regarding
the poor woman from whom he had been taken.

"She was of this very town," Holt said, and took Esmond to see the street
where her father lived, and where, as he believed, she was born. "In 1676,
when your father came hither in the retinue of the late king, then Duke of
York, and banished hither in disgrace, Captain Thomas Esmond became
acquainted with your mother, pursued her, and made a victim of her; he
hath told me in many subsequent conversations, which I felt bound to keep
private then, that she was a woman of great virtue and tenderness, and in
all respects a most fond, faithful creature. He called himself Captain
Thomas, having good reason to be ashamed of his conduct towards her, and
hath spoken to me many times with sincere remorse for that, as with fond
love for her many amiable qualities. He owned to having treated her very
ill; and that at this time his life was one of profligacy, gambling, and
poverty. She became with child of you; was cursed by her own parents at
that discovery; though she never upbraided, except by her involuntary
tears, and the misery depicted on her countenance, the author of her
wretchedness and ruin.

"Thomas Esmond--Captain Thomas, as he was called--became engaged in a
gaming-house brawl, of which the consequence was a duel, and a wound so
severe that he never--his surgeon said--could outlive it. Thinking his death
certain, and touched with remorse, he sent for a priest of the very Church
of St. Gudule where I met you; and on the same day, after his making
submission to our Church, was married to your mother a few weeks before
you were born. My Lord Viscount Castlewood, Marquis of Esmond, by King
James's patent, which I myself took to your father, your lordship was
christened at St. Gudule by the same cure who married your parents, and by
the name of Henry Thomas, son of E. Thomas, officier Anglais, and Gertrude
Maes. You see you belong to us from your birth, and why I did not christen
you when you became my dear little pupil at Castlewood.

"Your father's wound took a favourable turn--perhaps his conscience was
eased by the right he had done--and to the surprise of the doctors he
recovered. But as his health came back, his wicked nature, too, returned.
He was tired of the poor girl, whom he had ruined; and receiving some
remittance from his uncle, my lord the old viscount then in England, he
pretended business, promised return, and never saw your poor mother more.

"He o