Boys and Girls From Thackeray | Page 4

could talk to him in his
own language perfectly well. He knew it better than English, indeed,
having lived hitherto among French people, and being called the Little
Frenchman by other boys on Ealing Green.
The lackey was very talkative and informed the boy that the gentleman
riding before him was my lord's chaplain, Father Holt; that he was now

to be called Master Harry Esmond; that my Lord Viscount Castlewood
was his patron; that he was to live at the great house of Castlewood, in
the province of ----shire, where he would see Madame the Viscountess,
who was a grand lady, and that he was to be educated for the priesthood.
And so, seated on a cloth before Blaise's saddle, Harry Esmond was
brought to London, and to a fine square called Covent Garden, near to
which his patron lodged.
Mr. Holt, the priest, took the child by the hand and brought him to this
grand languid nobleman, who sat in a great cap and flowered
morning-gown, sucking oranges. He patted Harry on the head and gave
him an orange, and directed Blaise to take him out for a holiday; and
out for a holiday the boy and the valet went. Harry went jumping along;
he was glad enough to go.
He remembered to his life's end the delights of those days. He was
taken to see a play, in a house a thousand times greater and finer than
the booth at Ealing Fair; and on the next happy day they took water on
the river, and Harry saw London Bridge, with the houses and book:
sellers' shops on it, looking like a street, and the tower of London, with
the Armour, and the great lions and bears in the moat--all under
company of Monsieur Blaise.
Presently, of an early morning, all the party set forth for the country,
and all along the road the Frenchman told little Harry stories of
brigands, which made the child's hair stand on end, and terrified him;
so that at the great gloomy inn on the road where they lay, he besought
to be allowed to sleep in a room with one of the servants, and Father
Holt took pity on him and gave the child a little bed in his chamber.
His artless talk and answers very likely inclined this gentleman in his
favour, for next day Mr. Holt said Harry should ride behind him, and
not with the French lackey; and all along the journey put a thousand
questions to the child--as to his foster-brother and relations at Ealing;
what his old grandfather had taught him; what languages he knew;
whether he could read and write, and sing, and so forth. And Mr. Holt
found that Harry could read and write, and possessed the two languages
of French and English very well. The lad so pleased the gentleman by

his talk that they had him to dine with them at the inn, and encouraged
him in his prattle; and Monsieur Blaise, with whom he rode and dined
the day before, waited upon him now.
At length, on the third day, at evening, they came to a village on the
green with elms around it, and the people there all took off their hats,
and made curtsies to my Lord Viscount, who bowed to them all
languidly; and there was one portly person that wore a cassock and a
broad-leafed hat, who bowed lower than anyone, and with this one both
my lord and Mr. Holt had a few words.
"This, Harry, is Castlewood church," says Mr. Holt, "and this is the
pillar thereof, learned Dr. Tusher. Take off your hat, sirrah, and salute
Dr. Tusher!"
"Come up to supper, Doctor," says my lord; at which the Doctor made
another low bow, and the party moved on towards a grand house that
was before them, with many grey towers, and vanes on them, and
windows flaming in the sunshine, and they passed under an arch into a
courtyard, with a fountain in the centre, where many men came and
held my lord's stirrup as he descended, and paid great respect to Mr.
Holt likewise.
Taking Harry by the hand as soon as they were both descended from
their horses, Mr. Holt led him across the court, to rooms on a level with
the ground, one of which Father Holt said was to be the boy's chamber,
the other on the other side of the passage being the Father's own. As
soon as the little man's face was washed, and the Father's own dress
arranged, Harry's guide took him once more to the door by which my
lord had entered the hall, and up a stair, and through an ante-room to
my lady's drawing-room--an apartment than which Harry thought he
had never seen anything more