seeing the picture, (it was ordinarily covered by a curtain, but on this
day Miss Beatrix happened to be looking at it when the Doctor arrived,)
the Vicar of Castlewood vowed he could not see any resemblance in the
piece to his old pupil, except, perhaps, a little about the chin and the
periwig; but we all of us convinced him that he had not seen Frank for
five years or more; that he knew no more about the Fine Arts than a
ploughboy, and that he must be mistaken; and we sent him home assured
that the piece was an excellent likeness. As for my Lord Bolingbroke,
who honored her ladyship with a visit occasionally, when Colonel Esmond
showed him the picture he burst out laughing, and asked what devilry he
was engaged on? Esmond owned simply that the portrait was not that of
Viscount Castlewood; besought the Secretary on his honor to keep the
secret; said that the ladies of the house were enthusiastic Jacobites,
as was well known; and confessed that the picture was that of the
Chevalier St. George.

The truth is, that Mr. Simon, waiting upon Lord Castlewood one day
at Monsieur Rigaud's whilst his lordship was sitting for his picture,
affected to be much struck with a piece representing the Chevalier,
whereof the head only was finished, and purchased it of the painter
for a hundred crowns. It had been intended, the artist said, for Miss
Oglethorpe, the Prince's mistress, but that young lady quitting Paris,
had left the work on the artist's hands; and taking this piece home,
when my lord's portrait arrived, Colonel Esmond, alias Monsieur Simon,
had copied the uniform and other accessories from my lord's picture to
fill up Rigaud's incomplete canvas: the Colonel all his life having been
a practitioner of painting, and especially followed it during his long
residence in the cities of Flanders, among the masterpieces of Van Dyck
and Rubens. My grandson hath the piece, such as it is, in Virginia now.

At the commencement of the month of June, Miss Beatrix Esmond, and my
Lady Viscountess, her mother, arrived from Castlewood; the former to
resume her services at Court, which had been interrupted by the fatal
catastrophe of Duke Hamilton's death. She once more took her place,
then, in her Majesty's suite and at the Maids' table, being always a
favorite with Mrs. Masham, the Queen's chief woman, partly perhaps on
account of their bitterness against the Duchess of Marlborough, whom
Miss Beatrix loved no better than her rival did. The