The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable FamilyThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Domestic fiction; Families -- England -- Fiction
“It is such hot weather that I cannot wear the _beautiful shawl_ you
have sent me, and shall keep it _in lavender_ till next winter! My
brother, who thanks you for your continuous bounty, will write next
month, and report progress as to his dear pupil. Clive will add a
postscript of his own, and I am, my dear Major, with a thousand thanks
for your kindness to me,—Your grateful and affectionate Martha
Honeyman.”
In a round hand and on lines ruled with pencil:—
“Dearest Papa i am very well i hope you are Very Well. M Sneed brought
me in a postchaise i like Mr. Sneed very much. i like Aunt Martha i
like Hannah. There are no ships here i am your affectionate son Clive
Newcome.”
II.
Rue St. Dominique, St. Germain, Paris,
Nov. 15, 1820,
“Long separated from the country which was the home of my youth, I
carried from her tender recollections, and bear her always a lively
gratitude. The Heaven has placed me in a position very different from
that in which I knew you. I have been the mother of many children. My
husband has recovered a portion of the property which the Revolution
tore from us; and France, in returning to its legitimate sovereign,
received once more the nobility which accompanied his august house into
exile. We, however, preceded His Majesty, more happy than many of our
companions. Believing further resistance to be useless; dazzled,
perhaps, by the brilliancy of that genius which restored order,
submitted Europe, and governed France; M. de Florac, in the first days,
was reconciled to the Conqueror of Marengo and Austerlitz, and held a
position in his Imperial Court. This submission, at first attributed to
infidelity, has subsequently been pardoned to my husband. His
sufferings during the Hundred Days made to pardon his adhesion to him
who was Emperor. My husband is now an old man. He was of the disastrous
campaign of Moscow, as one of the chamberlains of Napoleon. Withdrawn
from the world, he gives his time to his feeble health—to his family—to
Heaven.
“I have not forgotten a time before those days, when, according to
promises given by my father, I became the wife of M. de Florac.
Sometimes I have heard of your career. One of my parents, M. de F., who
took service in the English India, has entertained me of you; he
informed me how yet a young man you won laurels at Argom and Bhartpour;
how you escaped to death at Laswari. I have followed them, sir, on the
map. I have taken part in your victories and your glory. Ah! I am not
so cold, but my heart has trembled for your dangers; not so aged, but I
remember the young man who learned from the pupil of Frederick the
first rudiments of war. Your great heart, your love of truth, your
courage were your own. None had to teach you those qualities, of which
a good God had endowed you, My good father is dead since many years.
He, too, was permitted to see France before to die.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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