ccrue to the country by bringing a tipsy young monarch back to it,
Colonel Esmond had his audience of leave and quiet. Monsieur Simon took
his departure. At any rate the youth at Bar was as good as the older
Pretender at Hanover; if the worst came to the worst, the Englishman
could be dealt with as easy as the German. Monsieur Simon trotted
on that long journey from Nancy to Paris, and saw that famous town,
stealthily and like a spy, as in truth he was; and where, sure, more
magnificence and more misery is heaped together, more rags and lace,
more filth and gilding, than in any city in this world. Here he was
put in communication with the King's best friend, his half brother, the
famous Duke of Berwick; Esmond recognized him as the stranger who had
visited Castlewood now near twenty years ago. His Grace opened to him
when he found that Mr. Esmond was one of Webb's brave regiment, that had
once been his Grace's own. He was the sword and buckler indeed of the
Stuart cause: there was no stain on his shield except the bar across it,
which Marlborough's sister left him. Had Berwick been his father's heir,
James the Third had assuredly sat on the English throne. He could dare,
endure, strike, speak, be silent. The fire and genius, perhaps, he had
not (that were given to baser men), but except these he had some of the
best qualities of a leader. His Grace knew Esmond's father and history;
and hinted at the latter in such a way as made the Colonel to think he
was aware of the particulars of that story. But Esmond did not choose to
enter on it, nor did the Duke press him. Mr. Esmond said, "No doubt he
should come by his name if ever greater people came by theirs."

What confirmed Esmond in his notion that the Duke of Berwick knew of his
case was, that when the Colonel went to pay his duty at St. Germains,
her Majesty once addressed him by the title of Marquis. He took the
Queen the dutiful remembrances of her goddaughter, and the lady whom,
in the days of her prosperity, her Majesty had befriended. The
Queen remembered Rachel Esmond perfectly well, had heard of my Lord
Castlewood's conversion, and was much edified by that act of heaven in
his favor. She knew that others of that family had been of the only true
church too: "Your father and your mother, M. le Marquis," her Majesty
said (that was the only time she used the phrase). Monsieur Simon bowed
very low, and said he had found other parents than his own, who had
taught him di