d passed under his eyes two years
before, when he could not understand it; but reading, and thought, and
experience of men, had oldened him; and one of the deepest sorrows of a
life which had never, in truth, been very happy, came upon him now, when
he was compelled to understand and pity a grief which he stood quite
powerless to relieve.

It hath been said my lord would never take the oath of allegiance, nor
his seat as a peer of the kingdom of Ireland, where, indeed, he had but
a nominal estate; and refused an English peerage which King William's
government offered him as a bribe to secure his loyalty.

He might have accepted this, and would doubtless, but for the earnest
remonstrances of his wife, who ruled her husband's opinions better than
she could govern his conduct, and who being a simple-hearted woman,
with but one rule of faith and right, never thought of swerving from her
fidelity to the exiled family, or of recognizing any other sovereign but
King James; and though she acquiesced in the doctrine of obedience to
the reigning power, no temptation, she thought, could induce her to
acknowledge the Prince of Orange as rightful monarch, nor to let her
lord so acknowledge him. So my Lord Castlewood remained a nonjuror all
his life nearly, though his self-denial caused him many a pang, and left
him sulky and out of humor.

The year after the Revolution, and all through King William's life, 'tis
known there were constant intrigues for the restoration of the exiled
family; but if my Lord Castlewood took any share of these, as is
probable, 'twas only for a short time, and when Harry Esmond was too
young to be introduced into such important secrets.

But in the year 1695, when that conspiracy of Sir John Fenwick, Colonel
Lowick, and others, was set on foot, for waylaying King William as he
came from Hampton Court to London, and a secret plot was formed, in
which a vast number of the nobility and people of honor were engaged,
Father Holt appeared at Castlewood, and brought a young friend with
him, a gentleman whom 'twas easy to see that both my lord and the Father
treated with uncommon deference. Harry Esmond saw this gentleman, and
knew and recognized him in after life, as shall be shown in its place;
and he has little doubt now that my Lord Viscount was implicated
somewhat in the transactions which always kept Father Holt employed
and travelling hither and thither under a dozen of different names and
disguises. T