ccessive ministers she had, had private causes for their irresolution.
The bolder and honester men, who had at heart the illustrious young
exile's cause, had no scheme of interest of their own to prevent them from
seeing the right done, and, provided only he came as an Englishman, were
ready to venture their all to welcome and defend him.

St. John and Harley both had kind words in plenty for the prince's
adherents, and gave him endless promises of future support; but hints and
promises were all they could be got to give; and some of his friends were
for measures much bolder, more efficacious, and more open. With a party of
these, some of whom are yet alive, and some whose names Mr. Esmond has no
right to mention, he found himself engaged the year after that miserable
death of Duke Hamilton, which deprived the prince of his most courageous
ally in this country. Dean Atterbury was one of the friends whom Esmond
may mention, as the brave bishop is now beyond exile and persecution, and
to him, and one or two more, the colonel opened himself of a scheme of his
own, that, backed by a little resolution on the prince's part, could not
fail of bringing about the accomplishment of their dearest wishes.

My young Lord Viscount Castlewood had not come to England to keep his
majority, and had now been absent from the country for several years. The
year when his sister was to be married and Duke Hamilton died, my lord was
kept at Bruxelles by his wife's lying-in. The gentle Clotilda could not
bear her husband out of her sight; perhaps she mistrusted the young
scapegrace should he ever get loose from her leading-strings; and she kept
him by her side to nurse the baby and administer posset to the gossips.
Many a laugh poor Beatrix had had about Frank's uxoriousness: his mother
would have gone to Clotilda when her time was coming, but that the
mother-in-law was already in possession, and the negotiations for poor
Beatrix's marriage were begun. A few months after the horrid catastrophe
in Hyde Park, my mistress and her daughter retired to Castlewood, where my
lord, it was expected, would soon join them. But, to say truth, their
quiet household was little to his taste; he could be got to come to
Walcote but once after his first campaign; and then the young rogue spent
more than half his time in London, not appearing at Court, or in public
under his own name and title, but frequenting plays, bagnios, and the very
worst company, under the n