ecame my
wife. We had been so accustomed to an extreme intimacy and confidence, and
had lived so long and tenderly together, that we might have gone on to the
end without thinking of a closer tie; but circumstances brought about that
event which so prodigiously multiplied my happiness and hers (for which I
humbly thank Heaven), although a calamity befell us, which, I blush to
think, hath occurred more than once in our house. I know not what
infatuation of ambition urged the beautiful and wayward woman, whose name
hath occupied so many of these pages, and who was served by me with ten
years of such a constant fidelity and passion; but ever after that day at
Castlewood, when we rescued her, she persisted in holding all her family
as her enemies, and left us, and escaped to France, to what a fate I
disdain to tell. Nor was her son's house a home for my dear mistress; my
poor Frank was weak, as perhaps all our race hath been, and led by women.
Those around him were imperious, and in a terror of his mother's influence
over him, lest he should recant, and deny the creed which he had adopted
by their persuasion. The difference of their religion separated the son
and the mother: my dearest mistress felt that she was severed from her
children and alone in the world--alone but for one constant servant on
whose fidelity, praised be Heaven, she could count. 'Twas after a scene of
ignoble quarrel on the part of Frank's wife and mother (for the poor lad
had been made to marry the whole of that German family with whom he had
connected himself), that I found my mistress one day in tears, and then
besought her to confide herself to the care and devotion of one who, by
God's help, would never forsake her. And then the tender matron, as
beautiful in her autumn, and as pure as virgins in their spring, with
blushes of love and "eyes of meek surrender", yielded to my respectful
importunity, and consented to share my home. Let the last words I write
thank her, and bless her who hath blessed it.

By the kindness of Mr. Addison, all danger of prosecution, and every
obstacle against our return to England, was removed; and my son Frank's
gallantry in Scotland made his peace with the king's Government. But we
two cared no longer to live in England; and Frank formally and joyfully
yielded over to us the possession of that estate which we now occupy, far
away from Europe and its troubles, on the beautiful banks of the Potomac,
where we have built a n