prison, announcing that his patroness had conferred upon him the living
his reverend father had held for many years; that she never, after the
tragical events which had occurred (whereof Tom spoke with a very edifying
horror), could see in the revered Tusher's pulpit, or at her son's table,
the man who was answerable for the father's life; that her ladyship bade
him to say that she prayed for her kinsman's repentance and his worldly
happiness; that he was free to command her aid for any scheme of life
which he might propose to himself; but that on this side of the grave she
would see him no more. And Tusher, for his own part, added that Harry
should have his prayers as a friend of his youth, and commended him whilst
he was in prison to read certain works of theology, which his reverence
pronounced to be very wholesome for sinners in his lamentable condition.

And this was the return for a life of devotion--this the end of years of
affectionate intercourse and passionate fidelity! Harry would have died
for his patron, and was held as little better than his murderer: he had
sacrificed, she did not know how much, for his mistress, and she threw him
aside--he had endowed her family with all they had, and she talked about
giving him alms as to a menial! The grief for his patron's loss: the pains
of his own present position, and doubts as to the future: all these were
forgotten under the sense of the consummate outrage which he had to
endure, and overpowered by the superior pang of that torture.

He writ back a letter to Mr. Tusher from his prison, congratulating his
reverence upon his appointment to the living of Castlewood: sarcastically
bidding him to follow in the footsteps of his admirable father, whose gown
had descended upon him--thanking her ladyship for her offer of alms, which
he said he should trust not to need; and beseeching her to remember that,
if ever her determination should change towards him, he would be ready to
give her proofs of a fidelity which had never wavered, and which ought
never to have been questioned by that house. "And if we meet no more, or
only as strangers in this world," Mr. Esmond concluded, "a sentence
against the cruelty and injustice of which I disdain to appeal; hereafter
she will know who was faithful to her, and whether she had any cause to
suspect the love and devotion of her kinsman and servant."

After the sending of this letter, the poor young fellow's mind was more at
ease than