herefore did those three often
consume valuable hours, (yet also I hope not altogether
wasted)--_videlicet_, Alice and Charles, and the honourable Viscount--in
endeavouring to catch the finny tribe, yet seldom with much success. But
whatever was the result of their industry--yea, though it was but a
minnow--it was brought and presented to my Waller by the honourable
hands of the young man, with so loving an air, that it was easy to
behold how gladly he would have consented, if she had been the companion
of their sports, if by any means Charles could have been persuaded to
have exchanged Alice Snowton for her. But the very mention of such an
idea did throw the child into such wrathful indignation, that the right
honourable was fain to bestow on him whole handfuls of sugar-plums, and
promise that Alice should not be left behind. So fared the time away;
and at last I began to hope that the fears of the great lady were
unfounded, and that nothing would occur to trouble her repose. The
manner of living had been resumed again, with the difference that, on
the days the young maidens did not visit the noble mansion, the
honourable viscount was, as it were, domiciled in the parsonage; and I
perceived that, by this arrangement, the great lady was highly pleased;
perhaps because the presence of a kinsman, a courageous gentleman, gave
her some security against the rudenesses she seemed to be afraid of on
the part of her own son--a grievous state of human affairs when the
fifth commandment is not held in honour, and reducing us below the level
of puppy-dogs and kittens, to whom that commandment, along with the rest
of the decalogue, is totally unknown. Sundry times I did observe
symptoms of alarm; and care did write a sad story of mental suffering on
the brow of the great lady, which was a person of the magnanimity of an
ancient matron, and bore up in a manner surprising to behold in one who
stood, as it were, with one hand upon her coffin, while her other
stretched backward through the shadow of fourscore years to touch her
cradle. And ever, from time to time, couriers came to the noble mansion,
while others flew in various directions on swift horses at utmost speed;
and looking up into that lofty atmosphere, we saw clouds and ominous
signs of coming storms, before we could hear the voice of the thunder.
And once a royal messenger (called a pursuivant-at-arms) came down in
person, and carried the great lady to London, and there she s