The Young Duke | Page 2

the St.
Maurice family had the gratification, as they thought, of completely
deceiving him. Lady Fitz-pompey called twice a week at Crest House
with a supply of pine-apples or bonbons, and the Rev. Dr. Coronet
bowed in adoration. Lady Isabella St. Maurice gave a china cup to Mrs.
Coronet, and Lady Augusta a paper-cutter to Miss. The family was
secured. All discipline was immediately set at defiance, and the young
Duke passed the greater part of the half-year with his affectionate
relations. His Grace, charmed with the bonbons of his aunt and the
kisses of his cousins, which were even sweeter than the sugar-plums;
delighted with the pony of St. Maurice, which immediately became his
own; and inebriated by the attentions of his uncle,--who, at eight years
of age, treated him, as his Lordship styled it, 'like a man'--contrasted
this life of early excitement with what now appeared the gloom and the
restraint of Castle Dacre, and he soon entered into the conspiracy,
which had long been hatching, with genuine enthusiasm. He wrote to
his guardian, and obtained permission to spend his vacation with his
uncle. Thus, through the united indulgence of Dr. Coronet and Mr.
Dacre, the Duke of St. James became a member of the family of St.
Maurice.
No sooner had Lord Fitz-pompey secured the affections of the ward
than he entirely changed his system towards the guardian. He wrote to
Mr. Dacre, and in a manner equally kind and dignified courted his
acquaintance. He dilated upon the extraordinary, though extremely
natural, affection which Lady Fitz-pompey entertained for the only
offspring of her beloved brother, upon the happiness which the young
Duke enjoyed with his cousins, upon the great and evident advantages
which his Grace would derive from companions of his own age, of the
singular friendship which he had already formed with St. Maurice; and

then, after paying Mr. Dacre many compliments upon the admirable
manner in which he had already fulfilled the duties of his important
office, and urging the lively satisfaction that a visit from their brother's
friend would confer both upon Lady Fitz-pompey and himself, he
requested permission for his nephew to renew the visit in which he had
been 'so happy!' The Duke seconded the Earl's diplomatic scrawl in the
most graceful round-text. The masterly intrigues of Lord Fitz-pompey,
assisted by Mrs. Dacre's illness, which daily increased, and which
rendered perfect quiet indispensable, were successful, and the young
Duke arrived at his twelfth year without revisiting Dacre. Every year,
however, when Mr. Dacre made a short visit to London, his ward spent
a few days in his company, at the house of an old-fashioned Catholic
nobleman; a visit which only afforded a dull contrast to the gay society
and constant animation of his uncle's establishment.
It would seem that fate had determined to counteract the intentions of
the late Duke of St. James, and to achieve those of the Earl of
Fitz-pompey. At the moment that the noble minor was about to leave
Dr. Coronet for Eton, Mrs. Dacre's state was declared hopeless, except
from the assistance of an Italian sky, and Mr. Dacre, whose attachment
to his lady was romantic, determined to leave England immediately.
It was with deep regret that he parted from his ward, whom he tenderly
loved; but all considerations merged in the paramount one; and he was
consoled by the reflection that he was, at least, left to the care of his
nearest connections. Mr. Dacre was not unaware of the dangers to
which his youthful pledge might be exposed by the indiscriminate
indulgence of his uncle, but he trusted to the impartial and inviolable
system of a public school to do much; and he anticipated returning to
England before his ward was old enough to form those habits which are
generally so injurious to young nobles. In this hope Mr. Dacre was
disappointed. Mrs. Dacre lingered, and revived, and lingered, for nearly
eight years; now filling the mind of her husband and her daughter with
unreasonable hope, now delivering them to that renewed anguish, that
heart-rending grief, which the attendant upon a declining relative can
alone experience, additionally agonizing because it cannot be indulged.
Mrs. Dacre died, and the widower and his daughter returned to England.

In the meantime, the Duke of St. James had not been idle.
CHAPTER II.
Tender Relatives
THE departure and, at length, the total absence of Mr. Dacre from
England yielded to Lord Fitz-pompey all the opportunity he had long
desired. Hitherto he had contented himself with quietly sapping the
influence of the guardian: now that influence was openly assailed. All
occasions were seized of depreciating the character of Mr. Dacre, and
open lamentations were poured forth on the strange and unhappy
indiscretion of the father who had confided the guardianship of his