tears rolled in
+torrents unheeded down her face: her soul was absorbed in prayer. Old
+Nicholas groped about till he found Mrs. Harcourt's hand; and seizing
+it, the old man suddenly fell on his trembling knees before her.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, my dear young lady, and God reward you! I know it
+is to God we first owe our gratitude; but you have been the blessed
+instrument in his hands. God bless you!" and the old man sobbed aloud.
+Alice, inexpressibly distressed and affected, assisted him to rise,
+replaced him in his seat, extricated her hand from his grasp, and
+hastened away from a scene which, although delightful, was almost too
+overcoming.</p>
+
+<p>At length Susan herself wrote to them: it was the first act of her
+restored sight: and the dame placed the letter before her on the deal
+table, with her prayer-book and her spectacles, and every day did
+she look at it, and every day did she read it over, word by word, to
+Nicholas, and every day did Nicholas say "God bless Miss Alice that
+was!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wise Nature is less partial in her love</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than ye do judge withal.&nbsp;  When lavishly</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She pours her gifts profuse, satiety</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Doth blunt the sense: when sparingly dispensed,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A keener relish doth supply the measure;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And but to live and see the blessed skies</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(A good unmarked, unheeded, till 'tis lost,)</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is rapture all too big for utterance</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To one long shut from heaven's light.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a joyful day in Overhurst when Susan Foster returned to her
+home. The old man and his wife had toddled up to the village inn,
+where the coach stopped; and there they stood, Sarah to catch the
+first glimpse of her, Nicholas to hear the first sound of her voice.
+Many a head was popped out of a casement window, and many a doorway
+was thronged with its inhabitants, at the hour when the coach usually
+arrived. George Wells was lingering in a field hard by, occasionally
+looking over the stile. He had twice called upon the Fosters during
+Susan's absence, and had inquired, in an awkward, hurried manner, how
+she was. The inquiry was meant kindly, and it was taken kindly.</p>
+
+<p>The coach drove up to the little inn, and out sprang Susan, blooming
+and lovely as ever. The old woman nearly fainted; and the neighbours
+assisted her and the trembling Nicholas into the little parlour of the
+inn.</p>
+
+<p>In about half an hour, Susan was seen supporting the feeble steps of
+her mother on one side, and on the other those of her father, down the
+village street, to her own dear home. George Wells had disappeared; and
+the other neighbours did not intrude upon the sacred joy of that family
+party.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother, did we ever expect to be so happy!" exclaimed Susan,
+as they entered the little garden: "And there is my own moss-rose
+blowing!"—a slight pang shot through her, for George had given her the
+tree: but she was too happy, too grateful, to allow any but feelings of
+thankfulness to find a place in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>With what eagerness did Susan hasten to busy herself about the
+household duties! with what pleasure did she resume her former
+privilege of settling her father in his seat,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span> of preparing the supper,
+of assisting her father up stairs! She had thought the first sight of
+the heavens glorious, she had gazed with rapture on the face of Nature,
+she had recognised with tenderness each well-known spot of her youthful
+home; but all these had been but lesser joys in comparison with that
+of once more ministering to the comfort of her parents, after having
+so long been a burthen to them. Never were prayers of more heart-felt
+gratitude offered up to the throne of Grace than those of the Foster
+family that night.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning, Susan repaired to Overhurst Park, to make her
+acknowledgments to her benefactors; and as she walked alone through
+those paths where she had so often wandered with George, which she
+had never beheld since she had seen them with him, did not the memory
+of former days come over her with almost over-whelming power? She
+thought of him certainly, but she thought of him as the contented
+husband of another; and after having drunk so deeply of the bitter cup
+of affliction, her present comparative happiness seemed as great as
+mortals might dare to hope for in this world. She looked with kindly
+feelings on all around her. There was no touch of bitterness in her
+emotions.</p>
+
+<p>Farmer Otley was one of the first to welcome Susan home again. He
+told her his wife was still very poorly, "and that she would take it
+very kind" if Susan would step up and pay her a visit some evening at
+Holmy-bank.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Susan," he said, "I need not be fetching you any more worsted
+from Turnholme now. You won't send me to market any more. Those eyes of
+yours can see to take up your old trade again. I dare say my mistress
+will have some needle-work for you, for she is a rare bad hand at
+plain-work herself."</p>
+
+<p>A few days after Susan's return, she was employed in tying up some
+straggling flowers, and in winding the honeysuckle round the porch,
+enjoying the long untasted pleasure of attending to her little garden,
+when, on looking round, she saw George Wells loitering under the hedge
+of the field which we have often described as being opposite Master
+Foster's house.</p>
+
+<p>Upon finding himself observed, George made a sudden effort, and leaping
+the stile, he crossed the road, came straight up to Susan, and, before
+she had time to collect herself, he had taken her hand, shaken it, and
+had hastily uttered,—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I just came to tell you I was heartily glad you had got your eye-sight
+back again, Susan; and to wish you health and happiness, Susan: that's
+all:" and he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Susan trembled all over; she tottered back into the cottage, and sat
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just seen him, mother, for the first time these three years!
+But it was not so much the seeing him, as the hearing his voice again.
+It has put me quite in a tremble; but I shan't mind it another time. I
+<i>must</i> not mind it, you know, mother; and I am so happy, oh! so
+very happy, to be able to do for you and father, that I do not feel as
+if I had any thing left to wish for!"</p>
+
+<p>In a few days Susan paid her promised visit to Mrs. Otley, and she
+found her indeed sadly altered. She passed through the kitchen, where
+all bore the marks of the mistress's eye being wanted: a servant-girl,
+in greasy <i>papillotes</i>, the children in smart frocks, but with
+unwashed faces; the copper vessels, instead of being the pride of the
+housewife and of her assistants, all out of their places; the floor,
+as if it had not been swept and sanded for a week. The slip-shod maid,
+with a dirty apron, ushered Susan into the parlour within, where Mrs.
+Otley sat in a shabby-genteel arm-chair, cowering over the fire,
+although it was in June.</p>
+
+<p>Her cheeks were sunk, and there was a hectic flush upon them which
+alarmed Susan; her voice sounded hollow. The smart cap, of which we
+have already made mention, had now fallen from being a "dress cap"
+into being an "every-day cap," a purpose for which it was peculiarly
+unfitted. Its weak wires, and its heavy ribands, shook in a most
+unseemly manner as the sick woman restlessly moved her head. She laid
+down the well-thumbed novel she was reading:—"I am glad to see you,
+Susan," she said. "Why you look surprisingly well, as blooming as a
+rose. Mr. Otley told me how well you were, and he said your eyes were
+as black as sloes: I was quite curious to see you. Sit down, Susan,
+and tell me all about it." But before Susan could begin to speak, Mrs.
+Otley continued;—"I am such a poor creature—this cough fidgets me so;
+but I am a great deal better, only the weather is so unseasonable, and
+the cold winds always affect my nerves. Do you think I look ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are something thinner than you were, ma'am," answered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span> Susan; "but
+it is three years since I saw you last, and three years is a long time."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is a long time, Susan; but now tell me, what did they do to you
+in London? I am so curious! Did you stay in the hospital all the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am, I never left it, except to come home."</p>
+
+<p>"What! did you not see any of the sights? Not the King's palace, nor
+the theatres, nor anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, ma'am, 'tis against the rules for people to go out visiting; and
+sure, as soon as I was well, I wanted to see nothing so much as father,
+and mother, and home. As soon as I was able, they set me to work,
+cleaning the place, and helping to wait on other poor creatures who
+were worse than myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor girl, that was very hard!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, ma'am; I was very glad to be useful, and I was a deal happier
+than being idle. I missed my worsted-work sadly at first; the time
+seems so very long when one has nothing to do—nothing but to think,
+think, think!"</p>
+
+<p>Just then Farmer Otley entered.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Lizzy, where are the keys of the cellar? I want to get
+something to drink for Mr. Hawkins, who is waiting at the door."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mr. Otley, don't speak so quick; you hurry one. The keys are in
+my reticule; it is up stairs. Tell Hetty to fetch it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Otley went after Hetty, and Mrs. Otley remarked, "Poor dear Mr.
+Otley! his manner is so abrupt! He is not used to an invalid!"</p>
+
+<p>"Lizzy, I can't find your bag anywhere. The keys should be in your
+pocket: feel for them there."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mr. Otley, you know I do not wear pockets; a reticule is so much
+more convenient."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! but where are the keys? Mr. Hawkins will think I grudge him a
+glass of ale."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! my love, be patient; you quite make me shake!" and she began in a
+really nervous trepidation to hunt for the reticule, which was found in
+her chair.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Otley and Susan resumed their conversation, when presently the
+farmer returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Lizzy, you have not got a needle and thread handy, have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span> you? I told
+you I thought this button would soon be off, and so it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear Mr. Otley, I thought you had told Hetty to sew it on
+yesterday. Do call her, and tell her to bring my work-box here." The
+good-natured husband called Hetty, and after some time the needle and
+thread were found.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, look sharp; I must be at the Vestry at three o'clock; and I
+don't like to be seen with my waistcoat all any how."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Otley's fingers really trembled as she was sewing on the button.
+"Why, Lizzy, I have hurried you! I am sorry for that. There, never
+mind; don't fluster yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"You never think of one's nerves, Mr. Otley."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what, Lizzy, if you did not talk about them, or if you
+did not call them nerves, I should think about them. I see you are
+not well, and you have got a bad cough, and I must take care of you;
+so don't fret yourself, but keep quiet. I'll try to see to the things
+myself, though in-door matters are not in my way: but we must make a
+shift."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure Mrs. Glover never did all the drudgery poor dear Mr. Otley
+expects me to do," said Mrs. Otley, when her husband had left them: "I
+do not think a wife is to be a servant," she continued, with a toss of
+her head.</p>
+
+<p>Susan thought that a wife ought to see that all was well regulated in
+her household; but poor Mrs. Otley was evidently ill and suffering,
+and she pitied her. As Susan went away, she saw the little girl crying
+because the maid had slapped her, and the little boy slapping the
+maid because she would not let him put his fingers into the pie she
+was preparing. She retraced her steps to her humble home, in the full
+persuasion that she was happier than any of the inmates of Holmy-bank
+farm.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mrs. Otley became rapidly worse; and before many months had
+elapsed, her troubles and her finery were alike brought to a final
+close, and she was laid in the quiet grave.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Otley remained a widower with two young children. He was a
+sincere mourner. The natural kindness of his heart had caused him to
+become truly attached to the woman whose preference for him had at
+first been her principal attraction; and her sufferings latterly had
+still farther endeared her. But when the freshness of his grief had
+subsided;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span> when he found that a bustling old body, whom he took as
+housekeeper, kept all things around him far more neat and trim than
+they had formerly been; when he found his kitchen clean, his buttons
+sewed on, his shirts mended; and, above all, when everything he asked
+for was always forthcoming from that compendious receptacle, the old
+woman's pockets,—his spirits gradually revived. His children were
+less fretful, their faces were cleaner; and he only lamented that the
+old woman could not read, and that he had not much leisure himself to
+attend to their morals, or their education. By degrees he began to
+think that a younger woman might perhaps attend to the dairy and to the
+chickens as effectually as old Goody Thompson; that a younger woman
+might make the new servant-girl (for Mrs. Thompson had dismissed the
+slip-shod maiden) scour the pots and pans as perseveringly; and he also
+began to think it would be more agreeable to have a younger face and a
+brighter smile welcome him home, after his labours of the day. And whom
+could he find who would be more active and useful than Susan Foster?
+Who was calculated to train his children's minds to duty, submission,
+and religious resignation, more practically than Susan Foster? And
+where could he find a brighter smile, or more sparkling eyes, than
+Susan Foster's.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bairns, and their bairns, make sure a firmer tie</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than aught in love the like of us can spy.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See yon twa elms that grow up side by side:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Suppose them, some years syne, bridegroom and bride;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nearer and nearer ilka year they've pressed,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Till wide their spreading branches have increased.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This shields the other frae the eastlin blast,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That in return defends it frae the west.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Allan Ramsay.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Although</span> Mr. Otley had no longer any commissions to perform at
+Turnholme for Susan, her worsted-work having given place to her former
+occupation of needle-work, still he found many an excuse for calling.
+Sometimes he would send the old man a rabbit for his supper; sometimes
+a cheese, the handy-work of Dame Thompson. At another time, he gave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span>
+Susan a hive of young bees which had just swarmed, as the dame had
+said she was fond of honey. By degrees he greatly won upon the esteem
+of Susan by his attentions to her parents. He was in a situation
+comparatively so much superior to theirs, that he had the opportunity
+of appearing to them almost in the light of a benefactor. Some time,
+however, elapsed before he ventured to express his feelings in any
+mode but by kindness to her parents. The sorrows she had known, the
+trials she had gone through, and the composed resignation to which
+she had trained her mind during her affliction, had left a sedate
+self-possession in her cheerfulness. He was aware of her previous
+attachment, and he did not feel sure whether an offer of marriage would
+be received, in the manner probable, from the relative situation of the
+parties.</p>
+
+<p>At length his little presents became more pointedly addressed to her.
+His basket of ripest gooseberries was given to her. He would invite
+her to take a walk to look at his garden and gather herself a nosegay.
+He sometimes lamented to her that his children were not sufficiently
+attended to. "He did not wish to bring them up to over-gentility, but
+he wished them to have a good plain education. He should like his girl
+to be as good a scholar as Susan was; that would do for him: plain
+useful learning, plain useful good sense, and plain useful work. He
+wished Susan would step up and see how little Lizzy went on." But this
+Susan did not like to do.</p>
+
+<p>The neighbours already began to talk, and the old dame already began
+to hope her girl was likely to be well settled in life; "and then,"
+as she said to Nicholas one evening, when Susan was gone out to carry
+home some work,—"and then, Nicholas, it does not signify how soon it
+pleases the Lord to take us: then I may pray, as I used to do, that I
+may never see another sun rise when once it has pleased God to call you
+to himself."</p>
+
+<p>Susan herself had no pride of romance about her. She esteemed Mr.
+Otley, and she was aware that he became every day more particular in
+his manner to her; she knew that the home he could offer her would be
+comfortable beyond what she had any right to expect; his plain manners
+appeared to her neither rough, nor homely, and she felt sorry for the
+little children, who were deprived of a mother's tenderness. Such being
+the state of mind of the parties in question, the sequel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span> may easily
+be guessed. Mr. Otley stopped one evening on his way from market, as
+it was now grown his custom to do, and good-naturedly reproached Susan
+for not having been to see his garden or his children. She was ashamed
+to give the true reason, and said she had been very busy with a job of
+needle-work.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like you to work so hard, Susan: it is not good for her, is
+it, dame? Young folks should take a little pleasure sometimes. I know I
+should like to see Susan in a home of her own, with a servant-girl to
+do her work for her. She is too good by half to be always drudging."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you kindly for your good wishes, Master Otley," answered old
+Nicholas. "I should like to know my poor girl had a good home over her
+head when I am dead and gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that's what a good father is sure to think of. You would
+rest easier, Master Nicholas, if you knew Susan was mistress of a
+comfortable place of her own, and was never likely to come to want as
+long as she lived."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, sure! should I," replied the simple old man, who was in great
+hopes Mr. Otley was coming straight to the point. And he wished no
+better than to come to the point: but it is not easy to propose in
+company; and, straightforward as Mr. Otley was, he began to feel as shy
+as others do in this predicament.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to see Susan in a home of her own very much," repeated
+Mr. Otley, slowly and awkwardly, and looking out of the window when he
+had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>The dame, who plainly perceived what was in the farmer's mind, thought
+that if Susan was out of the way he might speak openly to them, or
+if Susan was alone, he might find courage to declare himself to her.
+She therefore, with feminine resource, told Susan to go to the shop
+and buy her a pennyworth of ginger to put in her tea. Susan had left
+the cottage in a moment, for she found herself becoming confused and
+uncomfortable. Mr. Otley lingered a short time, and said nothing; but
+when he left the cottage he watched for Susan's return, and their
+conversation was prolonged till the dame began to doubt whether she
+should ever have any ginger at all.</p>
+
+<p>When Susan re-appeared, Mr. Otley was with her. She looked blushing,
+but happy; the farmer confused, but glorious, as he told Nicholas
+he "hoped he would rest soundly that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span> night; that is, if he thought
+Holmy-bank farm was a place where Susan might make herself comfortable,
+and if he could trust to him to see she never wanted for anything as
+long as he lived."</p>
+
+<p>The old people did not attempt to conceal their satisfaction, and never
+was son-in-law more cordially received.</p>
+
+<p>We have already celebrated two weddings in this short tale, and it was
+not long before a third took place in the village of Overhurst. Mr.
+and Mrs. Otley ate their wedding-dinner in the Fosters' cottage; for
+Mr. Otley had had enough of finery and fine folks, and he enjoyed the
+heart-felt happiness of those whom he felt he rendered happy. When he
+took his bride home in the evening, he left the old couple in a state
+of blissful composure of mind which they had once thought could never
+again be theirs on this side the grave; and when they retired to rest,
+they returned their fervent thanks to Heaven for having been allowed to
+see this day: and now they felt their task was ended, their duties were
+fulfilled.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XIII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then be it still my nightly prayer</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To live to close his sightless eyes,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For this my torturing pains to bear,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then sink in death ere morning rise!</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With steadfast hope, and faith serene,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The humble prayer of duteous love,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pour'd ardent forth in anguish keen,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Was heard where mercy rules above!</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Ballad from Nature.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Susan Foster's</span> unexpected prosperity was not regarded without envy by
+some of her neighbours; and old Nelly, her former mistress in the art
+of knitting, whose temper had not grown more gentle with increasing
+years and infirmities, failed not to remark to her grand-daughter that
+"she could not see, for her part, what there was about Susan Foster
+that people should always make such a fuss with her. Other poor souls
+had their afflictions, but the gentlefolks did not send them to all the
+great London doctors to be cured; other girls had had bad eyes before
+now, but they did not get a good husband a bit the more. And if Susan
+Foster was so lucky as to marry<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span> so much above her station, she thought
+she ought to do something for her poor old father and mother, who had
+taken care of her when she was blind. Folks might talk of Susan being
+such a dutiful daughter, and all that; but for her part she did not see
+what the old people were the better for having a farmer's wife for a
+daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure," answered Patty, "I cannot see anything particular about
+Susan, grandmother; I think there are many girls in Overhurst who are
+quite fit to be her match. And many a time since I have grown big,
+I have wondered why I used to be so pleased when Susan Foster spoke
+kindly to me, and told me I was a good girl. I think she took upon her
+very much; for though she may be quite a great lady, and may ride in
+her one-horse chay now, she was no better than myself then!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my dear Patty! 'tis the way of those people who seem to have
+such a respect for themselves, to make themselves somehow respected
+by others. However, Susan is but a labourer's daughter after all, and
+I don't see why you should demean yourself to her: I have no patience
+with your upstarts. A poor girl that could not have earned a farthing,
+and must have gone into the workhouse, if I had not taught her how to
+knit! and now she goes driving by with her husband, and has called
+upon me but once, though she has been married a fortnight; and has
+never sent me anything but a basket of apples out of her orchard, which
+don't cost her a farthing." Just at this moment a boy knocked at the
+door, and Patty lifted the latch to admit him. "Mrs. Otley's respects,
+ma'am, and she sends you a goose, and a bottle of Farmer Otley's elder
+wine, that you may drink her health on old Michaelmas day." Nelly was
+a little at a loss what to reply; but after contemplating the present
+with a satisfaction which she could not quite controul, she consoled
+herself by saying to Patty as soon as the boy was gone: "Mrs. Otley's
+respects, indeed! I think it would have been more respectful if Madam
+Otley had called herself with her present, instead of sending it by a
+scrubby boy."</p>
+
+<p>It may well be imagined that if Susan did not forget old Nelly, she
+took care that her parents should never want any comfort which her
+affection could provide for them, and her kind-hearted husband seconded
+her wishes to the uttermost.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span> He would willingly have had them remove
+to Holmy-bank; but the old man had learned to grope his way about his
+own cottage, and he would have missed his accustomed walk to his own
+stile, and they found it was kinder not to break in upon his habits.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Thompson had resigned her charge to Susan; and Mr. Otley found
+that not only were the dairy and poultry-yard as efficiently attended
+to, but that his children became orderly and submissive, and that his
+house soon acquired that air of home comfort, of tasteful neatness,
+that a wife only can give it. In her dress Susan took old Mrs. Otley,
+the mother, as her model, although she somewhat accommodated herself
+to the fashion. She was a goodly sight to look upon as she sat by her
+husband's side in the market-cart, once denominated a chaise, her black
+hair parted on her white forehead, her smooth, rounded, blooming cheek
+enclosed in her snowy cap, and black velvet bonnet, with her brilliant
+eyes glancing gaily as she stopped at her father's door on her way to
+market. More than a year had thus glided by in sober and respectable
+happiness, when old Nicholas began to droop: he could no longer reach
+his favourite stile. He was obliged to content himself with leaning in
+his accustomed attitude over the wicket of his own little garden. After
+a while he could do no more than take his seat at the cottage-door,
+there to feel the rays of the setting sun. Susan now devoted herself
+to her parents, and all other considerations sank before the paramount
+duty she owed to them. One evening she had brought him his tea to the
+door, where Mr. Otley had settled him on his own chair, and she asked
+him if he felt the warmth of the sun. "I don't seem to have any warmth
+in my bones," he said; "but I like to know the sun is shining upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, the sun is a glorious thing," said Sarah, "as it sets there in
+its golden bed; but when my poor Nicholas is at rest, I never wish to
+see its bright face again. You have got a good husband, Susan, and a
+comfortable home, and you will not want me now; my pains have almost
+worn me out: there's no taking pleasure even in the works of God, when
+one is so racked by pain."</p>
+
+<p>"How well you do bear your sufferings, mother, 'tis very seldom you
+make any complaints."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no good murmuring, my dear Susan; and it is my duty to bear
+what 'tis God's pleasure to send."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span></p>
+
+<p>They looked round, and the old man's head had dropped back upon the
+chair; they thought he was asleep; but he did not breathe: life was
+extinct. His wife was the first to understand the truth. "My husband's
+spirit has passed," she said. "My poor Nicholas is at rest,—he is in
+heaven! He is happy! Look at that smile,—yes, he is happy. God's will
+be done!" and she bowed her head.</p>
+
+<p>In tears and trepidation Farmer Otley and Susan moved him within
+doors. He carried the lifeless body, and laid it on the bed upstairs;
+while Susan held her mother's hands, kissed them, and wept over them.
+"He is gone, Susan! my poor husband is gone! He has left me—my poor
+Nicholas!" and she rocked herself backwards and forwards, her hands
+clasped upon her knee.</p>
+
+<p>The neighbours soon assembled; the last sad duties were performed; and
+the aged woman, whose melancholy province it was to lay out the dead,
+and to keep her dreary vigil by the corpse, attended as usual. But
+old Sarah would not allow her to remain. She said, "she had done for
+Nicholas to the last while he was living, and she did not see what need
+there was of any one else to tend him now. She thanked the neighbours
+kindly, but she could watch by her husband now, as then; and she would
+not trouble any of them." She settled herself in her chair at the head
+of the bed, and sat there silent, meek, and patient.</p>
+
+<p>Susan, who was a nurse, had her baby brought from the farm, and
+established it in what had formerly been her own little bed-room. She
+and her husband then took their station in the chamber of death, and
+together looked upon the decent corpse of the old man.</p>
+
+<p>The brilliant sunset had been followed by a stormy night. The wind
+howled, and the rain beat against the casement. The rush-candle burned
+fitfully, and shone with an uncertain light upon the sunk but placid
+features of the old man. Susan could scarcely defend herself from
+the vague and superstitious terrors which assail the uneducated on
+such occasions. The furniture creaked; noises, which in the day are
+unnoticed, sound startlingly acute in the stillness and darkness of the
+night. Susan frequently crept into the adjoining apartment to see how
+it fared with her baby; she bent over it as it slumbered, she listened
+to its respiration till she fancied it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span> drew its breath painfully. When
+suffering under one calamity, the human heart is tremblingly alive to
+the apprehension of others. She imagined the infant was pale; she stole
+back to beckon her husband to look upon it with her. He attempted to
+re-assure her; but Susan's heart was oppressed with the foreboding
+of some fresh ill, and it required all Mr. Otley's patience and
+good-nature to soothe fears which appeared so unreasonable.</p>
+
+<p>It was an inexpressible relief when the grey dawn began to appear. The
+rain all cleared away, and the sun shone forth in all its splendour;
+every leaf was glittering in the sunshine, the rain-drops hung on every
+spray, the birds sang as if to strain their little throats, the flowers
+were beginning to expand to the welcome rays. Susan placed her baby in
+her husband's arms while she returned to share her mother's melancholy
+watch.</p>
+
+<p>When she entered the low room, the sun almost dazzled her: its beams
+streamed in upon the slanting, white-washed ceiling: they shone full
+upon her mother's face, as she sat in the same attitude in which she
+had left her,—her head supported by the high back of the upright
+chair, her hands slightly clasped as they had fallen on her knee, and
+her eyes closed.</p>
+
+<p>Susan drew near; her mother spoke not, moved not: she knelt by her—she
+listened in breathless agony—no sound, no sign of recognition. The
+sunbeams glared upon her eyelids, but she heeded them not.</p>
+
+<p>A nameless chill ran through poor Susan's frame. She dared not touch
+her mother's hand. She rose from her knees, and tottered back to her
+husband. "I wish you would come to mother," she said; "she is very
+still. Mother is very still and very pale," she added, in a voice
+scarcely audible. Susan's looks were ghastly. Mr. Otley hastily placed
+the sleeping infant on the bed, and followed Susan. The truth was at
+once evident! "Your mother's prayers have been heard, dear Susan; she
+has not seen another sun rise, she has not seen the sun which now
+shines upon her. Her troubles are over, and we should thank God for his
+mercy to her!"</p>
+
+<p>And the time did come when Susan was able thus to feel; when she was
+able to rejoice that her mother's humble prayer had thus been granted;
+when she learned to look upon its accomplishment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span> as an earnest that
+the spirits of her parents were enjoying the reward of their piety,
+and their submission. But, at first, nature had its course, and she
+could but weep for that dear mother who had supported her under her
+heavy affliction, consoled her in her sorrows, tended her in her
+helplessness. Nor did her husband oppose the grief which was so
+natural: he wept with her; and she felt the holy tie which bound them
+together for weal and for woe, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in
+health, become more closely riveted as she clung to him for support, as
+she turned to him as her only earthly comforter.</p>
+
+<p>The neighbours again assembled. The two corpses were decently laid out
+in the same chamber which for so many years they had inhabited; and all
+who had known them in life, came to have one last sight of Nicholas and
+Sarah Foster.</p>
+
+<p>Susan was soothed by this mark of respect to those whom she had loved
+so well; and she was gratified when, among the rest, George Wells
+mounted the narrow stairs to look once more upon the well-known faces
+of the departed. She wept when she heard him sob, as he came down
+again, and when he wrung her hand as he hurried by through the little
+kitchen where she sat in deep but gentle grief. She wished not that
+he should cherish the recollection of herself; but any slight to the
+memory of her parents would have been bitter, coming from him whom they
+had once treated as a son.</p>
+
+<p>One funeral service was performed over the venerable couple; one grave
+received their mortal remains; one stone still marks the spot where
+they repose; and together, we may well believe their spirits mounted to
+those regions where suffering and sorrow are unknown.</p>
+
+
+<p>END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">VOLUME THE THIRD.</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p class="ph2">BLANCHE.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER I.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The hidden traynes I know, and secret snares of love;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How soon a look will prynte a thoughte, that never may remove.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Lord Surrey.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">At</span> the period when our story commences, Lord and Lady Westhope had
+been married sixteen years. Theirs had been a love-match. The love had
+lasted on the part of the lady at least seven years and three months;
+but on that of her lord not quite seven months and three weeks, from
+the wedding-day.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Westhope had then been thrown with the handsome but designing Lady
+Bassingham, who made an easy conquest of his heart; which conquest
+she retained till the rustic bloom of Lucy Meadows, his wife's new
+maid, eclipsed the somewhat faded charms of the lady of fashion. When
+weary of Lucy Meadows, he became deeply smitten with the Honourable
+Miss Asterby, the young beauty of the day, who indulged her vanity
+in listening to the compliments of a married man, and allowed him to
+monopolise more of her conversation than was either judicious, or
+prudent.</p>
+
+<p>To these succeeded another and another object, selected from every rank
+and condition of life.</p>
+
+<p>During the six years, seven months, and one week, which Lady Westhope's
+love survived that of her husband, she had undergone tortures of
+jealousy, anger, indignation, and mortification. At the end of this
+time she made up her mind to her fate, and bore his infidelities
+with tolerable composure.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span> Henceforward their domestic life was very
+peaceable. The wife no longer reproached and wept; and the husband was
+exceedingly gay and good-humoured.</p>
+
+<p>But now began trials of another sort to Lady Westhope. She was
+extremely handsome: her beauty was of a sort to be more striking
+at twenty-five, than at eighteen. Her husband was known to be
+faithless—she was soon found to be indifferent. All vain and idle
+young men consequently aspired to her favour. It need not be added,
+that the number was prodigious!</p>
+
+<p>But though she had been disappointed in her hopes of being loved, she
+resolved to pass through life admired and respected. She would set
+the world the example of a beautiful and neglected wife, defying the
+breath of slander, repressing every sign of admiration, and pursuing
+her course uncontaminated by the profligacy around her. A word, a look
+of encouragement, would have brought any of these aspiring youths to
+sigh at her feet; but on none did she deign to bestow a glance—firmly
+and calmly did she check the first symptom of preference which might be
+evinced towards her.</p>
+
+<p>She was not blessed with children, but she had many female friends;
+and to her cousin, Lady Blanche De Vaux, she was warmly attached. Lady
+Blanche was fifteen years younger than herself, and her affection for
+her young cousin combined something of a maternal character, with the
+ease and companionship of two women who were both in the perfection of
+womanhood; for Lady Westhope at thirty-four had scarcely lost any of
+her beauty, and Lady Blanche at nineteen was in the fulness of hers.</p>
+
+<p>The Westhopes were going to Paris; and Lady Westhope proposed to
+Lord and Lady Falkingham, that their daughter, Lady Blanche, should
+accompany them. Lady Falkingham had gone through the toilsome duties of
+chaperonage for a series of years, during which she had successfully
+disposed of her elder daughters in marriage. She was not sorry,
+therefore, to repose from her labours, and to entrust the youngest to
+the care of so unexceptionable a person as her niece, Lady Westhope.</p>
+
+<p>To Paris went Lady Blanche, in all the buoyancy of youth; escaped
+for the first time from the trammels of an education in which no
+possible accomplishment had been neglected, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span> the vigilance of
+the most correct of mothers. She was enchanted with the Louvre, full
+of admiration at the beauties and grandeur of Paris; amused with the
+theatres, the Champs Elysées, with Tivoli—with everything; and entered
+with spirit and gaiety into the agreeable society which is nowhere to
+be found in greater perfection than at Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope was also amused and interested; and, for the sake of
+Blanche, mixed more generally with the world than it was her custom to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Westhope also amused himself very much; but how, we do not exactly
+know.</p>
+
+<p>Independently of their rank and their situation, the beauty of our two
+cousins would have rendered them no inconsiderable personages among
+the English at Paris. Lady Westhope's skin was whiter than snow,—her
+hair blacker than the raven's wing,—her form full and graceful,—her
+manner calm and self-possessed: had she been unmarried, it might have
+been thought cold, perhaps haughty;—as a matron, it was dignified.
+Lady Blanche's clustering curls, and hazel eyes of the same rich dark
+brown as her hair, the mantling glow of her blooming cheek, her slender
+form and elastic step, possessed all the graces of youth, while her
+countenance beamed with animation, joy, tenderness, and each emotion
+that rapidly succeeded the other in her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many slight preferences, incipient flirtations, and positive
+love-makings, which took place in the set to which Lady Westhope
+belonged, none was more decided than that between the beautiful Lady
+Blanche and Captain De Molton. She was a romantic, enthusiastic
+girl, peculiarly calculated to feel the attractions of a man who was
+formed to figure as a <i>héros de roman</i>. He was very tall,—he
+was pale,—his features were marked, but they bore an expression of
+melancholy and of feeling. The qualities of his mind corresponded with
+his exterior. Lofty, uncompromising rectitude, was combined with acute
+feelings, which, as his appearance indicated, were more calculated to
+work him woe than weal. A look of sentiment, though to the old and
+wary it may portend no happiness either to the possessor or to those
+connected with him, is often to the young and gay more attractive than
+the most joyous liveliness.</p>
+
+<p>Captain De Molton was in love—desperately in love with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span> Lady Blanche.
+But he knew he was poor: he knew that if he was to offer her all
+he had—<i>i.e.</i> his whole undivided affections, Lord and Lady
+Falkingham could not in conscience allow their daughter to accept him.
+He therefore confined himself to watching her while she was talking
+to others; he did not allow himself to occupy the seat by her side.
+If by chance he was betrayed into any expression of his feelings, he
+studiously avoided her for the next twenty-four hours; and, by so
+doing, he flattered himself he was playing the part of a martyr. He
+fancied he was only endangering his own peace of mind; he believed he
+so completely concealed what was passing within, that hers could run no
+risk. He had not the self-sufficiency to imagine he could win a heart
+he did not attempt to gain. But these very starts of passion, these
+inconsistencies, these uncertainties, the air of intense melancholy
+which at times overspread his countenance, were more dangerous to a
+person of Lady Blanche's disposition than the most open and decided
+attentions.</p>
+
+<p>She could not think he was indifferent towards her; yet she was piqued
+by his occasional avoidance, touched by his air of intense melancholy,
+delighted with the fire which gleamed from his eye when she addressed
+him, and with the smile which, when it did light up his countenance,
+was bright and dazzling as the sunbeam after a summer-storm.</p>
+
+<p>In short, while intending to preserve her heart from the sentiment
+which possessed his own, he unconsciously acted with the most
+consummate coquetry—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"Piqued her and soothed by turns."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Things were in this state, when Captain De Molton's particular friend,
+Lord Glenrith, arrived at Paris. He was immediately struck with Lady
+Blanche's beauty, and fascinated by her manners. He was an eldest
+son, and heir to a fine property. He was extremely good-looking—his
+character was excellent—as a <i>parti</i> he was unexceptionable.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, with a lover's quickness of perception, read Lord Glenrith's
+feelings almost before he was aware of them himself; and he thought
+it would be a crime to stand in the way of an union which would be
+advantageous to Lady Blanche, and which must indeed make the happiness
+of his best and earliest friend. Although it was almost agony to see
+Glenrith<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span> constantly occupy at dinner the place he resolutely did not
+take, and to see him whisper soft nothings into her ear, which it would
+have been rapture to him to utter; though it was maddening to see
+Glenrith act as her escort on all morning excursions, when he seldom
+dared approach; still a sort of fascination bound him to the spot. It
+was with trembling anxiety that he watched Lady Blanche's reception
+of his friend's attentions, with pain which he could not control that
+he marked anything which might be construed into encouragement on her
+part; but it was with most unreasonable joy that he perceived her
+listen to him with cold indifference, and sometimes that he caught her
+eye glance towards himself while Lord Glenrith was by her side.</p>
+
+<p>Any doubt he might entertain as to his friend's real intentions was
+soon set at rest by his one day confiding to him that he was very much
+attached to Lady Blanche, that his parents wished him to marry, and
+that he had made up his mind to propose, as soon as he felt sure of the
+lady.</p>
+
+<p>This annunciation fell as a final death-blow on De Molton's hopes—if
+hopes they might ever have been called. "Yet Glenrith spoke
+doubtfully of her reception of his offer—and Glenrith is not usually
+over-diffident of himself," thought De Molton in the midst of his
+despair. Still he felt it would be folly, madness, to linger in the
+society of Lady Blanche. In all probability she would soon be the
+affianced wife of his friend. It would be base and treacherous in him
+to attempt to circumvent that friend—cruel to sport with her feelings;
+and now that Glenrith had spoken thus confidentially, there was nothing
+left but to withdraw himself from witnessing the prosecution of a suit,
+in the probable success of which he felt he ought to rejoice, while his
+spirit recoiled from the bare anticipation of such a result.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly he told Lord Glenrith that he was suddenly recalled to
+England on particular business. He seated himself in the cabriolet of
+the Calais diligence, and took his weary way to his native land with
+the most profound adoration of wealth—with the most ardent aspirations
+for honour, rank, riches, and all the good things of this world—that
+he might, without folly, or presumption, be entitled to throw himself
+at the feet of Lady Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope's duty, as a wise chaperon, would have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span> been to
+discourage in every way the attentions of Captain De Molton, and to
+foster those of Lord Glenrith. She meant to do so,—she thought she
+did so. She constantly repeated to Blanche how impossible it was that
+Captain De Molton should ever propose, how impossible that he should
+be accepted, how totally impossible that they could ever marry—or
+that, if married, they could have bread to eat; and she thought she
+had done her duty. But the spectacle of a man, sincerely, ardently,
+respectfully, and hopelessly in love, was to her feelings, naturally
+warm, though she had encased them in an armour of coldness and reserve,
+so interesting a sight, that she could not help treating him and
+speaking of him as a person formed to win the heart of woman. All those
+who had formerly seemed inclined to pay her attention, she had from
+the very beginning treated with such repelling coldness, that she had
+never been exposed to the trial of witnessing real and sincere emotions
+strongly excited. In the desolation of her own secret soul, the sight
+was tantalising and painful. She could not help envying Blanche the
+power of calling them forth, nor could she help looking back with a
+sigh upon the blank of her own loveless career. She would have given
+anything for Aladdin's lamp, that she might have endowed young De
+Molton with the worldly wealth which could have secured to them the
+fate from which she was herself cut out.</p>
+
+<p>The few months they passed at Paris had a sensible effect upon the
+minds of both the cousins. Lady Blanche for the first time felt
+love. She also felt keen mortification—for to nothing does love
+more completely blind its victim than to the sensations experienced
+by the object beloved. While Lady Westhope saw in Captain De Molton
+an interesting and high-minded young man struggling with a hopeless
+passion,—in short, while she accurately read, and was able to
+appreciate, his feelings,—Lady Blanche thought him cold, indifferent,
+capricious, and frequently doubted whether indeed he entertained any
+preference at all for her.</p>
+
+<p>In Lady Westhope's mind a great change also had taken place. Perhaps
+the example of all around her (for, whatever the propriety of French
+women under the new <i>régime</i> may be, the conduct of English
+women, when once they have crossed the Channel, is not such as to
+impress foreign nations with a high idea of the morality for which we
+would fain be thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span> remarkable), perhaps the more easy footing of
+society abroad, combined to produce in her vague aspirations after an
+interchange of sincere affection: visions of mutual love, devotion,
+attachment, &amp;c.—notions against which, for nine years, she had been
+shutting her ears and barring her heart—again found entrance to her
+bosom.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER II.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whom call we gay? That honour has been long</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The boast of mere pretenders to the name.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The innocent are gay. The lark is gay,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That dries his feathers saturate with dew</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of dayspring overshoot the humble nest.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Cowper.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> morning after De Molton's departure, our two cousins were prepared
+for an excursion to Versailles, and were expecting the gentlemen who
+were to accompany them, when Lord Glenrith entered. Lady Westhope
+inquired what was become of Captain De Molton.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone," he replied: "he set off for England yesterday;—called home on
+some tiresome regimental business. But did you not see him? did you not
+hear from him? Very uncivil, faith! not at all like De Molton."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder he did not call," said Lady Westhope: and she stole a look
+towards Blanche, who was so busily employed in tying her bonnet
+and putting on her shawl, with her back towards them, and her veil
+half covering her face, that she could not detect how she took this
+unexpected intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>The carriages of the rest of the party drew up in the street. Lord
+Glenrith ran down stairs to deliver a message to one of the Miss
+Elwicks, offering her Captain De Molton's seat in the barouche; when
+Lady Westhope remarked,</p>
+
+<p>"How strange in Captain De Molton!"</p>
+
+<p>"How mortifying!" replied Lady Blanche: "the idea of marrying may be
+foolish and imprudent, as you say, but he might leave me to find it
+out. I hate cold, calculating men, who do exactly what is right, and
+discreet, and proper; whose conduct nobody can find the least fault
+with. Such men may be esteemed, but they cannot expect to be loved. I
+almost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span> think I should prefer a warm-hearted, impetuous person, who was
+generously wrong, to a wary, prudent one, who was coldly right. But
+what am I saying? The simple fact is, that the poor man did not happen
+to like me. I do not know why I should find fault with him because he
+did not fall in love with me!" And she tried to smile, and to treat the
+whole thing lightly.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope could not help adding, "that she had thought, and
+indeed she did still think, that he was in love, notwithstanding his
+prudence." Lady Blanche had just time to reply, half bitterly, half
+jestingly, "that there could not be much love, if prudence could so
+completely master it;" when Lord Glenrith returned to hand them from
+their splendid apartments, down the dirty brick-stairs of a French
+hotel.</p>
+
+<p>The day was beautiful—the drive not long enough to be fatiguing—the
+palace magnificent—the gardens noble—the whole replete with the most
+interesting recollections. Lady Blanche had always been an enthusiast
+about Madame de la Vallière, Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette. She had
+anticipated the greatest delight in visiting the scenes of so many
+events with which, from childhood, she had been familiar; but she
+found herself listening with the most absent mind to the details given
+by the guide, even though he pointed out the very balcony from which
+he himself remembered having seen Marie Antoinette, with the dauphin
+in her arms, addressing the people on that dreadful day when the
+royal family were carried off by the mob to the Tuileries. She looked
+round with vacant eyes at the white and gold apartments where Marie
+Antoinette held her evening soirées; nor could she warm herself into a
+proper emotion over the oratoire of the unfortunate king, nor even over
+the narrow back passage by which he attempted to escape.</p>
+
+<p>In the gardens, the statues which were pointed out as those of Madame
+de Maintenon, Mademoiselle de Fontanges, and Madame de la Vallière
+herself, failed to excite any interest. In her present state of mind
+she thought it was all nonsense, and did not the least believe that
+Diana was Madame de Maintenon, or Fidelity, with a dog at her feet, was
+intended for Madame de la Vallière.</p>
+
+<p>She became somewhat more interested at the Petit Trianon. The Swiss
+cottage, the vacherie of poor Marie Antoinette touched her, and she
+remarked to Lord Glenrith, on whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span> arm she leaned, how, in the midst
+of all her splendours, the queen seemed to have preserved her taste
+for nature, the country, freedom, and simplicity. "It shows, after
+all, how insufficient are pomp and grandeur to happiness!" And she
+thought of Captain De Molton, and that just such a cottage as the Swiss
+farm, with him (supposing he had liked her, which he did not), would
+be vastly preferable to Versailles itself with any one else. Lord
+Glenrith thought, what a noble, high-minded girl! she will love me for
+myself—she will not be influenced by my being a good match; and he
+redoubled his attentions.</p>
+
+<p>The party had obtained permission to have their collation laid out in
+the marble gallery; and they sat down, a large and brilliant party—as
+young, as beautiful, as had ever been the inmates of that palace,
+consecrated to pleasure, and pleasure alone.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope was the eldest lady present. The two Miss Elwicks
+were beauties—decided beauties, and in the first bloom of youth,
+with gay and lively manners, high spirits, light hearts, and vanity
+enough to thoroughly enjoy the admiration they were in the habit of
+exciting. Mrs. Courtney Astwell was very pretty, and, being married,
+and a coquette, of course commanded the attentions of the gentlemen
+still more supereminently than any of the other ladies, whatever
+their claims might be. Lady Westhope was, for the first time, quite
+in the background—nearly on the shelf. Lord Glenrith was devoted
+to Lady Blanche; Sir Charles Weyburn was decidedly struck with Miss
+Elwick; Lord James Everdon and Miss Eliza Elwick were so merry,
+that another joke succeeded, long before the laugh produced by the
+first had subsided. Mr. Stapleford, the sharp, sarcastic, clever
+<i>diplomate</i>, did Mrs. Courtney Astwell the honour of giving her
+his arm; while Lord Faversham walked on the other side and joined in
+the conversation, and the stripling Lord Elmington hovered on the flank
+or in the rear, as opportunity might serve.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wroxholme alone remained for Lady Westhope. He was a new addition
+to the society whose claims to notice had not yet been ascertained. He
+was in the law, and he looked clever. He might be nearly thirty, and he
+was presentable in appearance and gentlemanlike in manners.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the dignity and reserve of Lady Westhope's<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span> deportment,
+she had never before found herself overlooked. Her rank, her
+respectability, her beauty, in the usual routine of dinners, parties,
+and balls, secured for her the attentions of some one of the first
+persons in the company. She never before had found herself the most
+<i>passée</i> of a party—and on an occasion, too, when the usual
+forms of precedence are not attended to. Though she had never sought
+or valued attention, she did not half like the absence of it. She
+never wished for it while she had to repel it,—it was not till it was
+withheld, that she found she attached to it any value whatever.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wroxholme, however, was well informed and agreeable. By degrees she
+found he was acquainted with several acquaintances of hers, and the
+scenes which they were viewing together afforded matter of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>At the breakfast, or luncheon, or by whatever name the repast might be
+designated, the pictures which adorned the walls of the gallery were
+discussed. Among others, that of Madame de Maintenon, with Madame de la
+Vallière's daughter at her knee. Lady Blanche exclaimed with energy,
+"The only redeeming point about that hypocritical old woman is her
+having been so good-natured to poor dear Madame de la Vallière's child!"</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask Lady Blanche why she so much prefers Madame de la
+Vallière to Madame de Maintenon?" in the softest voice imaginable,
+inquired Mr. Stapleford, who was rather fond of putting people out of
+countenance. In this case he perfectly succeeded; for though it is true
+that every one loves the erring Madame de la Vallière, and few have
+any tenderness for the discreet Madame de Maintenon, it would not have
+been so easy for a young lady to defend her feelings and opinions on
+the subject, without entering into a discussion which might be rather
+awkward.</p>
+
+<p>This Lady Blanche felt, and replied scarcely knowing what she said.
+"Everybody pities Madame de la Vallière, because she was so unhappy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then every one who suffers may hope to have someplace in your
+affections," whispered Lord Glenrith.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stapleford replied,—"As an approving conscience is universally
+allowed to produce cheerfulness, I conclude the strictly virtuous have
+no chance of finding favour in Lady Blanche's sight."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Mr. Stapleford, how you misconstrue everything one says!" Blanche
+blushed, half in confusion, half in anger. Mr. Stapleford enjoyed it;
+he liked to make women blush;—many men do.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure every one present ought to be very much obliged to me for
+what I have said, if it is only for having brought so beautiful a bloom
+into Lady Blanche's cheeks."</p>
+
+<p>All eyes turned towards Lady Blanche, who did indeed blush over
+forehead, throat, and arms, till the tears were ready to start from her
+eyes. Lord Glenrith uttered in a more severe tone than was usual to a
+person renowned for his good-nature—</p>
+
+<p>"One would think Stapleford had neither mother nor sisters of his own,
+that he should find pleasure in causing a woman to blush." And at the
+moment Lord Glenrith worshipped Lady Blanche as devoutly as he hated
+Mr. Stapleford. Lady Blanche felt grateful to him for having defended
+her, and for having given Mr. Stapleford a reproof.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Stapleford a friend of yours?" said Mr. Wroxholme to Lady
+Westhope.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," she answered: "is he of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am happy to say he is a perfect stranger to me: that is a kind of
+man I detest."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope liked her new acquaintance, for his warmth and his
+openness.</p>
+
+<p>The repast was over. The personages already mentioned sauntered
+for a short time before their departure among the close walks and
+the orange-trees. Lord James Everdon and Miss Eliza Elwick were
+inseparable; not that they had the slightest preference for each
+other—their whole bond of union consisted in the magnificent set of
+teeth with which nature had favoured them both. They were not the least
+aware of the reason they were pleased with each other; but it may be
+remarked, that those who have bad teeth do not find themselves so
+comfortable with a companion who makes them laugh, as with one whose
+conversation is more serious; while a person with fine teeth discovers
+a point in many a jest, which to one who is conscious of anything
+defective in that respect would appear stale, flat, and unprofitable.
+Many flirtations might be traced home to similarity of teeth, which
+have passed for congeniality of disposition.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at home, the two friends talked over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span> the day. "Who
+in the world is your Mr. Wroxholme?" said Lady Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you he is a very agreeable man," replied Lady Westhope,
+anxious he should appear to have been her companion by choice, rather
+than from necessity.</p>
+
+<p>"What is he by birth and parentage?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know, but he is acquainted with several people who are mutual
+friends; I shall invite him to my parties next spring. I think he will
+be a great acquisition."</p>
+
+<p>"What an odious man Mr. Stapleford is! I always disliked his quiet
+sarcastic manner of dropping out just the thing that is most
+disagreeable; and I was so much obliged to the dear, good, honest Lord
+Glenrith, for giving him a lecture, which ought to have made him look
+foolish."</p>
+
+<p>"How handsome Lord Glenrith is!" said Lady Westhope, curious to know
+how Blanche felt towards him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! he certainly is handsome; but he has too much colour, and he
+looks so very healthy and robust! I do not think his countenance could
+express unhappiness. I like a man to look serious and thoughtful, as if
+he was full of feeling, and as if his gaiety was just a bright gleam of
+sunshine, the more brilliant for the gloom which precedes and follows
+it. Nothing is so beautiful as the smile of a countenance habitually
+melancholy."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope perceived that, notwithstanding her pique, Blanche had
+not forgotten De Molton.</p>
+
+<p>They returned to England. The London season was nearly over;
+Parliament did not sit late; there was no business which required Lord
+Falkingham's presence, and Blanche joined her parents in the country,
+where they had already established themselves; but, as she passed
+through London, she went to the play with the Westhopes. They were
+leaving the theatre, when they met Captain De Molton on the stairs.
+He rushed to them with a face in which the much-admired smile usurped
+the place of the melancholy which Lady Blanche also admired. He asked
+her if she was staying in London: she replied she was going to Temple
+Loseley the next day.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must esteem myself fortunate to have caught even this glimpse
+of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I hope we shall see you in the country."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span></p>
+
+<p>They were both thrown off their guard by the suddenness of the meeting,
+and their looks and their manner proclaimed the state of their feelings
+as much as it was possible for them to do so, in descending the last
+ten steps of the private box entrance. But he had handed her into the
+carriage—the door was closed—she was gone—before he had time to
+answer the sort of half invitation contained in Lady Blanche's last
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche had much to tell her mother; all she had heard—all she had
+seen, but not all she had felt. Lady Falkingham was reserved with her
+children; she was above all weaknesses herself, and never seemed to
+contemplate the possibility that younger minds might not be so well
+regulated, younger feelings might not be so sober and temperate, as her
+own.</p>
+
+<p>The summer passed quietly; Blanche rode with her father, gardened with
+her mother, and tried to think no more of a person who felt nothing for
+her. Had she not most unguardedly, most imprudently, almost invited
+him to Temple Loseley? She forgot that, not being acquainted with her
+parents, it was absolutely impossible he could act upon such a hint.
+She only remembered that she had advanced a step which had not been
+met by him, and she recalled what she had heard and read a thousand
+times, that a lover can generally create an opportunity for seeing his
+beloved; how much easier, then, to improve one that presents itself!
+The only conclusion, therefore, to be drawn was, that she was an object
+of perfect indifference to him.</p>
+
+<p>In September a party was collected for shooting; and, among others,
+Lord Glenrith accepted with joy and eagerness an invitation to Temple
+Loseley.</p>
+
+<p>Lord and Lady Falkingham rejoiced to see so fair a prospect opening
+before Blanche. Lord Glenrith was particularly good-tempered; he was
+heir to a fine property; there was not an objection to him. Lady
+Falkingham, whose health was very delicate, was much relieved by the
+idea that she need never again pass from twelve till four in the
+morning, seated on the blue sofas at Almack's, her head nodding with
+sleep under the plumes which she thought it her duty to place upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche could not fail to perceive that Lord Glenrith was serious in
+his attentions: it was impossible to dislike him;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span> he was an honest,
+genuine creature; he loved her sincerely, admired her, and respected
+her;—he was not wanting in sense or information. Had not her mind been
+prepossessed, she would most likely have been in love with him; at
+least, ninety-nine girls in a hundred would have been so, and ought to
+have been so. He proposed: her parents were delighted; she was sorry,
+although she preferred him to any one else, except Captain De Molton.
+Yet, what nonsense to allow her imagination to dwell upon a person who
+cared not for her! Should she refuse an excellent man who was sincerely
+attached to her—a connection with whom would delight her own parents,
+and his parents, and all their mutual connections, for the sake of a
+penniless captain who cut her—positively cut her? It would be the
+height of folly; there would be a want of pride in continuing to pine
+for an indifferent swain. So, as she had no good reason to adduce
+either to herself, or to others, for saying "No," she said "Yes," and
+she was engaged.</p>
+
+<p>This great event took place a few days before the Falkingham family
+paid a long-promised visit to the Westhopes. Lord Glenrith was to have
+joined the party at the end of the week; but, as the accepted lover, he
+obtained leave to accompany them to Cransley.</p>
+
+<p>His sterling worth gained upon Blanche every day; there was something
+so English, so true, so generous about him. Her parents were quite
+delighted with his sentiments upon all subjects connected with
+settlements. She heard him praised from morning till night, and she was
+beginning to persuade herself that she ought to be, and that she was,
+exceedingly happy, when they arrived at Cransley.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of Lady Westhope reminded her of Paris, and of all she had
+felt when there; and she was shocked to find she still retained such
+vivid recollections of incidents the most trivial in themselves. Mr.
+Wroxholme had arrived the day before, and at dinner Lord Westhope
+remarked, "We shall be quite the old Paris party on Friday, when De
+Molton comes."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche was listening to Lord Glenrith's description of his
+father's place, Wentnor Castle; but she was not so absorbed in the
+subject, but that these words caught her ear. She gave an involuntary
+start; she felt Lady Westhope look<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span> at her; she felt herself colour.
+But her start and her blush were unobserved: Lord Glenrith was
+completely occupied in explaining how the seclusion of the south and
+west fronts of the castle, and of the broad terrace overlooking the
+rapid stream of the Dwent, was preserved by the alteration in the road,
+which now approached the gateway from the north-east, instead of the
+north-west.</p>
+
+<p>If Lord Glenrith had a fault, or rather a foible, it was his passion
+for his native place, and an inclination to think everything belonging
+to himself superior to that which belonged to another. He seldom sold
+a horse; for when once he had possessed it, he became so alive to its
+merits, that he always asked more for it than others, who were not so
+clear-sighted, thought it was worth. This is a happy disposition for
+the possessor, and for those connected with him. It is seldom that such
+a person makes an unkind husband, or a tyrannical father, or a hard
+master; but it is not a quality that interests a romantic girl. Lady
+Blanche, however, thought "Captain De Molton shall see I am not pining;
+he shall see that his friend can appreciate me, if he cannot."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wroxholme proved, upon farther acquaintance, to be a very
+agreeable addition to the society. He had read much, and was full of
+information. Lord Falkingham pronounced him to be one of the most
+rising young men of the day. Mr. Wroxholme, on his part, was delighted
+with Lord Falkingham's political sentiments, with Lady Falkingham's
+high-breeding, with Lady Westhope's gentleness, with Lord Westhope's
+good-humour and ease in his own house, with Lord Glenrith's downright
+happiness, with Lady Blanche's beauty, with the good shooting, and the
+beautiful place, and he felt gratitude towards Lady Westhope for having
+given him the opportunity of enjoying society so much to his taste.</p>
+
+<p>He was a man of good birth; but though born and bred a gentleman,
+he had not before mixed in the very first circles, and he was
+flattered at being deemed worthy of admission into one of them. He
+had discrimination enough to be pleased with the shade of superior
+refinement which pervaded it, and tact enough instantly to acquire its
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>When Lady Westhope found herself alone with Lady Blanche, she never
+alluded to Captain De Molton; she felt that the less that was said upon
+the subject the better.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span></p>
+
+<p>Blanche had treated his departure from Paris as wilful neglect of her,
+and she had laughed at his indifference. Although in her heart Lady
+Westhope believed she had felt it acutely, it was wiser to treat the
+whole affair as a trifling flirtation which had left no trace behind.
+She was sorry Lord Westhope had invited Captain De Molton at this
+moment, but it was one of those things for which there was no remedy.
+He and Lady Blanche must meet some time or another, and the sooner it
+was over the better.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche, meantime, continued to receive Lord Glenrith's
+attentions, and to find her imagination more and more inclined to
+wander, and her mind less and less able to take in the relative
+positions of the stables, the kitchen-garden, and the coach-houses of
+Wentnor Castle.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER III.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dicen que amor ha vencido,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A los deydades mayores,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Y que de sus pasadores</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cielo y tierra està ofendido.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Spanish Romance.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">During</span> the four months which intervened between Captain De Molton's
+leaving Paris and his joining the party at Cransley, how had he passed
+his time? He was a person of much determination of character, and
+when once he had made up his mind what was right, he could, generally
+speaking, carry his resolutions into effect; at least it was only when
+his feelings, naturally strong, were immediately under excitement, that
+he was betrayed into actions of which his judgment did not approve.</p>
+
+<p>To Lord Glenrith he owed an early debt of gratitude: their friendship
+dated from boyhood. At Eton they had been bathing together, when De
+Molton was seized with the cramp, and must have perished, had it not
+been for the exertions of his young schoolfellow. This and many other
+acts of kindness which the rich heir of Wentnor Castle was naturally
+enabled to show to the penniless seventh son, and thirteenth child
+of the distressed Lord Cumberworth, made De Molton's<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span> friendship for
+Glenrith partake in some measure of the nature of gratitude. He felt it
+would be doubly base in him to attempt to gain the affections of the
+girl to whom Lord Glenrith owned himself attached, even if, with regard
+to Lady Blanche herself, it would not have been ungenerous to drag her
+from her exalted sphere into poverty and destitution with him.</p>
+
+<p>He went straight to his regiment, and devoted himself with particular
+energy to teaching his men the new manœuvres recommended by the Horse
+Guards. Never were men so well appointed, never was troop in such
+order. But his fellow-officers at the mess found him somewhat moody
+and silent; he was not a jolly companion; and although all respected
+him,—yes, and loved him too, and would have applied to him for advice
+and comfort in any distress,—he was not, in the common acceptation of
+the word, a popular man. It was not De Molton who was asked to ride
+this fellow's horse at the hack stakes got up in the regiment; or
+De Molton, to whom another fellow proposed to gallop forty miles to
+London to see the new actress, and down again at night,—or to jump
+into a hack-chaise after dinner and drive off to the tradesmen's ball
+at the county town: but if any dutiful son wished to prolong his visit
+to his parents, or any pining lover had an opportunity of flying to
+his mistress, he felt pretty sure that De Molton would take his duty
+for him. His manners were a little stately, and a youngster was not
+likely to choose De Molton as the confident of any foolish scrape; yet
+no one was more ready to sympathize with, and to relieve, any case of
+unmerited distress.</p>
+
+<p>He chanced to be in London one of the days that Lady Blanche passed
+there in her way from Paris; and he had been attending his mother, and
+three of his six sisters, to the play on the night when he saw Lady
+Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>It was with an uncontrollable burst of joy that he rushed to hand her
+down the steps; and this brief interview sufficed to unsettle in his
+heart all the reasonable acquiescence in the disposition of their fates
+which he had been striving to attain.</p>
+
+<p>When he received Lord Westhope's invitation, he certainly did not
+think it quite impossible he might meet Lady Blanche; but he persuaded
+himself that he had in four months allowed his friend all proper time
+for making himself acceptable, and that there was no necessity for his
+refusing the accustomed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span> invitation to a house to which he was in the
+habit of paying an annual visit. At all events, he should learn from
+Lady Westhope what was the state of the case: anything was better than
+the uncertainty in which he lived.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche's manner, when he met her on the dimly lighted stairs
+of the theatre, had made him vaguely hope—he knew not what; for,
+supposing they did love each other, what then was to happen? He
+repeatedly asked himself this question; but did any one ever wish that
+the person beloved should not return his love? De Molton was a very
+reasonable man—he kept his feelings under great controul, but they
+were strong and ardent, and he could not reach that pitch of stoicism!</p>
+
+<p>To Cransley he went, with a mind distracted by doubt, wonder, hope,
+and fear. As he drove to the door, he saw Lord Falkingham dismounting
+from his cob; so he knew that Lady Blanche was in the house. "How will
+she meet me?" he thought; "how shall I find her? how shall I regulate
+my own behaviour?" and he almost repented having wilfully run into
+such danger; although, in truth, it was the hope of being placed in
+that very danger which had made him so gladly accept Lord Westhope's
+invitation.</p>
+
+<p>He was giving his orders to his servant at the door, when he saw
+Lord Glenrith approach the house in shooting costume, followed by
+keepers and dogs. He could not mistake the bright, happy face of his
+friend. His teeth gleamed as the setting sun shone on them; his cheek
+was sun-burned, and ruddy with exercise; his kind eyes beamed with
+honest joy to see De Molton. De Molton's heart sank within him as he
+recognized his dear friend; and it was with an effort, which would have
+been visible to any other eyes, that he returned his cordial greeting.</p>
+
+<p>As they both entered the drawing-room, the pale countenance and
+melancholy brow of De Molton would, in the opinion of many, have set
+off to advantage the gay good-humour of Lord Glenrith.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies were all there. Lady Blanche shook hands with Captain De
+Molton as soon as he had paid his devoirs to Lady Westhope, and,
+without having raised her eyes higher than to his chin, re-seated
+herself to her embroidery frame.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Glenrith approached her. De Molton's heart beat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span> quick; he felt
+almost giddy. Lord Glenrith's manner was gay and unembarrassed: he
+held a parcel in his hand. Lady Falkingham drew near—there was a
+great colloquy: De Molton heard the expressions "beautiful!"—"the
+prettiest I ever saw!"—"they tell me it is the first that has been
+made;"—"well, how lovely!" Lady Blanche seemed to be expressing her
+thanks, but in so low a tone of voice he could not catch the words.
+She looked blushingly beautiful! Lady Falkingham moved a little on one
+side, and he saw Lord Glenrith in the act of fastening a bracelet on
+her arm. Perhaps another lover might not have selected such a moment
+for presenting his first love-token, but the parcel was only just
+arrived. Lord Glenrith was pleased with his purchase; all around were
+friends, and why should there be any mystery?</p>
+
+<p>To De Molton's eyes all mystery was indeed dispelled. He felt
+choking. He could not master his feelings sufficiently to preserve an
+indifferent countenance, and he left the room under the pretence of
+seeing after his postboy, or his portmanteau.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the company gathered round the bride elect, and admired
+the beautiful ornament and discussed its peculiar fabric; while poor
+Blanche sat frightened at the agitation which pervaded her whole frame
+in consequence of having been for five minutes in the society of De
+Molton.</p>
+
+<p>However, when she retired to her own room before dinner, she satisfied
+herself that what she had felt was merely a very natural awkwardness
+at first meeting a person with whom she certainly had flirted a
+little, and shyness at being seen by a young man acquaintance, in
+the act of receiving her lover's first present. She could not help
+secretly wishing Lord Glenrith had not given the bracelet before so
+many witnesses, and she felt there was a want of delicacy in the
+proceeding, even while she told herself it was in unison with his open,
+unsuspicious character, which measured the kindliness of others by his
+own good-natured heart.</p>
+
+<p>At dinner De Molton placed himself at the farther end of the table, and
+the épergne prevented his being able to perceive Lady Blanche's face.
+However, he saw Lord Glenrith's; and never did an honest countenance
+express more secure and undisturbed happiness. Poor De Molton! He had
+quitted Paris on purpose not to stand in the way of that happiness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span>
+which his friend had obtained; and now, how painful was it to see the
+object accomplished!</p>
+
+<p>During the evening, Lady Westhope contrived, in as quiet a manner as
+she could, to convey to De Molton the confirmation of a fact which was
+already too evident to his eyes, and she appeared not to remark the
+varying hues of his complexion, and the agitation of his manner, during
+her communication.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche strove to be easy and unembarrassed; and she succeeded so
+far as to make him believe her happy, and perfectly satisfied with the
+prospect before her.</p>
+
+<p>He resolved to plead particular and sudden business—a summons from
+his father—a relation at the point of death—any excuse to depart the
+following day. This torture was not to be endured. Yet he wished to
+have an opportunity of speaking to her once, and of telling her how
+ardently he prayed for her welfare.</p>
+
+<p>He left his room very early the next morning, and he perambulated the
+library, the saloon, the breakfast-room, the hall. He knew Lady Blanche
+was an early riser; Cransley was renowned for the lateness of its
+breakfast-hour; perhaps she would make her appearance before the other
+guests. He was not wrong in his calculations. Lady Blanche came into
+the drawing-room to look for her mother's work-basket, and was hastily
+retiring with it, when De Molton arrested her steps by saying, "that as
+he was obliged to depart in an hour, he was anxious to express to one,
+for whom he felt such esteem and admiration, his earnest wishes—his
+prayers for her happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not going to-day, surely, Captain De Molton?" answered Blanche
+in a tremulous tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I must," he said: "I could not, would not stay here another day, for
+anything this world can now offer me."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Westhope will be quite disappointed. She hoped you were come for
+ten days, or a fortnight."</p>
+
+<p>"Such was my intention; but circumstances—imperative circumstances,
+over which I have no controul, render my stay here——impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope no misfortune has occurred in your family?" inquired Lady
+Blanche, thoroughly impressed with the idea of his indifference towards
+herself, and, consequently, by no means attributing his visible
+agitation to its true cause.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span></p>
+
+<p>"No misfortune has occurred in my family," he resumed in a voice of
+deep emotion—"but one to myself. No—no! it is not a misfortune: on
+the contrary, it is the thing in the world I ought most to wish; it
+is the union of the two beings I most value, most respect, most love
+on earth! I ought to rejoice—I do rejoice. Believe me, Lady Blanche,
+though my voice falters, and I am at this moment weak, I rejoice that
+the friend to whom I am bound by every tie of gratitude and affection
+has gained the heart of the most perfect of womankind; and that the
+woman who alone in my eyes is perfect, is likely to be happy with a
+man who is all honour, truth, and uprightness. May Heaven in its mercy
+bless you both!"</p>
+
+<p>The tears stood in De Molton's glistening eyes. They almost overflowed.
+"I am a fool," he added; "I thought I had more command over myself;
+I did not mean to torment you, to insult you, with an avowal of my
+hopeless, my presumptuous love!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche had stood transfixed in fear, amazement, joy;—yes, joy!
+there are no circumstances under which it is not joy to find affection
+is requited. "And do you indeed love me?" she said, scarcely conscious
+of what she uttered.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I love you! Lady Blanche, can you ask that question? In folly,
+hopelessness, misery, I cannot—cannot quell my love!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, why—why did not you tell me sooner?" she said, earnestly clasping
+her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell you so? How could I venture, penniless as I am, without a home to
+offer you,—how could I have the insane presumption to ask you to share
+poverty—penury with me, when splendour, rank, wealth were courting
+your acceptance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I despise these things! I always did! I never could care for money
+in all my life, and now!"—She stopped; her engagement rushed across
+her mind. She felt guilty of perjury and infidelity.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, in his turn, stood confounded; he had done everything he
+had especially resolved not to do, and, mingled with the delight he
+could not help experiencing at the avowal which had almost escaped
+Lady Blanche's lips, he felt humiliated by the base part he had acted
+towards the friend to whom he had meant to devote himself. He struck
+his forehead, and exclaimed, "Oh, Lady Blanche, I am a wretch<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</span> not
+worthy of a moment's regard! Do not waste a thought on me; forget me,
+or at least only remember me to bestow a sigh of pity on one who has
+been betrayed, by his love for you, into an act of ingratitude for
+which he abhors himself. Glenrith is my best friend,—he is the soul of
+honour, he—he is worthy of you!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche was frightened at what she had said—frightened at
+what she had listened to. Voices were heard approaching,—the door
+opened,—Captain De Molton rushed into the adjoining library. Lady
+Blanche seized her mother's basket, and left the room before she had
+time to perceive who the intruders were. As she ran up stairs, she met
+Lady Westhope. "What is the matter, Blanche?" exclaimed Lady Westhope,
+as her friend darted past her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma wants me," she hastily answered, as she took refuge in her
+mother's room.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma! mamma!" she exclaimed, throwing herself breathless into a
+chair; "I am wretched, guilty, and miserable! I am the most unfortunate
+creature in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"What possesses you, child? what is the matter?" replied Lady
+Falkingham, as she put down the untasted piece of toast she held in her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma! he loves me after all!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who, my dear?—what! Lord Glenrith? To be sure he does. I never saw a
+man more attached in my life!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor dear Lord Glenrith, so he is! Oh, how little I deserve that he
+should be so! when I—oh, mamma, what will you think of me? I have
+almost owned that my affections are—at least I implied—Oh, mamma!
+what shall I do?" And poor Blanche wept bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, my dear Blanche, I do not consider it modest and becoming
+in any young woman to allow a man to perceive that he has acquired too
+much power over her heart; yet, as you are on the point of marriage,
+I think you need not blame yourself so very much. There should always
+be a certain reserve of manner and expression; but anxious as I am
+that women should preserve their dignity, and that no daughter of mine
+should condescend——"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma! you do not understand me: I never told Lord Glenrith I
+loved him."</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth do you mean then?—what are you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span> talking about?" Lady
+Falkingham's countenance assumed an expression of alarm, wonder, and
+displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how can I tell you?—you, mamma, who never did anything weak, or
+foolish, in your life! Do not look at me, mamma, with those stern and
+reproachful eyes, or I can never confess it."</p>
+
+<p>"Blanche, you alarm me more than I can describe. Do you mean that
+you love any one better than the man whom you have accepted as your
+husband,—the excellent, amiable, high-minded Lord Glenrith, who is so
+sincerely devoted to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma! I do value him, and I render him justice, indeed; and I
+love him in a kind of way——"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche was each moment becoming more alive to the ingratitude,
+the duplicity, with which she had acted towards Lord Glenrith, and
+began to wish she had not opened the subject at all to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Explain yourself, Blanche," repeated her mother: "whom are you talking
+of? Is it Mr. Wroxholme, whom you met at Paris?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, no, mamma. It is Captain De Molton!" And she no longer found
+any difficulty in speaking his name. Mr. Wroxholme might be a very
+good man, but, in her eyes, was immeasurably inferior to the object of
+her preference. Those who are in love, always resent as an injury the
+suspicion that they could find charms in any other than the one person
+to whose merits they are alive.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain De Molton!" exclaimed Lady Falkingham; "why, I scarcely ever
+heard you mention him! You ought to have told me this before."</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew till to-day what were his feelings towards me, mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>"I must say your lover has chosen a good moment for avowing his
+passion! It proves an honourable mind! And he wishes to induce you to
+break off your marriage with a man in every way calculated to make you
+happy? For what? He has scarcely bread to eat himself, and his father
+has none to give him."</p>
+
+<p>"He knows all that, mamma, and he is going away this moment. He does
+not ask me to marry him. He says he is not worthy of me."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Blanche! Blanche! and you allow this man, who tells you he
+cannot marry, to make love to you, while you are the affianced wife
+of his friend! I should never have thought a daughter of mine would
+have acted in so improper, so unprincipled a manner. Heaven knows, I
+cannot accuse myself of having neglected my children. You have all
+had every attention paid to your minds and your morals. Each hour had
+its avocation; you were never permitted to read a book which Miss
+Strickland or myself had not previously perused; you were never allowed
+to walk beyond the shrubberies and the park! If, like some mothers, I
+had neglected the essentials for the sake of accomplishments——but the
+religion-master always came three times a week! How on earth can such
+low notions of moral rectitude ever have found entrance into your head,
+or your heart?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche was in despair at her mother's grief. She now viewed her
+own conduct with horror; but how to meet Lord Glenrith, with this
+weight of guilt upon her mind?</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," continued Lady Falkingham; "read this letter; all kindness
+and generosity—receiving you into the family with joy, treating you
+already as if you were their daughter!" Lady Falkingham gave Blanche
+the joint epistle she had just received from Lord and Lady Wentnor,
+expressing every thing most gratifying concerning the choice their son
+had made.</p>
+
+<p>Each word she read was a dagger to Lady Blanche's heart. "I cannot
+overthrow all the happiness of these worthy people," she mentally
+revolved, "and that of my parents, and of poor Lord Glenrith. I must
+quell this foolish inclination,—I must fight a good fight, and I shall
+conquer, I dare say. But it is hard, when now, for the first time, I
+know myself beloved."</p>
+
+<p>After a pause, she told her mother she would try to compose herself:
+she implored her not to mention the subject to her father; she strove
+to persuade her mother, and herself, that it was only a passing
+feeling, a momentary agitation which would soon subside; that it had
+been pique, that it was now gratified vanity—any thing, in short,
+except love. Her mother was only too glad to be deceived, and assisted
+her in her self-deception.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham would have been very sorry to lose so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</span> estimable and
+so unexceptionable a husband for her daughter; but the disgraceful
+<i>éclat</i> of breaking off an engagement openly entered into and
+acknowledged, was still more appalling to a person who had a salutary
+horror of being "talked of." She had herself passed through life with
+the highest character as a wife and as a mother. Her elder daughters
+had married at a proper age, and in a proper manner. She looked upon a
+young lady's first love as a silly affair, which has more to do with
+the imagination than the heart; and if any of her other daughters had
+ever felt a preference which had not received their mother's sanction,
+they would never have ventured to confess it with that frankness which,
+in spite of the education just described by Lady Falkingham, was one of
+Blanche's characteristics.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER IV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now have I shewed you bothe, these whyche ye lyst,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Stately fortune, or humble povertee:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That is to say, now lyeth it in your fyst</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To take here bondage, or free libertee.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Sir Thomas More.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Captain De Molton</span> had sent his servant to the neighbouring town to
+procure him a chaise, that with the least possible delay he might carry
+his project of departure into execution.</p>
+
+<p>When he had in some measure recovered his self-possession, he made
+his appearance at the breakfast-table, and informed Lady Westhope
+that he was unexpectedly obliged to return to London, to arrange with
+his father some matters connected with his exchange from his present
+regiment, which, as Lady Westhope knew, was under orders for India.</p>
+
+<p>This was strictly true, for he had resolved to insist upon his
+father's suspending the application he was on the point of making for
+this exchange. He determined to proceed to India with his regiment.
+The unhealthiness of the climate, which gave his relations so much
+uneasiness, appeared to him, in his present frame of mind, a positive
+recommendation.</p>
+
+<p>The company expressed all due disappointment at his sudden
+departure—all but Lady Blanche; she was not present. Lady Westhope
+suspected something must have occurred, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</span> when she bade De Molton
+adieu, she pressed his hand with a mysterious kindliness, which she
+meant should imply, "You are acting like a man of honour; I see you
+suffer, and I pity you."</p>
+
+<p>She was confirmed in this opinion, by Mr. Wroxholme telling her he
+had found Captain De Molton in the library before breakfast, with his
+head leaning against the marble chimney-piece, and his countenance so
+pale and haggard, that he feared for a moment something dreadful must
+have happened. Lady Westhope recollected Blanche's hurrying manner of
+passing her on the stairs, and she pitied all parties.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham's indisposition accounted for Lady Blanche's absence
+till the hour of luncheon, when she came down stairs with a feeling of
+kindness towards Lord Glenrith, awakened by the consciousness of having
+injured him. She scarcely ventured to raise her eyes from the ground,
+but her blushing manner passed for the modesty of a young girl on the
+eve of marriage. Lord Glenrith pathetically lamented the absence of his
+friend, and Lady Blanche quivered at the sound of his name, and then
+reproached herself for doing so.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Glenrith showed her the letters he had received from the different
+members of his family. Blanche could not but feel flattered by the
+manner in which she was spoken of; could not but think the better of
+the son, and the brother, who was loved with such tender affection;
+could not but own she ought to be happy with the prospect of possessing
+such a father, mother, brothers, and sisters-in-law. Lord Glenrith in
+his own happiness perceived nothing wanting in her manner, and laughed,
+and talked, the gayest of the gay. His inward satisfaction did not
+render him sentimental, but his buoyant spirits made him inclined to
+be pleased with everybody and everything. He even forgot the dislike
+he had imbibed for Mr. Stapleford; and when his arrival that day was
+announced, he declared him to be a "devilish good fellow, though he was
+a sarcastic dog."</p>
+
+<p>His flow of spirits was almost oppressive to Lady Blanche, yet she
+rejoiced he did not possess the sensitive tact which might have
+rendered him alive to every look of hers.</p>
+
+<p>At dinner, Lord Glenrith was telling Lord Falkingham he had a famous
+brood-mare at Wentnor Castle, whose colt was likely to win the St.
+Leger.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Is your colt as clever as your old horse Perseus, Glenrith?" asked Mr.
+Stapleford.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Perseus! by Jove, that is a horse! Never was a thorough-bred one
+so good for weight—and as active as a cat—such action! and such
+pasterns! None of your short pasterns the grooms are so fond of—but
+long enough to be elastic! He is a true Whalebone!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure, after all, I do not like Quirk still better,"
+Stapleford dropped out quietly, while a sly smile lurked in the corner
+of his lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Quirk is a singularly good horse! He has such bone, and such a
+constitution!"</p>
+
+<p>"And that grey pony, Glenrith—you will never part with that pony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Part with Yung-frau? not for three hundred guineas!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a fortunate man in your stud, Glenrith!" remarked Stapleford,
+with a quiet, composed, and serious air, which to the unsuspicious
+Lord Glenrith was perfectly satisfactory, while the rest of the party,
+especially poor Blanche, were painfully aware he was playing on the one
+weak point of the amiable young Benedick.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing lowers a man in the eyes of a woman so much as being made a
+butt, no matter whether the quizzer be a person for whose opinion she
+entertains any respect or not. It was unlucky that, at the moment the
+<i>héros de roman</i> lover had departed in magnanimous despair, the
+successful one should lay himself open to the quizzing of a dandy.
+Lady Blanche felt miserable—more miserable than when she parted
+from De Molton—more miserable than when she heard the jingle of his
+hack-chaise as it drove from the door—more miserable than when her
+mother's statement of the case made her awake to the enormity of her
+misconduct—more miserable than when she resolved to drive her lover's
+image for ever from her mind. Those distresses were at least elevated
+ones—this bordered on the ridiculous.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the evening Mr. Stapleford found himself near Lady
+Blanche. "I must offer you my congratulations, Lady Blanche, and
+especially upon the good looks and the good spirits of the fortunate
+Lord Glenrith. His beaming and ruddy appearance shows that you have not
+been unnecessarily cruel, tormenting before you consented to make him
+the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</span> happiest of men. It must give a person of your kindly feelings
+great pleasure to behold a face so redolent with joyousness!"</p>
+
+<p>Every word of this speech was disagreeable. Poor Blanche did not admire
+a "ruddy" man—did not like an unsentimental lover; and, above all, she
+did not like the implication that she had been</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"Won unwooed, or slightly wooed at best."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Stapleford bore not the slightest ill-will either to Lady Blanche,
+or to Lord Glenrith. He enjoyed saying the disagreeable thing in the
+civilest manner possible; partly because it is almost the only exercise
+of power which a person without house, or lands, or fortune, can
+indulge in; partly because he liked to see what people really felt—and
+he thus frequently discovered the true state of their minds; partly
+because he happened to possess the species of tact which enabled him to
+do it—and everybody derives pleasure from success of any kind.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Blanche received a packet from Wentnor Castle. It
+contained some beautiful ornaments—offerings from different members of
+her future family, each accompanied by the prettiest note imaginable.
+Congratulations showered in from every quarter. All the numerous
+friends and relations of both sides wrote letters in which each party
+was described as perfection, and each as having met with perfection.
+It is astonishing that matrimony should ever fail to secure lasting
+happiness, when (if we may believe the written testimony of those who
+best know the contracting parties) none but paragons ever enter into
+the holy state. But among all the happy unions that have been joyfully
+anticipated, none ever gave more general satisfaction than the present.
+The age, situation, rank—everything was suitable. Poor Lady Blanche
+felt herself every moment more thoroughly hampered, entangled, and
+pledged; and every moment her disinclination to the marriage increased.</p>
+
+<p>It was an odd thing! but Mr. Stapleford's quiet manner of quizzing
+Lord Glenrith, and his imperturbable good-humour under it,—or rather,
+his perfect unconsciousness of what was happening,—hurt his cause
+even more than her preference of De Molton. She would rather have seen
+him angry and resentful; to persons with <i>la tête exaltée</i>, the
+smallest shadow of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</span> ridicule irrecoverably destroys the halo of romance
+they would fain throw around the object of their devotion. Blanche
+might have turned from her hopeless and youthful dream of love, to
+admiration, respect, obedience, and submission; but when her head, her
+heart, and her imagination were possessed with the dignified brow, the
+melancholy eyes, the mellow voice, the lofty air, the noble grief of
+De Molton, to see the joyous, the "ruddy" Glenrith perfectly contented
+under the quizzing of a Stapleford, prevented her being able to work
+herself up to the feelings it was her duty to entertain towards him.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wroxholme one day remarked to Lady Westhope, that Lady Blanche
+appeared to be extremely out of spirits, and that he almost feared her
+disposition and that of her future husband were not exactly suited.</p>
+
+<p>"She seems to take no pleasure in his country pursuits—she listens
+with an abstracted air while he continues to pour into her ear details
+which he might perceive are not interesting to her; though I own I
+sometimes wonder she should not be more curious about Wentnor Castle,
+which, from the engravings, must be a magnificent and interesting
+place."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope agreed with Mr. Wroxholme, and could not help half
+confiding to him, that she feared Lady Blanche had some other
+prepossession.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor girl!" resumed Mr. Wroxholme; "but then it is a thousand pities
+she should marry, if she cannot love, Lord Glenrith."</p>
+
+<p>"He is such a good man!" answered Lady Westhope; "he has such excellent
+principles—he is so sure to make a true and faithful husband, that in
+the long-run I should hope no woman, who had herself good principles,
+could fail to be happy with him."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope sighed, and Mr. Wroxholme, who had by this time heard
+and seen somewhat more of his host, felt that poor Lady Westhope spoke
+as one who had suffered from the absence of these qualities in her
+husband.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER V.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ever still must I adore thee:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though wide seas between us roll,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Each fond thought shall hover o'er thee,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And thine image fill my soul.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morning breaking o'er the ocean</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Will thine opening graces wear,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And with evening's last devotion</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I will breathe thy name in prayer.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Upon</span> leaving Cransley, Captain De Molton had hastened to town. He there
+found his father, who having left the rest of the family at Brighton,
+had also repaired to London for the purpose of effecting the proposed
+exchange.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Cumberworth was preparing to enter a hackney-coach, which waited
+to carry him to Brookes's, where he meant to dine and to solace himself
+with a quiet game at tolerably high whist, when he was startled at the
+unexpected appearance of his son.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Francis!" he exclaimed, "I thought you were gone to Cransley for
+a fortnight! What brings you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wished to see you, father, and to talk to you seriously concerning
+my prospects in life. You are come up about my exchange, are you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes—and I hope I shall be able to settle it all comfortably. Your
+mother has been in one of her nervous ways at the bare thoughts of your
+going to India."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I ought to go, father."</p>
+
+<p>"Why! which way does the wind blow now? Why the d—l did you not tell
+me so sooner? They have all been pestering me to come to town, and
+to leave no stone unturned to save you from this banishment, as you
+all called it; and now I have taken the trouble of coming, you change
+your mind! Upon my word, this is very inconsiderate. But, after all,
+I myself do not like your going into such an unhealthy climate, and I
+would rather keep you at home if I could. If you are to go into danger,
+let it be where some honour and renown are to be obtained. There is no
+glory in dying of a liver complaint, as yellow as a guinea."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry, my dear father, to have given you so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</span> much
+unnecessary trouble, but I have fully made up my mind to sail with my
+regiment."</p>
+
+<p>"And pray, Master Francis, what has worked this wondrous revolution in
+your mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, father, to tell you the truth, happiness is out of the question
+for me; and therefore I had rather do whatever will make me least
+burthensome to my family, and also take me out of the way for a time."</p>
+
+<p>"And why do you want to lie perdue? You have not been running in debt,
+have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, father; I am too well aware what are your circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a scrape? eh, my boy!"—and Lord Cumberworth, whose morals were
+not puritanical, smiled. "It can't be Lady Westhope, she is such a
+prude. You have not been playing the fool, I hope?" continued Lord
+Cumberworth, putting more of parental gravity into his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been guilty of nothing wrong in deed or thought," replied De
+Molton with seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Egad! but there's a woman in question though," replied Lord
+Cumberworth. "You are not in any danger of marrying?" and his face
+really assumed an expression of sincere alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly, father; but I am unfortunately attached to a person who
+is on the eve of marriage with another."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank heaven that is all!" exclaimed Lord Cumberworth. "Remember one
+thing, Frank—a man is never thoroughly undone till he is married."</p>
+
+<p>De Molton remained silent. His father's tone of feeling was so little
+in unison with his own, that he wished to say no more upon the subject
+than was absolutely necessary.</p>
+
+<p>"Does the girl like you, my boy?" added Lord Cumberworth.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton was somewhat perplexed how to answer, but he said, "I told
+you, father, she was going to be married to another man."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but women have married a rich man, when they have been in love
+with a poor man, before now. And you are a d——sh handsome fellow, and
+more like me than any of my children. Well, don't look so sheepish,
+like a bashful maiden yourself. Is the girl in love with you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I conclude not," resolutely answered De Molton.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you told her you are in love with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, I have."</p>
+
+<p>"And she was not angry, eh? Come, I suppose your nice sense of honour
+will allow you to say whether she is very much in love with her future
+husband or not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say she esteemed him highly, but was not precisely in love
+with him," was De Molton's guarded reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Wheugh—gh—gh!" with an elevation of the eye-brows, and a sound that
+ended in something like a whistle, was the response produced by this
+last communication of his son's. "You had better go, my boy. I see
+how it is: if you stay, we shall have the marriage broken off and the
+d—l to pay. Ah! well I am sorry to part with you, but you had better
+go—we will do no more about the exchange. But I am as hungry as a
+hound—I have eat nothing since I left Brighton. There is no dinner
+in the house—nothing in it but the old housemaid: we can't roast
+her—she would be tougher than Pedrillo. Let's be off to Brookes's. By
+the by, you don't belong to Brookes's: I remember you said it was too
+expensive, when George wanted to get you put up. Well, you can eat your
+dinner at your Junior United Service Club; and we will meet here, at
+home, at ten o'clock, and talk matters over quietly."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Cumberworth got into his hackney-coach, and De Molton walked off
+to his club, to snatch a hasty morsel, and return to South Audley
+Street, there to ruminate sadly upon his future fate until his father
+should join him. There was much of bitterness in his reflections. He
+could not help repining at the unequal distribution of fortune, and
+thinking it hard that the happiness of two beings should be wrecked
+for lack of that contemptible thing, money. He almost doubted whether
+he was acting rightly by Lady Blanche in abandoning her when she had
+all but acknowledged her love for him. And yet, what could he do? His
+worldly pelf consisted but of his pay, and the very moderate allowance
+his father was able to make him. He had nothing to look to. His
+father's property was entailed upon the eldest son—his circumstances
+were embarrassed—he had been obliged to let Cumberworth Hall, and
+lived principally in London, making an occasional excursion to some
+watering-place: there was no chance of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</span> saving money, and there
+were twelve of them to divide the fifty thousand pounds settled on
+younger children. Lady Blanche certainly had no dislike to Glenrith,
+or she would never have accepted him: and who could know Glenrith,
+and not learn to value and to love his kind feelings and singleness
+of heart? The more he reflected, the more strengthened he was in his
+purpose. When he was far away, she would assuredly forget the slight
+prepossession she had entertained for him, and she would soon give her
+whole heart to Glenrith. When he had brought his reasonings to this
+most desirable point, he found it infinitely more painful than any
+other view of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>His father returned about ten o'clock, and after arranging to write
+immediately to the person with whom they had been in treaty for the
+exchange, and to lose no time in procuring the proper stock of articles
+necessary for the voyage, as there was a possibility of the regiment
+sailing within a fortnight, they agreed to leave London the following
+afternoon, and to join the rest of the family at Brighton.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, cheer up, my boy!" said Lord Cumberworth, as he bade his son
+good night. "There is no use in fretting—there are more pretty girls
+than one in the world, and you are not the first sentimental young
+man who has been crossed in love. <i>Il en faut passer par là.</i> We
+have all been crossed in love in our time. I, myself, was very much
+smitten with another woman when I married your mother; but I saw that
+my marrying Helen was out of the question, and so I did what they
+all wished me to do, and it answered just as well. Your mother is a
+very good woman, Frank, and I am very fond of her. So cheer up, my
+boy—never be down-hearted! You will forget your Dulcinea long before
+you cross the line." He was closing the door, when he turned back again
+to say,—"Frank, you look for all the world as if you were younger
+brother to the knight of La Mancha—<i>el cavaliere de la triste
+figura</i>,—with your pale cheeks and your high forehead. I would not
+be a skill of wine or a windmill in your way for something!"</p>
+
+<p>The good-humoured but unsentimental father chuckled at his own joke,
+and went off to bed so relieved that his son would be secured from the
+impending danger, that it quite reconciled him to his departure.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</span></p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at Brighton late the following evening, poor Lady
+Cumberworth was in despair at the prospect of her pet, her darling, the
+most affectionate, the most considerate, the most dutiful of all her
+children, running all the risks consequent upon a banishment to India;
+"not only," as she said, "braving perils by sea and perils by land, but
+those of climate and disease."</p>
+
+<p>"There are worse perils in England, Mary," replied her husband with a
+knowing wink. "Perils by eyes are the most dangerous for handsome young
+fellows! Depend upon it, he is far safer in the other hemisphere; for
+peril by marriage is the worst of all—that is to say, when a man has
+nothing, and never can have anything as long as lives."</p>
+
+<p>De Molton shrunk at hearing his attachment alluded to among all the
+family circle; though to his dear gentle mother he could have opened
+his whole heart, and to most of his sisters individually also. The
+eldest was grown a little starch, and the youngest was rather too young
+and giddy; but the four middle ones had plenty of romance in them, and
+would have listened to his tale with tears in their eyes. To any one of
+them in a tête-à-tête he might have spoken his feelings; but to have
+twelve curious, wondering, though kind eyes, turn upon him at once, was
+peculiarly unpleasant to a sensitive and reserved man.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Cumberworth saw his distress, and hastened to say, "We were just
+going to bed when you arrived. I shall carry Frank off to have a quiet
+gossip with him; so good night, girls!"</p>
+
+<p>De Molton followed his mother, and in her found a sympathizing
+listener—one who entered into all his difficulties, and who was
+ready to love poor Blanche for appreciating her own dear Frank as he
+deserved. But she saw that, deeply as his affections were engaged,
+their union was impracticable; and she was obliged, though most
+reluctantly, to confess that a temporary absence, and entire change of
+scene, were likely to spare his feelings and principles many a trial.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Cumberworth entreated her husband not to annoy poor Frank by any
+allusion to his unfortunate attachment.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord bless the fellow!" exclaimed Lord Cumberworth, "I never meant to
+annoy him! I know he is d—shly in love, and that is all I said! And I
+only said, he could not marry, and that he knows well enough!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</span></p>
+
+<p>"He is unhappy, and we must refrain from remarks that wound his
+delicacy just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Delicacy—fiddlestick! You always did spoil that boy—and you will
+make him as full of feelings, and nerves, and refinement, as the most
+fanciful woman of you all!"</p>
+
+<p>The young ladies also met in a nocturnal synod. "What is this love of
+Frank's?" exclaimed Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"How papa made him blush!" said Laura.</p>
+
+<p>"And is he really going to India?" asked Charlotte.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is the girl?" inquired Emily.</p>
+
+<p>"And why could not mamma talk to him before us, I wonder?" added
+Katherine, the youngest, who was rather pert.</p>
+
+<p>"When you are a little older, you will know that people do not like to
+discuss <i>les affaires du cœur en pleine salle</i>," answered Jane the
+eldest; and with a dignified air she retired to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose Jane wishes to persuade us she has some love affairs of her
+own, though we know nothing about them," continued the merry Katherine:
+"she has preserved a most dignified mystery upon the subject, ever
+since I have been grown up."</p>
+
+<p>After a few more questions which could elicit no answers, seeing that
+all parties were equally in the dark, the sisters separated for the
+night, and all found the repose they sought except Lady Cumberworth,
+who acutely felt the approaching separation from her son, and still
+more the pain that darling son was doomed to endure.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Cumberworth was not one who considered the sufferings of lovers as
+matter for sport;—she had been fervently attached in her early youth,
+and the object of that attachment had been snatched from her by death.
+On her side, as well as on her husband's, their marriage had been one
+of reason and of expediency. But she had made him an excellent wife,
+had borne him a large family, and they had always been a happy and
+affectionate couple—happier, perhaps, than if one of the parties, and
+only one, had felt more warmly.</p>
+
+<p>In a fortnight from the time De Molton joined his family at Brighton,
+he tore himself from the arms of his sisters, and, lastly, from the
+long, speechless, close embrace of his mother, to whose more sad and
+sacred affection all instinctively yielded the parting caress.</p>
+
+<p>He sailed with his regiment, and we will leave him for a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</span> while, losing
+the sense of all his romantic and high-wrought sensibilities in the
+absorbing sufferings often endured in the Bay of Biscay.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No te falterà otra Dama</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hermosa y de galan talle,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Que te quiera, y tu la quieras</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porque lo mereces Zayde.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Spanish Romance.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> visit of the Falkinghams at Cransley had now lasted more than ten
+days. Blanche ardently wished to be at home again. She felt wretched,
+hypocritical, and guilty. She found herself so uncomfortable where she
+was, that she imagined any change must be for the better. When they
+left Cransley, Lord Glenrith was to pay his parents a visit of a few
+days, and then to join them at Temple Loseley; after which they were
+all to proceed to London for the purpose of procuring the wedding
+paraphernalia.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche's depression became so evident, that even Lord Glenrith,
+although not an acute observer, could not avoid perceiving it. He
+was exceedingly flattered, and attributed it all to his approaching
+absence. He kindly consoled her. "I shall soon be with you again,
+Blanche. I love my father and mother dearly; but just now I do not
+think even they can succeed in keeping me above three days away from
+you. I hate the thought of leaving you, but it will be such a pleasure
+to meet again!—will it not, dearest Blanche? I think it will almost
+make up for the pain of parting; and then I suppose, I need not leave
+you any more. So we have nothing but joy before us." And he wondered
+his betrothed did not appear to be more consoled by this prospect.</p>
+
+<p>He has handed them all into their travelling barouche, and he
+has thrown himself into his britska, and they have left Cransley
+in opposite directions. All the rest of the party had previously
+dispersed—all but Mr. Wroxholme, and he was going to town the next
+day. As he and Lady Westhope stood upon the steps watching the receding
+vehicles, they could not help communicating to each other their fears
+concerning the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</span> approaching marriage. Lady Westhope was exceedingly out
+of spirits at poor Blanche's prospects, and Mr. Wroxholme entered into
+her feelings, with all the delicacy of a person with good heart and
+good taste.</p>
+
+<p>As their barouche rolled smoothly along, Lord and Lady Falkingham fell
+into deep and earnest conversation: Blanche sat in the back seat,
+absorbed in her own meditations. The road lay through an open, hilly,
+and heathy country, watered by small rivulets, on the immediate banks
+of which were sometimes seen a solitary cottage, and, close around, a
+small patch of cultivated ground. It was a mild watery day, with little
+positive rain, but one in which the shifting lights and gleams of
+pale sunshine give a purple hue to the heathy hill-side, and a bright
+yellow to the green meadow, or the mossy swamp. Her eyes mechanically
+watched the varying hues, and at length fixed themselves upon a lonely
+turf-roofed hut in the valley below. "How peaceful must be existence in
+such a hut!" she thought within herself; "no worldly considerations,
+no aspirations after rank and situation, can there interfere with
+the affections. A strong arm and a willing mind are all that are
+required to authorize the peasant lover to seek the hand of his peasant
+mistress. Personal, individual qualities alone are considered,—not
+the adventitious recommendations of fortune. How much happier must be
+that rank of life, where love, and love alone, leads to an union which
+is to endure as long as life itself! Oh! if I could, in honour and
+in respectability, become the wife of De Molton, how willingly would
+I resign every luxury to which I have been born, and live in that
+very cottage, unnoticed and unknown! I think I could gladly perform
+even the household drudgery: I could feed the chickens and sweep the
+brick floor, and pile up the blazing faggots, and prepare my husband's
+evening meal—if that husband were De Molton!"</p>
+
+<p>She gazed upon the cottage as long as it remained in sight, and almost
+felt as if she left a place that was endeared to her by habit, when a
+turn in the road concealed it from her view.</p>
+
+<p>It may be much questioned whether Lady Blanche's view of the various
+conditions of life were a correct one, and whether there may not exist
+as much, or more, disinterested love in the higher orders than in the
+lower.</p>
+
+<p>But her thoughts continued, "And feeling thus, shall I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</span> promise entire,
+undivided, eternal love to another man? Has not my life been an enacted
+lie for the last fortnight? Can I make up my mind to continue for
+years and years this unceasing duplicity? I thought De Molton's image
+would have faded from my mind—I thought I should each day have become
+more attached to Lord Glenrith. I hear of so many happy wives who did
+not marry for love! But is this the case? No! his image rises to my
+mind's eye more frequently than ever, and I find my soul recoil more,
+every day, from poor dear Lord Glenrith's tenderness. I shall behave
+ill to him in breaking off the marriage, and I shall be called a jilt;
+but shall I not behave more ill to him by marrying him, when I feel
+as I now do? I will tell him the whole truth myself! It is a horrid
+alternative, but I cannot—I cannot marry him!"</p>
+
+<p>The day after their arrival at home Lady Blanche communicated to
+her mother the resolution she had formed. Lady Falkingham was
+thunderstruck. Blanche had continued for the last week to admit
+of Lord Glenrith's attentions, and had never again alluded to her
+attachment, so that Lady Falkingham had convinced herself the childish
+affair had passed from her mind. She was inexpressibly grieved at the
+information; but she was a woman of principle, and could not insist
+upon her daughter's marrying, while a passion, which would become
+criminal, retained full possession of her breast. Lord Falkingham,
+as might be expected, was very indignant—perhaps more so at first
+than his wife had been; but when the first ebullition of anger was
+past, he was sooner able to resume his usual bearing towards his
+daughter. The days are passed, when any measures, beyond argument and
+persuasion, can be put into practice to force an unwilling bride to
+the altar; and argument and persuasion were of no avail with one who
+unequivocally declared that she had tried in vain to subdue her love
+for De Molton—that her efforts to return Lord Glenrith's affection
+were totally unavailing, and that, if she found herself his wife, she
+should be utterly miserable.</p>
+
+<p>Two days had elapsed from Lord Glenrith's departure for his father's.
+On the third he was expected at Temple Loseley. There was no cross
+post; there was no time to write; and, indeed, Blanche thought she had
+rather tell him the whole truth herself, as she could better exonerate
+his friend from any blame, by word of mouth, than by letter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</span></p>
+
+<p>Never did three persons await the coming of a gay and gallant
+bridegroom with more uncomfortable feelings. At the appointed moment
+on the third day he arrived, beaming with honest joy. After the first
+greeting, he slipped upon the finger of his love, with an attempt at
+sentimental mystery, a ring containing his own hair. He also brought
+from his mother the family diamonds, which, she said, would infinitely
+better grace the blooming young bride than the sober matron. Lord
+Glenrith exhibited them with some pride and great delight;—pride at
+the family glories—delight at offering them to Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>Never were diamonds received so awkwardly, and with so little apparent
+gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Blanche! you do not seem to care about the diamonds," he said, in
+rather a mortified tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I am very, very grateful to Lady Wentnor for her constant, her
+unmerited kindness to me—so much more than I deserve!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are very modest, my dear Blanche! Well! I hope it is that you
+are so glad to see me, you cannot think about the diamonds; and if
+that is the case I will forgive you, and so will my mother too, I dare
+say. I have been told many women love their diamonds better than their
+husbands: that will not be your case, I trust, or you will care very
+little for me." He hurried off to dress for dinner, a little put out by
+the reception he had met with.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was most distressing. Lord Glenrith began, in the innocence
+of his heart, to tell them everything he had done, every arrangement
+that had been made, and how Lord and Lady Wentnor meant to visit
+Leamington for a few weeks, and to relinquish Wentnor Castle to them
+for their honeymoon; but he found his audience so cold, that he in his
+turn became chilled and daunted.</p>
+
+<p>As they left the dining-room, Lady Blanche summoned all her courage,
+and said, "I wish to speak to you presently in the breakfast-room."</p>
+
+<p>The die was cast! She must now tell him all. She seized her mother's
+arm as they crossed the hall. "O, mamma! what a task I have to perform!
+How could I ever accept poor dear Lord Glenrith, and plunge myself into
+this dreadful difficulty?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</span></p>
+
+<p>"My dear, say rather, 'How could I let myself fall in love with a man
+whom it is utterly impossible I should marry?'—that would be more to
+the purpose. But it is too late now: there is no use in retrospection!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not many minutes before they heard the dining-room doors open.
+Lady Blanche rushed into the breakfast-room adjoining, and in two
+seconds Lord Glenrith followed her. He saw something unusual had
+occurred, and he felt uneasy, but his mind never glanced towards what
+awaited him. "Well, Blanche, what in the world have you to say to
+me?" and he seated himself on the sofa by her side. "How glad I am we
+are once more quietly here, and no longer surrounded by simpering,
+quizzing acquaintances!" And there seemed a considerable danger of his
+attempting to put his arm round her waist. If he did meditate such a
+thing, his intentions were by no means carried into effect, for she
+started up to take her reticule off the table, and re-seated herself at
+the opposite side of the fireplace in an arm-chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Glenrith," she said, "I have something upon my mind which has
+made me very miserable of late."</p>
+
+<p>"Miserable!—you miserable, and I not know it! What can I do, dearest
+Blanche? You know I would go through fire and water to serve you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not speak so kindly to me,—you make what I have to say more
+painful, more difficult. I deserve nothing from you but hatred and
+contempt."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you talking about? Are you in your right senses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely, I believe; for any other woman would think herself the
+happiest and most fortunate of creatures in marrying you; and if I was
+to do so, I should be both wicked and wretched!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not marry me, Blanche!—you are dreaming. What can all this mean? It
+is very unpleasant, though you cannot mean what you are now saying."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do mean what I say; and you cannot know how much I have
+suffered in coming to this conclusion."</p>
+
+<p>"This is strange—this is unaccountable!" and he passed his hands over
+his eyes, as if to make sure he was awake. "Have I done anything to
+change your opinion of me? I am not aware of having been wanting in any
+way—and I am<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</span> sure, Blanche, I have loved you truly and sincerely."
+A tear glistened in his eye. "Tell me what I have done, and I will
+correct my fault. You are only saying this to try me; and if so, let
+me tell you that it is a very foolish jest, and one entirely unworthy
+of you." The colour mounted into his face, and he looked for a moment
+extremely angry.</p>
+
+<p>"No! Lord Glenrith, this is no jest! I am in sober, serious, most
+sad earnest. Your conduct towards me has been from the beginning ten
+thousand times better than I deserved; but I should be treating you
+shamefully if I were to marry you when my heart—is another's."</p>
+
+<p>"Your heart another's! Did you say so? Your heart another's! Then why,
+on earth, did you accept me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well may you ask that question, and well may I blush to answer it! I
+thought my affection was unrequited, and I esteemed you. My parents
+thought more highly of you than of any one. I believed I should soon
+prefer you to the one person I had loved, as much as I already did to
+all common acquaintances; and it was not till I found my affection was
+not unrequited, that I became aware of the depth and strength of my own
+attachment. I have been miserable ever since, and all I can now do is
+to tell you the honest truth."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Glenrith sat with his eyes fixed on the ground. "This is a
+cruel blow!" he said at last; "I have not deserved this from you,
+Lady Blanche. And who is the favoured object? By heaven, it must be
+De Molton! I remember his countenance at dinner the day he was at
+Cransley—how pale he looked, and how continually he strove to catch
+a view of you by the épergne; and every time he met my eye, he looked
+in another direction! I am born to be made a fool of—to be deceived
+by the friend I have loved from childhood, and by the woman to whom I
+would fain have devoted all the rest of my existence!" He hid his face
+in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Blame me, Lord Glenrith, for I deserve your reproaches; but your
+friend has never deceived you: Captain De Molton has always considered
+you more than himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is De Molton! These are the actions dictated by his high-flown
+notions of honour! A plain, matter-of-fact man would never have proved
+such a shabby fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain De Molton shabby!" The word "shabby" sounded strangely on her
+ear when coupled with the name of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</span> De Molton. She would have answered
+Lord Glenrith angrily, if the consciousness of how deeply she had
+wronged him had not checked her speech; but she could rather have
+forgiven his calling her lover a black-hearted villain, than a "shabby
+fellow."—"Lord Glenrith," she repeated, "you wrong your friend. He
+carefully concealed from me his feelings till—till——"</p>
+
+<p>"Till you had promised to marry me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Till he fancied the avowal of them could not endanger your happiness,
+or, as he imagined, mine. When he took leave of me at Cransley, he
+showed some emotion, which caused him to reproach himself for betraying
+feelings he had long concealed. Then first I learned he did experience
+any feelings which he wished to conceal, and this discovery produced a
+revolution in my mind which appalled me. I strove to blind myself as to
+the nature of my sentiments, I strove to conquer them,—in vain; and
+now, what can I do, but throw myself on your mercy, and implore you
+to forgive me for having ever accepted the devotion of an honest man,
+whose affection I could not requite as it deserved!" She held out her
+hand to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Blanche! you break my heart!" and he kissed the hand which she did
+not withdraw: she felt a tear fall upon it. Her very soul seemed to
+melt towards the kind being to whom she was giving so much pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Believe me, Lord Glenrith, when I tell you, that every sentiment of
+esteem, respect, and gratitude—every sentiment which my reason can
+command, is yours; and that I esteem and respect you too highly to
+wish you married to a wife who cannot give you her whole heart. In a
+short time you will forget a person who has caused you nothing but
+disappointment and annoyance; and you will find many, many girls who
+will esteem themselves fortunate in being allowed to devote to you
+their first affections. You will soon rejoice in the liberty I now
+restore to you. While I have nothing in store for me but contempt
+and ridicule, you will find, with some one far superior to me in all
+respects, happiness, which I must not hope for."</p>
+
+<p>"Never, Blanche, never!—I shall never marry!" And Lord Glenrith
+conscientiously believed what he uttered.</p>
+
+<p>"Before we part, tell me that you forgive Captain De<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</span> Molton, and that
+you believe me when I assure you, that he never intended to interfere
+with your interests."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I do believe you, and I will try to forgive De Molton."</p>
+
+<p>Everything was said. Blanche felt that their return to the drawing-room
+was very awkward, but there was no other course to pursue. She led the
+way to the door—there was nothing left for Lord Glenrith but to follow
+after. He felt that something of ridicule always attached itself to his
+position; but at the same time he felt injured, and he tried to put a
+certain resolute and dignified air into his walk. He looked flushed and
+heated, his eye glanced suspiciously and uneasily from side to side,
+but he attempted to assume an unembarrassed deportment.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The smile that on thy lips erewhile</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So kindly wont to play—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That could each idle care beguile</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of Love's first golden day,—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now, when lone Fancy rules the hour,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">At evening's lingering close,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Comes o'er my soul with mightier power,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To soothe my real woes.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lord</span> and Lady Falkingham were seated, one on each side of the
+fireplace, awaiting the result of the conference which was taking place
+in the apartment within. They had been pathetically lamenting the
+folly with which Blanche was resolved to throw away the most desirable
+establishment in the world; and they had been indulging in unpleasant
+anticipations of what the world would say when it was known that a
+daughter of theirs was an avowed jilt. The door of the breakfast-room
+opened, and Blanche entered: Lord Glenrith followed close behind. Lady
+Falkingham perceived, at a glance, that the unacknowledged hope, which
+she had still cherished, of Lord Glenrith's eloquence prevailing at the
+last, was doomed to annihilation!</p>
+
+<p>During their absence the tea had been brought in, and the urn was
+smoking and boiling upon the table. Lady Blanche<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</span> sat down before it,
+and rejoiced in her mother's old-fashioned fancy for having the tea
+made in the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham and her daughter took the earliest opportunity of
+retiring for the night. Lord Glenrith lighted their candles, and opened
+the door for them. As they passed, Lady Falkingham pressed his hand
+with an expressive look of sorrow and of regret. Lady Blanche held out
+hers, and uttered in a low voice,—"We part friends!" He took her hand,
+and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>When the door was closed, Lord Falkingham addressed him:—</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, Glenrith, you have had a very unpleasant conversation
+with my daughter. I need not tell you how much my wife and myself
+regret the foolish fancy the girl has taken into her head. But what can
+we do? We cannot, in justice to you, urge her to fulfil her engagement."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be the last man to wish Lady Blanche's affections to be
+controlled; and I hope I know sufficiently what is due to myself, not
+to wish any woman to be forced into a marriage with me."</p>
+
+<p>After a few more words of regret and kindness on the part of Lord
+Falkingham, they also parted for the night.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning all the jewels and trinkets which he had presented
+to Blanche were restored to him, and before the family were assembled
+round the breakfast-table he was several miles on his road to Wentnor
+Castle.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Glenrith felt his disappointment keenly, for he loved Blanche.
+He felt his mortification keenly; for although not vain (if by vanity
+we understand a desire to show off in the eyes of others), still he
+entertained no mean opinion of himself. He had never in his life
+before met with anything but success. He had been accustomed to the
+admiring affection of his parents, the devotion of his dependants, the
+good-fellowship of his equals, the attention of his inferiors; and
+he had been early warned by his mother to be guarded in his manner
+towards young ladies, lest he should excite hopes which he could not
+realise—hopes which he found them, generally speaking, only too ready
+to entertain. Astonishment, therefore, almost equalled the other
+emotions to which we have alluded. He turned and turned in his head how
+he should break to his parents the result of the preceding evening's<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</span>
+conversation, and he felt that he equally dreaded their pity, and their
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees, as he got farther from Temple Loseley and nearer to Wentnor
+Castle, he found his love and his grief diminish, and his mortification
+and disappointment increase, till, by the time he reached the lodge, he
+thought he could have endured the latter, provided the publicity of his
+engagement had not exposed him, while writhing under the former, to the
+pity, the stare, and the jest, of great and small, rich and poor, old
+and young.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche's first sensation, upon retiring to her room, was that of
+relief and freedom. She felt as though a weight of guilt and deceit
+was removed from her bosom, and she resolved she would now indulge
+herself in thinking of De Molton as much as she pleased. But the
+mortified expression of Lord Glenrith's countenance would rise up to
+her mind's eye; and she found herself more occupied with him, and less
+with the image of De Molton, than at any other moment since their
+meeting at Cransley. She scarcely knew, whether satisfaction at having
+now done that which was decidedly honest, sincere, and unworldly, or
+self-reproach for having so wronged Lord Glenrith by ever entering into
+an engagement with him, ought to preponderate,—and, upon the whole,
+she found herself less happy than she expected.</p>
+
+<p>The ensuing weeks passed drearily enough. Lady Falkingham was under
+the necessity of announcing to her friends and relations that her
+daughter's marriage was broken off; an occupation which did not raise
+her spirits, or smooth her temper. Of course the true reason could not
+be openly divulged, or all hope must be relinquished of Blanche's ever
+forming any other alliance. It is strange, but it is an undoubted fact,
+that a girl loses half her attraction if her maiden affections are
+supposed to have been in any degree touched; while there is a peculiar
+charm attached to the idea of a widow, although it may be presumed she
+has known what it is to inspire, and to experience, all the emotions
+attendant upon love.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche herself wrote to her sisters; and as she felt that her
+rejection of Lord Glenrith bound her fate in some measure to that of
+Captain De Molton, she made no mystery of the prepossession which
+had rendered her incapable of doing justice to Lord Glenrith's good
+qualities.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</span></p>
+
+<p>She had scarcely despatched these letters, when she read in the
+newspapers the departure of De Molton with his regiment for the
+East Indies. He had sailed the very day of her final interview with
+Lord Glenrith. She experienced a blank sensation nearly allied to
+mortification; forgetting what were the motives which induced him to
+seek safety and repose in another hemisphere.</p>
+
+<p>Still, when she rejected Lord Glenrith, she did not quite anticipate
+that there was to be an end of everything. She had not precisely looked
+forward to sitting down quietly in deep retirement with her father
+and mother, till the arrival of another spring should summon them to
+London, there to be dragged the weary round of insipid entertainments,
+without the hope or the possibility of seeing the only face she wished
+to see. Her home was no longer what it had been. Lord Falkingham's
+vanity was mortified in the daughter of whom he had hitherto been
+exceedingly proud. Lady Falkingham, although not absolutely unkind,
+was cold and reserved, and never encouraged her to speak of feelings,
+which she always treated as a silly, unreasonable, youthful whim.
+On all occasions, the attachments of young people were spoken of in
+a slighting and contemptuous manner, which confirmed Blanche in her
+resolution to prove, that hers was not a passing fancy—but a real,
+sincere, and respectable attachment.</p>
+
+<p>Captain De Molton, after a prosperous voyage, had arrived at Calcutta
+just about the time when the meeting of parliament called Lord
+Falkingham to London; and Blanche with pain and disgust saw the
+bracelets, the trinkets, the jewels, which her various friends had
+given her upon her expected nuptials, packed up to adorn her person
+during the ensuing season. She felt she never could bring herself to
+wear these tokens; for although it had been impossible to return any,
+except those which had been presented by Lord Glenrith's family, it
+seemed to her as if they had all been obtained under false pretences.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton had struggled hard to bring his mind to a state of calm
+acquiescence in his fate. He had tried to accustom himself to the idea
+of Lady Blanche as the wife of Lord Glenrith; he had used all possible
+means to divert his thoughts from his unfortunate passion; he had
+occupied himself during his voyage with studying some of the Eastern
+languages, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</span> learning everything connected with Eastern warfare;
+and although the renown to be gained in India at the expense of health,
+if not of life, falls far short of that gained in an European campaign,
+still he resolved that Fame should now become his mistress.</p>
+
+<p>He had not been more than three weeks at Calcutta, when a letter
+reached him from his mother, which overturned all the good resolutions
+he had formed, and rendered him almost incapable of profiting by the
+opportunities which now offered themselves of perfecting his knowledge
+of Hindostanee or Sanscrit, or of putting in practice the tactics he
+had studied.</p>
+
+<p>His mother informed him that the marriage between Lord Glenrith and
+Lady Blanche de Vaux was suddenly broken off, and that no cause was
+assigned for the event except that the lady "had changed her mind."
+She tried to persuade him that the case was as hopeless as ever
+for himself, and she resisted the temptation of telling him it was
+whispered that a preference for himself was the true cause of the
+rupture. Although she longed to communicate what she knew must give
+him pleasure, even she was aware that it would be weakness and folly
+to keep alive a passion to which no prosperous termination could be
+anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>Her intelligence, however, was sufficient to inspire De Molton with an
+ardent desire to return to England. Lady Blanche was free: honour no
+longer called upon him to avoid her; on the contrary, honour seemed to
+demand that he should now profess his anxiety to devote himself to her
+for life; and he bitterly lamented having so rashly banished himself
+from his native land. Yet, upon his first arrival in India, he could
+not in decency apply for leave of absence. He suffered tortures of
+perplexity, doubt, and anxiety. At one time, he thought he would write
+to Lady Blanche, and regularly make her an offer of himself and of his
+fortunes. Then he shrank from doing so; for what were the fortunes
+he was able to offer her? and, moreover, such a proceeding would be
+assuming that it was for his sake she had broken off her marriage with
+Lord Glenrith,—a conclusion he had in fact no right to draw.</p>
+
+<p>The news contained in his mother's letter was already six months old.
+Before his answer could reach England, another six months must have
+elapsed. What events might not have taken place in that time! Lady
+Blanche would have passed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</span> through another season in London: with her
+beauty, she must have been surrounded by admirers. It was possible,
+nay probable, that his letter might find her married, or on the eve of
+marriage with some one else. How ridiculous then would his conceited
+assumption appear in her eyes! No—he would wait, at all events, for
+further information; at the same time fully resolved to let slip
+no opportunity of returning home, when he might easily judge for
+himself whether an offer on his part would or would not be esteemed
+presumption.—Then again he thought, if for his sake Glenrith had
+indeed been rejected, how cold and how ungrateful must he appear, not
+instantly to avail himself of the chance afforded him.—Fortunately
+for him, his thoughts were necessarily in some measure withdrawn from
+his own annoyances, by his regiment being marched up the country, and
+by being engaged in some slight but animating skirmishes with the
+Pindarries.</p>
+
+<p>The prospect of active service rendered his applying for leave of
+absence absolutely out of the question. All doubt upon that subject
+was thereby set at rest. It also seemed to set at rest the question
+whether he should or should not address Lady Blanche herself:—it was
+impossible to hint at her plighting her troth to him in a foreign land,
+from which he might never return, or of her keeping herself disengaged
+in the hope, at some future indefinite period, of following the drum
+with him from country quarter to country quarter.</p>
+
+<p>He relieved his mind by writing to his mother a full statement of
+his perplexed feelings, and by imploring her, if possible, to convey
+them to Lady Blanche; and having done so, he resolutely bent all his
+energies to the discharge of his professional duties; while his heart
+beat high with the cheering hope of returning to her feet, his name
+coupled with deeds of valour, and illustrated by feats of military
+prowess.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER VIII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The soote season that bud and bloom forth brings</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With greene hath cladde the hyll, and eke the dale;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The nightingall with feathers new she sings,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The turtle to her mate hath told the tale.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Lord Surrey.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> "soote season" had arrived, and the Falkingham family were in
+London. Lady Blanche's heart sank within her at the prospect of the
+wearisome pleasures in which she would be forced to join. She shrank
+also from the idea of being looked upon in the light of a jilt.</p>
+
+<p>Though Lady Falkingham, by her system of education, had not been
+able to subdue the natural warmth of Lady Blanche's feelings, or her
+somewhat head-long indulgence of them, she had succeeded in inspiring
+her with her own horror of being subject to the animadversions or the
+ridicule of the world, and Lady Blanche felt, more keenly than most
+girls, what is considered as a disgrace by all who have been well
+brought up.</p>
+
+<p>She thought that the only mode of redeeming herself in the estimation
+of others was to adopt manners the most reserved; and to justify,
+by her scrupulous fidelity to the object for whom it was now pretty
+generally understood she had rejected Lord Glenrith, the inconsistency
+from which she could not clear herself.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham, whose most ardent wish was to see her daughter
+settled, was in a continual state of vexation at the distant and
+chilling manner with which Blanche received the most common attentions.
+There was truth in the charge her mother brought against her, of being
+on the defensive, even before she was attacked: and though there is
+nothing more attractive than the reserve which springs from innate
+modesty, Lady Falkingham knew full well, that few things more offend
+the self-love of men, and render them proof against the charms a woman
+may really possess, than the reserve which seems to proceed from
+contempt, or from a pre-determination to check their advances.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche would gladly have passed her days in retirement, but her
+parents believed that the only mode of effacing the impression made
+by Captain De Molton was to place her in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</span> the society of others.
+Moreover, to seclude herself entirely from the world, would be a tacit
+acknowledgment of deserving blame. At all the usual places of amusement
+they were consequently seen. But the calm brow of Lady Falkingham had
+acquired a careful and discontented expression; and the bright glances
+and glowing smile of Lady Blanche had given place to a cold and stately
+pensiveness. She danced occasionally, but partners no longer disputed
+the honour of her hand. She sometimes received compliments; nor did she
+dislike them, for as she felt an internal dissatisfaction, she would
+have enjoyed anything which tended to reconcile her to herself; but she
+was so afraid of appearing to enjoy them, that she assumed a disdainful
+manner which effectually prevented any recurrence of what appeared to
+give offence.</p>
+
+<p>With Lady Westhope alone did she find any comfort. To her she opened
+her whole heart—with her she talked over each trifling incident which
+had occurred during their visit to Paris—to her she repeated every
+word De Molton had said—to her she dwelt on his looks, his manner, his
+expression, in their last interview at Cransley. Lady Falkingham little
+guessed that the cold, the discreet, the immaculate Lady Westhope,
+could be a companion so little calculated to lead her daughter to a
+reasonable and worldly view of her own prospects;—Lady Westhope, who,
+unknown to herself, was every day acquiring a more thorough conviction,
+that in mutual affection alone can a married woman expect to find
+happiness. Blanche's conversations with Lady Westhope tended not only
+to keep alive the impression produced at Paris; they also made her feel
+still more pledged to adhere to the attachment which she professed.</p>
+
+<p>It was about the middle of the season when Lord Glenrith arrived in
+London. He and Lady Blanche occasionally met at public places, in large
+and mixed society. Their first meeting was inexpressibly awkward. By
+some untoward accident, they found themselves <i>vis-à-vis</i> of each
+other in a quadrille. Although good breeding might prompt the fourteen
+or eighteen other people in the quadrille to withdraw their eyes from
+the pair who had once been lovers, their attention could not fail to
+be riveted upon them. They were to meet as friends; consequently, they
+bowed when first they caught each other's eye; and both blushed equally
+crimson. The rest of the time,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</span> they advanced and retreated, performed
+their <i>queues de chat</i> and their <i>dos-à-dos</i>, without raising
+their eyes from the floor; but when poor Lord Glenrith was obliged in
+the <i>pastorelle</i> to figure before Lady Blanche as <i>cavalier
+seul</i>, she felt ready to sink into the earth with distress on his
+account as well as on her own. The effect which this position had upon
+Lord Glenrith, and the degree to which his pride and his self-love
+suffered under the gaze of others, may be deduced from the circumstance
+of his having that night resolved he would not long be seen in the
+light of a discarded lover, and of his having the very next day begun
+a series of devoted attentions to the lovely daughter of the Duke
+of L——. Before the London season drew to a close, the magnificent
+<i>trousseau</i> of the future Lady Glenrith was the general subject of
+conversation among young ladies; and the beautiful horses and equipages
+of Lord Glenrith that among young gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the morning when the narrow entrance to St. George's Church
+was crammed with lovely bride's-maids, and weeping, smiling relations;
+and the afternoon, when half the coachmen and footmen in the Park
+appeared with gorgeous favours in their hats; and the evening, when
+little morsels of tinsel ensconced in white satin ribbon were seen
+pinned to the side, or stuck in the button-hole, of all the most
+distinguished personages of both sexes.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche and her affairs were utterly forgotten, and she heard on all
+sides descriptions of the loveliness of the bride and the happiness of
+the bridegroom.</p>
+
+<p>In sober earnest, Blanche rejoiced that her anticipations with regard
+to Lord Glenrith had been so soon realised; and if she could have
+seen De Molton—if she could have heard him speak,—if she could have
+received any communication from him,—if she could have indulged any
+hope of ever herself knowing the happiness of reciprocal affection, she
+would have utterly despised the frivolous grandeurs which excited such
+a sensation in the London world.</p>
+
+<p>But with her all seemed a blank. She had wished her story should be
+forgotten,—and it was forgotten. No one seemed to remember that she
+might have been in Lady Mary L.'s situation. She wished people to be
+aware that, though she had jilted Lord Glenrith, she was no flirt;—and
+she had succeeded! No one attempted to make love to her.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</span></p>
+
+<p>She was sitting with Lady Westhope, when Mr. Wroxholme, who had also
+been paying a morning visit, took his leave. "I have just heard what
+is to me a very melancholy piece of intelligence," said Lady Blanche.
+"Mr. Wroxholme tells me Parliament will sit three weeks longer. I feel
+so weary and so jaded with the joyless entertainments to which mamma
+thinks it her duty to take me! She fancies I may thus forget; but she
+is mistaken. My thoughts only recur the oftener to him from whom she
+hopes to wean them. I think, when among a number of indifferent people,
+one feels the want of the person with whom one would fain interchange
+thoughts and feelings, even more acutely than in the retirement of
+one's own home."</p>
+
+<p>"That is only too true," answered Lady Westhope, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"This is to be alone—this, this is solitude."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"I like Mr. Wroxholme," rejoined Lady Blanche. "He looks as if he could
+understand one. I always feel at my ease with him."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you you would like him! For my part I think he is quite an
+acquisition. I know no one who is <i>d'un plus doux commerce</i>. He
+has so much tact, and he is particularly obliging! One has but to
+express before him a wish for anything, and one is sure to find one's
+wish gratified."</p>
+
+<p>"And then he has another great merit in my eyes: he cannot endure Mr.
+Stapleford."</p>
+
+<p>"And I know of one more merit still," added Lady Westhope with a
+smile—"he likes Captain De Molton. They were school-fellows, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wroxholme had been always interested for Lady Blanche and her
+lover, and, with the tact for which he was supposed to be remarkable,
+had from the first read her feelings. When her marriage had been broken
+off, Lady Westhope had not scrupled to speak confidentially to a person
+who had shown so much sympathy and kindness concerning her friend. Mr.
+Wroxholme had warmly approved of Lady Blanche's disinterestedness, and,
+naturally enough, had spoken his sentiments on the subject of worldly
+marriages.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to consider congeniality of tempers, tastes, and opinions,
+as the only objects to be sought in such a connexion;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</span> and there was
+something to Lady Westhope's feelings singularly soothing and agreeable
+in hearing such sentiments so warmly expressed, especially as her
+strict notions of propriety could not take the alarm at a disprejudiced
+observer merely giving an opinion upon the affairs of a third person.</p>
+
+<p>All he said breathed a tone of high respect for the sex in general—a
+generous horror of seeing a woman thrown away upon a man who was not
+worthy of her, or who did not sufficiently value her, which could not
+fail to be gratifying to a person who felt such to be her own case.</p>
+
+<p>The indignation he felt at Lord Westhope's neglect of his wife, and
+the pleasure she took in finding herself appreciated, might gradually
+and unconsciously have led them both to entertain sentiments for which
+both would have reproached themselves, had nothing occurred to arouse
+them to a sense of their danger. An incident did however occur, which,
+though trifling in itself, served to open the eyes of one who had no
+wish to keep them wilfully closed.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER IX.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gentil parlar, in cui chiaro refulse</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Con somma cortesia, somma onestate;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fior di virtù; fontana di beltate;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ch' ogni basso pensier del cor m'avulse.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Petrarca.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lady Westhope's</span> praises of Mr. Wroxholme, and her intimation of his
+early intimacy with Captain De Molton, led Lady Blanche to talk to him
+with more satisfaction than to any one else. When in conversation with
+him, her countenance resumed some of its former animation; and they
+frequently met, and always met with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Mr. Wroxholme had been recounting to Lady Blanche some
+boyish prank at school, in which he had contrived to let her know that
+De Molton had been engaged; she had been listening with an expression
+of amusement, which had been succeeded by a look, half confusion, half
+tenderness, on the incidental mention of De Molton's name, when Mr.
+Stapleford remarked to Lady Westhope, "I think the conversation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</span> in
+that recess seems to justify the report I heard yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"What report?" inquired Lady Westhope.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that Wroxholme might succeed in consoling Lady Blanche for the
+loss of her penniless, as well as of her wealthy, lover."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what an idea!" exclaimed Lady Westhope.</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you the report is very general, and I think there can be no
+doubt but that Wroxholme is very much in love."</p>
+
+<p>"There never was so unfounded a notion! What could put it into
+anybody's head?"</p>
+
+<p>"Though no blue-stocking, I presume Lady Westhope knows enough of
+optics to be aware that the rays of light reflected from objects
+actually before us, passing through the different lenses of the eye,
+are impressed upon the retina, and are, by some process beyond the
+comprehension of us poor mortals, thence communicated to the brain: in
+plain English, Lady Westhope has heard the old adage, that seeing is
+believing."</p>
+
+<p>His eyes, when he began to speak, were fixed upon Lady Blanche, who was
+diligently picking to pieces the bouquet she held in her hand; (Mr.
+Wroxholme was telling her what a good-hearted fellow Frank De Molton
+was at school, and how kind he had been to a poor boy who had been run
+over by a cart;) but as he finished his sentence, he withdrew his most
+penetrating and disagreeable eyes from the couple, whose feelings he,
+for once, misinterpreted, and let them fall gently and fixedly on Lady
+Westhope.</p>
+
+<p>"I can assure you, you are perfectly mistaken in this instance," Lady
+Westhope replied with some quickness. "Lady Blanche is only likely to
+be perseveringly, foolishly, constant; and as to Mr. Wroxholme's being
+in love with her, it is quite out of the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Why out of the question?" asked Mr. Stapleford, with the most
+provoking matter-of-fact coolness.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope did not very well know why it was so; but she answered—</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he is not the sort of man to fall in love with Blanche."</p>
+
+<p>"He is an odd sort of man, then, if it is out of the question for him
+to fall in love with one of the handsomest girls in London, who plucks
+off every leaf of a beautiful camellia<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</span> while he is talking to her! A
+prepossession in another quarter might steel a man's heart even against
+such attractions as those I have alluded to; and I have no doubt Lady
+Westhope is better versed in the mysterious workings of the human
+heart than I can pretend to be. I must bow therefore to her superior
+knowledge of the state of Mr. Wroxholme's affections;"—and, with a
+supercilious bow, he joined a knot of politicians.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope felt prodigiously annoyed. She could not tell why she
+disliked so much to hear that Mr. Wroxholme was in love with Lady
+Blanche. There was no harm in it if he was. She looked upon him as a
+man with whom a woman might be very happy; and, although not rich, he
+had a competency. Why was she so certain he entertained no particular
+preference for her friend? and why did she feel aggrieved at the
+suspicion? It could not be that, at her age, after having passed
+unscathed through all the trials of her youth, her own heart was in any
+danger? What a humiliating, what a degrading surmise! She felt almost
+ashamed of suspecting herself of such a weakness; one that she would
+always have thought criminal, but that now would be ridiculous as well
+as criminal. It was evident, however, that Mr. Stapleford did suspect
+her of harbouring so ridiculous a prepossession, and she scrutinized
+her own feelings with resolute accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>The truth was, that she had been accustomed for some months to feel
+herself the first object with Mr. Wroxholme; and although no words ever
+passed which expressed, or implied, that such might be the case, it
+was that consciousness which made her find his society so agreeable.
+She had felt so secure that she was past the age when she need guard
+her heart from tender impressions, that she had relaxed in her former
+watchfulness; she had felt so strong in her virtue, that she had
+not taken heed lest she might fall; and it was with a sense of deep
+humiliation and self-abasement that she awoke to a conviction of her
+weakness. She thenceforth resolved to keep strict watch and ward over
+her inward feelings, as well as over her outward actions.</p>
+
+<p>These resolutions were more easily taken than carried into effect: she
+had no right to assume coldness towards a person who had never given
+her the slightest cause of offence, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</span> had never presumed upon the
+intimate footing to which he had been admitted in the house.</p>
+
+<p>How difficult is it, with the very best intentions, for a woman
+who lives in the world to steer entirely clear of suspicion, or
+misinterpretation, unless there exists between her and her husband a
+frank and cordial understanding! If, with all her knowledge of the
+world, Lady Westhope did not find it easy to shape her conduct so as
+to be discreet without prudery, and cool without unkindness, it is not
+surprising that the inexperienced should, without really deserving it,
+occasionally lay themselves open to blame.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of love is one which young ladies are not allowed to
+discuss; at least, not with their elders. But how much have parents
+to answer for, who, by their avoidance of the subject, leave the
+responsibility of forming their daughters' minds on a point of such
+vital importance, to the man whom they may chance to marry! How much
+has the husband to answer for, who, by his neglect, his sternness, or
+his profligate notions, fails to become the guardian of the virtue he
+is bound to protect! Yet, by light conversation, by reporting gossiping
+anecdotes, and witty though immoral jokes, how frequently does he treat
+with levity, and make the subject of mirth and ridicule, errors, nay
+crimes, which hitherto the girlish matron has scarcely ventured to
+contemplate! Is it wonderful that the young mind should sometimes, when
+it fancies it only throws off the shackles of old-fashioned prejudice,
+discard at the same time the restraint of rigid principle? And the
+husband who has thus contaminated the fountain whence the actions flow,
+is surprised and indignant that the purity he once admired should have
+given place to notions more resembling his own! Is it surprising that a
+young creature, whose mind is thus deprived of ballast and of rudder,
+should in the voyage of life fail to steer clear of shoals and hidden
+reefs?</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, Lady Westhope had withstood the first trial,—that of
+being early united to an unprincipled man; and she had now acquired
+knowledge of the world, which enabled her to meet her present
+difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>She debated within herself whether talking to him freely concerning
+marriage, and advising one, who appeared to entertain such exalted
+notions of the happiness to be found in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</span> the wedded state, to enter
+into it himself, might not be a good mode of proving how completely she
+considered herself in the light of a friend, though of a kind friend
+deeply interested in his welfare; but, upon the whole, she decided that
+it was entering upon a dangerous topic. It might be construed into
+the common artifice of coquettes to pique, or to lead to sentimental
+conversation; and if, unknown to himself, he did entertain for her the
+feelings she more than suspected, it might open his eyes to the true
+nature of them, as Mr. Stapleford's insinuations had opened hers.</p>
+
+<p>In her early youth she had made to herself a rule never to admit male
+visitors in the morning: but, since she had approached the middle age,
+she had gradually relaxed in the strictness of her prohibition; and
+gentlemen now lounged on her sofas, and whipped their boots before
+her fire, as freely as in any other house in London; and no one more
+frequently than Mr. Wroxholme. These visits, in the first place, she
+resolved to check; but she knew that an explanation was always a thing
+to be most scrupulously avoided. By remaining late in her boudoir,
+and denying herself to all persons equally, on the plea of not being
+dressed; by seizing every opportunity of taking an early drive into the
+country; she for some time succeeded in her object, without wounding
+one whose only fault consisted in regarding her with respectful
+partiality. When he did find her at home, she received him cordially,
+and he was for the moment re-assured that she had not intentionally
+avoided his society. When they met in public, though she spoke to
+him but little, she carefully preserved the tone of friendliness and
+intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>Still, in the long run, gently and gradually as the change was made,
+Mr. Wroxholme perceived that there was a change. He could not but
+become aware that he was less frequently invited to dinner; and when
+invited, that it was to large set parties, and not to the hasty repast
+before the play, the friendly gathering of a few intimates; and he
+could not but be struck with the numerous avocations and engagements
+which so often prevented his finding Lady Westhope at home of a morning.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of time, he became hurt and half angry. He had always
+heard that fine ladies were apt to be capricious, and his pride was
+wounded: he was a gentleman in mind, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</span> manners, and in birth; and his
+spirit rose at the bare suspicion of having been so sported with. He,
+in his turn, avoided Lady Westhope, and this was the severest trial she
+had yet met with.</p>
+
+<p>They still, however, occasionally met; for both parties wished to
+preserve the same demeanour towards the other. Mr. Wroxholme took an
+opportunity of expatiating upon the meanness of those men who could
+condescend to be toad-eaters and hangers-on of the great: "He had no
+notion how any one with the feelings of a gentleman could endure being
+take up, and set down, at pleasure;" and asserted, "that a man who
+could submit to such treatment, amply deserved to meet with it!" There
+was a tone of asperity in his mode of speaking which proved that his
+was not a general observation on men and manners, but that he spoke
+from personal feeling. She was inexpressibly hurt, and she determined
+she would, by some means, let him know she was not one of the heartless
+fine ladies to whom he alluded.</p>
+
+<p>The evening before their departure for the country, she invited a few
+friends to meet at her house; and, among others, Mr. Wroxholme. She had
+formed no distinct plan; and yet she vaguely hoped she should be able
+to undeceive him, and to correct the impression he had so erroneously
+received of her late conduct.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his wounded pride, he could not resist the temptation
+to pass one more evening in her society.</p>
+
+<p>The party was small, the conversation general: subjects of literature
+were discussed; the novels of the day were naturally mentioned. From
+them she easily led the discourse to the French novels of the day that
+is passed, and she took the opportunity of remarking how just were
+the little observations and reflections with which they were often
+interspersed. Mr. Wroxholme added, that in knowledge of the smaller
+workings of the human heart, he thought Madame de Genlis was scarcely
+inferior to Madame de Staël.</p>
+
+<p>"But none of Madame de Genlis's are equal in power to Delphine,"
+replied Lady Westhope.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a great admirer of Delphine?" inquired some one.</p>
+
+<p>"A great admirer of the eloquence and fire with which it is written;
+and if the motto at the beginning is borne in mind, the truth of which
+is forcibly exemplified by the fate of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</span> both the hero and heroine, I
+think a great moral truth may be extracted from it; though I grant that
+the charm thrown around immoral feelings might render it a dangerous
+book for the young."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the motto?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Que l'homme doit braver l'opinion, la femme s'y soumettre.' All
+the miseries of Leonce and Delphine arise from their neither of them
+following the maxim contained in the motto. How fortunate it is for
+us women, that the opinion of the world, and virtue, always prescribe
+the same line of conduct! There are many occasions in which it is
+praise-worthy, nay, admirable, in a man to risk the censure of his
+fellows; many in which he may act ill without risking it. But with us
+it is quite different: it is seldom that we incur the condemnation of
+our own consciences, or the disapprobation of others, if we avoid not
+only what is really wrong, but that which may bear the semblance of
+wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," interrupted a young man present, "I think it is enough for man,
+or woman, to do what is right, and to leave appearances to take care of
+themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad it is a man, not a woman, who says so," resumed Lady
+Westhope, smiling. "I am always grieved and alarmed when I hear a woman
+speak with contempt of the opinion of the world: it argues in her
+neither good feeling, cleverness, nor true courage. True courage (in
+woman) consists in at once giving up what may be agreeable and innocent
+in itself, rather than risk having one's good name called in question."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wroxholme had listened with interest, for his attention had been
+arrested by the earnestness with which Lady Westhope spoke. He suddenly
+understood all that had previously puzzled him in her conduct. He
+admired and respected her; and his wounded pride, his offended vanity,
+were soothed.</p>
+
+<p>When she bade him adieu, she expressed a hope that he would join
+their Christmas party at Cransley; she did not invite him for
+partridge-shooting in September, as she had done the previous year. He
+felt that she meant to be kind, yet firm; and although the intervening
+six months appeared to him immeasurably long in perspective, he had too
+much principle himself to blame her, or to repine.</p>
+
+<p>There was a cordiality in the respectful devotion with which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</span> Mr.
+Wroxholme took his leave, which convinced Lady Westhope that he no
+longer looked upon her as a capricious fine lady, but as a woman of
+rigid, uncompromising virtue.</p>
+
+<p>She felt, however, lowered in her own estimation when she could not
+disguise from herself how great an effort it cost her to exercise this
+same virtue; and she was indignant, almost disgusted, with herself
+when she found her home cheerless, and her time unoccupied, upon her
+arrival in the country. This very feeling roused her to shake off the
+disgraceful weakness; and she resumed her wonted employments, and
+strove to make to herself new ones.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER X.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And words of small import, but tinged with gall,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Jar on the sense by their unkindly tone.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The morning greeting may sound harsh withal,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The evening benison a curse may own;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While oft a smile—a kindly look alone—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Born of compunction, falls right soothingly</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the sick heart, the past offence t' atone,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ere word be spoke at all. As violets shy,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By their sweet breath betray where they are lurking nigh.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> events of the last few weeks in London had also awakened Mr.
+Wroxholme to the state of his own affections; and he no sooner admitted
+to himself that he had been in danger of liking Lady Westhope too
+well, than he rejoiced in the prudence and discretion with which she
+had checked his growing preference, and felt grateful that he had been
+preserved from the danger which beset him.</p>
+
+<p>During the period when London is nearly deserted, and that the few who
+are still detained in its dreary and dirty streets are naturally drawn
+into habits of closer intimacy, he was much thrown with the daughter of
+an eminent lawyer, with whom he often had professional intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>He fancied a considerable resemblance to Lady Westhope's in the profile
+of her nose: her complexion was of the same tone; and he perceived a
+decided likeness in the setting on of the head.</p>
+
+<p>When Christmas arrived Mr. Wroxholme wrote an excuse to the Westhopes,
+informing them that he was on the eve of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</span> marriage with the daughter of
+Sir H. B——, and that the arrangements attending this happy event must
+detain him in London. He told Lady Westhope that his future bride bore
+a strong resemblance to herself in outward appearance, and that he only
+hoped she might take her as a pattern in more essential qualifications.</p>
+
+<p>How did Lady Westhope feel upon the reception of this letter? She felt
+exceedingly surprised, for experience only can teach woman how short a
+time love can survive hope in the heart of man; but she felt satisfied,
+nay relieved. She had for six months devoted herself to the performance
+of her duties,—she had repelled every weak emotion. She rejoiced that
+Mr. Wroxholme should be happy, she rejoiced that she would no longer be
+called upon to keep strict watch and ward over her own heart, and she
+was gratified by the manner in which he spoke of herself. The likeness
+which he professed to discover in Miss B. was a balm to her vanity, and
+prevented its obscuring her reason. She was therefore able to rejoice,
+as her principles pointed out she ought to do, that they had escaped
+all further trial.</p>
+
+<p>While Lady Westhope was thus regaining tranquillity and self-esteem,
+Blanche toiled through a long summer of very fine weather and the usual
+country occupations,—through a long autumn and its shooting-parties.
+She had to listen to the number of head of game killed at battues,
+or to the merits of the young hounds or of the new huntsman; and she
+conscientiously danced through the winter balls at the county town.</p>
+
+<p>In some respects she gave great satisfaction to the neighbours. No
+one could accuse her of showing the slightest preference for the most
+distinguished young heir apparent over the most Tony Lumpkin-like
+son of the most humble country 'squire, or the most penniless young
+curate, who might summon courage to ask Lady Blanche De Vaux to dance.
+Indeed, the more out-of-the-question the partner, the more gracious was
+Blanche; so that the popularity of the house of Falkingham was greatly
+on the increase. Unfortunately there was no son, or his chance of
+being returned for the county would have been considerably augmented:
+Lord Falkingham's family consisted only of daughters, among whom his
+personal property would be divided; while his whole landed estate would
+descend, with the title, to a nephew.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</span></p>
+
+<p>A second spring arrived. To London they went again. The brilliancy of
+Lady Blanche's complexion was gone; her step had lost its elasticity,
+her figure something of its roundness. The last month or two had been
+to her a period of much uneasiness, much mortification.</p>
+
+<p>She had calculated that the intelligence of her marriage having been
+broken off, must have reached De Molton, and by this time she might
+have received from him a passionate expression of his joy and his
+devotion. Day after day elapsed and no letter arrived. It is impossible
+to say whether, suffering the pangs of (as she imagined) unrequited
+affection, she might not have found a remedy, as it were, in the very
+excess of the disease, had not a circumstance occurred which again
+excited hope.</p>
+
+<p>Even in woman, love can seldom exist if completely deprived of aliment,
+though it thrives upon the very smallest portion of sustenance
+imaginable.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche frequently met Lady Cumberworth and her daughters in society:
+the very sight of De Molton's mother caused a tremor and an agitation
+which roused her from the state of apathy into which she had fallen.
+Moreover, she often perceived Lady Cumberworth's eyes fixed upon her
+with a kind and motherly expression; and she even fancied she looked as
+if she longed to speak to her, although they had never been regularly
+introduced. Lady Falkingham watched with a jealous eye every symptom of
+intercourse with Lady Cumberworth; and if they found themselves within
+speaking distance of De Molton's mother, never failed to move to the
+other side of the room.</p>
+
+<p>One morning Lady Falkingham complained of a cold, and promulgated
+at breakfast that she should not go to Mrs. Baltimore's party that
+evening. Now Mrs. Baltimore was a relation and a particular friend of
+Lady Cumberworth's. Blanche quickly replied, "Oh, do not run any risk
+on my account, dear mamma! You know Lady Westhope can chaperon me."</p>
+
+<p>"Bless me, Blanche!" exclaimed her father; "you, wishing to go out, and
+your mother to stay at home! I am delighted to find young and old are
+resuming their natural characteristics."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Blanche," said Lady Falkingham, "I think you are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</span> the most
+perverse girl I ever knew. Every evening I am obliged to urge you to go
+and dress, to drive you by force to the best parties in London; and the
+one only night I would rather stay at home, you are seized with such a
+fury of dissipation, that you wish to send all over the town to find
+a chaperon! Nothing I dislike so much as that a girl should be hawked
+about, one night with one person, and the next night with another!"</p>
+
+<p>"But surely, mamma, sending to Lady Westhope is not sending all over
+the town; and I was so long with her at Paris, that it is not like
+going out with a stranger."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk to me of Paris, Blanche, if you wish me to be able to eat
+any breakfast; the sample she gave of her chaperonage there, is not
+calculated to make me anxious to entrust you to her again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, my dear, I think it is you who are rather perverse: you often
+find fault with Blanche for wishing to shut herself up, and for not
+exerting herself to recover her spirits, and now you check her when she
+attempts to do what you so often urge. I have some business with Lord
+Westhope this morning, and if I find Lady Westhope at home, I cannot
+see any objection to my asking her to take Blanche to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham could say no more: she could not, before Blanche,
+explain her objections to Mrs. Baltimore's party. She resolved,
+however, to risk a fit of rheumatism, rather than allow her daughter to
+elude her vigilant eye.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham quickly settled the evening arrangements with Lady
+Westhope, and as quickly took his leave, to avoid the formality of a
+wedding visit from Mr. and Mrs. Wroxholme, who had just returned from
+passing their honeymoon in the country.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope was exceedingly surprised to find Mrs. Wroxholme small
+and slender, whereas she herself was tall, and was altogether a fine
+woman rather than a pretty one. She was also surprised to find that
+her mouth was wide, (though her teeth were so bright, and her smile
+so sunny, that no one who spoke to her would be disposed to criticise
+it too severely,) whereas Lady Westhope's was peculiarly small, and
+classical in its form. The setting on of the head was concealed by the
+winter apparel; and Lady Westhope was not sufficiently well acquainted
+with her own profile, to be struck with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</span> any resemblance in Mrs.
+Wroxholme's. She scarcely knew whether or not to be flattered at Mr.
+Wroxholme's having fancied a likeness where so little existed; and yet
+it proved that she had been present to his thoughts, and that he could
+not admire any one without trying to discover in her a resemblance to
+the person he had fixed upon as the type of female perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wroxholme looked the happiest of the happy. Mrs. Wroxholme was
+modest without being awkward, and did not seem to be indisposed towards
+her husband's friend, as is so frequently the case when the husband
+has injudiciously praised, or the woman has a narrow mind or a jealous
+disposition. On the contrary, she seemed disposed to take it upon
+trust, that the person of whom her husband approved must be deserving
+of esteem.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope was much pleased with all she saw of the bride in this
+morning visit; and she was gratified by her evident inclination to
+like, and her desire to be liked. When they were taking leave, she
+took an opportunity of expressing to Mr. Wroxholme, how much she was
+flattered at his having found any resemblance between so charming a
+person as his young wife, and herself. Mr. Wroxholme looked surprised,
+and wholly unconscious to what she could allude; then suddenly
+recollecting himself—"Oh yes, so I did! I thought Emma very like you
+when first I knew her; but I have not been so much struck with the
+likeness of late."</p>
+
+<p>The truth was, that since he had become so exceedingly in love with
+his wife, as he now was, he had utterly forgotten what had at first
+been to him her greatest attraction. With the generality of men, love,
+when once over, leaves not a trace behind. With women, on the contrary,
+a person whom they have once loved, or even one by whom they once
+believed themselves to be sincerely loved, remains to them an object of
+interest, though the sentiment itself may long have ceased to exist.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Westhope felt almost abashed when she replied in an explanatory
+tone—"I should not have had the vanity to make such a remark, if,
+in announcing your marriage, you had not yourself mentioned the
+resemblance."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wroxholme, who caught what was passing, said with such an air of
+honesty, that she was "really distressed at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</span> hearing the comparison
+made," and looked as if she sincerely thought Lady Westhope so much
+handsomer than herself, that Lady Westhope felt gratitude towards the
+wife, mixed with a momentary (it was but a momentary) emotion of pique
+towards the husband.</p>
+
+<p>To Lady Falkingham's infinite annoyance, her cold increased towards
+the evening—she was threatened with the tooth-ache—the night was
+extremely cold; she could not, without openly saying she would not
+trust her daughter out of her sight, insist upon accompanying her to
+Mrs. Baltimore's; neither was her illness such that she could make it a
+pretext for keeping Blanche at home.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Blanche looked unusually animated at dinner, and her father
+rejoiced exultingly to see her dark hazel eyes sparkle once more with
+the rich lustre which was natural to them. Lady Falkingham, on the
+contrary, was suffering, and uncomfortable, both in body and mind.
+Her tone was querulous; and she found it impossible to agree either
+with her husband or daughter upon any subject, whether of literature,
+society, or politics. She felt provoked and oppressed by the
+unaccountable spirits of both father and daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham had been trying to talk his wife into good-humour,
+and, nothing daunted by the ill success which had as yet attended his
+efforts, he proceeded: "I find Mapleton is quite sure of the county if
+he stands next election."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very odd!" said Lady Falkingham: "Mr. Evans told me that Mr.
+Talpoys had eight hundred votes to spare."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! Mapleton himself told me he had more than fifteen hundred to
+spare."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe Mr. Mapleton knows anything at all about the matter.
+He believes what his agents tell him; and they wish him to persist
+in his opposition to Mr. Talpoys, that they may make their own
+perquisites."</p>
+
+<p>"Mapleton must be a great fool if he is so taken in."</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard he was clever," answered Lady Falkingham, with a
+sarcastic smile.</p>
+
+<p>"How pretty the new lamps look!" remarked Lady Blanche, who knew that
+her father had a regard for Mr. Mapleton, and did not like to hear
+him spoken of slightingly. "I think they give a most agreeable, soft
+light,—do not you, mamma?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say I agree with you, my dear. To my mind, they are not near
+so pretty as the old ones."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham, who always felt a vague uneasiness whenever he saw his
+wife look out of spirits, as he amiably termed and thought what others
+might have deemed being out of humour, made another attempt to say
+something agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that pretty cap the handiwork of your new maid, my dear? If it is,
+I think she is likely to suit you."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Lord Falkingham, you mean to be very complimentary, I
+dare say; but it would be infinitely more complimentary if you had
+recognised the old friend you have seen me wear half the winter at
+Temple Loseley."</p>
+
+<p>This was another failure; but he laughed at his own mistake, said he
+evidently was not born to be a milliner, and remarked what a good
+<i>vol-au-vent</i> he was eating.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you like it. I thought it very bad, I must confess, and had
+meant to speak to the cook about it; but I will tell him you approve."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham was provoked at last. He piqued himself upon his taste
+in gastronomy, and did not at all like any one presuming to have a more
+refined palate than his own. Little more was said.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche counted the moments till Lady Westhope called for her, with
+something of the same eagerness she would have done had it been De
+Molton, instead of De Molton's mother, whom she expected to meet.</p>
+
+<p>To her great joy, the first person she saw on entering the room was
+Lady Cumberworth; and she felt, she knew not wherefore, that this
+evening was big with events of the utmost importance.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So, bounding o'er the billows, ride our fleets,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To reach the land that owns the sacred name</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of <i>home</i>; and high among the shrouds brave hearts</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beat towards that home with strong tumultuous joy.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Lady Blanche</span> and Lady Cumberworth were at opposite ends of the room.
+They were not acquainted with each other.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</span> Rubber after rubber
+was played by the elder people; some of the younger won and lost
+considerable sums at <i>écarté</i>. The evening wore away; Blanche's
+high-wrought expectations seemed likely to end in nothing. "After all,"
+she thought, "what did I expect? What was to happen? How foolish I
+have been! Lady Cumberworth does not even turn her head my way." She
+might have seen that a very charming young man was in deep conversation
+with the fourth Miss De Molton; and Lady Cumberworth would not have
+moved an inch, or even looked as if she could ever wish to move, as
+long as this conversation lasted. When the charming young man had,
+however, taken his leave to grace some more splendid assembly with his
+presence, Lady Cumberworth changed her position, and crossed to the
+side of the room where Lady Blanche stood. She was slightly acquainted
+with Lady Westhope, and seated herself by her. Blanche's heart beat
+quick—something would surely occur now.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Lady Cumberworth begged Lady Westhope to introduce her to her
+cousin, Lady Blanche; which common-place ceremony was performed in the
+most common-place manner: but Lady Blanche's eyes were full of tears,
+and she blushed to her very temples. Lady Cumberworth saw that her
+darling son was as truly loved as ever, and, though she knew it would
+be reckoned imprudent, she could not help ardently wishing to let her
+know that De Molton was neither faithless nor indifferent. "After all,"
+thought she, in the good-natured weakness of her heart, "it is evident
+they are both so deeply attached, that they never can be happy if they
+are separated. Lord Falkingham is rich—he has no son; if he chose to
+provide for Lady Blanche, he could make them tolerably comfortable. I
+must give the poor girl pleasure by letting her know what are Frank's
+feelings; and then he will be so very happy if I tell him I have seen
+his Blanche, and that she is constant!" She took the opportunity of
+Lady Westhope's changing her position to draw nearer to Lady Blanche.
+"Now," thought Blanche, "something is coming; Lady Cumberworth looks as
+if she did not wish my cousin to hear."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Cumberworth asked her "if she had been at the last ball at M.
+House." Lady Blanche answered "Yes," and felt disappointed at so
+unmeaning a question.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</span></p>
+
+<p>Lady Cumberworth did not know how to open the subject. "Were you much
+amused?" she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"No! I did not think it was very gay," was Blanche's reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I had a letter from my son in India the other day," continued Lady
+Cumberworth, while Lady Blanche's heart seemed almost to stop its
+pulsations from excess of emotion, "and he tells me the society of
+Calcutta is very dull. He is gone up the country now, on an expedition
+against some native chiefs."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche changed colour, and her eyes turned fearfully and
+inquiringly on Lady Cumberworth, who proceeded:—"He soothes my
+maternal fears by telling me that it is not a service of much danger;
+but he adds, that while there is any active service to be expected, he
+cannot, in honour, follow his own inclination, which would be to return
+to England instantly. He seems very much to regret having gone to India
+at all."</p>
+
+<p>This was enough. Hope again danced in the heart of Lady Blanche; but
+she dared not raise her eyes from the ground; she did not utter—she
+could not think of anything which would not too openly commit her to a
+person who was, in fact, a stranger. But Lady Cumberworth saw enough
+to convince her that Frank's devotion was amply requited, and she
+absolutely loved Lady Blanche. She was a kind, nay, a tender-hearted
+woman. She never could resist doing the thing which she saw wished
+by others, and many a lecture had she received from more sage and
+worldly matrons for allowing her daughters to flirt uselessly, and for
+permitting herself to be completely managed by them upon most subjects.
+Several very imprudent marriages had been in question for the girls,
+and had from her met with little discouragement. Fortunately Lord
+Cumberworth's heart was not so soft, while his head was somewhat harder.</p>
+
+<p>From this time, whenever Lady Blanche and Lady Cumberworth met, a few
+words of cordial recognition passed between them. Lady Falkingham, to
+avoid the necessity of being introduced, was either affectedly engaged
+in earnest conversation with some one else, or statelily reared herself
+to her full height, her eyes looking over, or beyond, Lady Cumberworth.
+The greetings, consequently, became each evening shorter and more
+constrained; but still they were sufficient to keep Blanche's mind
+engaged with the idea of De Molton.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</span></p>
+
+<p>The letter which his mother wrote to him immediately after her
+conversation with Lady Blanche, found him one sultry day lying in his
+bungalow, exhausted both in body and mind. The expedition against the
+Pindarries was over. He had distinguished himself by his eager and
+ardent courage, and his previous study of the history and nature of the
+country had enabled him to be of essential service to his commanding
+officer. The novelty and excitement of this desultory warfare had
+assisted to divert his thoughts from dwelling exclusively on the
+subject of his unfortunate attachment; but that excitement was over.
+The regiment was at present established in bungalows, near the borders
+of the British possessions, and removed to a great distance from any
+European society.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was so oppressively hot, that, except for some hours about
+sunrise, and for a few more in the evening, it was impossible that even
+any military duty could take place.</p>
+
+<p>The intervening space of time was generally passed by the officers
+languidly stretched on mats, and gasping for breath. They were cut
+off from all communication with any of their countrymen, and the
+unhealthiness of the climate had wofully thinned the number of those
+who had originally formed their small society. The few books possessed
+by the party had been read and re-read a hundred times. An occasional
+tiger-hunt before daybreak,—the exhilarating intelligence of a
+crocodile having been seen on the bank of a neighbouring tank,—the
+punishment of some native discovered in one of the thefts, which were
+so often perpetrated and so seldom detected, or the death of another
+comrade,—were the only events which occurred to vary the monotony of
+De Molton's existence.</p>
+
+<p>In the vacuity of such a life, the image of Blanche would rise before
+his mind, more beautiful, more fascinating than ever; and he would pass
+whole hours with his eyes fixed upon the blinds which the natives were
+constantly watering to preserve some freshness in the atmosphere, while
+his thoughts wandered far away from the melancholy and uninteresting
+sights around him, to the festive and brilliant saloons of Paris, or to
+the dimly-lighted stairs of the private-box entrance of Covent-Garden,
+or to the long dinner-table at Cransley, with the épergne and its
+projecting flowers,—or, dearer than all, to the library where he last
+beheld her,—where he caught the expression of her countenance when
+she said, "And do you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</span> then love me?"—to the library where she had
+uttered the few words which had changed the whole tenour of both their
+fates—"Why did you not tell me this sooner?"</p>
+
+<p>He was feasting his memory on these precious recollections; he was
+wondering whether she still remembered him, whether he should ever
+return to England, whether he should find her free from any other
+engagement—whether there was a possibility that she might ever
+become his, or whether he was not flattering and deceiving himself in
+attaching so much importance to these few words;—when he was roused
+from his reveries by the arrival of despatches from Calcutta with
+English letters, and his eyes were greeted by the sight of many a
+well-known handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>It is only those who have been in distant lands, far from all most dear
+to them, who can judge of the mingled emotions of joy and fear with
+which letters from home are received by the exile. The magic contained
+in that word Home!—the thousand tender, delightful, and painful
+feelings that crowd upon the soul! The anxiety with which the letters
+are hastily examined to see that they are not sealed with black,—the
+eagerness with which the one from the person nearest and dearest to
+the heart is selected from all the rest,—the sickening agitation with
+which it is torn open, and the nervous haste with which the eye glances
+to the top of the page to look for the accustomed "All well," and the
+glow of delight with which the comfortable words are hailed!</p>
+
+<p>De Molton seized his mother's letter,—perused the assurances of the
+welfare of his father, his brothers, his sisters, his uncles, his
+aunts, his first cousins, and his second cousins! Nothing could be more
+satisfactory than the report his mother gave of every branch of the
+family, and yet he was not satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>At length came the postscript; and there he found the name he had
+been longing to see. There he found that Blanche was still free and
+unfettered, that Blanche did not enjoy society, that Blanche still
+blushed when she heard his name.</p>
+
+<p>His impatience to return home now exceeded all bounds. Two years had
+elapsed since he left England; there seemed little chance of any war in
+which his services would be useful to his country, or in which he could
+himself acquire fame.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</span></p>
+
+<p>He lost no time in negotiating his exchange into a regiment which was
+shortly to sail for his native land; and towards the end of the third
+spring from the time of his departure, he once more set foot on English
+ground, and hastened to his father's house, with all the trepidation
+and anxiety experienced by any one who arrives at a home from which the
+last intelligence is nearly a year old.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Love mocks all sorrows but his own,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And damps each joy he does not yield.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unpublished Poems.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">De Molton</span> had the happiness of finding no chasm in the dear and
+well-known family circle. He could look round and meet the beaming,
+tearful, tender glance of his doting mother, the gay but kindly smile
+of his father, the affectionate countenances of his sisters; and
+he felt that the joy of reunion almost compensates for the pain of
+separation, when the return is not embittered by the absence of any
+familiar face.</p>
+
+<p>Three years, however, had worked some changes in those around him.
+His mother was thinner, her eyes were dimmer, her nose appeared
+sharper, and she was altogether a smaller person than he had left
+her. His father was fatter, and his head more bald. His elder sister
+had acquired an air which bespoke the spinster of a certain age. His
+youngest sister was wonderfully improved: but it was Charlotte, the
+fourth, in whom he perceived the greatest alteration.</p>
+
+<p>The very charming young man whose conversation Lady Cumberworth had
+been so unwilling to interrupt, had at length made his proposals; and
+Charlotte, whom her brother Frank remembered pale, and thin, and shy,
+and dull, was grown rosy and blooming, with a peculiarly expressive
+countenance, and singularly speaking eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The moment De Molton could draw his mother aside, he questioned her
+concerning Lady Blanche; and from her he learned that the Falkinghams
+were still in London, that Lady Blanche was still unmarried, and that
+she was supposed to have lately refused a most excellent and worthy
+man.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</span></p>
+
+<p>De Molton's heart throbbed with joy which he did not attempt to conceal
+from his mother; but the very hope, to which, in her tenderness, she
+had not been able to resist ministering, alarmed her, now she witnessed
+its excess, and she began to remind her son how impossible it was that
+he should ever marry Lady Blanche, how improbable that the Falkinghams
+should ever consent to such an union, and, even should they not oppose
+it as strenuously as she anticipated, how impossible it was that he
+should by any means muster an income sufficient to provide against
+real, actual poverty.</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Cumberworth's prudential reasonings came too late. Her son had
+made up his mind that honour and gratitude now demanded the same line
+of conduct as that prompted by inclination, and he resolved if, upon
+the first interview which he could obtain with Lady Blanche, he had
+reason to believe he still held the same place in her affections, that
+he would brave all the frowns of fortune, and gladly, gaily, gallantly
+encounter any degree of poverty, provided she were willing to share it
+with him: if she were not willing to do so, she could but refuse him.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did Lady Cumberworth use every argument she might have
+recollected before she imprudently revived the hopes he had been
+attempting to crush. De Molton, when once he had taken a resolution,
+was immovable; and his mother, although frightened at what she had
+assisted to bring about, could not help loving him the better for his
+ardour, and her heart went with him, while she dreaded the reproaches
+of others for having fomented what she ought to have repressed.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton left a card at Lord Falkingham's the day after his arrival.
+On returning from the morning drive, Blanche found it upon the table,
+and she could not entirely check a faint exclamation. Her mother looked
+at her with a stern and reproachful, but melancholy glance, which
+suddenly drove back the colour already mounting to her cheeks. She felt
+ready to faint; but she was ashamed to show such emotion before one
+whose feelings were so little in unison with her own, and by a strong
+effort she mastered herself. She would have given the world had Lady
+Falkingham spoken, even to reproach her. This chilling silence was more
+awful, more subduing, than any words which could be uttered.</p>
+
+<p>She gladly seized the first excuse to retire to her own room,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</span> and
+there to enjoy the delight of finding that her lover was in England,
+safe, and faithful;—for she felt convinced he was faithful. She had
+seen Lady Cumberworth only two days before. He was not then arrived.
+His calling the very day after his return, before he had any printed
+cards (for his name was only written, and, as she thought, written with
+an unsteady hand), spoke volumes to her hopeful heart.</p>
+
+<p>They dined out on that day; and, after their dinner, were to proceed
+to a party at which Blanche thought it possible she might meet the
+Cumberworths, and, consequently, De Molton.</p>
+
+<p>If Lady Blanche's reputation for good manners had depended upon her
+conduct on that memorable day, she would certainly have been reckoned
+the least well-bred young lady who ever sat at "good men's feasts."
+Three times did the master of the house ask her to drink wine before
+she took any notice whatever of his request, and then she answered,
+"Mutton, if you please." The servants were repeatedly obliged to touch
+her sleeve with the silver dishes containing the <i>entrées</i>, before
+they could induce her to turn round; and her next neighbour gave up the
+point of leading her into anything like connected conversation; not,
+however, till he had made many fruitless attempts to do so; for there
+was an animation in her countenance, there was a fire in her eye, and a
+blushing consciousness pervading her whole demeanour, which convinced
+him it was not because she was either dull, or shy, or stupid, that it
+was impossible to excite or to interest her.</p>
+
+<p>It was with infinite vexation that Lady Falkingham remarked all these
+symptoms. Not a word was spoken during their drive from the dinner
+to the party. She knew Blanche's frank nature, and she knew, if once
+the ice was broken, she would speak boldly and strongly all that Lady
+Falkingham least wished to hear.</p>
+
+<p>When they entered the assembly, the room was not full, and Blanche at
+once saw that none of the Cumberworth family were there. Though she
+ardently desired to see De Molton, yet she almost dreaded it. So many
+eyes would be upon her, that she would willingly have postponed the
+long-wished-for moment of meeting.</p>
+
+<p>The rooms began to fill. She fancied a likeness in the hair of this
+man, in the forehead of another: but no; when the crowd allowed her to
+see the rest of the face, it was not De Molton.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</span></p>
+
+<p>At length the door opened wide, and she heard announced in a loud
+voice, "Lady Cumberworth, the Miss De Moltons, and Captain De Molton."</p>
+
+<p>Every thing swam before her eyes: she could scarcely distinguish Lady
+Cumberworth's delicate and fragile, though faded beauty, as she entered
+the apartment followed by three fine handsome girls, all taller and
+larger than their mother. Behind them all, she at length perceived
+the stately figure of De Molton; his face bronzed,—yes, and oldened
+too,—but there was the same look of feeling and of dignity, although
+he seemed to wish to glide unperceived into the room till his eager and
+inquiring glance had ascertained whether his long-loved Lady Blanche
+was present.</p>
+
+<p>Their eyes met, and as instantly fell; but that one glance revealed
+to each that, although so long separated, time had worked no change
+in their feelings. In one second he was by her side—the crowd had
+again closed in—Lady Blanche was seated while most of those around
+were standing, and their meeting was more private than in many a less
+crowded apartment.</p>
+
+<p>But Lady Falkingham was by her daughter's side; both felt her cold
+and searching eyes upon them, and both were unable to utter. Lady
+Falkingham, after a somewhat lofty recognition of De Molton, made nor
+sign nor movement which could encourage him to seat himself; and he
+stood before them, growing every moment more and more shy, and feeling
+himself more inconveniently tall than ever he did before.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche, in a trembling voice, had asked him when he landed, and
+inquired whether his voyage had been prosperous, to which questions
+he had made some indistinct answers; when Lady Falkingham's attention
+being for a moment withdrawn by some one on the other side, he asked
+in a low voice whether he should find Lady Blanche at home the next
+morning? She answered "she hoped so."</p>
+
+<p>"I must see you," he added; "but not here—not thus!" Lady Falkingham
+turned round, and he hurried away, leaving Blanche in a confused state
+of perfect happiness.</p>
+
+<p>He mingled among the crowd, and was soon overpowered with greetings
+from numerous old acquaintances, and friendly congratulations upon his
+safe return; but Lady Blanche was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</span> aware that his eye still turned
+towards her, and that she was still in his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>She was romantic; her heart was formed for love; while, for nearly
+three years, her taste for the romantic, and the warmth of her
+attachment, had been nearly deprived of aliment. Since her last
+definitive conversation with Lord Glenrith, she had had no delicate
+distresses, no interesting persecutions, no occurrences of any kind.
+This very blank had, to a person of her disposition, been a greater
+trial than any more active trial would have been. Perhaps it was one
+which her constancy might not have stood, if her rejection of Lord
+Glenrith had not caused her pride, as well as her feelings, to be
+engaged in preserving an undeviating fidelity to her absent lover. Be
+that as it may, the pleasure of again knowing herself beloved, of again
+meeting eyes which beamed softly upon hers, of being once more engaged
+in all the pleasing agitations of a love-affair, was inexpressibly
+delightful.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, on his part, returned home intoxicated with the rapturous
+conviction that the beautiful, the admired Lady Blanche had for his
+sake rejected many of the best matches in England; that among all the
+temptations of the London world, and in spite of all the opposition
+of her parents, she had enshrined his image in her heart of hearts.
+The result was, that they were both desperately in love; and they both
+wondered how they had endured existence during their long and hopeless
+separation.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, De Molton called at an unusually early hour; but
+Lady Falkingham, as a measure of precaution, had ordered the servants
+to say—'not at home,' and he was refused admittance. He bit his lips,
+and retired from the door with a flushed brow, but a more lofty bearing
+even than usual. He returned home to indite a long and passionate
+epistle to Lady Blanche, as passionate as might be expected from a
+man who had loved long, fervently and hopelessly; who felt himself
+presumptuous in offering himself, yet was conscious that his effusions
+would not meet a cold and disdainful eye, but that they were addressed
+to one who fully returned his affection.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time he wrote to Lord Falkingham, giving a true and
+undisguised account of his present situation and of his future
+prospects; both of which were, it must be confessed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</span> as unpromising
+as can well be imagined. Yet, while he honestly detailed his own
+unworthiness to match with such a person as Lady Blanche, there was
+a proud humility pervading every line he wrote, which proved that,
+although on the score of fortune he owned himself her inferior, he felt
+conscious of being an honourable and high-minded man, her equal in
+birth and situation, and one who would not brook being treated with any
+want of consideration or respect.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche received his letter with unalloyed delight. She read over
+and over again the glowing expressions of devotion it contained, and
+resolved that nothing short of the positive commands of both parents
+should prevent her returning such an answer as might reward De Molton
+for all he had suffered on her account.</p>
+
+<p>With his letter in her hand, she hastened to her father's study,
+in order to open the subject to him before her mother had had an
+opportunity of influencing him against her wishes.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa," she said, "I have had a letter!"</p>
+
+<p>"So have I, my dear!" answered Lord Falkingham, who was sitting in his
+leathern arm-chair, one foot on the fender, the other on a bar of the
+grate, with one hand holding the open letter, with the other stroking
+his eye-brows, as he often did when thinking deeply and unpleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, mine is from Captain De Molton," and she coloured a little,—but
+it was only a little; for she was resolved, and not trembling. She knew
+her father was aware of her attachment; and she did not experience the
+confusion attendant on the first confession of a budding preference.</p>
+
+<p>"So is mine," rejoined Lord Falkingham, "and very distressing it
+is. Take it and read it, my dear Blanche, and you will perceive
+that, knowing as I do how completely you return Captain De Molton's
+affection, it is a communication which must exceedingly distress a
+father's feelings!"</p>
+
+<p>Blanche's countenance fell: she seized the letter; she fancied there
+must be some difficulty, some objection on his part, to which he had
+not alluded in his letter to her, and she devoured each line with
+her eyes, dwelling with delight upon the expressions of devotion to
+herself, on the impossibility he had experienced to drive her from his
+mind; she admired the noble pride which pervaded the whole; she fully
+appreciated the candour with which he entered upon the subject of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</span>
+poverty; and quickly glancing over the sums specified as his younger
+brother's fortune, the amount of his pay, &amp;c., as topics in which she
+had no interest, and which were "papa's affair," she returned the
+letter to her father with a pleased and animated countenance. "What
+a beautiful letter, papa! There is nobody the least like him; nobody
+so noble, so true, so constant!" and she clasped her hands earnestly;
+"and I know, papa, you value such qualities a thousand times more than
+riches!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my child, more than riches; but they will not do instead of a
+competency. You have been brought up in luxury, and you are very little
+calculated to make a poor man's wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, papa! you know that Lord Glenrith's splendour did not gratify
+me the least. You know how indifferent I was to the diamonds; that I
+never felt the least wish for his wife's beautiful <i>trousseau</i>,
+which all the world was admiring; nor for the long-tailed roan horses;
+nor for anything of the sort. I could be happy without those things;
+but, papa, I could not—no, I could not live with a husband I did not
+love:" she spoke with strong emotion: "and I never shall love any one
+except Captain De Molton. So, if you forbid me to think of him, you
+may rest assured I shall never marry as long as I live. I have proved
+this is not a girlish fancy. It may be a first love; but it is not the
+contemptible first love of every young lady which you and mamma despise
+so much."</p>
+
+<p>"Would to Heaven it were!" exclaimed Lord Falkingham. "Blanche, you
+make me very unhappy, for I see nothing before you but a choice of
+evils; no happiness, or much unhappiness."</p>
+
+<p>"No, papa! not unhappiness. People cannot be unhappy when they are
+truly attached, and when they are together. And indeed ours is a true
+attachment. It has stood the test of time and of absence. It has
+conquered all difficulties. If it was the passing fancy people can
+be laughed out of, I should have been cured long ago. If I could not
+forget Captain De Molton when I was uncertain whether he remembered
+me or not, shall I forget him now, when I find that, among strangers,
+in foreign lands, in another hemisphere, he has thought of me, and
+me only; when, added to my admiration of his character, I must feel
+gratitude for his constancy?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</span></p>
+
+<p>"This is very perplexing," rejoined Lord Falkingham; "I wish the fellow
+was not so very poor. He is an honest, straightforward gentleman,
+though: he has no humbug about him: he does not try to make the best of
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche smiled through her tears, and looked up at her father with such
+a proud exulting tenderness at hearing him speak in these terms of De
+Molton, that his heart was touched, and, kissing her forehead, he said,
+"Well, my child, I will do my best. If he can get his father to assist
+him, and if we can make up anything like an income——"</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, I despise riches, dear papa; I hate the very name of money."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my love, yes; and so do a great many other people, who want the
+things which cannot be got without money, as much as their neighbours
+do. Well! I will see De Molton; I will talk to him."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Lady Falkingham entered. Blanche felt a little alarmed
+at having first flown to her father in the tumult of her joy; but
+still she was glad her father was not to receive his first impressions
+upon the subject from her mother. Lady Falkingham looked surprised at
+finding father and daughter together, with evident traces of agitation
+visible on both their countenances. Lord Falkingham began:—</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I have just received this letter, and I have been talking to
+Blanche very seriously upon the subject."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Blanche was grateful to her father for so wording his sentence
+that it might almost seem as if he had sent for her; for she now felt
+that Lady Falkingham might be hurt, and perhaps with some reason, at
+her first impulse having brought her to her father, rather than to her
+mother, upon such an occasion. Lord Falkingham dwelt upon the serious
+manner in which he had spoken to his daughter; for he knew his wife
+would disapprove of his having allowed her to hope there was any chance
+of his ultimate approbation.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham took the letter, and after having perused its contents
+with an unmoved countenance, she returned it, merely saying,—</p>
+
+<p>"I think Captain De Molton is as presumptuous a young man as I ever
+heard of. He cannot surely expect that Lady Blanche De Vaux is to
+follow him in the baggage-waggon."</p>
+
+<p>The colour forsook Blanche's cheek, but the next moment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</span> it rushed
+again to her face, and her eyes flashed at hearing De Molton thus
+spoken of. The few words her father had said in approbation of his
+conduct had justified and sanctioned to her own mind her resolution
+to abide by him through all opposition. Her father thought him noble
+in soul, and worthy in character; he found no objection to him but
+the want of contemptible worldly advantages; and she felt it was both
+generous and consistent to persevere in her devotion.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham, having once said he admired the manly candour of
+De Molton's letter, was not disposed to agree with his wife; and
+the severity of her remark made him adopt the side of the lovers
+more decidedly than he might otherwise have done. "Nay, my dear," he
+answered, "there is nothing presumptuous in the manner in which he
+offers himself. He speaks most humbly of his own situation."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the pride that apes humility. The very fact of proposing, is
+presumption in itself."</p>
+
+<p>"It might be, if he did not know that Blanche was in love with him;
+but as he cannot doubt that fact, I must say I think the young man has
+acted very properly in offering himself. We should think him cold and
+calculating if he did otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if a girl throws herself at a man's head, proclaiming
+her attachment to the sound of the trumpet, and making her <i>belle
+passion</i> the talk of the town, it alters the case. I once thought
+it impossible a daughter of mine should ever so degrade herself. But
+Blanche has long been beyond my control."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche was so indignant for De Molton, that, although deeply hurt
+at what her mother said, she was not softened, and did not weep, as
+she would otherwise have done. She had always fancied that if Lady
+Falkingham had known more of De Molton, she would have perceived his
+superiority to the rest of mankind; that, like Lady Westhope, she would
+have admitted that he was formed to captivate the heart of woman, even
+while she condemned the marriage as imprudent: but now that her mother
+had read this touching and manly effusion, this epistle breathing the
+very soul of honour and of loyalty to the lady of his love, she was
+indeed astonished, disappointed, and mortified, at finding her still
+unmoved; and for a time her heart shut itself up from one parent, while
+it opened to the other.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</span></p>
+
+<p>"I think the best thing I can do," resumed Lord Falkingham, "is to have
+some conversation with Lord Cumberworth, and see whether it is possible
+to arrange anything."</p>
+
+<p>"It is utterly impossible Lord Cumberworth can ever make Captain De
+Molton a fit match for Blanche."</p>
+
+<p>"But the girl says she can never marry anybody she does not love, and
+that she can never love anybody except Captain De Molton."</p>
+
+<p>"She has never tried," rejoined Lady Falkingham: "from the moment she
+so foolishly rejected Lord Glenrith she has wilfully fostered her silly
+predilection for this interesting penniless captain, though she has
+seen how miserable her infatuation has made me. If she had not nurtured
+it by every means in her power, it would have died away like other
+young ladies' first loves."</p>
+
+<p>There was a contemptuous expression thrown into these last words, which
+roused all the heroine in Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," she said, "I am very sorry I have made you unhappy; I am very
+sorry to have given my father any uneasiness; but it is not in my power
+to command my feelings. I can tell Captain De Molton that I will never
+marry him without your consent; but I can never cease to love him, nor
+can I ever love another. How can you say I have not tried to please
+you, and to obey you! Did I not accept Lord Glenrith, and have I ever
+ceased to repent having done so? If you command it, I will now refuse
+Captain De Molton; but when I do so, I cannot attempt to conceal from
+him that my affections are wholly his, that they have been his during
+three years of absence, and that they will be his as long as I live."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, my dear, that you will not manage Blanche in this way. The
+truth is, the girl is desperately in love, and we must try to make the
+best of it."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche was glad that her father at length treated her attachment
+with some respect, but she would greatly have preferred the phrase
+'irrevocably attached,' to 'desperately in love.'</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Lord Falkingham, if you encourage your daughter in these
+high-flown notions, there is no use in my interfering, and I must make
+up my mind to seeing her a beggar, and an unhappy beggar; for Blanche
+is not formed to struggle with poverty; she has been accustomed to
+every indulgence;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</span> every wish, every fancy has hitherto been gratified.
+No young lady thinks it more indispensable to be perfectly well
+dressed, no one is more alive to any want of refinement in those with
+whom she lives. I know my own child; she will never be happy in the
+style, and among the associates to whom she wilfully dooms herself."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham wept, but her tears were not all tenderness; some
+anger, some mortification were mixed with the feeling which prompted
+them to flow.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche felt all this, without knowing that she felt it, and was
+somewhat shocked at her own want of filial piety in not being more
+touched by the tears her mother shed over her.</p>
+
+<p>This most unpleasant family colloquy ended by Lord Falkingham's writing
+to Lord Cumberworth to request an interview, and by the mother and
+daughter returning to the drawing-room, with less cordiality between
+them than is usual in modern days, when mothers are oftener over
+indulgent, than over severe.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XIII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Je demeurai étourdie, muette, et confuse; ce qui étiat signe que</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">j'étais charmée.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Marivaux.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Blanche's</span> life had not of late been a happy one, and in addition to the
+natural wish of being united to the object of her love, she experienced
+considerable anxiety to change her present mode of existence; and
+having candidly avowed to her parents that she would not attempt to
+conceal the state of her affections from De Molton, and having received
+from them no prohibition to answer his letter, she retired to her own
+room to indite a suitable reply.</p>
+
+<p>She longed to be alone, and at length to communicate freely with the
+person who had so long been master of her affections. She spread the
+paper before her, she dipped the pen in the ink; and when she had
+thus prepared herself, she found herself totally at a loss what to
+say. She was going to write a love-letter:—how ought she to begin?
+She had written, "Dear Captain De Molton:" she thought it looked very
+common-place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</span> and cold; and she did not know how to proceed. It was
+true they had been long and faithfully attached, but they had seen very
+little of each other. Not more than half a dozen words of love had ever
+passed between them, and those had passed three years before, so that
+there were no habits of intimacy; and now it came to the point, she
+felt inexpressibly shy at the thoughts of confessing her love in words
+addressed to the object of it.</p>
+
+<p>If a man is doubtful of the success of his suit, he should never
+propose by letter. It is very easy to write the kindest, the
+civilest, the prettiest, refusal in the world; whereas a gentle and
+good-natured, or a timid person, finds it always difficult to utter,
+in plain distinct words, to a man's face, "I do not like you; you
+are disagreeable to me." The hesitation produced by the difficulty
+of couching such sentiments in pretty language may be construed into
+encouragement: silence is proverbially consent; and a woman may easily
+become entangled, in cases where the feeling on her part does not
+amount to positive dislike.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche's epistle would, to the eyes of the indifferent, have appeared
+a very stupid, ill-written letter. It was formal at first: as it
+proceeded it almost too plainly expressed the warmth of her attachment;
+she then professed her determination to abide by the decision of her
+parents. In short it was not consistent,—it was not in keeping; but
+De Molton thought it perfect. He perceived ardent feelings struggling
+with maiden modesty and filial obedience, and he thought the eloquence
+displayed in it might render it worthy a place among the effusions of a
+Sappho or an Heloise.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Lord Cumberworth waited upon Lord Falkingham. He did
+not like the idea of the marriage, for he feared he should be expected
+to make some sacrifices for his son's happiness, and he was not a man
+who was fond of making sacrifices. He had, however, an unfailing and
+excellent excuse for never doing anything he disliked, in the number of
+other sons and daughters who had an equal claim upon his parental care
+and tenderness,—a tenderness which consisted in imperturbable good
+humour, and in allowing them all the run of the house.</p>
+
+<p>The two fathers were slightly acquainted; and Lord Cumberworth, seating
+himself with an easy air by the fire, rubbed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</span> his hands several times
+up and down his shins, and at length said with a half smile and a shake
+of the head, "My dear Lord, this is a sad business of my son's and your
+daughter's; I am very sorry for it, upon my soul!"</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham felt that he had more reason to regret it than Lord
+Cumberworth, inasmuch as Blanche would have twelve thousand pounds
+at his death, and De Molton would only come in for the eleventh part
+of fifty thousand pounds at his father's death; inasmuch as Lord
+Falkingham was an earl, and Lord Cumberworth only a baron. He looked a
+little awful, and replied,</p>
+
+<p>"Your Lordship cannot regret the circumstance more than I do."</p>
+
+<p>"I have done my utmost to prevent it; I have told him from his boyhood
+that a man is never undone till he is married. Just before he sailed,
+I said, 'Frank, my boy, remember peril by marriage is the worst peril
+a man can fall into.' But, as they say, every one must buy his own
+experience; and when young people have taken a fancy into their heads,
+we cannot preach them out of it. We cannot put old heads on young
+shoulders, as you have found with your daughter, my Lord."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham did not half like hearing Lord Cumberworth speak as if
+Blanche was as resolute in her predilection as her lover was in his,
+though it might be perfectly true that she was so.</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter places herself in my hands, and has no idea of disobeying
+my commands." Lord Cumberworth slightly elevated his eye-brows, and the
+expression of his countenance did not betoken that he participated in
+Lord Falkingham's reliance on his daughter's submission. "But as I know
+her happiness is deeply concerned in this affair, I am anxious to do
+every thing in my power to forward hers and Captain De Molton's wishes."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Cumberworth's countenance brightened: he did not exactly know how
+strictly Lord Falkingham's property was entailed upon his nephew, and
+he drew his chair nearer to Lord Falkingham, hoping that his son was
+going to make a better match than he had been aware of.</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly what I say; as their happiness is concerned, poor
+young things, parents should strain a point,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</span> rather than see their
+children pine, and pine, as poor Lady Blanche has done."</p>
+
+<p>This was unpleasant to Lord Falkingham's pride and his delicacy: he
+instinctively pushed his chair back as many inches as Lord Cumberworth
+had advanced his. The good-humoured, but unrefined father of De Molton
+was totally unsuspicious that he had at all offended, but on the
+contrary flattered himself he was cleverly pushing his son's interests.
+"After all, what do any of us wish but to see our children happy? I am
+sure there is nothing I would not do that was compatible with my means."</p>
+
+<p>"You are aware," resumed Lord Falkingham, "that my estates are all
+entailed upon my nephew; but my personal property will be equally
+divided among my four daughters, so that I shall be able to leave
+to each twelve thousand pounds at my death. This sum I will give to
+Blanche upon her marriage; and if you will make up Captain De Molton's
+income equal to the interest of her fortune, I will consent to their
+union, although by so doing I believe I am acting the part of a weakly
+indulgent, rather than of a truly kind father."</p>
+
+<p>Lord Cumberworth's countenance fell. He had imagined—he scarcely knew
+what; and although nothing could be more fair than Lord Falkingham's
+proposal, it fell infinitely short of what he had expected, and he
+found himself not only unwilling, but unable, to do what was required
+of him.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton had hitherto lived upon his pay and an additional
+100<i>l.</i> per annum from his father. Lord Cumberworth was very
+little prepared to make such an addition to the 100<i>l.</i> per annum,
+and replied evasively, "that he would do all in his power,—but that
+he had duties towards his other children,—that he could not exactly
+say,—that he would communicate with his man of business,—that his
+daughter Charlotte's marriage, and the expenses attendant upon it,
+did not render him just then very flush of money, &amp;c. &amp;c." In short,
+he took his leave, somewhat disappointed with Lord Falkingham, while
+the impression he left upon Lord Falkingham's mind was by no means a
+favourable one.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Lady Cumberworth, who could not endure to witness the
+state of nervous excitement and agitation in which her darling Frank
+paced the floor of her boudoir, resolved she would herself seek Lady
+Falkingham. She felt sure she could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</span> so work upon her womanly and
+maternal feelings as to win her over to the side of the lovers. She
+accordingly ordered her carriage, and soon after Lord Cumberworth's
+return from his momentous interview with Lord Falkingham, she found
+herself at the same door.</p>
+
+<p>She did not inquire if Lady Falkingham was at home, but sending in her
+card, she desired the servant to take it at once to his lady, and to
+ask if she could see her for a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>By this means she effected her entrance; but Lady Falkingham was
+exceedingly annoyed at what she deemed an unwarrantable intrusion, and
+was disposed to think Lady Cumberworth, who was the most humble and the
+meekest of her sex, a pushing, obtrusive person.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Cumberworth was somewhat abashed when she entered; for although
+she had worked up her courage to take this step by reminding herself
+that Lady Falkingham was universally allowed to be a most exemplary
+mother, and that therefore she must surely understand, and sympathize
+with the maternal feelings of another, she could not quite shake off
+the impression produced by Lady Falkingham's constant avoidance of
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham was alone, and received her with the most awful
+perfection of good-breeding. The gentle, the kind, the unsuspicious
+Lady Cumberworth felt chilled; but she thought of her son's care-worn
+face, and she found resolution to open the subject. "She was sure
+that Lady Falkingham's own tenderness for her daughter would plead
+her excuse for intruding upon her: that her son's peace of mind was
+so completely involved in the event which was then pending, that she
+could not withstand the temptation of seeking Lady Falkingham, and
+of pleading his cause. She was fully aware that her Frank was by no
+means worthy in point of fortune and situation to match with Lady
+Blanche; but that still, in point of character and disposition, he was
+so perfect, so kind—so dutiful a son! so affectionate a brother! so
+excellent in all the relationships of life!—that if personal qualities
+could make up for the absence of worldly advantages, he was not
+unworthy of any good fortune."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham listened with stately politeness, and when Lady
+Cumberworth paused, she answered: "that she had no doubt his mother's
+account of his moral perfections was perfectly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</span> just, but she feared
+these qualities would not provide the conveniences of life. She
+regretted, as much as Lady Cumberworth herself could do, the necessity
+of attending to such paltry considerations; yet, as the world was now
+constituted, it was impossible to disregard them."</p>
+
+<p>"But, dear Lady Falkingham, surely anything is better than that two
+young creatures should die of broken hearts!"</p>
+
+<p>"If young people regulated their feelings, we should not hear of such
+unreasonable proceedings."</p>
+
+<p>"But in youth the feelings are strong, and the reason is not matured.
+We have all been young; we all know——"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly—I also have been young; and therefore I know that in youth,
+as well as in maturity, it is possible to take reason, rather than
+impulse, for our guide."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham had never deviated for a moment, in principle,
+inclination, or practice, from the strictest line of prudence and
+propriety. Lady Cumberworth thought of her own early love, and of its
+tragic ending, and ardently wished to preserve her child, and the
+object of his love, from the blight which had passed over her own young
+days. In the warmth of her feelings she could not help saying: "You
+have been a fortunate woman, Lady Falkingham! If you had known what
+it is to give the whole treasure of your young affections to one only
+object, and to be deprived of that object for ever, you would pause
+before you doomed anything you loved to such a fate! It is hard to bear
+when the deprivation comes from the hand of Heaven; how much more hard
+if from the hand of man!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham did not reply. The deep tone of emotion with which
+Lady Cumberworth spoke, made her unwilling to maintain her own side of
+the argument; neither could she be brought to allow the expediency of
+Blanche's marrying Captain De Molton.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, Blanche accidentally entered the room. She started
+at seeing Lady Cumberworth, but approached her with a glowing,
+blushing countenance. Lady Cumberworth, whose feelings were excited
+by her previous conversation, received her with open arms, embraced
+her tenderly, and burst into tears. Blanche, surprised, delighted,
+overpowered, returned her caresses with corresponding emotion. Lady
+Falkingham sat by, provoked to see how everything conspired to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</span> bring
+about the dreaded union, and somewhat jealous of her daughter's sudden
+tenderness for a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>The following day a second interview took place between the fathers, in
+which Lord Falkingham ascertained, through a profusion of fine words,
+that Lord Cumberworth either could not, or would not, do anything more
+to assist his son in making up an income; and Lord Falkingham thought
+it his duty to inform his daughter, that she must in good earnest exert
+herself to conquer her attachment,—that the marriage was impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Falkingham looked triumphant. Lady Blanche gave way to utter
+despair. She wept, she was in hysterics; she would not leave her
+room; she fretted herself really ill; physicians were sent for,
+draughts prescribed. Even Lady Falkingham began to be alarmed, and was
+unremitting in her attentions. But these attentions did not relieve
+or soothe Blanche's perturbed spirit. Her mother had never attempted
+by kindness to win her from her imprudent attachment, and she had
+completely failed in ridiculing her out of it. The consequence was,
+that she had lost all influence over her mind, and much of that which
+she had possessed over her affections.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton of course heard of Blanche's illness. He wandered about the
+neighbouring streets; he inquired twenty times a day at the door; and
+at length, upon hearing that Lady Blanche was considered worse, and
+that a new physician had been called in to a consultation, he sent a
+message to Lord Falkingham, to implore one moment's conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Falkingham was uneasy and confounded at the serious aspect of
+his daughter's illness, and was beginning to think anything was
+preferable to the present state of affairs. De Molton was admitted, and
+a passionate appeal on his part did not meet with an absolute refusal.
+The matter was again renewed; Blanche was allowed to hope—her health
+rallied surprisingly, and in the course of three or four days she was
+able to descend to the drawing-room, and there to receive De Molton as
+her plighted lover, her affianced husband.</p>
+
+<p>And now did they at length enjoy many delightful tête-à-têtes; and so
+fully were they engaged in detailing to each other all the sorrows and
+fears, doubts, anxieties and sufferings of their years of separation,
+that they had little time to talk over, or to arrange their plans for
+the future. They had both been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</span> duly warned what were their prospects.
+Even the tender Lady Cumberworth had told them that they must not
+expect to possess all the blessings of this world; that as they would
+be rich in that which seemed to her the greatest of all earthly ones,
+mutual affection, they must make up their minds to be happy without
+others. Lord Cumberworth repeated, "Remember, Frank, there are twelve
+of you: I cannot rob my other children:"—which meant, "I do not mean
+to give up any of my own comforts for you." Lord Falkingham said
+everything that was reasonable and kind, and at the same time provided
+them with a plain travelling-carriage, with all that is useful and
+necessary in the way of plate, and with as much household linen as
+would be advisable for people who must change their abode as often as
+their regiment changed its quarters. Lady Falkingham, who had been too
+much terrified by Blanche's despair and her illness actively to oppose
+the marriage, contented herself with shaking her head mournfully, and
+with secretly detesting her future son-in-law: but she spared Blanche
+many of the home truths and useful severities, which might have been
+of much service had they been duly attended to, but which, under the
+present circumstances, might have been productive of no good effect.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche and De Molton, however, acquiesced in the truth of all that
+was urged by their other relations and friends, and declared, with
+the utmost sincerity, their contempt for filthy lucre; a contempt
+unconditionally expressed by Blanche, but by De Molton in more measured
+terms, as considering it unworthy to be put into a competition with the
+affections of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after their marriage, they were to repair to a very pretty
+villa belonging to a friend of Lord Cumberworth's; after which they
+were to pay several visits; and towards the autumn they were to join De
+Molton's regiment, which was quartered in one of the most lovely parts
+of Devonshire.</p>
+
+<p>As they had no house of their own, there was no need to procure
+furniture. Lord Falkingham had already provided plate and linen;
+Lady Falkingham of course selected the <i>trousseau</i>; presents
+of all kinds flocked in from the numerous connexions of both
+families,—presents which, as they were known to be poor, were
+all intended to be useful: china ink-stands—Sèvres ornaments for
+chimneypieces—buhl clocks,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</span> and beautiful dressing boxes, with
+cut-glass bottles, mounted in silver gilt!</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could exceed the happiness of the lovers,—nothing could exceed
+their gratitude to their friends for their considerate kindness; and
+Blanche felt how preferable were these tokens of affection, to the
+Glenrith diamonds, which she had received so coldly.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XIV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lordly gallants, tell me this:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though my safe content you weigh not,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In your greatness what one bliss</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Have you gain'd, that I enjoy not?</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You have honours, you have wealth,—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I have peace, and I have health;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All the day I merry make,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And at night no care I take.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">George Wither.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> honeymoon was spent at Sir Frederick Vyneton's villa; whose
+man-cook and whole establishment were devoted to the new-married
+couple, while the good-natured proprietor was making a tour in the Low
+Countries.</p>
+
+<p>When Captain and Lady Blanche De Molton entered the dark-green
+travelling chariot which Lord Falkingham had given them, and drove from
+the portico of Sir Frederick Vyneton's villa, on their way to Cransley
+to pass a fortnight with the Westhopes, Lady Blanche exclaimed, "How
+strange it is that there should exist people who can sell themselves
+for money, or for an establishment! Should we be happier, Frank, if
+we possessed the mines of Golconda, than we are now?" She threw her
+beaming eyes upon him with an expression of joyous tenderness which
+made him indeed feel himself the happiest of men; yet he trembled to
+think how little she knew the details of that poverty with which he was
+already acquainted, although only in the limited degree experienced
+by a single man, whose wants, and consequently whose privations, are
+merely personal.</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest Blanche," he replied, "you know nothing of poverty yet. Repeat
+what you have just said, two years hence, and I shall indeed esteem
+myself the most blessed of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</span> human beings. I hold it a matter of duty
+and of conscience to live within one's means whatever they may be; and
+if, when you really have learned what is the life of a soldier's wife,
+you still say you despise worldly wealth, I shall be happier—yes,
+still happier—than I am at this moment; for I now feel as if you had
+engaged yourself in a fate you are not prepared for. But I have warned
+you, dearest Blanche—I have not won you under false pretences!"</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," replied Blanche, smilingly. "I think I am made for
+a poor man's wife; for nobody can more heartily detest everything
+appertaining to pomp and splendour, and that odious thing called money."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche expected a rapturous glance of gratitude from De Molton, and
+was surprised at hearing him sigh. The truth was, they knew little
+of each other's dispositions when they became irrevocably engaged.
+Blanche was warm, enthusiastic, inconsiderate; she followed her
+impulses, without looking forward beyond the present moment. De
+Molton was not without enthusiasm, but his was of a more thoughtful
+and serious cast. A high notion of honour was in him paramount to all
+other considerations. It enabled him to leave Paris when he found his
+friend was in love with Blanche,—it enabled him to quit England when
+he discovered that she was in love with himself,—it enabled him to
+stay in India while there was any military duty to be performed,—it
+prompted him to throw himself at her feet when he found her still free,
+although by so doing he scarcely hoped for anything but a contemptuous
+refusal on the part of her parents. It now made him resolve that his
+love for his beautiful wife should not lead him into any expenses which
+his limited income could not meet; and that, however painful he might
+find it to see her deprived of the luxuries to which she had been
+accustomed, he would never be tempted to run into debt, or to be a
+burthen upon his father, who was neither able nor willing to assist him.</p>
+
+<p>But when he made this resolution, he did not look forward with unmixed
+pleasure to installing her in the temporary home which he should
+be able to procure for her, near M * * *. She watched the serious
+expression of his countenance; and she admired that expression, though
+she wished at this moment to dispel it;—nor was it long before she
+succeeded in driving away all traces of care from his countenance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</span></p>
+
+<p>Several agreeable visits succeeded that to Cransley; and at last, when
+they approached the neighbourhood of M * * *, he left her for a few
+days at the house of a cousin, while he preceded her to his quarters,
+for the purpose of preparing some comfortable habitation for her
+reception.</p>
+
+<p>He was fortunate enough to find a very pretty cottage, with a veranda
+and a garden, to be let, within a mile of the town. He arranged the
+furniture so as to make it look as little like a lodging-house as
+possible; he unpacked all the presents which had, at a considerable
+expense, been forwarded to M * * *; and before Blanche joined him, he
+had so disposed the buhl clock, the ink-stands, the paper-cutters, the
+letter-pressers, the Persian table-covers, and the low, luxurious,
+well-cushioned arm-chair which Lady Cumberworth insisted should form
+part of the camp equipage, as to give the room a look of home.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton hastened to receive Blanche at the door, and ushered her,
+with more complacency and satisfaction than he had anticipated, through
+the narrow entrance, into the treillaged drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>It was a lovely evening! The flowers had not yet all faded,—the little
+garden was bright in the western sun. The view was enchanting!—rich
+varieties of luxuriant trees clothed the undulating slope to the
+sea-shore, and the clear blue sea, at a little distance, which from
+their elevated situation reflected to their eye the azure of the
+heavens, formed as it were a background to the wooded bank.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche was enchanted. "How lovely, how beautiful! Oh, what are
+castles, halls, abbeys, parks, or palaces, to such a home as this, with
+the person one loves?"</p>
+
+<p>De Molton was indeed happy—too happy for utterance. A tear gathered
+in his eye, which he was almost ashamed should be seen even by his
+wife,—and yet he could not avert his eyes from hers when she looked
+up so tenderly in his face. He gently drew her arm within his own, and
+they walked forth to enjoy in the fulness of their hearts the beauties
+of nature, and the delight of enjoying them together.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to the snow-white table-cloth, the handsome plate, the
+presents of Lord Falkingham; the pretty dinner service, that of Lord
+Cumberworth; the lovely dessert service, that of Lady Cumberworth; the
+cut-glass bottles, that of the eldest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</span> Miss De Molton; the tea-things,
+that of Miss M. De Molton; the breakfast-things, that of Miss J. De
+Molton; the silver urn, that of one of Blanche's married sisters; and
+the silver coffee-pot, that of another; the first four-and-twenty
+hours of Blanche's life as the mistress of her own house, passed in a
+state of rapture and of constant exclamations at the uselessness and
+contemptibility of money.</p>
+
+<p>She forgot that she was all this time enjoying money's worth, and
+that indifference to worldly advantages is not put to the test while
+a person possesses every luxury, every elegance, though on a small
+scale,—at the moment of all others, too, when married lovers wish only
+for the enjoyment of each other's society.</p>
+
+<p>One of the soldiers, who had been trained by De Molton to act as his
+valet, served as footman. His horses were, of course, taken care of in
+the barracks; and as he had a gig, they were able to drive every day
+in different directions, exploring new parts of the delightful country
+around. Blanche's life was a day-dream of delight—her rich hazel
+eyes sparkled with feeling and gaiety—her rosy lips smiled joyously
+whenever De Molton entered the room: to her</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"This earth was all one beautiful dream."</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Still, De Molton felt that Blanche had not steadily and dispassionately
+weighed the advantages and disadvantages of their present situation,
+and that it was not with a thorough knowledge of what she was
+undertaking that she had made choice of poverty with him.</p>
+
+<p>Too much reliance must not be placed on those who, having never had a
+wish ungratified in the way of worldly conveniences, profess to despise
+them. If those who have already experienced privation deliberately
+form a poor marriage, we may conclude that they will know how to abide
+by the selection they have made, and we need not anticipate for them
+mortification and disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, from his early youth, had had many opportunities of seeing
+the real details of a married officer's life; and though, for the sake
+of the woman he loved, he gladly encountered the difficulties which
+he knew awaited him, he was thoroughly aware what they were, and he
+regretted that she should be exposed to them. He almost trembled at her
+exuberant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</span> happiness, knowing that he might not always procure for her
+a pretty cottage orné in the neighbourhood of his barracks, and that
+they should not always be quartered in so cheap a country as Devonshire.</p>
+
+<p>He would rather have seen her more soberly contented; and when she,
+proud as it were of being so happy, looked towards him for applause,
+she was half-mortified at the flatness with which her unworldly
+sentiments were received.</p>
+
+<p>These sentiments were not so frequently expressed as the season
+advanced. The flowers were all gone; the little garden was very damp;
+the veranda kept out the sun, and the windows did not keep out the
+wind; the roof did not always exclude the rain; and black beetles
+abounded on the ground floor, and sometimes a stray one mounted to the
+bed-rooms. The walks were muddy, the drives were windy, the trees had
+lost their foliage, and the chimneys smoked.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, as they left the little dining-room, and entered the small
+drawing-room, they were half-stifled with smoke.—"Oh, dearest Frank!
+make haste and open the window, or we shall be smothered." But the
+window was a French window, and the wind set that way. There was no
+fastening it open so as not to run the risk of breaking it, or letting
+in a perfect hurricane. They agreed to open door, and window, and to
+return to the dining-room till the atmosphere was once more fit for
+respiration.</p>
+
+<p>This desirable result was soon accomplished, as small rooms are
+soon filled with smoke, soon cleared, soon warmed, and soon cooled.
+Accordingly, when they re-entered their snug apartment, they might as
+well have established themselves under the veranda, for any benefit
+they derived from the fire, which was only now beginning to burn. "This
+is the only objection to small rooms!" exclaimed Lady Blanche. "If one
+keeps the doors shut, they become oppressively hot; and if one opens a
+door or a window, they are as cold as if they had never been inhabited."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very true indeed," rejoined De Molton: "shall I fetch you a
+shawl, dearest Blanche?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, dearest Frank, I think it would be comfortable:" and she
+drew her chair close to the fire, and placed her feet upon the fender,
+when a great puff of black smoke turned back from the chimney, as if to
+fly in her face. She quickly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</span> pushed back her chair. "How stupid that
+Devonshire girl is—she always will heap the grate with small coals.
+Surely a housemaid's business is to know how to light a fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is, indeed; but I am afraid a raw Devonshire girl is not likely to
+be an accomplished housemaid." And De Molton hastened out of the room
+to seek his dear Blanche's shawl.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Frank, you must read to me while I work: that will be so
+comfortable! and I have a great deal of work to do. I shall show you
+what a good poor man's wife I am!" She took out of her delicate ivory
+work-box a small cap of tiny dimensions, which she was beginning to
+embroider with the most intricate patterns.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton looked really pleased, and smiled upon her with the gentle
+sentimental smile which had always appeared so bewitching.</p>
+
+<p>The room became warmer, the fire clearer; the shawl was very tenderly
+arranged by De Molton himself; and they sat down to pass a comfortable,
+domestic, and rational evening.</p>
+
+<p>"What book shall I read to you?" inquired De Molton. "Some of your own
+youthful library, which your mother so kindly sent after us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! I know all those books by heart; but you have some of your own
+upon that shelf. I dare say they will be quite new to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say they will, dearest, for they are all upon military tactics,
+engineering, and fortification,—Vauban, Coehorn, and Jomini, &amp;c."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that will never do," rejoined Blanche. "But there are some novels
+from the circulating library at M * * *, which I have not yet looked
+at. I dare say that you will find something to amuse, though it may not
+instruct us."</p>
+
+<p>He turned over the volumes—the usual trash of a country town
+library—Lady Evelinas and Altendorfs, and Cecilias and Mortimers,
+Albertinas and Ildelheims, Eleanoras and Miraldinis, by the dozen. They
+attempted one or two, but could not proceed beyond the first three
+pages.</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest Frank, why would you not subscribe to a London library, as I
+begged you to do? You see these books are not readable."</p>
+
+<p>"The expense of the carriage, dear Blanche, as well as that of the
+original subscription, made me very unwilling to do so.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</span> Moreover, even
+the London libraries do not supply one with very good books, when one
+is at such a distance in the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! we will return these horrors, and you shall see what you can
+procure to-morrow. By the by, do send for the mason, or the bricklayer,
+or whoever the man may be, who does chimneys, and let him try to
+prevent the smoke. Look, again! now we have had fresh coals."</p>
+
+<p>"I will send about it to-morrow; but I am afraid we shall not be able
+to effect much good in a lodging-house."</p>
+
+<p>The next day "the man who did chimneys" came, and he proposed new
+setting the grate, contracting the sides, and altering the flue.
+Blanche said, by all means, if these measures would secure the absence
+of smoke. De Molton inquired what would be the cost of the alteration,
+and found that it would be nearly a third of the house-rent for the
+year. He paused, dismissed the man, and explained to Blanche, that as
+they were to pay her father and mother a visit in the spring, and as
+a great part of the winter was over, and as they would probably be
+quartered in some different part of the world the following winter, it
+would not be wise to spend much money upon this chimney; and he advised
+their sitting in the dining-room when the wind happened to blow from
+the smoky quarter.</p>
+
+<p>To this she assented, but it was with an effort; and she evidently
+did so, to prove that she was indeed the good poor man's wife she had
+professed to be.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Jones, the colonel of the regiment, and his wife, on their
+return from a short absence among their friends, waited upon Lady
+Blanche. As she could not, in this remote corner of the world, enjoy
+the best society, Blanche would much have preferred living in complete
+seclusion. But De Molton, who thought any slackness on their part would
+be a want of attention from an inferior to a superior officer, did not
+allow her to put off the visit of propriety.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was fine, though cold; and they walked to call on Colonel
+and Mrs. Jones, who lived in the town, close to the barracks.</p>
+
+<p>As they entered the door, their noses were assailed by the smell of
+roast mutton and rice pudding; and they were ushered into a dark
+two-windowed country-town drawing-room, with a dirty green paper, and
+a high dado, which had once been painted white; while remarkably smart
+bell-ropes rendered the dinginess of the rest more conspicuous from the
+contrast.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</span></p>
+
+<p>Nine rosy children and the governess were seated at dinner; Mrs. Jones
+officiating as carver, and the head nurse assisting the youngest to
+guide its food safely to its mouth. A smell of pudding and of small
+beer pervaded the apartment, and greatly annoyed Lady Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton introduced her to the Colonel's lady, who, relinquishing the
+carving knife to the governess, retired from the scene of action to the
+sofa with Lady Blanche, and apologised for her children being so late
+at dinner, saying, "The colonel had taken the boys out with him to see
+the itinerant menagerie in the market-place, and had kept them beyond
+their usual dinner-hour; or else," she continued, "I always make it a
+point to be fit to be seen at visiting hours, for when one lives in the
+world, one can never tell who may drop in."</p>
+
+<p>The little Joneses, who, having always lived "in the world," were
+not shy, and were not more awed by the De Moltons than by Mr. and
+Mrs. M'Vining, or Mr. and Mrs. Green, or any of the other misters and
+mistresses who "dropped in," proceeded with their repast somewhat
+noisily: they were healthy, and there were nine of them!</p>
+
+<p>Blanche could hardly hear herself speak, but she was too well-bred to
+be fine; and she contrived to look as if she heard all Mrs. Jones said,
+and as if she was quite accustomed to noisy children and clattering
+plates.</p>
+
+<p>Dinner was over; grace was said in French by the eldest girl; they rose
+simultaneously; and, after being kissed by their mamma, were dismissed
+to have their faces washed, and their brown holland pinafores taken
+off, preparatory to the afternoon walk.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jones was an excellent woman, who was devoted to her domestic
+duties, and she considered the whole proceeding as so completely in the
+common course of things, that she made no apologies; and was so far
+from being distressed or annoyed by the bustle, the ferment, and the
+clatter, that she was scarcely aware a noise had existed, or that when
+the door closed upon the last child a calm succeeded to the storm.</p>
+
+<p>When the De Moltons took their leave, Mrs. Jones good-humouredly
+ran to the top of the stairs and called aloud for John, at the same
+time complaining how troublesome it was that neither of the bells in
+the drawing-room would ring. John was not forthcoming; and a dirty
+housemaid appeared in his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</span> stead, hastily tying a clean apron over
+the very dirty one beneath: she opened the street-door, and Blanche
+squeezed past her into the welcome open air.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, "how can people submit to live in so
+wretched and vulgar a manner! Mrs. Jones is not so dreadful herself,
+but her <i>entourage</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Blanche, Colonel Jones is very poor: and he has nine children."</p>
+
+<p>"But there is no occasion to have things about one so dirty, so untidy,
+so uncomfortable. We are poor, but how different!"</p>
+
+<p>"Our cottage would not contain one ninth of Colonel Jones's children."</p>
+
+<p>"But why have no bell? And why such bell-ropes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor people cannot afford to furnish every temporary lodging-house
+with elegancies."</p>
+
+<p>"But why have all the Master and Miss Joneses dine in one's
+drawing-room?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say all the other rooms are pre-occupied as sleeping apartments
+for said Master and Miss Joneses."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you are resolved to be provoking, and I could beat you for not
+agreeing with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, Blanche, that poverty is not a pretty thing in reality,
+though it sounds pretty in a book."</p>
+
+<p>De Molton looked serious; he could not joke upon the subject. Blanche
+also looked serious, for she thought he was rather over solemn, and she
+firmly resolved she would not be poor after Mrs. Jones's fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche worked very diligently at the little cap; and when she had
+finished the cap, she embroidered the body of a little frock, and
+showed them exultingly to her husband. Still these preparations did not
+go far towards providing the expected scion of the house of De Molton
+with the necessary wardrobe, and Blanche feared she should be obliged
+to procure many articles ready-made in the town.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should not your maid work at them, my dear?" suggested De Molton,
+as he found her considering, and wondering, and calculating what plan
+she had best pursue.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, perhaps she would undertake the caps for me; but she has never
+been used to anything but dress-making. Mamma never expected her to do
+anything else."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</span></p>
+
+<p>"You have been working so much yourself, surely you must have done a
+great deal."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes!—this cap and this body. Look, how beautiful they are!"</p>
+
+<p>Blanche's distresses on this score were however soon relieved by
+learning from Lady Cumberworth that her good-natured sisters-in-law
+had amused themselves by making and providing everything she could
+want, and that a lovely set of baby-linen would meet her at Lord
+Falkingham's, where she was to pass some time previous to her
+confinement, in order that she might be under her mother's eye.</p>
+
+<p>She was not sorry when the time came for leaving the pretty smoky
+cottage. The March winds did not agree with the chimney, and she was
+not well enough to be able to roam among the dells and dingles, the
+shaws and the banks, in search of violets and primroses; and she
+thought it would certainly be more desirable to enact the invalid, with
+all appliances and means to boot, in her father's luxurious mansion,
+than in the windy, smoky, creaking lath and plaster cottage, which
+looked so pretty in the beginning of September.</p>
+
+<p>In London, Blanche would have been perfectly happy with her kind
+father,—her mother who loved her, though not with the usual melting
+tenderness of a mother,—with her husband, who was as handsome and
+interesting in appearance, and if possible more affectionate in his
+attentions than ever,—and with her husband's family doting upon
+her,—if it had not been that Lady Falkingham treated De Molton with a
+shade of superciliousness. She always spoke of her daughter as "poor
+Blanche," wondered to see her look so well after the terrible winter
+she had passed in a house scarcely weather-tight, alluded constantly
+to the great change that had taken place in her situation, and almost
+ridiculed the notion of the Miss Be Moltons having presented her with
+such pretty worked caps and embroidered frocks for the "poor little
+creature" that was expected!</p>
+
+<p>These speeches, although they contained some undeniable truths, were
+extremely galling to De Molton, and very unpleasant to Blanche, for his
+sake, as well as for her own.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche found herself infinitely happier with her husband's family,
+where, instead of being treated as a person who was now to be looked
+down upon by those who were once her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</span> compeers, she was considered the
+most charming of her sex; adored by Lady Cumberworth for having loved
+her son so disinterestedly; made a fuss with by the Miss De Moltons
+because they were good-humoured girls, by nature inclined to like
+rather than dislike any fine, natural, affectionate creature of their
+own age; and very much admired by Lord Cumberworth, who thought she
+was an exceedingly fine woman, and that Frank was a very lucky fellow,
+for the present at least, however the marriage might turn out in the
+long-run.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XV.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There little love or canty cheer can come</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Frae duddy doublets and a pantry toom.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Allan Ramsay.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">As</span> De Molton expected, the quarters of his regiment were changed;
+and soon after Blanche's confinement, he left her to superintend the
+removal of their goods and chattels, and the arrangement of them in
+some other temporary domicile.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the regiment was sent to a small town, built principally
+of red brick, situated in one of the midland counties,—ugly, bare,
+and bleak. There were no pretty cottages with nice gardens in the
+neighbourhood; not even a retired farm house, with a few rooms to be
+let; for the rustic inconveniences and rural inelegancies of a rambling
+farm house are infinitely preferable to the pert vulgarity of a red
+house in a street.</p>
+
+<p>To this last alternative De Molton was most unwillingly reduced, and
+all he could accomplish was the acquisition of one of the few tenements
+to which was affixed a bright light-green balcony, which formed a
+brilliant contrast to the vermilion of the walls; at least, the
+untarnished freshness of the colouring gave promise of new furniture
+and cleanliness within.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to London for his wife and child, and his delight at seeing
+them was somewhat alloyed by finding that, during his absence, Blanche
+and her father had ascertained that Turton was very little out of the
+way to Temple Loseley, and that, consequently, he and her mother would
+pass a night or two with Blanche on their way into the country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</span></p>
+
+<p>If his heart had sunk within him at the thoughts of introducing his
+wife to the vulgar abode which he had been obliged to provide for her,
+how much more did it sink at the thoughts of exhibiting to her parents
+their graceful, their beautiful, their high-born daughter, as mistress
+of this same abode. Moreover, the house was not calculated to receive
+an influx of company.</p>
+
+<p>Still every one ought to be proud and happy to receive their father
+and mother-in-law under their roof; and he was determined to be so.
+He reminded himself that, though he was poor, he had never pretended
+to be otherwise, he never would pretend to be otherwise: there was no
+disgrace in poverty; he had presented himself under no false colours;
+he knew his own situation, and he would not throw a ridicule over it by
+seeming ashamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche had pictured to herself another cottage, of the same stamp as
+that in Devonshire: and as the country was now in full beauty, and as
+there was no occasion to put the chimneys to the test, she anticipated
+with pleasure showing her mother how happy and how pretty an humble
+home might be; how dignified De Molton could look, though employed in
+working in his garden; and how little she deserved the pity that had
+been lavished upon her.</p>
+
+<p>She was extremely vexed when her dear Frank broke to her the nature of
+the country, the situation of the town, the sort of house he had been
+compelled to hire.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there nothing else to be procured for love or money?"</p>
+
+<p>"For money, yes; for love, not!" he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"But if something else is to be got, for Heaven's sake make any
+sacrifice!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is one house much larger than we require, which has been fitted
+up with every luxury by a retired brewer, who now wishes to travel, and
+would gladly let it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that will be just the thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear! the rent is far, far beyond our means."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but for one year, dearest Frank!"</p>
+
+<p>"With a limited income, one year's extravagance unavoidably entails
+many, many years of real distress. I will not run the risk of being
+unable to answer the just demands of my tradesmen. I never sent a
+creditor away without his money, and I never will."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</span></p>
+
+<p>De Molton spoke with seriousness, and something approaching harshness;
+for he suffered under the mortification of his wife, and the tone was
+meant to confirm his own determination, not to be unkind to her. She
+thought him stern.</p>
+
+<p>"We had much better put off papa and mamma, and say at once we cannot
+receive them."</p>
+
+<p>Her tone was a little pettish. De Molton's task was no longer so
+difficult; he dreaded seeing her unhappy, but the moment he perceived
+there was temper mixed with her sorrow, his fortitude returned, and
+he replied, "By no means: such as it is, our home is ever open to our
+parents; and we have only to regret that it is not in our power to make
+them more comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"I had a thousand times rather mamma did not come at all, than that she
+should see me in such a hole as you describe."</p>
+
+<p>Her voice was half choked with rising emotion: she had led her mother
+to expect something so very different! The Devonshire cottage had grown
+under her glowing descriptions into a miniature terrestrial paradise.</p>
+
+<p>"Blanche, this is not kind by your parents; you should wish to see them
+for their own sakes." Certainly De Molton did not wish to see them, but
+he would not have pleaded guilty to such a weakness for the world.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know how I can wish to be exposed to mamma's taunting
+expressions and contemptuous looks;" and partly from vexation, and
+partly from bodily weakness, she burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Blanche, this is childish! You chose to marry a poor man, and you must
+abide by it."</p>
+
+<p>"You should not be the person to speak so coldly and unkindly. You know
+the thing I mind most of all is, that mamma always seems to despise
+you; and I had hoped to show her that, though we were poor, we did not
+deserve pity." Her sobs here interrupted her words. In addition to her
+other mortifications, she felt injured by the husband whose dignity she
+was so anxious to uphold.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton was quite overcome by finding it was for him her feelings
+were so strongly excited. "Blanche, dearest Blanche!" he exclaimed,
+"you do not think me ungrateful for all you have given up for my sake!
+Oh no! you cannot think that!" And he soothed her by every attention
+and kindness in his power.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</span></p>
+
+<p>The effervescence of her mortification and vexation had exhausted
+itself, and she was sorry to have wounded him; he was also annoyed at
+having allowed an unkind word to escape his lips; and they were still
+sufficiently lovers for their little quarrel to be almost a renewal
+of love: almost,—but not quite. Blanche could not forget that he had
+said, "You have married a poor man, and you must abide by it;" and De
+Molton remembered that she had said, "She should be ashamed to be seen
+in such a hole" as the only home he could take her to.</p>
+
+<p>These words recurred to his mind more and more frequently as they
+drew near the small town of Turton. He felt quite angry with the
+Horse-guards for having built any barracks in so frightful a country
+as that which they were approaching. It was all arable: but there
+were no enclosures, no hedges, no hill, no dale, no woods, no copses;
+merely a succession of fields; in the highest state of cultivation it
+is true, but that circumstance did not add to their beauty in Blanche's
+eyes. She would gladly have seen the wheat enlivened by some brilliant
+scarlet poppies, some beautiful old-fashioned blue corn-flowers, now
+almost exploded by the improvements in agriculture; she would gladly
+have been greeted with the fragrance of a distant field of charlock.</p>
+
+<p>They had a good view of Turton long before they reached it; for it was
+placed in the midst of a large basin of land, divided into squares
+by the various crops, though by no other visible mark. From the last
+hill, as they looked down into the broad vale below, De Molton felt
+responsible for its ugliness, and tried to carry off a sensation
+something resembling shame, by remarking that, though such scenery
+was not to our English eyes picturesque, it was very like "la belle
+France." The day was grey and colourless: there were no gleams of
+sunshine, no passing shadows, which will invest any extensive view with
+a certain degree of beauty. The wheat was all green, the barley was
+green, the oats were green, the tares were green, the clover was green;
+there was no variety of hue, except where, here and there, a field lay
+fallow, or had been newly ploughed up.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton looked cheerlessly upon Blanche's spiritless face, and fairly
+wished the first evening in their new domicile come and gone. Blanche
+wished, upon her arrival, to be able to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</span> say she found it better than
+she expected, but the words died away upon her lips. She walked to
+the window, and looked up and down the straight street. There was the
+lawyer's house opposite, with a brass knocker well polished; then came
+the Sun Inn, all new, and red, and staring; then a paltry shop; and
+then the apothecary's door, surmounted by a gilt pestle and mortar. The
+road was dusty, and the cut lime-trees before the houses on the other
+side of the lawyer's were rather whitish-brown, than green. The street
+ran north, and south; a gust of wind drove down it from the north,
+which gave the poor leaves a fresh coating before her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was as cold as days sometimes are in June: she turned from the
+window, and proposed a fire; they both dreaded the attempt, but it
+succeeded, and there was no smoke.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche wished the days had not been so long, that they might sooner
+have let down the green Venetian blinds (there were no shutters),
+drawn the short and scanty white curtains, and shut out the dismal
+prospect. She tried to place the furniture in such positions as to give
+the room an inhabited appearance, but she only succeeded in making
+it look untidy. The little dimity covered <i>chaise-longue</i> was
+wheeled out from the wall, and placed between the fire and the window,
+till they found that so sharp a draught cut across from the ill-closed
+sashes, that it was quickly wheeled back to its original situation.
+A card-table was set open, and made to enact the part of a stand for
+<i>petits objets</i>. Blanche collected all her baskets and boxes, in
+hopes of making the apartment look comfortable, but her efforts were
+not as yet crowned with success.</p>
+
+<p>The next day she bought a square of dark red cloth, and she bound
+it with gold-coloured binding, and with it concealed a great
+portion of the card-table, and set off to better advantage the
+<i>chef-d'œuvres</i> of art and the <i>souvenirs</i> of sentiment. The
+arm-chair, the dear arm-chair, was unpacked; and the buhl clock, it was
+hoped by both of them, would be a redeeming object.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! there was no part of the room in which the buhl clock could
+be safely and advantageously placed! The little chimney-piece was
+infinitely too narrow; the card-table was already filled; and the
+one other table which was not in constant requisition was by far too
+rickety to be entrusted with so precious an article.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</span></p>
+
+<p>At length the small <i>souvenirs</i> were removed to the rickety table,
+and the clock was established upon the card-table; and De Molton, when
+he looked upon his wife with her child upon her knee, saw no fault in
+the arrangement of the room.</p>
+
+<p>There was, however, one misfortune to which even De Molton could not
+close his eyes or bar his senses,—a misfortune, too, which was utterly
+irremediable.</p>
+
+<p>A kind of fixture,—half cupboard, half bookcase,—the lower part of
+which opened like a cupboard while the top finished in shelves, adorned
+each side of the fire place. Now, in the lower part of one of these
+nondescript things there was every reason to believe the predecessors
+of the De Moltons had been in the habit of keeping apples. When the
+room was closed, this dire smell of apples assailed their noses, and at
+length it was traced home to the guilty spot.</p>
+
+<p>Chloruret of lime, eau de Cologne, every sort of fumigation was tried,
+but the indomitable smell was only quelled for the time: it returned
+with fresh vigour! Blanche was in utter despair, for Lady Falkingham
+was expected in a day or two, and she was renowned for the extreme
+acuteness of her olfactory nerves! Blanche had repressed any expression
+of her feelings, till this last blow quite over-came her fortitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Can nothing be done about this smell, Frank? It will distract mamma!"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word I do not know what more to recommend. Let us wash it
+again with chloruret of lime just before your mother comes."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not mind all the rest if we could but get rid of this smell of
+apples!"</p>
+
+<p>That expression—"all the rest," spoke volumes. De Molton was fully
+aware how much it implied of discomfort.</p>
+
+<p>Love in a cottage is a thing very frequently met with in books, and
+not unfrequently in actual life; but love in a red-brick house in the
+street of a country town can never exist in poetry, and seldom in
+reality.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one other thing I would fain alter, Frank, and I think it
+might be accomplished without much expense."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche spoke timidly, for she had learned to be afraid of proposing
+anything which he might deem extravagant. "Could we not get rid of the
+knocker on the door? It looks dreadful; but the horrid vulgar sound is
+worse than the appearance. It<span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</span> is impossible to forget where one is,
+when one hears that rap-a-tap!"</p>
+
+<p>De Molton sighed to think she should so wish to forget that she was
+in her home, with her husband and her child; and Blanche, two years
+before, would not have believed she could ever have been otherwise than
+contented, when certain of De Moltan's constancy, of his undivided
+affection, and when united to him by the holiest ties.</p>
+
+<p>The day arrived on which the almost dreaded parental visit was to
+be paid. De Molton proposed driving to a nursery-garden at no great
+distance, and buying some flowers, which would make the room look
+rather more gay and countryfied. To this Blanche gladly assented;
+and she took great pains to fill all the little ugly vases upon the
+chimney-piece, and all the finger-glasses which were not wanted after
+dinner, with such flowers as could be procured. They had arranged
+everything for the accommodation of Lord and Lady Falkingham as well
+as the capabilities of the house permitted. Blanche's maid was turned
+out of her room, and into the nursery, for Lady Falkingham's maid; an
+arrangement which by no means met with her approbation, and which had
+not been accomplished without considerable difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton relinquished his dressing-room to his father-in-law, and,
+unknown to any one, as he hoped, performed his toilet very early in
+the morning in the dining-room; the little back-parlour having been
+consecrated to the ladies'-maids, and anything being more practicable
+than to interfere with their morning repast.</p>
+
+<p>Both Blanche and De Molton had looked repeatedly into each room, and
+had ascertained that everything was as comfortable as they could make
+it, and they sat waiting in some agitation for the arrival of their
+guests.</p>
+
+<p>Generally speaking, if there is a moment of unmixed happiness, it is
+that in which parents pay their first visit to a married child, and in
+which children receive the first visit from their parents.</p>
+
+<p>The pretty, half-childish, half-matronly pride with which the young
+wife does the honours of her domestic arrangements; the tearful joy
+of the mother as she inspects and admires; the honest happiness of
+the father; and the modest exultation of the bridegroom who has
+installed the creature he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</span> loves in all the comforts with which she is
+surrounded,—render the moment one of pleasing interest to the most
+careless bystander.</p>
+
+<p>But such were not the feelings which animated any of the present party.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XVI.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some difference of this dangerous kind,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By which, though light, the links that bind,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The fondest hearts may soon be riven;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some shadow in Love's summer heav'n.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which, though a fleecy cloud at first,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May yet in awful thunders burst.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lalla Rookh.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Falkinghams did not arrive till very late. Blanche knew that every
+moment's delay was injurious to the repast she was so anxious should
+be tolerably well dressed. She several times ran down into the kitchen
+herself, to enforce upon the cook that she must contrive to keep back
+the dinner without letting the meat be over-roasted.</p>
+
+<p>At length they heard a great rumbling of wheels and hallooing of little
+boys, and the well-known carriage with four horses drove rapidly by,
+and drew up at the Sun Inn opposite. The postillions were soon directed
+to the right house; the whole equipage was turned round, and at length
+drew up before the little door.</p>
+
+<p>All this caused a sensation; and well <i>crêpé</i>'d heads were seen
+popping up above the white blinds of the lawyer's opposite, and frilled
+caps appeared at the windows of the house with the cut lime-trees, and
+waiters, chamber-maids, and boots thronged to the door of the inn,
+hoping the coroneted carriage was going to put up at the Sun.</p>
+
+<p>The first greetings were over, and Blanche was eager to show her mother
+to her room, for, "on hospitable thoughts intent," she was reflecting
+on the over-boiled chickens and the over-roasted beef. But their
+progress was arrested by the imperial! It was stuck in the turning of
+the stairs; and Lady Falkingham's tall footman, who measured six feet
+two inches and a half, and De Molton's omnipresent John Benton,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</span> were
+struggling, and lifting, and pushing, and shoving in vain!</p>
+
+<p>This was an unlooked for misfortune; one which might have been laughed
+at, among people so nearly and intimately connected, and one which
+might have been an excuse for dining very merrily in travelling
+costume; but with Blanche's feelings, with Lady Falkingham's, with De
+Molton's feelings, the misadventure had a contrary effect. Blanche was
+extremely annoyed, and led her mother back to the drawing-room; while
+De Molton hastened to lend his assistance, and, with the help of his
+more judicious mode of turning the imperial, it was extricated from its
+inconvenient position, and was safely deposited in Lady Falkingham's
+room.</p>
+
+<p>All this produced some delay; then came their respective toilets; and
+they were not seated in the dining-room till an hour and three quarters
+after the cook had expected to "dish up."</p>
+
+<p>It requires the coolness, the presence of mind, the decision of the
+bolder sex, to be able to accelerate or to retard the dinner-hour. The
+humble cook of the De Moltons was thoroughly feminine in her timidity,
+and the consequence was, that the chickens fell to pieces in the dish,
+that the beef crackled under the teeth, that the potatoes were watery
+and sodden, that the greengages of the pudding had burst through their
+surrounding paste, and presented a shapeless, confused, and uninviting
+mass to the eye, while the maccaroni was stringy, strong, and burned.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton had wished the dinner to be plain and without pretension,
+and he had flattered himself that, by attempting nothing, they must be
+secure from a failure. Alas! they had the mortification of seeing both
+their guests scarcely able to finish what they had upon their plates,
+and of perceiving that Lord Falkingham helped himself three times to
+cheese, and that Lady Falkingham demolished full half the sponge-cake
+at dessert! De Molton, who was habitually reserved and possessed much
+self-command, maintained a calm exterior; but Blanche, who, whatever
+might be her wish to do so, was never able to conceal her feelings for
+any length of time, was in a fussy state of agitation, and was the
+first to complain of the badness of the dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Her remarks disturbed the equanimity of John Benton,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</span> who was most
+anxious that all should go off well. In his eagerness, he made more
+noise, jarred the plates, knocked the glasses together, clattered the
+knives and forks, and placed the dishes on the table in a more fearful
+undecided manner than he was ever known to do before; constantly
+brushing by Lady Falkingham's cap to give a finishing touch to the
+arrangement of the table. Blanche's martyrdom increased every moment!</p>
+
+<p>It is very easy to be tranquil, composed, and agreeable at the head of
+one's table, if one has the comfortable assurance that all will proceed
+properly and decorously; but when one has no reliance that such will
+be the case, it is not so easy to preserve the careless air of perfect
+good-breeding; still less so, should one actually see one's guests
+hungry and incommoded: such tranquillity amounts to a lofty pitch of
+stoicism scarcely attainable by common mortals.</p>
+
+<p>If the Falkinghams had smiled good-humouredly, it might have
+been better; but the mother preserved a civil semblance of not
+perceiving what was amiss, evidently treating the present, as the
+best entertainment it was in the power of the De Moltons to give,
+and considerately sparing their feelings. When the ladies retired
+after dinner, Lady Falkingham made no allusion to the house, the
+establishment, the cookery, or any part of the <i>ménage</i>, except
+the baby, on whose growth she expatiated, and whom she wished to see in
+its crib.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche accordingly took her mother upstairs to the garret, where Lady
+Falkingham was shocked at finding two beds in the small room. "My dear
+Blanche, do you allow two people to sleep in such an apartment as this?
+It is very bad for the baby to be so confined as to air and space."</p>
+
+<p>"My maid sleeps here just now," Blanche replied; "it cannot hurt the
+baby for a little while."</p>
+
+<p>"The weather is so hot, I own I should dislike it very much; I always
+was very particular about giving you all an airy nursery;—but I
+suppose it cannot be helped," added Lady Falkingham, checking herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh this house is horrid!" exclaimed Blanche; "if you had but come to
+see us in our Devonshire cottage, mamma—!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"But you know we have this only for a time, mamma; and next year we may
+be quartered in a prettier country, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</span> a nicer neighbourhood, and
+where we can get something out of a town."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will, my love," replied Lady Falkingham, who was resolved
+to dwell as little as possible upon her daughter's present discomfort,
+and who thought herself very kind and very meritorious in not saying
+what she thought, felt, and looked,—viz. "I told you how it would be."</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast was not more prosperous. The bread was baker's bread:
+the French rolls, well rasped and very tough, were exceedingly unlike
+the rolls and cakes of every variety which graced the breakfast-table
+of Temple Loseley. The butter was bought at the shop; and Turton was
+situated in an arable, not a grazing country: they churned every
+morning at Temple Loseley. The cream was thin, colourless, and
+tasteless: the Alderneys at Temple Loseley were renowned for their
+perfection in beauty and breeding.</p>
+
+<p>Most assuredly, urban and rural poverty are very different things.
+With a pretty garden; with flowers, poultry, cream, butter, eggs,
+and vegetables in profusion; vulgarity and discomfort may always be
+avoided, though splendour may not be attained.</p>
+
+<p>The Falkinghams went away, sincerely commiserating their daughter,
+although Lady Falkingham's sincere sorrow was somewhat alleviated by
+being able to remark to her husband how precisely everything had turned
+out as she had foreseen and predicted.</p>
+
+<p>When they had driven from the door, Blanche sat down to work at her
+needle, with a sensation of depression more over-whelming than she
+had ever felt before. "I am glad mamma is gone!" she exclaimed, after
+having hemmed nearly a yard of muslin without uttering: "when people
+are no longer young, they miss the comforts to which they have been
+accustomed!"</p>
+
+<p>De Molton said nothing. He also had been deeply hurt, mortified in
+every way; hurt to see his wife exposed to mortification, and mortified
+to see her feel it so keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not but what mamma behaved beautifully," continued Blanche, for she
+was half angry with her husband for his very silence:—she wished him
+to declare how annoyed and unhappy he also was; but he was a proud man,
+and when such a man does feel mortification, it does not find vent in
+words. Being somewhat displeased at his silence, she did<span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</span> not spare
+him. The feelings of the daughter got the better of those of the wife,
+and she proceeded: "Mamma never complained of anything. It was only
+through her maid that I heard she could not sleep a wink on account of
+the baby crying over head; and the partition being so thin, she heard
+her as plainly as if she had been in the same room. Mamma was very
+kind, she took care to say nothing to vex me."</p>
+
+<p>De Molton thought mamma would have been infinitely more kind if she
+had appeared a little less miserable, and had not looked at Blanche
+as if she thought her a victim. He did not feel in charity with Lady
+Falkingham; he found no pleasure in hearing her praised.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to call on Colonel Jones," said De Molton; "I shall be at
+home again in time to walk with you." He took his cap and his stick,
+and sallied forth; but he had walked far beyond Colonel Jones's, before
+he recollected his intention of calling upon him, and he had to retrace
+his steps for some quarter of a mile. He found him just returning from
+a long walk with some of his children, who were joyously sporting
+around him; and they all together mounted the narrow staircase which
+led to a drawing-room much in the same style as Blanche's, though
+somewhat larger in its dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jones and her eldest girl were busily engaged in needle-work,
+while the second daughter was reading history aloud. She cordially
+greeted De Molton, and said they had been taking advantage of the
+Colonel's having cleared the house of the boys to get on with the
+education of the girls; "for in a small house, and with such a family,
+it is difficult to find a quiet moment," added Mrs. Jones, with a
+cheerfulness and good-humour which seemed to prove she found nothing
+unpleasant or disgraceful in poverty.</p>
+
+<p>She was the daughter of a country curate, and although well educated,
+and tolerably well born, she did not feel the want of luxuries and
+elegancies to which she had never been accustomed, and which none of
+those with whom she associated missed any more than herself.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton wished he could teach his wife to accommodate herself to
+her circumstances, as Mrs. Jones did. But how many habits had she to
+unlearn and to forget before she could be happy as Mrs. Jones was
+happy!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</span></p>
+
+<p>He resolved to cultivate the Joneses, and he asked them to dinner that
+very day, frankly bidding them come and feast upon the remains of the
+provisions they had laid in for his father and mother in law. The
+happy and good-humoured Joneses accepted the invitation in the same
+unceremonious spirit in which it was made, and De Molton returned home
+to inform his wife of the company she might expect. She detested the
+thoughts of encountering another dinner in her own house; but De Molton
+was not a person who would ever condescend to ask his wife's permission
+before he invited a friend to dinner, and of that she was fully aware.</p>
+
+<p>The Joneses arrived just five minutes before the appointed hour; and
+Mrs. Jones asked Blanche's leave to take off her bonnet, and arrange
+her hair at her looking-glass, as she had walked from her own house.
+She shortly re-appeared with her bows and her ringlets in the most
+perfect order, for she had never been in the habit of depending upon
+the services of a maid. She also appeared in a smart silk gown; her
+fair, fat, handsome arms uncovered, a necklace on her neck, and
+ear-rings in her ears.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche, on the contrary, was in a more seemly costume for a country
+dinner by day-light; and Mrs. Jones wondered her hostess should wear in
+the evening what seemed to her a morning dress.</p>
+
+<p>The cook's nerves had not been agitated, and the dinner was very good.
+Colonel Jones was gay and conversible: he had served in the Peninsula;
+he, and his wife also, had been at Paris when the allied armies entered
+it; they had seen many different countries, had been mixed up in many
+of the events of that period, when every day brought changes which
+affected empires; they had been thrown with many of the personages who
+already figure as historical characters. They were delighted with De
+Molton, who was an excellent listener; delighted with Lady Blanche, who
+possessed the charm to which all people in all ranks are sensible,—the
+real good-breeding of real high fashion; and Blanche was astonished to
+find herself in better spirits than she had been in for some days.</p>
+
+<p>No fund of natural spirits, however inexhaustible it may be, can stand
+the trial of seeing the guests under your roof, cold, abstracted, and
+comfortless; whereas the phrenologists<span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</span> could certainly point out
+some organ in the human head which takes pleasure in being developed
+when you feel that those towards whom you are exercising the rites of
+hospitality are really and thoroughly enjoying themselves.</p>
+
+<p>There was a good deal of broad humour about Colonel Jones, and no
+shyness; he was animated in his descriptions. De Molton's wine was good
+of its sort; and the dinner was gay,—noisily gay. Blanche thought them
+a little vulgar, but still she liked them both; and after the cheerless
+restraint which had prevailed during the two preceding days between the
+nearest and dearest relations, there was something which expanded the
+heart in the warmth and cordiality of the Joneses.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner which they gave the De Moltons in return proved less
+agreeable. The astonishing clatter made by the servants, the badness
+of the cookery, the multitude of children, and the friends who were
+invited to make up the party, did not conduce to reconcile Blanche
+to the real work-day details of poverty, as De Molton had at first
+intended it should, by showing her how happy people could be in its
+despite.</p>
+
+<p>The summer wore away, but without any summer enjoyments; the autumn
+succeeded, and winter followed in due succession. They had many
+invitations from different friends, but travelling was expensive; and
+having been in London for some months during the spring, they could
+not obtain leave of absence for any length of time which might make it
+answer to leave home.</p>
+
+<p>The following year saw them removed to a fresh habitation, and saw
+another olive-branch added to the parent stock.</p>
+
+<p>The nurse now professed her inability to attend to two children, "both
+babies as it were; she could not do justice to the dear little loves.
+Miss Emma, she was just old enough to get into mischief; and she was
+more work, a body might say, than the infant himself." There was no
+denying the reason and truth of the nurse's statement. It was also
+true, as the nurse added, "that my lady was very particular, and liked
+to see the children always nice; that it was not as if she did not mind
+their being just dressed in brown holland pinafores, and such like,
+as the little Master Joneses were; that, for her part, she could not
+a-bear to see children look so,—just like anybody's children."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</span></p>
+
+<p>De Molton, as well as Blanche, was proud of little Emma's exquisite
+beauty, and they could neither of them endure the thoughts of their
+children not being thoroughly well taken care of. "Could you not ask
+Mrs. Green to help nurse?" suggested De Molton; "she might walk out
+with Emma, and might make her clothes. Our life is such a quiet one,
+surely she must have a great deal of time upon her hands."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche stood rather in awe of Mrs. Green, who was a regular fine
+lady, and who felt the change in her situation to the full as acutely
+as Blanche herself could do, and who had not the same strong motive
+for bearing it with uncomplaining fortitude, inasmuch as she was
+not married to the man of her choice, neither had she any character
+for consistency to maintain. In many of the minor distresses and
+difficulties which had occurred, Mrs. Green had not failed to make
+her mistress feel how great was her merit in submitting to them; and
+Blanche knew it was utterly impossible to accomplish what De Molton
+(who was not so well versed in the nice limits and boundaries of the
+honourable office of lady's maid) thought could be so easily arranged.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite impossible, my dear Frank! Green has already put up with
+a great deal to oblige me, and I could not ask her to wait upon the
+nursery."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want her to wait upon the nursery, but she might assist the
+nurse."</p>
+
+<p>"I can part with her, Frank; but I cannot propose to her to attend upon
+the children."</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, who saw no reason why one woman should sit idle, while
+another had more to do than she could well perform, was half annoyed
+with Blanche, and he answered rather quickly, "All I can say is, I
+cannot afford to keep another servant."</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell Green what you say," replied Blanche, with the tone of a
+heroine and a martyr; and accordingly she lost no time in informing
+Green that she must look out for another situation unless she would
+wait on Miss Emma, as Captain De Molton wished; and as, of course, Mrs.
+Green declined to do.</p>
+
+<p>So much separated from all former connexions, friends, and relations,
+as Blanche had been of late, she naturally felt a good deal annoyed
+at parting with a person whom habit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</span> had rendered agreeable to her,
+who was an excellent lady's maid, and was pleasing in her manners. De
+Molton could not sympathise in her annoyance at getting rid of a fine
+lady, and infinitely preferred the stout good-humoured girl who came in
+her stead, and who was too happy to fetch and carry, and was too much
+honoured by being allowed to wait on my lady.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the last remnant of Blanche's trousseau was growing very
+shabby, and her wardrobe needed recruiting. Green was gone; the girl
+Phœbe was no milliner; Blanche could embroider beautifully, and she
+could now accomplish children's frocks with considerable success, but
+she could not make her own clothes. How should she? She was obliged
+therefore to have her wants supplied by the country milliners, and both
+she and De Molton were appalled at the bills which were the inevitable
+consequence.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche wished exceedingly not to be expensive, but she knew not how to
+avoid being so. She had never had any allowance when a girl: she had
+been so amply supplied with every article of dress upon her marriage,
+and had since led so retired a life, that little occasion to spend
+money had occurred until now; and she was ignorant how miraculously,
+when once the purse-strings are opened, the contents vanish as it were
+of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It is a great fault in the education of girls, to omit teaching them,
+in some measure, the value of money. They suddenly find themselves at
+the head of an establishment, in which, if large, considerable sums
+pass through their hands; if small, on them depends the comfort, or
+discomfort of the <i>ménage</i>; and they are not aware, (except from
+theory, which has little to say to practice) that twenty shillings make
+a pound.</p>
+
+<p>The loss of Green was an annoyance of daily recurrence. Blanche
+could not dress her own hair; and the awkward attempts of the shy
+and frightened red-fisted maid to brush and to curl, to braid and to
+<i>crêper</i>, made her every morning come down to breakfast in a
+ruffled and uncomfortable state. She found it necessary now and then to
+buy herself a cap, and unluckily the bill for these caps came in at a
+time when De Molton's finances were at a very low ebb. Blanche had no
+pin-money, and she applied to him for the requisite sum.</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense, Blanche, to buy tawdry caps, when you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</span> have all that
+beautiful brown hair, which is so much prettier and more becoming than
+any cap that can be made."</p>
+
+<p>"I never learned to dress hair; and since Green is gone, I find it
+impossible to do without a cap. I have not quite made up my mind to
+go about a perfect figure, yet; but I dare say I soon shall. It is
+impossible to be well-dressed without a maid."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely you could soon learn to arrange your hair. You told me Mrs.
+Jones always dressed her own, and I am sure it is very smart—in bows,
+and all kinds of things."</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for Blanche to endure. To have been forced to part
+with her maid! To be refused a cap! To be twitted with Mrs. Jones! To
+have Mrs. Jones set up as a pattern! "Indeed I should be very sorry
+to look like Mrs. Jones!" she exclaimed, with a heightened colour,
+and an eye which was very beautiful in its increased brilliancy: "if
+you wished to have a wife who should look and dress like Mrs. Jones,
+you should not have selected me! I hope I may never arrive at such a
+pitch of vulgarity as that! I had rather look like anybody in the whole
+world than Mrs. Jones!" and in her anger and petulance, she spoke, as
+she would not have done in a cooler moment, of a person whom she both
+respected and liked.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Jones is a most excellent and exemplary woman," replied De
+Molton, with some solemnity of manner; "one who performs the duties of
+her situation in life cheerfully and admirably. I have a very great
+regard for Mrs. Jones. Where is this bill?" he added, with an awful
+calmness: "I am sorry to say you must buy no more caps. I have not the
+means of paying for them!" He gave her the money, which she took with
+pain and indignation.</p>
+
+<p>It is very disagreeable to ask for money,—very disagreeable to receive
+it when it is given grudgingly. Women should have, settled upon them
+when they marry, the sum which, in proportion to the income of their
+husband, they may in fairness spend upon their dress; otherwise, if
+extravagant, there are no regular limits to their extravagance: while,
+on the other hand, however economical they may be, and however liberal
+the husband may wish to be, they may chance to ask for money at a
+moment when it may prove inconvenient to produce<span class="pagenum" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</span> a sum which the man
+had not calculated would be called for at that particular moment.</p>
+
+<p>An expression of annoyance will wound and distress a high-minded woman,
+will anger a high-spirited one, or will induce a timid one to conceal
+her bills, and to acquire the habit of contracting debts unknown to her
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche received the money with a swelling indignant heart, and her
+feelings were not soothed when a tradesman entered with a long bill,
+for which De Molton drew a draft without a remark or a murmur, and most
+politely dismissed the man, pleased with his exactness and punctuality.</p>
+
+<p>Blanche thought, "After all, he is not really so poor as he pretends to
+be. He only talks thus to prevent my spending anything. He has money
+enough for every one else."</p>
+
+<p>De Molton had appointed that very morning to pay that very bill.
+He had purposely reserved the requisite sum, and he remained with
+scarcely enough for the weekly unavoidable expenses. But he did not
+explain all this to his wife. He was resolved never to run into debt,
+and he was unapproachably serious and correct upon the subject. If he
+had candidly explained the state of the case to her, shown it her in
+black and white, perhaps she would have joined with him in cheerfully
+accommodating herself to existing circumstances; but he dealt in
+general expressions of poverty and distress, and yet, at the very
+moment he complained most bitterly, the money was forthcoming for those
+things which must be paid for. It was exactly <i>because</i> he would
+have wherewithal to meet necessary expenses, that he so strenuously
+opposed any which he deemed unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>Having once come to the conclusion that he had acquired a habit of
+complaining, and that he could find money if he chose to do so, she
+only felt injured when he enforced economy, and mentally accused him of
+making needless difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>Two more years elapsed, and their family consisted of four promising
+children, when De Molton's regiment was ordered to Brighton: they were
+again thrown among people of their own class, and friends of former
+days.</p>
+
+<p>They had been married nearly five years, and during those years words
+had been spoken which could not be forgotten. Poverty had come in
+at the door, and if Love had not quite flown out at the window, he
+fluttered on the window-sill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XVII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And ruder words will soon rush in</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To spread the breach that words begin,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And eyes forget the gentle ray</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They wore in courtship's smiling day,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And voices lose the tone that shed</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A tenderness round all they said;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Till, fast declining one by one,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sweetnesses of love are gone.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lalla Rookh.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Among</span> other old acquaintances, the Westhopes were established at
+Brighton; and it was with mixed feelings that Blanche prepared
+herself to meet the friend of her youth, the person who had most
+unintentionally assisted to foster her love, by always appearing so
+impressed with De Molton's attractions. Upon that subject both men and
+women are more influenced by the estimation in which the object is held
+by others, than they would willingly allow: they are ashamed to be so
+easily pleased as to prefer a person whom no one else thinks pleasing,
+and they are decidedly proud of being preferred by one whom every one
+else admires.</p>
+
+<p>Mingled with her desire to see her early friend, Blanche experienced
+a certain dread of the scrutinizing eye of intimacy. She felt she
+should never be able to echo, with the accent of truth, the romantic
+sentiments in which they used once to indulge; and she did not wish
+her friend to discover that the love which she had spoken of as equal
+to endure any trials, had nearly sunk under the petty and undignified
+vexations of pecuniary difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Time, however, had worked some changes in Lady Westhope. She had long
+conquered her incipient inclination towards Mr. Wroxholme; she had
+learnt that a well-regulated mind can make itself contented, if not
+happy, under almost all circumstances; she had quite given up the point
+of being the youngest and most admired person in her circle; and she
+had convinced herself that she ought to be grateful for the worldly
+comforts with which she was surrounded, for the ample means of doing
+good which were within her reach, and for the circumstance of having a
+very good-humoured husband, who, whatever might be his faults, was no
+tyrant.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Westhope, also, was somewhat altered. He was now<span class="pagenum" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</span> eight years
+older than when we began our story, and twenty-two years older than
+when he began his infidelities. It was, indeed, time he should have
+sown his wild oats, and accordingly he was become infinitely more
+domestic. Although love was a feeling which could never again exist
+between them, there subsisted a considerable regard, and their society
+was far from disagreeable to each other.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning after the arrival of the De Moltons, when Lady Westhope
+called upon Blanche, one of the disputes, which were now of too
+frequent occurrence, had just taken place between her and her husband.
+Blanche had made a desperate effort to persuade De Molton to take a
+house which was to be let at a rent, low in proportion to its size, but
+still higher than he thought he could afford. Blanche shrank from being
+seen by her former associates in the mean and paltry lodging which, in
+so expensive a place as Brighton, was the only one he found within his
+means. He persisted in his usual resolution, never to do anything which
+might eventually lead to a shabby action, for the sake of avoiding a
+shabby appearance. He had not long left the room, after a peremptory
+refusal to accede to his wife's request, when Lady Westhope entered.</p>
+
+<p>After the first greetings were over, and Lady Westhope had admired
+Blanche's beautiful children, they drew their chairs to the fire,
+and Lady Westhope exclaimed, "How I envy you those lovely children,
+Blanche! I think, if I had four such enchanting creatures, I should
+be quite happy! I should so like to have a large flourishing family
+growing up around me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens! dear Lady Westhope! and I consider each addition to mine as
+a visitation which gives me the blue devils for months! When once they
+are there, and they have made themselves beloved, one would not part
+with them for worlds; but if you knew what unceasing trouble they give,
+and how difficult it is to do one's duty by them, you would not wish
+for a large family."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! perhaps there are advantages, as well as disadvantages, in
+everything. I have schooled my mind, and brought myself to think
+everything is for the best. I am a much more contented person, Blanche,
+than when we used to talk over your love affairs in former days. Now,
+tell me a little about Captain De Molton. Is he as handsome as ever?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</span>
+and are you as much in love as ever? I certainly never did see such a
+regular love-match as yours! The longer you were separated, and the
+more you were thwarted, the more desperately constant you both were!"</p>
+
+<p>"Opposition has always been supposed to have that effect: I believe it
+has often turned many a passing fancy into a <i>grande passion</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you are not implying such treason against yourself as to say that
+opposition assisted to foster your <i>grande passion</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, no! I only spoke generally. But do you tell me a little
+about Lord Westhope," she added, to turn the conversation from her own
+affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! he is grown so kind and attentive! I assure you we are settling
+down into a most domestic comfortable old couple."</p>
+
+<p>The entrance of Mr. Stapleford interrupted the mutual investigation of
+conjugal felicity which the friends had set on foot. Mr. Stapleford
+said he had just met De Molton in the street, who had told him where
+he should find Lady Blanche, and he had lost no time in paying his
+respects to her. "But, dear Lady Blanche, you are going to remove from
+this horrid place? In such a situation too! A mile and a half from the
+sea. I could scarcely believe De Molton, when he pointed out this as
+your abode; and should have imagined he was playing off a practical
+joke upon me, if I had not known he was not given to being facetious.
+But I suppose you are only here till you can procure something in the
+land of the living."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche did not wish Mr. Stapleford to perceive she was not perfectly
+contented with her fate, and she replied that she did not like being
+within hearing of the sea,—the constant monotonous breaking of the
+waves upon the shore made her melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no accounting for tastes," he replied, with a polite bow, and
+a glance which quickly ran over the shabby furniture, the once smart
+trellised paper, (a sort of paper peculiarly in vogue at sea-bathing
+places, where real flowers and real green leaves are rare,) the
+little round convex mirror surmounted by an eagle with a chain in its
+bill, and the other lodging-house elegancies which adorned the room,
+especially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</span> the bell-ropes, which were as fine, and much more dirty,
+than those at Mrs. Jones's, which, four years before, had excited such
+strong feelings of horror in Blanche's mind. She saw the excursive
+glance of his eye, and she saw the affectation of politeness with which
+he then let it fall on the ground, while a slight smile just played
+about the corners of his mouth. She always disliked him; and she now
+most devoutly wished he had not fancied the sea-air bracing, and the
+society of Brighton agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be at Mrs. L.'s this evening, shall you not?" inquired
+Stapleford.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" replied Lady Blanche; "I am not acquainted with her."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! by the bye, she has come into fashion since your time. How long is
+it since we lost sight of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been married five years."</p>
+
+<p>"Married! Ah! marriage is a holy rite, synonymous with honourable
+sepulture. You have, from that day, been dead to all your friends! By
+the bye, I was with the Wentnors a month ago. You know your old friend
+Glenrith is become Lord Wentnor now. He, however, seems determined not
+to be buried alive. He is giving balls and fêtes of all descriptions;
+or rather <i>she</i> is, for he is such a doting husband, that
+every fancy of hers is a law to him. It is quite pretty to see such
+love-making after eight years of marriage, especially as the result
+of this Arcadian conjugality generally is a splendid entertainment by
+which half England profits."</p>
+
+<p>Stapleford's instinct for saying the disagreeable thing had not
+deserted him; and he left Blanche to ponder on the fate she had
+rejected, and to compare it with that she had persisted in choosing.
+Lady Westhope, too, was happy! She rejoiced that such should be the
+case; but certainly the reflections she made during the rest of that
+day were not unworldly ones.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton had again met Stapleford in his morning walk, who, after
+complimenting him upon the unimpaired beauty of his wife, attacked him
+most unmercifully for having kept her so long in seclusion, and for
+now burying her in such an out-of-the-way place, and implied (what
+he had no right to know, but what he had guessed from the expressive
+countenance of Blanche, in which her feelings might always be read as
+in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</span> mirror,) that she was an unwilling denizen in that remote suburb.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton returned home somewhat displeased at having been, as he
+imagined, spoken of as a tyrant and a miser. The tête-à-tête in the
+evening did not promise to be agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Stapleford called this morning," Blanche began.</p>
+
+<p>"So he told me," replied De Molton.</p>
+
+<p>"And Lady Westhope has been here."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they tell you any news?</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Stapleford told me he had been staying at Wentnor Castle; and he
+gives such a description of their happiness! They seem to be giving
+splendid fêtes and beautiful entertainments, all to please her; for, he
+says, that every wish of Lady Wentnor's is a law to her husband."</p>
+
+<p>De Molton felt this last sentence as an implied cut at him. "It is very
+fortunate for Glenrith that he has money to throw away in gratifying
+every foolish whim of a fantastical woman."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche felt that this was a hit at her; and forgetting that by
+applying to herself what her husband said, she gave him a right to
+conclude she meant to be personal in her account of Lord Wentnor as a
+husband, she followed her impulse, and replied:—</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot see that there is anything fantastical in wishing not to be
+laughed at by all one's acquaintance, and in disliking a house one's
+friends can hardly bring themselves to enter."</p>
+
+<p>"Blanche, when you married me, you knew you married a poor man: if you
+wished for riches and splendour, why did you not marry Glenrith?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure, if I wished for kindness and for good-humour I had better
+have married Lord Glenrith. I do not know what foolish, girlish
+infatuation came over me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, indeed, unfortunate, that in consequence of this <i>foolish,
+girlish infatuation</i>, which are the terms by which you designate
+your attachment to your husband, you should have thrown away a
+situation in which you would have been so much happier. I have but to
+regret that I should have marred your fortunes—so unwittingly marred
+them,—for neither Glenrith nor yourself can accuse me of having, by
+any arts or underhand practices, attempted to win your affections from
+him."</p>
+
+<p>This implied, according to Blanche's interpretation of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</span> words,
+that she had allowed them to be gained before he had made any attempt
+to do so; and, as angry people usually do, answering to the sense she
+chose to attribute to his speech, rather than to its plain and obvious
+meaning, she replied,—</p>
+
+<p>"If it was only pity for the unfortunate passion which you supposed me
+to entertain for you, which induced you to profess love at Cransley,
+it is indeed unfortunate that you allowed your pity so far to overcome
+your prudence. If I had imagined such to have been the case, I should
+most assuredly never have broken off my engagement with Lord Wentnor."</p>
+
+<p>"I can only again lament that I should have been the cause of your
+doing what you so much regret."</p>
+
+<p>"If this is my reward for having rejected, for your sake, the best
+<i>parti</i> in England, a good man, too, and one who loved me; for
+having disappointed and angered my parents; for having preserved an
+undeviating constancy for three years to a person who now laments that
+I did not marry his rival, and confesses he only married me out of
+pity, I am indeed the most unfortunate woman in the world!" She burst
+into a flood of tears of anger and vexation.</p>
+
+<p>"Blanche, you wilfully pervert the meaning of all I say. When did I
+imply that I married you for anything but love? But these reproaches,
+this petulance, are not the right method to preserve a husband's
+affection."</p>
+
+<p>"If nothing but a slave,—a patient, meek Griselda,—a Mrs. Jones,—can
+preserve your affection, I am afraid I have no chance of preserving
+it! I do not know what I can do more than I already do. I work for my
+children; I go without all the comforts I have been used to; I have
+no maid; and I must refuse going to Lady Westhope's to-morrow night,
+because the nursery-maid cannot dress my hair, and because I have no
+gown fit to appear in."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very, very sorry I have not the means of providing you with
+the luxuries you regret, and I am very sorry you refuse yourself the
+pleasures and amusements that so naturally fall in your way. I had
+hoped that at Brighton, where people may join in society without
+much expense, and where it is not necessary to keep a carriage, you
+might have mixed with your friends. I should have thought the art
+of hair-dressing was not so very difficult to acquire, when one
+sees<span class="pagenum" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</span> every attorney's daughter, every milliner's apprentice, every
+shop-girl, with hair which puts to shame all the exertions of M.
+Hippolite."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a shop-girl or a milliner's apprentice," answered Lady
+Blanche, while all the blood of the Falkinghams mounted to her cheek,
+and all the spirit of an ancient race flashed from her eye.</p>
+
+<p>"But you are the wife of a poor man, although of one as nobly born as
+yourself!" and all the pride of the De Moltons rendered the brow of her
+husband absolutely awful.</p>
+
+<p>"I know full well that I am the wife of a poor man; there is no need
+to remind me so often of that truth," replied Lady Blanche, with some
+bitterness in her tone; "and therefore I shall stay at home, and not
+expose my poverty to the eyes of the pitying world, or to the sneers of
+a Mr. Stapleford."</p>
+
+<p>"You will do as is most agreeable to yourself. I shall certainly go
+to Lady Westhope's, as I shall feel sincere pleasure in seeing my old
+friends again."</p>
+
+<p>To Lady Westhope's went De Molton; and Blanche stayed at home. She
+had originally intended, for the sake of enjoying agreeable society,
+to brave the slight mortification of not finding herself, as was once
+the case, the best dressed woman in the room; but the conversation of
+the preceding evening had left her so unhappy, so discontented, and
+so indignant, that she found a certain pleasure in martyrdom. It was,
+however, only in the eyes of her husband that she wished to enact the
+martyr; from the world she would fain conceal that she had so misjudged
+the strength of her own attachment: she meant to persuade others that
+it was from choice, from bad health, or from any motive rather than the
+true one, that she persisted in leading a retired life.</p>
+
+<p>But with her candid disposition, and her speaking eyes, it did not
+require the malicious tact of a Stapleford to read the true state of
+her feelings. With Lady Westhope, especially, she could not always be
+on her guard; and to her it was soon only too evident that the love
+for which she had given up everything else did not repay her for the
+sacrifices she had made. Lady Westhope began indeed to doubt whether
+this much-vaunted love had not, when tried in the balance against
+privations of every sort, been found utterly wanting.</p>
+
+<p>It may be asked, should then Blanche have married Lord<span class="pagenum" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</span> Glenrith?
+No, certainly; for she was not in love with him. More especially no,
+for she was at the time in love with another. But we would urge that
+if affluence without love is insufficient to wedded happiness, so
+is the most romantic love without those habitual luxuries, and that
+dispensation from sordid details, which, to persons in a certain
+situation, may almost be termed the necessaries of life.</p>
+
+<p>Let not those who, valuing the good things of this world, are dazzled
+into forming an interested marriage, anticipate the delights of
+sentimental affection, nor be disappointed if one whose situation
+was the attraction prove destitute of those qualities which were not
+sought; and let those who are "all for love and the world well lost,"
+keep in mind the latter half of the sentence, and not expect to find
+both that which they prize, and that which they profess to contemn.
+Above all, let not those who have an opportunity of uniting in their
+choice true affection with the enjoyments of those comforts to which
+they have been accustomed, be induced, by any temptation of rank,
+wealth, or power, to give up virtuous happiness for heartless splendour.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XVIII.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The path of sorrow, and that path alone,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No traveller ever reach'd that blest abode,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who found not thorns and briers in his road.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Cowper.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> her intercourse with the De Moltons, Lady Westhope observed that
+they seldom addressed each other; and that, in speaking of her husband,
+Blanche invariably called him Captain De Molton, instead of Frank, as
+she had formerly done; and that De Molton also, when speaking of his
+wife, added the title to her name, and even occasionally addressed her
+as "Lady" Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>These were trifles, but yet they indicated much. Though grieved for her
+cousin's sake, Lady Westhope's reflections served to reconcile her to
+her own fate, and to confirm her in her opinion that</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Every black must have its white,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And every sweet its sour,</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</span></p>
+
+<p>and that true wisdom consists in dwelling on the "sweets" of one's
+own peculiar lot, and striving to forget the "sours;" and though for
+herself she would still have chosen Blanche's trials rather than her
+own, it might be that she knew her own, and was not so well versed
+in Lady Blanche's. Yet her character was better fitted for Blanche's
+situation: she had more decision, more strength of mind, more
+pride,—not worldly pride, but pride of soul to persevere in the path
+which she had once chalked out for herself.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton had keenly and painfully felt the coolness which had for
+months, nay almost years, been gradually increasing between them; and
+he was still more deeply wounded when she nearly confessed, or at least
+did not deny, her regret at having rejected Lord Glenrith for him.
+He could have found excuses for anything else. The pride of man, the
+tenderness of the husband, the sensitiveness of the individual, were
+all touched in the tenderest point.</p>
+
+<p>"Could this," he thought, "be the same creature who was such a
+contemner of worldly wealth, so ardent a votary of love in a cottage,
+such an enthusiast for the pleasures of nature?" Alas! for poor
+Blanche! it was love in a lodging-house, not love in a cottage, that
+she had tried; and as to the pleasures of nature, the dusty suburbs of
+a country town are scarcely "the country" to a person brought up in the
+midst of an extensive park, in a wild and woody country.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton recollected how, out of consideration for her, he had
+concealed his own feelings at Paris; how scrupulously he had avoided
+interfering with the more brilliant prospects which were opening before
+her; how, far from taking advantage of her unguarded confession of
+preference, he had banished himself from his native land; how, though
+hopeless, he had remained constant to her image for three long years;
+how, when he found her free, he had hastened to throw himself at her
+feet; how, without murmuring or repining, he gladly endured privations,
+the same that she did, and thought himself only too well rewarded if
+she would cheer their humble home with a smile. He thought over all
+these things, and he felt himself the most injured of men. Did he not
+deny himself every indulgence? Did he not even refuse himself the
+satisfaction of asking a friend to share his morsel?—the most galling
+self-denial enjoined by absolute poverty!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</span> Did not the responsibility
+of providing for their children weigh upon his mind? Was it not his
+duty to look forward to the time when education must commence; when
+boys must be sent to school, when girls must have masters? What parent
+will set down contented under the notion that his children will not be
+fitted by manners and education to move in the sphere in which they
+were born?—None, who are not without that commonest and strongest
+feeling in all created beings, parental affection—or who are not
+without the power of reflection! And how were these expenses to be met?
+How, but by increased economy on their part?</p>
+
+<p>Such were the cares which pressed on De Molton's mind. How much better
+would it have been had he fairly communicated them all to his wife; had
+he frankly counselled with her upon the best plan to be pursued; had he
+openly laid before her his actual income, his actual expenses! But the
+constitutional reserve to which we have alluded prevented his pursuing
+this course.</p>
+
+<p>It was most painful to him to refuse any of her wishes, and the very
+pain it gave him imparted to his manner of doing so a certain harshness
+which prevented Blanche from entering into his views. Her resistance to
+his views, or her martyr-like acquiescence in them, rendered him still
+less communicative, when, perhaps, had he pursued a more open line of
+conduct, a person who married with such good intentions as she did
+(though with little knowledge of things as they are) might have been
+led to suggest the very sacrifices at which she repined when they were
+demanded as a right.</p>
+
+<p>Each succeeding day seemed to widen the breach between them. This
+result of a love-match afforded the materials for many a bad jest among
+some who called themselves their friends, while others saw nothing
+entertaining in the wreck of happiness to two people possessing many
+amiable qualities, though neither of them might be faultless. Some
+pitied Lady Blanche for having such a harsh and ungrateful tyrant for a
+husband; and some felt for the noble, uncompromising De Molton, whose
+home was evidently rendered miserable by a wilful, discontented wife.
+Some predicted a separation: some predicted that, beautiful as was Lady
+Blanche, and tired as she was of her home, the time would arrive when
+she would be induced to leave it, for one more brilliant, though less
+respectable;—although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</span> her manners were now so reserved, so decorous,
+a few years, and people would see the difference; a woman who had once
+loved so passionately, would not remain contented to pass her life from
+the age of twenty-eight in a state of cold indifference, if not of
+absolute dislike.</p>
+
+<p>But those who thus prognosticated, proved uninspired prophets.
+Affection was still deep-rooted in both their hearts. The noxious
+weeds of petty grievances had choked, but not destroyed, the goodly
+plant. It still retained sufficient life, when moistened by the waters
+of affliction, to spring up with renewed vigour, and overcome in its
+growth the weeds which had almost stifled it.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XIX.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And dearer seems each dawning smile</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For having lost its light awhile.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lalla Rookh.</i></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> illness of their children first awakened Blanche and De Molton to a
+knowledge of their real feelings towards each other.</p>
+
+<p>The children caught the measles, a complaint which had at that period
+proved peculiarly fatal. The eldest girl, who was at that most engaging
+of all ages, when, without losing the graces of infancy, the mind opens
+into companionship, became alarmingly ill. In their tender assiduity by
+the little bed of the sufferer, all feelings of asperity, all feelings
+of coldness, were quickly forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Together they watched with intense anxiety, together they listened to
+the short and frequent cough; one held the cup of cooling beverage
+with which the other moistened the parched lips of their child. No!
+it is not possible that parents can bend over the sick bed of their
+first born,—the creature equally dear to both,—the creature whose
+first accents of tenderness have been framed to utter their names,—the
+creature whose first emotions of love have been for them, whose first
+notions of right and wrong they have together laboured to form!—no!
+they cannot bend over the sick bed of this loved creature, and harbour
+any recollection of former unkindness. The impression may fade away;
+new causes of irritation may subsequently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</span> arise; but, for the time
+being, surely it is impossible that any but feelings of affection can
+find a place in their hearts.</p>
+
+<p>With Blanche and De Molton all that had ever passed was utterly wiped
+away, as, with the sickening dread of hearing their worst fears
+confirmed, they followed the physician from the sick chamber. They
+scarcely knew in what terms to couch the dreadful question to which
+they feared to receive a still more dreadful answer,—that question
+which is asked in a broken and quivering voice, but sometimes with a
+faint smile assumed to re-assure the questioner,—that question which
+is oftener put in the form of an assertion, "You do not think there is
+any danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, our little patient is in a very uncomfortable state,"
+replied the physician, who considered it his duty to prepare the
+parents for the event which he thought only too probable.</p>
+
+<p>The false hollow smile faded from the countenance of the agonised
+father: he knit his brows, and bit his compressed lip, till the blood
+almost started; but Blanche, worn out with fatigue and agitation, his
+poor Blanche, unable to meet this death-blow to her hopes, staggered
+towards him for support, and the husband mastered the feelings of the
+father, to sustain her fainting form, to soothe her more over-whelming
+agonies.</p>
+
+<p>There are sufferings on which it is painful to dwell,—sufferings too
+real, too true, too common,—sufferings which have been often endured,
+and which, alas! many have in store for them,—sufferings which equal
+in intensity any of which human nature is capable.</p>
+
+<p>For two days and two nights did they watch each varying symptom, count
+with trembling accuracy the minutes, the seconds, which were passed in
+undisturbed repose, and listen with painful rapture to the sweet voice,
+the plaintive and endearing "papa," "mamma," which the poor child often
+uttered, when, in the restlessness of illness, she wanted, she knew not
+what.</p>
+
+<p>How sad and painful an effort was it to veil under a semblance of
+playfulness the anxiety which consumed them, while they attempted to
+amuse the infant sufferer! to tell her childish tales, in a gay tone
+of voice, while the heart was bursting! to smooth the brow, to affect
+a smile! How often during these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</span> two long days, these two interminable
+nights, did Blanche reflect upon her folly and her ingratitude!—her
+folly in not enjoying to the uttermost the happiness which, a few short
+days before, was within her reach,—her ingratitude to Providence for
+the blessings till then vouchsafed to her!</p>
+
+<p>A horrible chill ran through her!—perhaps it was this very ingratitude
+which had deserved so severe a chastisement. How did she now wonder
+that petty annoyances should have so ruffled her! What to her were
+now the sneers of Stapleford, the pity of the world, the absence of
+elegancies, of comforts! Dry bread to eat, a shelter from the weather,
+and her children once more healthy, now appeared to her the summit of
+earthly happiness.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, too, when he beheld his still-loved Blanche bowed down with
+grief, when he found her once more overflowing with tenderness to
+himself, wondered how he could ever have imagined her to be estranged
+from him, and he watched over her as tenderly as over his child.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day the physician perceived a slight improvement. He
+allowed them to hope; and the revulsion of feeling, the unbounded
+joy with which this permission was hailed by Blanche, alarmed him by
+its vehemence. He attempted to qualify his opinion, but it was in
+vain!—she was allowed to hope; and, stronger than reason, her ardent
+nature made her jump to the delightful conclusion that her child was
+safe.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, fearful of a relapse, tried to subdue her raptures; but no
+sooner had the physician left the room, than, throwing herself into his
+arms, she exclaimed, "Our child will live, Frank! I know she will! She
+will live, and we shall be happy—entirely, perfectly happy! Nothing
+can ever make me unhappy again!"</p>
+
+<p>Short-sighted mortals! We little know what the next week, the next day,
+the next hour, the next moment, may have in store for us!</p>
+
+<p>The hopes of Blanche, however, were not doomed on this occasion to be
+disappointed: the little girl rapidly recovered; the other children had
+the complaint mildly; and Blanche, indeed, thought herself beyond the
+reach of misfortune. She felt gratitude, fervent gratitude, to Heaven
+for its mercies; but affliction had not yet taught her to "rejoice in
+trembling." She did not remember how, always, at all times, and in all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</span>
+places, our happiness is in the hands of an all-wise, all-powerful, but
+merciful Being, whose chastisements are dealt in pity.</p>
+
+<p>This truth was forced upon her mind when, just as the children were
+convalescent, she saw her husband become listless and oppressed: she
+heard him frequently cough, and she felt some alarm on his account.</p>
+
+<p>It had always been a matter of doubt whether a slight rash he had
+in his boyhood was or was not the measles. He had never remembered
+this doubt while attending his child, and it was not till he felt
+unaccountably languid and suffering that he recollected he might
+possibly have caught the infection.</p>
+
+<p>The suspicion which he then hinted to Blanche shot through her frame
+with the conviction of impending woe; and when the physician confirmed
+the fact, the agonizing, but not uncommon dread which often overtakes
+those in affliction recurred to her mind with increased intensity.
+Were their sorrows the visitations of an offended Providence, called
+down upon their devoted heads by their own want of submission to its
+decrees?—was she unworthy of a happiness which she had failed to
+value?—was the moment come when her repinings and her discontent were
+to be requited with a terrible retribution?</p>
+
+<p>Nothing that Doctor A. could utter was capable of reassuring her. She
+shook her head mournfully, and redoubled her attentions to her husband.
+When told that "she ought to place more reliance in that Power which
+had raised her child from a much more desperate state of sickness," she
+answered mournfully, "I do not deserve it."</p>
+
+<p>"We none of us deserve the mercies we meet with," replied the
+kind-hearted physician: "if we were dealt with according to our merits,
+well might we all despair." For a few moments such arguments would
+cheer her, but again she would relapse into despondency; and when,
+after some days, Dr. A. confessed that the pulse was very high—when
+his tone of encouragement changed to one of consolation and condolence,
+her spirit completely sunk—hope died away within her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>In what fearful array did her own faults towards him rise up against
+her! How completely did she forget the little tone of harshness which
+had once appeared to her to excuse and to justify her in disputing his
+wishes and opposing his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</span> plans! She felt she could never do enough
+to expiate her faults, that a whole life of devotion could scarcely
+suffice to atone for them; and, extreme in everything, she now looked
+upon herself as having been the most sinful of creatures.</p>
+
+<p>De Molton, whose affection had only been suspended, not destroyed, by
+the coldness he had met with, now, when he found her tender, gentle,
+and indefatigable, felt for her all, and more than he had ever felt
+before. One day she had been tending him with even more than her usual
+solicitude, when he said, "Thank you, Blanche; you are a kind and
+excellent nurse; and it grieves me when I think to what a dreary home
+of sickness, penury, and drudgery, I have been the means of bringing
+you. Without me, you would have been now enjoying the splendour, the
+brilliancy of your father's house, even supposing you had never deigned
+to adorn any of the other happy homes which courted your acceptance. I
+know that you have suffered much from the privations unavoidable in our
+situation; you have at times thought me harsh; but indeed, my dearest
+Blanche—my dear, dear wife, you do not know how much it has cost me to
+refuse you anything on earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank! do not speak in that manner! I now know how unreasonable,
+how ungrateful, I have been. Do not talk of what is past. Believe me,
+you should not agitate yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"It will do me good to say what is upon my mind: it is possible I may
+not recover."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank!" She looked at him reproachfully, as if he was unkind in
+saying what it was so painful to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, do not cast at me so frightened and so accusing a glance. I am
+not so very ill yet; and anticipating what is possible, will not make
+it more probable. Dr. A. says there are still hopes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank! I cannot bear it; indeed I cannot!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest love, if it should please God to take me from you, you must
+bear it; and, what is more, you must exert yourself. You will be left
+with four young children, and, I am sorry to say, with less than ever
+to support them and yourself. I have ensured my life; but that could be
+but to a small amount, though to the utmost I could succeed in saving.
+It was this, as I thought, indispensable duty which contributed to
+render us so very poor."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you were doing everything that was right; and, indeed, if I had
+known all, I think—I believe—I should have behaved better. I think,
+if you had told me——"</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to have done so, perhaps. It was a kind of mistaken pride.
+The whole thing was so distressing to me! I desired so ardently to
+have been able to gratify every wish of your heart, that my spirit
+rebelled at being able to gratify none. Still, my sense of duty and of
+strong necessity made me resolve not to transgress one inch the line
+of prudence I had marked out for myself. The more your notions seemed
+unfitted for the fate we had embraced, the more I thought it my bounden
+duty to resist them, and to impress upon you the plain naked truth of
+our condition in life. I was wrong; I feel now that I was wrong. I
+should have made you the partner of my thoughts and plans, as well as
+of my affections."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! it was not you who were to blame: you were all that was
+admirable; yours was strict, uncompromising rectitude, firmness of
+mind, everything that was manly and noble; while I!—oh, that I can
+have so misjudged you!—oh, that I can have so wasted these past
+years, which I now feel ought to have been years of such unmixed, such
+unalloyed happiness!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, when perhaps it is too late!" he added in a low faint voice; then
+perceiving the expression of her countenance, he added, "but better
+late than never, my love;" and he held out his hand to her, with a
+smile half playful, half sad, attempting, as sick people often do, to
+familiarize their own and the minds of their friends with the idea
+of a final separation. He drew her hand towards him, and placing the
+other upon it, he continued with earnestness and solemnity: "We have
+been both to blame—both of us. When I am gone, do not torment yourself
+with useless regrets, but remember what I now say—that I am conscious
+of having been to blame on my part. If I had treated you with entire
+confidence and openness, I might have won on your generous nature to
+submit cheerfully to any privations. But I am reserved, I am proud. I
+am at length aware of these constitutional faults; and I trust, if I
+should be raised from this bed of sickness—if I should be spared to
+you, dear Blanche—that I shall in future know my duty better, and that
+I shall pursue it resolutely, and never again allow pride and reserve
+to chill our intercourse."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Frank, if we are but spared to each other, in spite of all outward
+circumstances, we will be so very, very happy! But we will rejoice in
+trembling. We are now too well aware how precarious is our happiness,
+and we shall prize it the more from that very consciousness. We shall
+learn to be grateful for the sterling blessings we possess."</p>
+
+<p>"And we shall know, my love, as I do now, that, when we meet death face
+to face, those points only on which we have done our duty can afford
+reflections in which there is any comfort,—those alone on which we
+have failed to perform it can give unmitigated pain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, alas! how much have I to repent of! Instead of making your
+happiness, have I not caused you vexation and disappointment? Have I
+always honoured, always obeyed you?—have I been really a helpmate to
+you? Oh, Frank! forgive me! Indeed, indeed, I need your forgiveness;
+and even that can never reconcile me to myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you already forgotten my injunctions, my love? Remember what I so
+earnestly wish to impress upon your mind,—that we have been both to
+blame,—both."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, my good, kind, beloved husband,—thank you; and may God in
+his mercy preserve you to guide my mind, and direct me in the path I
+should go!—then I shall never err again."</p>
+
+<p>"A weak and erring mortal, like yourself, is a poor guide to lean upon,
+dear Blanche; we must look within ourselves for the ardent and sincere
+wish to do what is right, but we must seek from above the strength to
+perform it. It is easy to know our duty; the difficulty is to persevere
+in its performance."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be able to persevere, with you to support me!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked upon her with an expression of unutterable tenderness and
+pity, and pressed her hand in silence.</p>
+
+<p>The more the fear that they might be for ever parted grew upon her, the
+less could she admit any allusion to it, the more did she cling to the
+idea that their union was indissoluble.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">CHAPTER XX.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some manne hath good, but chyldren hath he none;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some manne hath both, but he can get none healthe.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some hath all three, but up to honour's throne</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Can he not crepe by no manner of stelth.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To some she sendeth chyldren, riches, welthe,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Honour, worship, and reverence all his lyfe,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But yet she pyncheth him with a shrewde wyfe—</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 19em;">Be content</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With such reward as Fortune hath you sent.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Sir Thomas More.</span></span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">De Molton's</span> health remained for some weeks in a most precarious state,
+during which period they had time and opportunity for opening their
+whole hearts to each other.</p>
+
+<p>The religious sentiments which, although never before much called
+forth, were latent in both their bosoms, were more fully developed;
+and in sorrow, in fear, and in distress, the communion of feeling and
+interchange of thought became more complete than in the earlier years
+of their marriage.</p>
+
+<p>When he recovered—for he did recover,—they found themselves
+thoroughly, entirely, and reasonably happy. The first time that he
+came into the drawing-room, when she had arranged his arm-chair by the
+fire, and drawn the narrow curtains, placed the table close to him,
+and settled little Emma on a stool at his feet, she looked round with
+delight, and could not help expressing that she thought the room an
+exceedingly nice one, and that really a horse-hair sofa was not so very
+uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, Blanche," replied De Molton, playfully; "we must be happy
+without deceiving ourselves: we must see things as they really are.
+Do not, because you are glad to see me here, fancy this little room a
+splendid apartment, or a horse-hair sofa a luxurious seat, lest the
+moment of disenchantment should come. No, no! we will be happy in
+spite of a bad room and wretched furniture; but we will indulge in no
+visions."</p>
+
+<p>"How right you always are! All will go well, now you are recovering.
+Yes, you will at last make me reasonable too: and you will teach me to
+keep all my feelings, good as well as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</span> bad, under proper control! And
+yet, I do not know how it is, the room does really look different in my
+eyes; and I almost think I do not slip off the sofa as much as I used
+to do!" He smiled at her again; and she laughed gaily at herself.</p>
+
+<p>As he gradually recovered, some friends were admitted to see him. Lady
+Westhope rejoiced, not only at the restoration of his health, but at
+the restoration of confidence between them. Mr. Stapleford pathetically
+lamented that De Molton should have been taken ill in this horrid
+nutshell, and asked when they should move to a more habitable part of
+the town.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," answered Blanche.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not in earnest? What can you find to admire in this apartment,
+dear Lady Blanche?"</p>
+
+<p>"Its cheapness," replied Blanche resolutely: "do you not know, Mr.
+Stapleford, that we are very poor?"</p>
+
+<p>The courage to utter these few words would spare many persons many
+moments of doubt, and hesitation, and awkwardness, and many unavailing
+efforts to make an effect.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stapleford bowed with much respect, and a glance, which seemed
+to say, "You have made a bad bargain! with your beauty, thus to have
+thrown yourself away!"</p>
+
+<p>But his glance met that of Lady Blanche, which seemed to answer, "I am
+very poor, but I do not repent my bargain."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche's object was no longer to make a decent appearance in the eyes
+of others, but to render her husband's home happy. De Molton no longer
+felt humbled at their poverty, when she no longer seemed affected
+by it. He candidly detailed his expenditure and his plans: she took
+great pains to dress her own hair, and soon acquired the proficiency
+of a Mrs. Jones, or of a milliner's apprentice; she gaily sprung into
+a Brighton fly with a bounding step, and willingly went into any
+agreeable society that presented itself: and she found that, though no
+longer the leader of fashion in point of dress, she was handsome and
+agreeable enough to be equally sought and liked.</p>
+
+<p>In one of her tête-à-têtes with Lady Westhope, they were both
+exclaiming at the worldliness of some mutual acquaintance, who courted
+a woman whom no one esteemed or loved;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</span> whom no one thought either
+agreeable or handsome, solely on account of her position in the world.</p>
+
+<p>"At least Frank and I have one comfort," exclaimed Blanche, in the
+corner of whose heart there still lurked a remnant of vanity: "if
+we are sought, it must be for our intrinsic merits. There can be no
+interested motive in any attention or kindness that is shown to us; and
+that is a reflection which puts one in better humour with one's self."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Lady Westhope; "and if we were so inclined, we might
+moralize on this subject as well as on more serious ones. 'This is a
+world of compensations,' as Lady Montreville says she has learned from
+her old nurse. You remember Milly Roberts, who was always toddling
+after her lovely children in St. James's Square? It is quite refreshing
+when one is in London to converse with Milly Roberts, and hear good
+sense, good feeling, and philosophy uttered so unconsciously. Lady
+Montreville says she has taught her almost all she knows of right and
+wrong; and, among other things, that we must not look for perfect
+happiness in this world,—that the most fortunate are not without their
+troubles, as she expresses it, nor the most unfortunate without their
+own peculiar blessings. I have reasoned myself into a very respectable
+degree of contentment, and I only hope that the sight of you and your
+husband, as you now are, may not disturb my philosophical, and, I hope
+I may add, religious view of my own fate, as much as the sight of you
+three months ago tended to confirm and strengthen it."</p>
+
+<p>Blanche had time to prove that her cheerfulness under privation was
+not the effort of a moment, but a resolution founded upon principle,
+and persevered in from the same motive; and De Molton also had time
+to prove that the tenderness of his wife had softened the sternness
+which was the only flaw in his character; and to become as gentle as he
+was firm in the performance of his duty; when an event occurred which
+prevented their late-acquired virtues from being any longer put to so
+severe a trial.</p>
+
+<p>By the death of a very rich godfather, De Molton became possessed of
+a small independence. It was very small; but it enabled him to retire
+on half-pay, till he might be wanted for the active service of his
+country, and to take a small cottage<span class="pagenum" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</span> in the immediate vicinity of
+Cransley, where Blanche was able to realise her preconceived notions
+of refined poverty and elegant indigence. They kept a cow, and their
+butter equalled that at Temple Loseley; their cream was no longer blue
+milk; they baked at home; and instead of a knocker on the door, they
+had a bell with a respectable countrified sound. They had a garden,
+a small one certainly; but its flowers were as bright as those at
+Cransley, and the primroses decidedly blew a week earlier! They had a
+veranda, and it did not darken the room much. In short, they had all
+appliances and means to boot requisite for real happiness.</p>
+
+<p>They were enabled, while their children were so young, to lay by
+something to assist in their education as they grew older; and they
+began to think that Milly Roberts was wrong, and that some fortunate
+people were without "their troubles," when Mr. Stapleford paid them a
+morning visit from Cransley, and enlightened their minds as to the one
+only point on which their fate might admit of amelioration.</p>
+
+<p>After expressing his astonishment at their not knowing all the
+innumerable pieces of scandal which he retailed to them; at their
+not having read all the new novels of the last spring; at their not
+having seen the new actress, heard the last singer, visited the last
+exhibition, and become intimate with the last brides of the season; he
+exclaimed, "Why, dear Lady Blanche, you will let the grass grow over
+your intellect, as you are letting it grow over the gravel before your
+door! One can see by your road and your conversation that Cransley has
+been uninhabited, and that Lady Westhope has been in London, while you
+have been in the country, for the last six months!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come and help us, Mr. Stapleford! we will soon get rid of the
+weeds out of doors. Emma, fetch the gardening basket; Henry, bring your
+old knife; Arthur, where is my rake? and Frank, if you will get the
+roller, we will make our little bit of gravel quite nice before Lady
+Westhope calls."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I am <i>à vos ordres</i>, Lady Blanche; but, I assure you,
+I shall be vastly more useful in polishing your mind than your garden.
+People who ruralize all the year round, and cannot therefore be <i>au
+courant</i> of what is going on in the world, should never let slip an
+opportunity of instruction."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</span></p>
+
+<p>"There is some truth in what you say," replied Blanche, as she looked
+up from her labours, with sparkling eyes, and a complexion dazzling
+in its brightness from the warmth of the day and the nature of her
+employment: then shaking back her curls, she bade him seat himself on
+the bench beneath the young acacia, and tell her "everything, about
+everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Well then, Lord D. did not propose, after all, to Miss C.; but set
+off for Paris, just as the family was on the tip-toe of expectation,
+thinking every double knock was the peer come to propose in person, and
+every single knock was a special messenger bearing a written offer of
+his hand and heart."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know Miss C. was grown up: does she turn out pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens! Lady Blanche, she has been out these two years! and everybody
+thinks her quite gone off. She was pretty when the duke made such a
+fuss with her at her first ball; but Mrs. L. thought it an insult to
+her charms."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. L's charms! I thought she was so very plain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Plain! why, she has been a beauty these three years. Lady G. betted
+Captain S. an amber-headed cane, to an ivory fan, that within a month
+she would talk her into being a beauty: and she did so, in three
+weeks and two days,—five days within the prescribed period. When
+once Lady G. had given her a start, she had the ingenuity to keep it.
+Her portrait now adorns the Annuals, and the Duke has worn her chains
+for two years and a half.—But I must not linger here any longer,
+or I shall be late at dinner. Good morning, dear Lady Blanche; your
+simplicity is quite piquant, and absolutely refreshes me. You dine at
+Cransley to-morrow, when I will finish rubbing the rust off your mind."</p>
+
+<p>That evening Lady Blanche remarked to De Molton: "The only little
+drawback to our perfect happiness is, that certainly one does grow very
+dull, and very stupid, knowing nothing that goes on in the world! Yet,
+after all, how much better to be like you, than like Mr. Stapleford!
+Yes, notwithstanding the grass that has grown over our minds, I do
+believe ours is the happiest position in life,—that we have the fewest
+troubles and the greatest number of blessings. I think I may now say
+with truth, and without enthusiastic nonsense, that we are happier than
+if we possessed the mines of Golconda. I told you so when we left Sir
+Frederick Vyneton's villa after our<span class="pagenum" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</span> honeymoon; and you then declared
+how happy you should be if I said the same at the end of two years.
+I could not have said so then; but I can now, after eight years of
+marriage." We need not add that De Molton was indeed perfectly happy,
+nor that he told his wife he was so.</p>
+
+
+<p>THE END.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</span></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">London</span>:</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Spottiswoodes</span> and <span class="smcap">Shaw</span>,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">New-street Square.</span><br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75709 ***</div>
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
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+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
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+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+book #75709 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75709)