History of Henry Esmond, Esq. A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne , livre ebook

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. A COLONEL IN THE SERVICE OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ANNE WRITTEN BY HIMSELF By William Makepeace Thackeray Boston, Estes and Lauriat, Publisher

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819941231
Langue	English

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THE HISTORY OF HENRY ESMOND, ESQ.
A COLONEL IN THE SERVICE OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ANNEWRITTEN BY HIMSELF By William Makepeace Thackeray Boston, Estes andLauriat, Publishers
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE WILLIAM BINGHAM, LORDASHBURTON.
MY DEAR LORD, The writer of a book which copies themanners and language of Queen Anne's time, must not omit theDedication to the Patron; and I ask leave to inscribe this volumeto your Lordship, for the sake of the great kindness and friendshipwhich I owe to you and yours.
My volume will reach you when the Author is on hisvoyage to a country where your name is as well known as here.Wherever I am, I shall gratefully regard you; and shall not be theless welcomed in America because I am,
Your obliged friend and servant,
W. M. THACKERAY. LONDON, October 18, 1852.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE.
THE ESMONDS OF VIRGINIA.
The estate of Castlewood, in Virginia, which wasgiven to our ancestors by King Charles the First, as some returnfor the sacrifices made in his Majesty's cause by the Esmondfamily, lies in Westmoreland county, between the rivers Potomac andRappahannock, and was once as great as an English Principality,though in the early times its revenues were but small. Indeed, fornear eighty years after our forefathers possessed them, ourplantations were in the hands of factors, who enriched themselvesone after another, though a few scores of hogsheads of tobacco wereall the produce that, for long after the Restoration, our familyreceived from their Virginian estates.
My dear and honored father, Colonel Henry Esmond,whose history, written by himself, is contained in the accompanyingvolume, came to Virginia in the year 1718, built his house ofCastlewood, and here permanently settled. After a long stormy lifein England, he passed the remainder of his many years in peace andhonor in this country; how beloved and respected by all hisfellow-citizens, how inexpressibly dear to his family, I need notsay. His whole life was a benefit to all who were connected withhim. He gave the best example, the best advice, the most bounteoushospitality to his friends; the tenderest care to his dependants;and bestowed on those of his immediate family such a blessing offatherly love and protection as can never be thought of, by us, atleast, without veneration and thankfulness; and my sons' children,whether established here in our Republic, or at home in the alwaysbeloved mother country, from which our late quarrel hath separatedus, may surely be proud to be descended from one who in all wayswas so truly noble.
My dear mother died in 1736, soon after our returnfrom England, whither my parents took me for my education; andwhere I made the acquaintance of Mr. Warrington, whom my childrennever saw. When it pleased heaven, in the bloom of his youth, andafter but a few months of a most happy union, to remove him fromme, I owed my recovery from the grief which that calamity causedme, mainly to my dearest father's tenderness, and then to theblessing vouchsafed to me in the birth of my two beloved boys. Iknow the fatal differences which separated them in politics neverdisunited their hearts; and as I can love them both, whetherwearing the King's colors or the Republic's, I am sure that theylove me and one another, and him above all, my father and theirs,the dearest friend of their childhood, the noble gentleman who bredthem from their infancy in the practice and knowledge of Truth, andLove and Honor.
My children will never forget the appearance andfigure of their revered grandfather; and I wish I possessed the artof drawing (which my papa had in perfection), so that I could leaveto our descendants a portrait of one who was so good and sorespected. My father was of a dark complexion, with a very greatforehead and dark hazel eyes, overhung by eyebrows which remainedblack long after his hair was white. His nose was aquiline, hissmile extraordinary sweet. How well I remember it, and how littleany description I can write can recall his image! He was of ratherlow stature, not being above five feet seven inches in height; heused to laugh at my sons, whom he called his crutches, and say theywere grown too tall for him to lean upon. But small as he was, hehad a perfect grace and majesty of deportment, such as I have neverseen in this country, except perhaps in our friend Mr. Washington,and commanded respect wherever he appeared.
In all bodily exercises he excelled, and showed anextraordinary quickness and agility. Of fencing he was especiallyfond, and made my two boys proficient in that art; so much so, thatwhen the French came to this country with Monsieur Rochambeau, notone of his officers was superior to my Henry, and he was not theequal of my poor George, who had taken the King's side in ourlamentable but glorious war of independence.
Neither my father nor my mother ever wore powder intheir hair; both their heads were as white as silver, as I canremember them. My dear mother possessed to the last anextraordinary brightness and freshness of complexion; nor wouldpeople believe that she did not wear rouge. At sixty years of ageshe still looked young, and was quite agile. It was not until afterthat dreadful siege of our house by the Indians, which left me awidow ere I was a mother, that my dear mother's health broke. Shenever recovered her terror and anxiety of those days which ended sofatally for me, then a bride scarce six months married, and died inmy father's arms ere my own year of widowhood was over.
From that day, until the last of his dear andhonored life, it was my delight and consolation to remain with himas his comforter and companion; and from those little notes whichmy mother hath made here and there in the volume in which my fatherdescribes his adventures in Europe, I can well understand theextreme devotion with which she regarded him— a devotion sopassionate and exclusive as to prevent her, I think, from lovingany other person except with an inferior regard; her whole thoughtsbeing centred on this one object of affection and worship. I knowthat, before her, my dear father did not show the love which he hadfor his daughter; and in her last and most sacred moments, thisdear and tender parent owned to me her repentance that she had notloved me enough: her jealousy even that my father should give hisaffection to any but herself: and in the most fond and beautifulwords of affection and admonition, she bade me never to leave him,and to supply the place which she was quitting. With a clearconscience, and a heart inexpressibly thankful, I think I can saythat I fulfilled those dying commands, and that until his last hourmy dearest father never had to complain that his daughter's loveand fidelity failed him.
And it is since I knew him entirely— for during mymother's life he never quite opened himself to me— since I knew thevalue and splendor of that affection which he bestowed upon me,that I have come to understand and pardon what, I own, used toanger me in my mother's lifetime, her jealousy respecting herhusband's love. 'Twas a gift so precious, that no wonder she whohad it was for keeping it all, and could part with none of it, evento her daughter.
Though I never heard my father use a rough word,'twas extraordinary with how much awe his people regarded him; andthe servants on our plantation, both those assigned from Englandand the purchased negroes, obeyed him with an eagerness such as themost severe taskmasters round about us could never get from theirpeople. He was never familiar, though perfectly simple and natural;he was the same with the meanest man as with the greatest, and ascourteous to a black slave-girl as to the Governor's wife. No oneever thought of taking a liberty with him (except once a tipsygentleman from York, and I am bound to own that my papa neverforgave him): he set the humblest people at once on their ease withhim, and brought down the most arrogant by a grave satiric way,which made persons exceedingly afraid of him. His courtesy was notput on like a Sunday suit, and laid by when the company went away;it was always the same; as he was always dressed the same, whetherfor a dinner by ourselves or for a great entertainment. They say heliked to be the first in his company; but what company was there inwhich he would not be first? When I went to Europe for myeducation, and we passed a winter at London with my half-brother,my Lord Castlewood and his second lady, I saw at her Majesty'sCourt some of the most famous gentlemen of those days; and Ithought to myself none of these are better than my papa; and thefamous Lord Bolingbroke, who came to us from Dawley, said as much,and that the men of that time were not like those of his youth:—“Were your father, Madam, ” he said, “to go into the woods, theIndians would elect him Sachem; ” and his lordship was pleased tocall me Pocahontas.
I did not see our other relative, Bishop Tusher'slady, of whom so much is said in my papa's memoirs— although mymamma went to visit her in the country. I have no pride (as Ishowed by complying with my mother's request, and marrying agentleman who was but the younger son of a Suffolk Baronet), yet Iown to A DECENT RESPECT for my name, and wonder how one who everbore it, should change it for that of Mrs. THOMAS TUSHER. I passover as odious and unworthy of credit those reports (which I heardin Europe and was then too young to understand), how this person,having LEFT HER FAMILY and fled to Paris, out of jealousy of thePretender betrayed his secrets to my Lord Stair, King George'sAmbassador, and nearly caused the Prince's death there; how shecame to England and married this Mr. Tusher, and became a greatfavorite of King George the Second, by whom Mr. Tusher was made aDean, and then a Bishop. I did not see the lady, who chose toremain AT HER PALACE all the time we were in London; but aftervisiting her, my poor mamma said she had lost all her good looks,and warned me not to set too much store by any such gifts whi