5.  Their hospitality was boundless.  No stranger was ever sent away from their gates.  The gentry received one another, and traveled to each other’s houses, in a state almost feudal.  The question of slavery was not born at the time of which we write.  To be the proprietor of black servants shocked the feelings of no Virginia gentleman; nor, in truth, was the despotism exercised over the negro race generally a savage one.  The food was plenty:  the poor black people lazy and not unhappy.  You might have preached negro emancipation to Madam Esmond of Castlewood as you might have told her to let the horses run loose out of the stables; she had no doubt but that the whip and the corn bag were good for both.

6.  Her father may have thought otherwise, being of a skeptical turn on very many points, but his doubts did not break forth in active denial, and he was rather disaffected than rebellious, At one period, this gentleman had taken a part in active life at home, and possibly might have been eager to share its rewards; but in latter days he did not seem to care for them.  A something had occurred in his life, which had cast a tinge of melancholy over all his existence.

7.  He was not unhappy,—­to those about him most kind,—­most affectionate, obsequious even to the women of his family, whom he scarce ever contradicted; but there had been some bankruptcy of his heart, which his spirit never recovered.  He submitted to life, rather than enjoyed it, and never was in better spirits than in his last hours when he was going to lay it down.

8.  When the boys’ grandfather died, their mother, in great state, proclaimed her eldest son George her successor and heir of the estate; and Harry, George’s younger brother by half an hour, was always enjoined to respect his senior.  All the household was equally instructed to pay him honor; the negroes, of whom there was a large and happy family, and the assigned servants from Europe, whose lot was made as bearable as it might be under the government of the lady of Castlewood.

9.  In the whole family there scarcely was a rebel save Mrs. Esmond’s faithful friend and companion, Madam Mountain, and Harry’s foster mother, a faithful negro woman, who never could be made to understand why her child should not be first, who was handsomer, and stronger, and cleverer than his brother, as she vowed; though, in truth, there was scarcely any difference in the beauty, strength, or stature of the twins.

10.  In disposition, they were in many points exceedingly unlike; but in feature they resembled each other so closely, that, but for the color of their hair, it had been difficult to distinguish them.  In their beds, and when their heads were covered with those vast, ribboned nightcaps, which our great and little ancestors wore, it was scarcely possible for any but a nurse or a mother to tell the one from the other child.