ce in the colonial society occasionally disturbed
her temper; for though her father had had a marquis's patent from King
James, which he had burned and disowned, she would frequently act as if
that document existed and was in full force. She considered the English
Esmonds of an inferior dignity to her own branch; and as for the
colonial aristocracy, she made no scruple of asserting her superiority
over the whole body of them. Hence quarrels and angry words, and even
a scuffle or two, as we gather from her notes, at the Governor's
assemblies at Jamestown. Wherefore recall the memory of these squabbles?
Are not the persons who engaged in them beyond the reach of quarrels
now, and has not the republic put an end to these social inequalities?
Ere the establishment of Independence, there was no more aristocratic
country in the world than Virginia; so the Virginians, whose history
we have to narrate, were bred to have the fullest respect for the
institutions of home, and the rightful king had not two more faithful
little subjects than the young twins of Castlewood.

When the boys' grandfather died, their mother, in great state,
proclaimed her eldest son George her successor and heir of the estate;
and Harry, George's younger brother by half an hour, was always enjoined
to respect his senior. All the household was equally instructed to pay
him honour; the negroes, of whom there was a large and happy family, and
the assigned servants from Europe, whose lot was made as bearable as it
might be under the government of the lady of Castlewood. In the whole
family there scarcely was a rebel save Mrs. Esmond's faithful friend and
companion, Madam Mountain, and Harry's foster-mother, a faithful negro
woman, who never could be made to understand why her child should not be
first, who was handsomer, and stronger, and cleverer than his brother,
as she vowed; though, in truth, there was scarcely any difference in the
beauty, strength, or stature of the twins. In disposition, they were in
many points exceedingly unlike; but in feature they resembled each other
so closely, that but for the colour of their hair it had been difficult
to distinguish them. In their beds, and when their heads were covered
with those vast ribboned nightcaps which our great and little ancestors
wore, it was scarcely possible for any but a nurse or mother to tell the
one from the other child.

Howbeit alike in form, we have said that they differed in temper. The
el