His mind was set upon creating one of the most extensive landed estates to which noble blood could lay claim. He would receive one of those royal grants of land out of the public domain in Western Pennsylvania, equal to a principality. He would build such a castle that its renown would live through ages. The tenantry would be bound to the soil from generation to generation, paying their rents for the privilege of bare existence upon the lands of a noble lord. The miller’s son would be a miller, the blacksmith’s boy would be a blacksmith, the ploughman’s boy would be a ploughman, toiling without hope and without ambition; for the privilege of equality would be denied them under the English social system. The consuming thought of Barclugh in all these stirring panoramas was the founding of a noble family that would emblazon the crest of Barclugh high in the fields of statesmanship and war. But how was such a problem to be accomplished? Should he wait until his honors had fallen to him, and then go home and ally his name with one of the great houses and names of English nobility? Or should he seek among the best blood in the Colonies, a lady out of the representatives of wealth, gentility, and intellect, because such an one would be inured to the customs and privations of pioneers which a _grande dame_ from ancestral halls could never endure? Either one course or the other must be chosen. For land and heirs are necessary appendages to successful nobles. Land without heirs is a misfortune; but heirs without lands or wealth, among aristocrats, had better been unborn. Roderick Barclugh was not in the habit of jumping at conclusions. Thus in the selection of his bride he had weighed every influence upon the future of his posterity and his estate. He had calculated that his helpmate must be capable of maintaining, by means of her accomplishments, grace of person, and intellect, his exalted social eminence. She must be respected by the Colonial social leaders in order that the administration of the vice-regal office should be deservedly popular. Though to make doubly sure of his results, Barclugh had determined to wed before his mission to America was divulged and before his emoluments and honors were known. If he were to be accepted in his proposals for marriage he would be desired for himself, and not as Viceroy of the most powerful monarch on earth. Once settled in his marital affairs he could open up to his bride the honors of his position, and the power which would rest in her hands. Dreams of William the Conqueror parcelling out estates and titles to his favorites welled up in the mind of Barclugh. “What woman would not enjoy such a position?” thought he. “Not a vestige of the former principles of equality and democracy would be tolerated; every semblance of the principles of the Declaration of Independence would be crushed.”