The History of Henry Esmond | Page 8

take off my hat and huzzah to it as it passes in its
gilt coach: and would do my little part with my neighbors on foot, that
they should not gape with too much wonder, nor applaud too loudly. Is
it the Lord Mayor going in state to mince-pies and the Mansion House?
Is it poor Jack of Newgate's procession, with the sheriff and
javelin-men, conducting him on his last journey to Tyburn? I look into
my heart and think that I sin as good as my Lord Mayor, and know I
am as bad as Tyburn Jack. Give me a chain and red gown and a
pudding before me, and I could play the part of Alderman very well,
and sentence Jack after dinner. Starve me, keep me from books and
honest people, educate me to love dice, gin, and pleasure, and put me
on Hounslow Heath, with a purse before me, and I will take it. "And I
shall be deservedly hanged," say you, wishing to put an end to this
prosing. I don't say No. I can't but accept the world as I find it,
including a rope's end, as long as it is in fashion.

CHAPTER I
.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF ESMOND OF
CASTLEWOOD HALL.
When Francis, fourth Viscount Castlewood, came to his title, and
presently after to take possession of his house of Castlewood, county
Hants, in the year 1691, almost the only tenant of the place besides the
domestics was a lad of twelve years of age, of whom no one seemed to
take any note until my Lady Viscountess lighted upon him, going over
the house with the housekeeper on the day of her arrival. The boy was
in the room known as the Book-room, or Yellow Gallery, where the
portraits of the family used to hang, that fine piece among others of Sir
Antonio Van Dyck of George, second Viscount, and that by Mr.
Dobson of my lord the third Viscount, just deceased, which it seems his
lady and widow did not think fit to carry away, when she sent for and
carried off to her house at Chelsey, near to London, the picture of
herself by Sir Peter Lely, in which her ladyship was represented as a
huntress of Diana's court.
The new and fair lady of Castlewood found the sad, lonely, little
occupant of this gallery busy over his great book, which he laid down
when he was aware that a stranger was at hand. And, knowing who that
person must be, the lad stood up and bowed before her, performing a
shy obeisance to the mistress of his house.
She stretched out her hand--indeed when was it that that hand would
not stretch out to do an act of kindness, or to protect grief and
ill-fortune? "And this is our kinsman," she said "and what is your name,
kinsman?"
"My name is Henry Esmond," said the lad, looking up at her in a sort of
delight and wonder, for she had come upon him as a Dea certe, and
appeared the most charming object he had ever looked on. Her golden
hair was shining in the gold of the sun; her complexion was of a
dazzling bloom; her lips smiling, and her eyes beaming with a kindness
which made Harry Esmond's heart to beat with surprise.
"His name is Henry Esmond, sure enough, my lady," says Mrs.
Worksop, the housekeeper (an old tyrant whom Henry Esmond plagued
more than he hated), and the old gentlewoman looked significantly

towards the late lord's picture, as it now is in the family, noble and
severe-looking, with his hand on his sword, and his order on his cloak,
which he had from the Emperor during the war on the Danube against
the Turk.
Seeing the great and undeniable likeness between this portrait and the
lad, the new Viscountess, who had still hold of the boy's hand as she
looked at the picture, blushed and dropped the hand quickly, and
walked down the gallery, followed by Mrs. Worksop.
When the lady came back, Harry Esmond stood exactly in the same
spot, and with his hand as it had fallen when he dropped it on his black
coat.
Her heart melted, I suppose (indeed she hath since owned as much), at
the notion that she should do anything unkind to any mortal, great or
small; for, when she returned, she had sent away the housekeeper upon
an errand by the door at the farther end of the gallery; and, coming back
to the lad, with a look of infinite pity and tenderness in her eyes, she
took his hand again, placing her other fair hand on his head, and saying
some words to him, which were so kind, and said in a voice so