was severed from her children
and alone in the world--alone but for one constant servant on whose
fidelity, praised be Heaven, she could count. 'Twas after a scene of
ignoble quarrel on the part of Frank's wife and mother (for the poor lad
had been made to marry the whole of that German family with whom he had
connected himself), that I found my mistress one day in tears, and then
besought her to confide herself to the care and devotion of one who,
by God's help, would never forsake her. And then the tender matron, as
beautiful in her Autumn, and as pure as virgins in their spring, with
blushes of love and "eyes of meek surrender," yielded to my respectful
importunity, and consented to share my home. Let the last words I write
thank her, and bless her who hath blessed it.

By the kindness of Mr. Addison, all danger of prosecution, and every
obstacle against our return to England, was removed; and my son Frank's
gallantry in Scotland made his peace with the King's government. But we
two cared no longer to live in England: and Frank formally and joyfully
yielded over to us the possession of that estate which we now occupy,
far away from Europe and its troubles, on the beautiful banks of the
Potomac, where we have built a new Castlewood, and think with grateful
hearts of our old home. In our Transatlantic country we have a season,
the calmest and most delightful of the year, which we call the Indian
summer: I often say the autumn of our life resembles that happy and
serene weather, and am thankful for its rest and its sweet sunshine.
Heaven hath blessed us with a child, which each parent loves for her
resemblance to the other. Our diamonds are turned into ploughs and axes
for our plantations; and into negroes, the happiest and merriest, I
think, in all this country: and the only jewel by which my wife sets
any store, and from which she hath never parted, is that gold button she
took from my arm on the day when she visited me in prison, and which she
wore ever after, as she told me, on the tenderest heart in the world.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., by
W. M. Thackeray

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