The History of Henry Esmond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 682 pages of information about The History of Henry Esmond.

The History of Henry Esmond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 682 pages of information about The History of Henry Esmond.

“I flung myself before my liege’s feet,” she said, “at Salisbury.  I devoted myself—­my husband—­my house, to his cause.  Perhaps he remembered old times, when Isabella Esmond was young and fair; perhaps he recalled the day when ’twas not I that knelt—­at least he spoke to me with a voice that reminded me of days gone by.  ‘Egad!’ said his Majesty, ‘you should go to the Prince of Orange; if you want anything.’  ’No, sire,’ I replied, ’I would not kneel to a Usurper; the Esmond that would have served your Majesty will never be groom to a traitor’s posset.’  The royal exile smiled, even in the midst of his misfortune; he deigned to raise me with words of consolation.  The Viscount, my husband, himself, could not be angry at the august salute with which he honored me!”

The public misfortune had the effect of making my lord and his lady better friends than they ever had been since their courtship.  My lord Viscount had shown both loyalty and spirit, when these were rare qualities in the dispirited party about the King; and the praise he got elevated him not a little in his wife’s good opinion, and perhaps in his own.  He wakened up from the listless and supine life which he had been leading; was always riding to and fro in consultation with this friend or that of the King’s; the page of course knowing little of his doings, but remarking only his greater cheerfulness and altered demeanor.

Father Holt came to the Hall constantly, but officiated no longer openly as chaplain; he was always fetching and carrying:  strangers, military and ecclesiastic (Harry knew the latter, though they came in all sorts of disguises), were continually arriving and departing.  My lord made long absences and sudden reappearances, using sometimes the means of exit which Father Holt had employed, though how often the little window in the Chaplain’s room let in or let out my lord and his friends, Harry could not tell.  He stoutly kept his promise to the Father of not prying, and if at midnight from his little room he heard noises of persons stirring in the next chamber, he turned round to the wall, and hid his curiosity under his pillow until it fell asleep.  Of course he could not help remarking that the priest’s journeys were constant, and understanding by a hundred signs that some active though secret business employed him:  what this was may pretty well be guessed by what soon happened to my lord.

No garrison or watch was put into Castlewood when my lord came back, but a Guard was in the village; and one or other of them was always on the Green keeping a look-out on our great gate, and those who went out and in.  Lockwood said that at night especially every person who came in or went out was watched by the outlying sentries.  ’Twas lucky that we had a gate which their Worships knew nothing about.  My lord and Father Holt must have made constant journeys at night:  once or twice little Harry acted as their messenger and discreet little aide-de-camp.  He remembers he was bidden to go into the village with his fishing-rod, enter certain houses, ask for a drink of water, and tell the good man, “There would be a horse-market at Newbury next Thursday,” and so carry the same message on to the next house on his list.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The History of Henry Esmond from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.