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
My lady's bed-chamber window looked out over the country, and you could
see from it the purple hills beyond Castlewood village, the green common
betwixt that and the Hall, and the old bridge which crossed over the
river. When Harry Esmond went away for Cambridge, little Frank ran
alongside his horse as far as the bridge, and there Harry stopped for a
moment, and looked back at the house where the best part of his life had
been passed. It lay before him with its gray familiar towers, a pinnacle
or two shining in the sun, the buttresses and terrace walls casting
great blue shades on the grass. And Harry remembered, all his life
after, how he saw his mistress at the window looking out on him in a
white robe, the little Beatrix's chestnut curls resting at her mother's
side. Both waved a farewell to him, and little Frank sobbed to leave
him. Yes, he WOULD be his lady's true knight, he vowed in his heart; he
waved her an adieu with his hat. The village people had Good-by to say
to him too. All knew that Master Harry was going to college, and most of
them had a kind word and a look of farewell. I do not stop to say what
adventures he began to imagine, or what career to devise for himself
before he had ridden three miles from home. He had not read Monsieur
Galland's ingenious Arabian tales as yet; but be sure that there are
other folks who build castles in the air, and have fine hopes, and kick
them down too, besides honest Alnaschar.
CHAPTER X.
I GO TO CAMBRIDGE, AND DO BUT LITTLE GOOD THERE.
Mr lord, who said he should like to revisit the old haunts of his youth,
kindly accompanied Harry Esmond in his first journey to Cambridge. Their
road lay through London, where my Lord Viscount would also have Harry
stay a few days to show him the pleasures of the town before he entered
upon his university studies, and whilst here Harry's patron conducted
the young man to my Lady Dowager's house at Chelsey near London:
the kind lady at Castlewood having specially ordered that the young
gentleman and the old should pay a respectful visit in that quarter.
Her ladyship the Viscountess Dowager occupied a handsome new house in
Chelsey, with a garden behind it, and facing the river, always a bright
and animated sight with its swarms of sailors, barges, and wherries.
Harry laughed at recognizing in the parlor the well-remembered old
piece of Sir Peter Lely, wherein his father's widow was represented as
a virgin huntress, armed with a gilt bow-and-arrow, and encumbered only
with that small quantity of drapery which it would seem the virgins in
King Charles's day were accustomed to wear.
My Lady Dowager had left off this peculiar habit of huntress when she
married. But though she was now considerably past sixty years of age, I
believe she thought that airy nymph of the picture could still be easily
recognized in the venerable personage who gave an audience to Harry and
his patron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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