As for young Esmond, when he got to his little chamber, it was with a heart full of surprise and gratitude towards the new friends whom this happy day had brought him.  He was up and watching long before the house was astir, longing to see that fair lady and her children—­that kind protector and patron:  and only fearful lest their welcome of the past night should in any way be withdrawn or altered.  But presently little Beatrix came out into the garden, and her mother followed, who greeted Harry as kindly as before.  He told her at greater length the histories of the house (which he had been taught in the old lord’s time), and to which she listened with great interest; and then he told her, with respect to the night before, that he understood French, and thanked her for her protection.

“Do you?” says she, with a blush; “then, sir, you shall teach me and Beatrix.”  And she asked him many more questions regarding himself, which had best be told more fully and explicitly than in those brief replies which the lad made to his mistress’s questions.

CHAPTER II.

Relates how Francis, fourth viscount, arrives at Castlewood.

’Tis known that the name of Esmond and the estate of Castlewood, com.  Hants, came into possession of the present family through Dorothea, daughter and heiress of Edward, Earl and Marquis Esmond, and Lord of Castlewood, which lady married, 23 Eliz., Henry Poyns, gent.; the said Henry being then a page in the household of her father.  Francis, son and heir of the above Henry and Dorothea, who took the maternal name which the family hath borne subsequently, was made Knight and Baronet by King James the First; and being of a military disposition, remained long in Germany with the Elector-Palatine, in whose service Sir Francis incurred both expense and danger, lending large sums of money to that unfortunate Prince; and receiving many wounds in the battles against the Imperialists, in which Sir Francis engaged.

On his return home Sir Francis was rewarded for his services and many sacrifices, by his late Majesty James the First, who graciously conferred upon this tried servant the post of Warden of the Butteries and Groom of the King’s Posset, which high and confidential office he filled in that king’s and his unhappy successor’s reign.

His age, and many wounds and infirmities, obliged Sir Francis to perform much of his duty by deputy:  and his son, Sir George Esmond, knight and banneret, first as his father’s lieutenant, and afterwards as inheritor of his father’s title and dignity, performed this office during almost the whole of the reign of King Charles the First, and his two sons who succeeded him.

Sir George Esmond married, rather beneath the rank that a person of his name and honor might aspire to, the daughter of Thos.  Topham, of the city of London, alderman and goldsmith, who, taking the Parliamentary side in the troubles then commencing, disappointed Sir George of the property which he expected at the demise of his father-in-law, who devised his money to his second daughter, Barbara, a spinster.