“And from whom?” again asked Colonel Esmond—and his mistress then told him that on her death-bed the dowager countess, sending for her, had presented her with this dismal secret as a legacy. “'Twas very malicious of the dowager,” Lady Esmond said, “to have had it so long, and to have kept the truth from me. ‘Cousin Rachel,’ she said,” and Esmond's mistress could not forbear smiling as she told the story, “ ‘cousin Rachel,’ cries the dowager, ‘I have sent for you, as the doctors say I may go off any day in this dysentery; and to ease my conscience of a great load that has been on it. You always have been a poor creature and unfit for great honour, and what I have to say won't, therefore, affect you so much. You must know, cousin Rachel, that I have left my house, plate, and furniture, three thousand pounds in money, and my diamonds that my late revered saint and sovereign, King James, presented me with, to my Lord Viscount Castlewood.’
“ ‘To my Frank?’ ” says Lady Castlewood: “ ‘I was in hopes——
“ ‘To Viscount Castlewood, my dear, Viscount Castlewood, and Baron Esmond of Shandon in the kingdom of Ireland, Earl and Marquis of Esmond under patent of his Majesty King James the Second, conferred upon my husband the late marquis—for I am Marchioness of Esmond before God and man.’
“ ‘And have you left poor Harry nothing, dear marchioness?’ ” asks Lady Castlewood (she hath told me the story completely since with her quiet arch way; the most charming any woman ever had: and I set down the narrative here at length so as to have done with it). “ ‘And have you left poor Harry nothing?’ ” asks my dear lady: “for you know, Henry,” she says with her sweet smile, “I used always to pity Esau—and I think I am on his side—though papa tried very hard to convince me the other way.
“ ‘Poor Harry!’ says the old lady. ‘So you want something left to poor Harry: he, he! (reach me the drops, cousin). Well then, my dear, since you want poor Harry to have a fortune: you must understand that ever since the year 1691, a week after the battle of the Boyne, where the Prince of Orange defeated his royal sovereign and father, for which crime he is now suffering in flames (ugh, ugh), Henry Esmond hath been Marquis of Esmond and Earl of Castlewood in the United Kingdom, and Baron and Viscount Castlewood of Shandon in Ireland, and a baronet—and his eldest son will be, by courtesy, styled Earl of Castlewood—he! he! What do you think of that, my dear?’
“ ‘Gracious mercy! how long have you known this?’ ” cries the other lady (thinking perhaps that the old marchioness was wandering in her wits).
“ ‘My husband, before he was converted, was a wicked wretch,’ ” the sick sinner continued. “ ‘When he was in the Low Countries he seduced a weaver's daughter; and added to his wickedness by marrying her. And then he came to this country and married me—a poor girl—a poor innocent young thing—I say,’ though she was past forty, you know, Harry, when she married: and as for being innocent—‘Well,’ she went on, ‘I knew nothing of my lord's wickedness for three years after our marriage, and after the burial of our poor little boy I had it done over again, my dear. I had myself married by Father Holt in Castlewood chapel, [pg 330] as soon as ever I heard the creature was dead—and having a great illness then, arising from another sad disappointment I had, the priest came and told me that my lord had a son before our marriage, and that the child was at nurse in England; and I consented to let the brat be brought home, and a queer little melancholy child it was when it came.
“ ‘Our intention was to make a priest of him: and he was bred for this, until you perverted him from it, you wicked woman. And I had again hopes of giving an heir to my lord, when he was called away upon the king's business, and died fighting gloriously at the Boyne Water.
“ ‘Should I be disappointed—I owed your husband no love, my dear, for he had jilted me in the most scandalous way; and I thought there would be time to declare the little weaver's son for the true heir. But I was carried off to prison, where your husband was so kind to me—urging all his friends to obtain my release, and using all his credit in my favour—that I relented towards him, especially as my director counselled me to be silent; and that it was for the good of the king's service that the title of our family should continue with your husband the late viscount, whereby his fidelity would be always secured to the king. And a proof of this is, that a year before your husband's death, when he thought of taking a place under the Prince of Orange, Mr. Holt went to him, and told him what the state of the matter was, and obliged him to raise a large sum for his Majesty: and engaged him in the true cause so heartily, that we were sure of his support on any day when it should be considered advisable to attack the usurper. Then his sudden death came; and there was a thought of declaring the truth. But 'twas determined to be best for the king's service to let the title still go with the younger branch; and there's no sacrifice a Castlewood wouldn't make for that cause, my dear.
“ ‘As for Colonel Esmond, he knew the truth already’ (and then, Harry,” my mistress said, “she told me of what had happened at my dear husband's death-bed). ‘He doth not intend to take the title, though it belongs to him. But it eases my conscience that you should know the truth, my dear. And your son is lawfully Viscount Castlewood so long as his cousin doth not claim the rank.’ ”