Devereux | Page 7

lived in and his domestic
history rendered natural enough; namely, an exceeding distaste to the
matrimonial state: early marriages were misery, imprudent marriages
idiotism, and marriage, at the best, he was wont to say, with a kindling
eye and a heightened colour, marriage at the best was the devil! Yet it
must not be supposed that Sir William Devereux was an ungallant man.
On the contrary, never did the /beau sexe/ have a humbler or more
devoted servant. As nothing in his estimation was less becoming to a
wise man than matrimony, so nothing was more ornamental than
flirtation.
He had the old man's weakness, garrulity; and he told the wittiest
stories in the world, without omitting anything in them but the point.
This omission did not arise from the want either of memory or of
humour; but solely from a deficiency in the malice natural to all jesters.
He could not persuade his lips to repeat a sarcasm hurting even the
dead or the ungrateful; and when he came to the drop of gall which
should have given zest to the story, the milk of human kindness broke
its barrier, despite of himself,--and washed it away. He was a fine
wreck, a little prematurely broken by dissipation, but not perhaps the
less interesting on that account; tall, and somewhat of the jovial old

English girth, with a face where good-nature and good living mingled
their smiles and glow. He wore the garb of twenty years back, and was
curiously particular in the choice of his silk stockings. Between you
and me, he was not a little vain of his leg, and a compliment on that
score was always sure of a gracious reception.
The solitude of my uncle's household was broken by an invasion of
three boys,--none of the quietest,--and their mother, who, the gentlest
and saddest of womankind, seemed to follow them, the emblem of that
primeval silence from which all noise was born. These three boys were
my two brothers and myself. My father, who had conceived a strong
personal attachment for Louis XIV., never quitted his service, and the
great King repaid him by orders and favours without number; he died
of wounds received in battle,--a Count and a Marshal, full of renown
and destitute of money. He had married twice: his first wife, who died
without issue, was a daughter of the noble house of La Tremouille; his
second, our mother, was of a younger branch of the English race of
Howard. Brought up in her native country, and influenced by a
primitive and retired education, she never loved that gay land which her
husband had adopted as his own. Upon his death she hastened her
return to England, and refusing, with somewhat of honourable pride,
the magnificent pension which Louis wished to settle upon the widow
of his favourite, came to throw herself and her children upon those
affections which she knew they were entitled to claim.
My uncle was unaffectedly rejoiced to receive us; to say nothing of his
love for my father, and his pride at the honours the latter had won to
their ancient house, the good gentleman was very well pleased with the
idea of obtaining four new listeners, out of whom he might select an
heir, and he soon grew as fond of us as we were of him. At the time of
our new settlement, I had attained the age of twelve; my second brother
(we were twins) was born an hour after me; my third was about fifteen
months younger. I had never been the favourite of the three. In the first
place, my brothers (my youngest especially) were uncommonly
handsome, and, at most, I was but tolerably good-looking: in the
second place, my mind was considered as much inferior to theirs as my
body; I was idle and dull, sullen and haughty,--the only wit I ever

displayed was in sneering at my friends, and the only spirit, in
quarrelling with my twin brother; so said or so thought all who saw us
in our childhood; and it follows, therefore, that I was either very
unamiable or very much misunderstood.
But, to the astonishment of myself and my relations, my fate was now
to be reversed; and I was no sooner settled at Devereux Court than I
became evidently the object of Sir William's pre-eminent attachment.
The fact was, that I really liked both the knight and his stories better
than my brothers did; and the very first time I had seen my uncle, I had
commented on the beauty of his stocking, and envied the constitution
of his leg; from such trifles spring affection! In truth, our attachment to
each other so increased that we grew to be constantly together; and
while my childish anticipations of the world