AND FLY FROM TEMPTATION.

323

be so discovered, in the very act, as it were, and took one of her fair little hands

--

it was that which had

I I

"I knew you were going, at breakfast. thought you might stay. What has happened? Why can't you remain longer with us? What has Frank told you you were talking together late last night?" "I had but three days leave from Chelsea," Esmond said, as gaily as he could. "My aunt she lets me call her aunt her my lieutenantcy and taken me into high favour; dine at Chelsea to-morrow - who has appointed me his aide-de-camp, and on whom I must have the honour of waiting.

is my mistress now; I owe my laced coat. She has and my new general is to General Lumley, Madam

See, here is a letter from the dowager; the post brought it last night; and I would not speak of it, for fear of disturbing our last merry meeting."

My lady glanced at the letter, and put it down with a smile that was somewhat contemptuous. "I have no need to read the letter," says she (indeed, 't was as well she did not; for the Chelsea missive, in the poor dowager's usual French jargon, permitted him a longer holiday than he said. 'Je vous donne', quoth her ladyship, oui jour, pour vous fatigay parfaictement de vos parens fatigans') to read the letter," says she. told you last night?"

"I have no need "What was it Frank

"He told me little I did not know," Mr. Esmond answered. "But I have thought of that little, and here's the result: I have no right to the name I bear,

dear lady; and it is

allowed to keep it.

has perhaps crossed

only by your sufferance that I am If I thought for an hour of what your mind too ~”

“Yes, I did, Harry," said she; "I thought of it; and think of it. I would sooner call you my son, than the greatest prince in Europe

-

yes, than the greatest prince. For who is there so good and so brave, and who would love her as you would? But there are reasons a mother can't tell."

"I know them," said Mr. Esmond, interrupting her with a smile. "I know there's Sir Wilmot Crawley of Queen's Crawley, and Mr. Anthony Henley of the Grange, and my Lord Marquis of Blandford, that seems to be the favoured suitor. You shall ask me to wear my Lady Marchioness's favours and to dance at her ladyship's wedding."

66

"O! Harry, Harry, it is none of these follies that frighten me," ," cried out Lady Castlewood. "Lord Churchill is but a child, his outbreak about Beatrix was a mere boyish folly. His parents would rather see him buried than married to one below him in rank. And do you think that I would stoop to sue for a husband for Francis Esmond's daughter; or submit to have my girl smuggled into that proud family to cause a quarrel between son and parents, and to be treated only as an inferior? I would disdain such a meanness. Beatrix would scorn it. Ah! Henry, 't is not with you the fault lies, 't is with her. I know you both, and love you; need I be ashamed of that love now? No, never, never, and 't is not you, dear Harry, that is unworthy. 'Tis for my poor Beatrix I tremble, whose headstrong will frightens me; whose jealous temper (they say I was jealous too, but,

I GO BACK TO LONDON.

325

pray God, I am cured of that sin) and whose vanity no words or prayers of mine can cure - only suffering, only experience, and remorse afterwards. Oh! Henry, she will make no man happy who loves her. Go away, my son: leave her: love us always and think kindly of us and for me, my dear, you know these walls contain all that I love in the world."

In after life, did Esmond find the words true which his fond mistress spoke from her sad heart? Warning he had: but I doubt others had warning before his time, and since: and he benefitted by it as most men do.

My young Lord Viscount was exceeding sorry when he heard that Harry could not come to the cockmatch with him, and must go to London; but no doubt my lord consoled himself when the Hampshire cocks won the match; and he saw every one of the battles, and crowed properly over the conquered Sussex gentlemen.

As Esmond rode towards town his servant coming up to him informed him with a grin, that Mistress Beatrix had brought out a new gown, and blue stockings for that day's dinner, in which she intended to appear, and had flown into a rage and given her maid a slap on the face soon after she heard he was going away. Mistress Beatrix's woman, the fellow said, came down to the servants' hall, crying, and with the mark of a blow still on her cheek: but Esmond peremptorily ordered him to fall back and be silent, and rode on with thoughts enough of his own to occupy him sad ones, some inexpressibly dear and pleasant.

some

His mistress, from whom he had been a year se

parated, was his dearest mistress again.

The family

from which he had been parted, and which he loved with the fondest devotion, was his family once more. If Beatrix's beauty shone upon him, it was with a friendly lustre, and he could regard it with much such a delight as he brought away after seeing the beautiful pictures of the smiling Madonnas in the convent at Cadiz, when he was dispatched thither with a flag: and as for his mistress, 't was difficult to say with what a feeling he regarded her. 'T was happiness to have seen her: 't was no great pang to part; a filial tenderness, a love that was at once respect and protection filled his mind as he thought of her; and near her or far from her, and from that day until now, and from now till death is past, and beyond it, he prays that sacred flame may ever burn.

MARQUIS BLANDFORD'S DEATH.

327

CHAPTER IX.

I make the campaign of 1704.

MR. ESMOND rode up to London then, where, if the dowager had been angry at the abrupt leave of absence he took, she was mightily pleased at his speedy

return.

He went immediately and paid his court to his new general, General Lumley, who received him graciously, having known his father, and also, he was pleased to say, having had the very best accounts of Mr. Esmond from the officer whose aide-de-camp he had been at Vigo. During this winter Mr. Esmond was gazetted to a lieutenantcy in Brigadier Webb's regiment of Fusileers, then with their colonel in Flanders; but being now attached to the suite of Mr. Lumley, Esmond did not join his own regiment until more than a year afterwards, and after his return from the campaign of Blenheim, which was fought the next year. The campaign began very early, our troops marching out of their quarters before the winter was almost over, and investing the city of Bonn, on the Rhine, under the Duke's command. His Grace joined the army in deep grief of mind, with crape on his sleeve, and his household in mourning; and the very same packet which brought the Commander-in-Chief over, brought letters of the forces which preceded him, and one from his dear mistress to Esmond, which interested him not a little.