iser to his wayward young kinsman; but my young lord would
hear of nothing but the Guards, and a commission was got for him in the
Duke of Ormonde's regiment; so Esmond found my lord, ensign and
lieutenant, when he returned from Germany after the Blenheim campaign.

The effect produced by both Lady Castlewood's children when they appeared
in public was extraordinary, and the whole town speedily rang with their
fame; such a beautiful couple, it was declared, never had been seen; the
young maid of honour was toasted at every table and tavern, and as for my
young lord, his good looks were even more admired than his sister's. A
hundred songs were written about the pair, and as the fashion of that day
was, my young lord was praised in these Anacreontics as warmly as
Bathyllus. You may be sure that he accepted very complacently the town's
opinion of him, and acquiesced with that frankness and charming good
humour he always showed in the idea that he was the prettiest fellow in
all London.

The old dowager at Chelsea, though she could never be got to acknowledge
that Mrs. Beatrix was any beauty at all (in which opinion, as it may be
imagined, a vast number of the ladies agreed with her), yet, on the very
first sight of young Castlewood, she owned she fell in love with him; and
Henry Esmond, on his return to Chelsea, found himself quite superseded in
her favour by her younger kinsman. That feat of drinking the king's health
at Cambridge would have won her heart, she said, if nothing else did. "How
had the dear young fellow got such beauty?" she asked. "Not from his
father--certainly not from his mother. How had he come by such noble
manners, and the perfect _bel air_? That countrified Walcote widow could
never have taught him." Esmond had his own opinion about the countrified
Walcote widow, who had a quiet grace, and serene kindness, that had always
seemed to him the perfection of good breeding, though he did not try to
argue this point with his aunt. But he could agree in most of the praises
which the enraptured old dowager bestowed on my lord viscount, than whom
he never beheld a more fascinating and charming gentleman. Castlewood had
not wit so much as enjoyment. "The lad looks good things," Mr. Steele used
to say; "and his laugh lights up a conversation as much as ten repartees
from Mr. Congreve. I would as soon sit over a bottle with him as with Mr.
Addison; and rather listen to his talk than hear Nicolini. Was ever man so