The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen AnneThackeray, William Makepeace
History
The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
And it appeared she found that some were friends in her misfortune, whom
she had, in her prosperity, considered as her worst enemies. Colonel
Francis Esmond, my lord's cousin and her ladyship's, who had married the
Dean of Winchester's daughter, and, since King James's departure out of
England, had lived not very far away from Hexton town, hearing of his
kinswoman's strait, and being friends with Colonel Brice, commanding for
King William in Hexton, and with the Church dignitaries there, came
to visit her ladyship in prison, offering to his uncle's daughter any
friendly services which lay in his power. And he brought his lady and
little daughter to see the prisoner, to the latter of whom, a child
of great beauty and many winning ways, the old Viscountess took not
a little liking, although between her ladyship and the child's mother
there was little more love than formerly. There are some injuries which
women never forgive one another; and Madam Francis Esmond, in marrying
her cousin, had done one of those irretrievable wrongs to Lady
Castlewood. But as she was now humiliated, and in misfortune, Madam
Francis could allow a truce to her enmity, and could be kind for a
while, at least, to her husband's discarded mistress. So the little
Beatrix, her daughter, was permitted often to go and visit the
imprisoned Viscountess, who, in so far as the child and its father
were concerned, got to abate in her anger towards that branch of the
Castlewood family. And the letters of Colonel Esmond coming to light,
as has been said, and his conduct being known to the King's council, the
Colonel was put in a better position with the existing government than
he had ever before been; any suspicions regarding his loyalty were
entirely done away; and so he was enabled to be of more service to his
kinswoman than he could otherwise have been.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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