and who, being a Papist, and a foreigner of
a good family, though now in rather a menial place, would have his meals
served in his chamber, and not with the domestics of the house. The
Viscountess gave up her bedchamber contiguous to her daughter's, and
having a large convenient closet attached to it, in which a bed was
put up, ostensibly for Monsieur Baptiste, the Frenchman; though, 'tis
needless to say, when the doors of the apartments were locked, and the
two guests retired within it, the young viscount became the servant of
the illustrious Prince whom he entertained, and gave up gladly the more
convenient and airy chamber and bed to his master. Madam Beatrix
also retired to the upper region, her chamber being converted into
a sitting-room for my lord. The better to carry the deceit, Beatrix
affected to grumble before the servants, and to be jealous that she was
turned out of her chamber to make way for my lord.

No small preparations were made, you may be sure, and no slight tremor
of expectation caused the hearts of the gentle ladies of Castlewood to
flutter, before the arrival of the personages who were about to honor
their house. The chamber was ornamented with flowers; the bed covered
with the very finest of linen; the two ladies insisting on making it
themselves, and kneeling down at the bedside and kissing the sheets out
of respect for the web that was to hold the sacred person of a King. The
toilet was of silver and crystal; there was a copy of "Eikon Basilike"
laid on the writing-table; a portrait of the martyred King hung always
over the mantel, having a sword of my poor Lord Castlewood underneath
it, and a little picture or emblem which the widow loved always to have
before her eyes on waking, and in which the hair of her lord and her two
children was worked together. Her books of private devotions, as they
were all of the English Church, she carried away with her to the upper
apartment, which she destined for herself. The ladies showed Mr. Esmond,
when they were completed, the fond preparations they had made. 'Twas
then Beatrix knelt down and kissed the linen sheets. As for her mother,
Lady Castlewood made a curtsy at the door, as she would have done to the
altar on entering a church, and owned that she considered the chamber in
a manner sacred.

The company in the servants' hall never for a moment supposed that these
preparations were made for any other person than the young viscount,
the lord of the h