p," says he.

"D--n it," says my lord, "thou shalt sup with us, Harry, to-night! Shan't
refuse a lady, shall he, Trix?"--and they all wondered at Harry's
performance as a trencherman, in which character the poor boy acquitted
himself very remarkably; for the truth is he had no dinner, nobody
thinking of him in the bustle which the house was in, during the
preparations antecedent to the new lord's arrival.

"No dinner! poor dear child!" says my lady, heaping up his plate with
meat, and my lord filling a bumper for him, bade him call a health; on
which Master Harry, crying "The King", tossed off the wine. My lord was
ready to drink that, and most other toasts: indeed, only too ready. He
would not hear of Doctor Tusher (the Vicar of Castlewood, who came to
supper) going away when the sweetmeats were brought: he had not had a
chaplain long enough, he said, to be tired of him: so his reverence kept
my lord company for some hours over a pipe and a punchbowl; and went away
home with rather a reeling gait, and declaring a dozen of times, that his
lordship's affability surpassed every kindness he had ever had from his
lordship's gracious family.

As for young Esmond, when he got to his little chamber, it was with a
heart full of surprise and gratitude towards the new friends whom this
happy day had brought him. He was up and watching long before the house
was astir, longing to see that fair lady and her children--that kind
protector and patron; and only fearful lest their welcome of the past
night should in any way be withdrawn or altered. But presently little
Beatrix came out into the garden, and her mother followed, who greeted
Harry as kindly as before. He told her at greater length the histories of
the house (which he had been taught in the old lord's time), and to which
she listened with great interest; and then he told her, with respect to
the night before, that he understood French, and thanked her for her
protection.

"Do you?" says she, with a blush; "then, sir, you shall teach me and
Beatrix." And she asked him many more questions regarding himself, which
had best be told more fully and explicitly, than in those brief replies
which the lad made to his mistress's questions.

Chapter II. Relates How Francis, Fourth Viscount, Arrives At Castlewood

'Tis known that the name of Esmond and the estate of Castlewood, com.
Hants, came into possession of the present family through Dorothea,
daughter and heiress of Ed