increased confidence was this: upon going to London,
the old director of Esmond's aunt, the dowager, paid her ladyship a
visit at Chelsey, and there learnt from her that Captain Esmond was
acquainted with the secret of his family, and was determined never to
divulge it. The knowledge of this fact raised Esmond in his old tutor's
eyes, so Holt was pleased to say, and he admired Harry very much for his
abnegation.

"The family at Castlewood have done far more for me than my own ever
did," Esmond said. "I would give my life for them. Why should I grudge
the only benefit that 'tis in my power to confer on them?" The good
Father's eyes filled with tears at this speech, which to the other
seemed very simple: he embraced Esmond, and broke out into many admiring
expressions; he said he was a noble coeur, that he was proud of him, and
fond of him as his pupil and friend--regretted more than ever that he
had lost him, and been forced to leave him in those early times, when
he might have had an influence over him, have brought him into that
only true church to which the Father belonged, and enlisted him in the
noblest army in which a man ever engaged--meaning his own society of
Jesus, which numbers (says he) in its troops the greatest heroes the
world ever knew;--warriors brave enough to dare or endure anything, to
encounter any odds, to die any death--soldiers that have won triumphs a
thousand times more brilliant than those of the greatest general; that
have brought nations on their knees to their sacred banner, the Cross;
that have achieved glories and palms incomparably brighter than those
awarded to the most splendid earthly conquerors--crowns of immortal
light, and seats in the high places of heaven.

Esmond was thankful for his old friend's good opinion, however little
he might share the Jesuit-father's enthusiasm. "I have thought of
that question, too," says he, "dear Father," and he took the other's
hand--"thought it out for myself, as all men must, and contrive to do
the right, and trust to heaven as devoutly in my way as you in yours.
Another six months of you as a child, and I had desired no better. I
used to weep upon my pillow at Castlewood as I thought of you, and I
might have been a brother of your order; and who knows," Esmond added,
with a smile, "a priest in full orders, and with a pair of mustachios,
and a Bavarian uniform?"

"My son," says Father Holt, turning red, "in the cause of religion and
loyalty all