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.
at the Council.  There were with him two more lieutenant-generals, nine major-generals and brigadiers, seven colonels, eleven Peers of Parliament, and twenty-one members of the House of Commons.  The Guard was with us within and without the Palace:  the Queen was with us; the Council (save the two Whig Dukes, that must have succumbed); the day was our own, and with a beating heart Esmond walked rapidly to the Mall of Kensington, where he had parted with the Prince on the night before.  For three nights the Colonel had not been to bed:  the last had been passed summoning the Prince’s friends together, of whom the great majority had no sort of inkling of the transaction pending until they were told that he was actually on the spot, and were summoned to strike the blow.  The night before and after the altercation with the Prince, my gentleman, having suspicions of his Royal Highness, and fearing lest he should be minded to give us the slip, and fly off after his fugitive beauty, had spent, if the truth must be told, at the “Greyhound” tavern, over against my Lady Castlewood’s house in Kensington Square, with an eye on the door, lest the Prince should escape from it.  The night before that he had passed in his boots at the “Crown” at Hounslow, where he must watch forsooth all night, in order to get one moment’s glimpse of Beatrix in the morning.  And fate had decreed that he was to have a fourth night’s ride and wakefulness before his business was ended.

He ran to the curate’s house in Kensington Mall, and asked for Mr. Bates, the name the Prince went by.  The curate’s wife said Mr. Bates had gone abroad very early in the morning in his boots, saying he was going to the Bishop of Rochester’s house at Chelsey.  But the Bishop had been at Kensington himself two hours ago to seek for Mr. Bates, and had returned in his coach to his own house, when he heard that the gentleman was gone thither to seek him.

This absence was most unpropitious, for an hour’s delay might cost a kingdom; Esmond had nothing for it but to hasten to the “King’s Arms,” and tell the gentlemen there assembled that Mr. George (as we called the Prince there) was not at home, but that Esmond would go fetch him; and taking a General’s coach that happened to be there, Esmond drove across the country to Chelsey, to the Bishop’s house there.

The porter said two gentlemen were with his lordship, and Esmond ran past this sentry up to the locked door of the Bishop’s study, at which he rattled, and was admitted presently.  Of the Bishop’s guests one was a brother prelate, and the other the Abbe G——.

“Where is Mr. George?” says Mr. Esmond; “now is the time.”  The Bishop looked scared:  “I went to his lodging,” he said, “and they told me he was come hither.  I returned as quick as coach would carry me; and he hath not been here.”

The Colonel burst out with an oath; that was all he could say to their reverences; ran down the stairs again, and bidding the coachman, an old friend and fellow-campaigner, drive as if he was charging the French with his master at Wynendael—­they were back at Kensington in half an hour.

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