f, he was very gay, lively, and agreeable. His manner had an
extreme charm of archness, and a kind simplicity; and, to do her justice,
her Oglethorpean Majesty was kind, acute, resolute, and of good counsel;
she gave the prince much good advice that he was too weak to follow, and
loved him with a fidelity which he returned with an ingratitude quite
royal.

Having his own forebodings regarding his scheme should it ever be
fulfilled, and his usual sceptic doubts as to the benefit which might
accrue to the country by bringing a tipsy young monarch back to it,
Colonel Esmond had his audience of leave and quiet. Monsieur Simon took
his departure. At any rate the youth at Bar was as good as the older
Pretender at Hanover; if the worst came to the worst, the Englishman could
be dealt with as easy as the German. Monsieur Simon trotted on that long
journey from Nancy to Paris, and saw that famous town, stealthily and like
a spy, as in truth he was; and where, sure, more magnificence and more
misery is heaped together, more rags and lace, more filth and gilding,
than in any city in this world. Here he was put in communication with the
king's best friend, his half-brother, the famous Duke of Berwick; Esmond
recognized him as the stranger who had visited Castlewood now near twenty
years ago. His grace opened to him when he found that Mr. Esmond was one
of Webb's brave regiment, that had once been his grace's own. He was the
sword and buckler indeed of the Stuart cause: there was no stain on his
shield except the bar across it, which Marlborough's sister left him. Had
Berwick been his father's heir, James the Third had assuredly sat on the
English throne. He could dare, endure, strike, speak, be silent. The fire
and genius, perhaps, he had not (that were given to baser men), but except
these he had some of the best qualities of a leader. His grace knew
Esmond's father and history; and hinted at the latter in such a way as
made the colonel to think he was aware of the particulars of that story.
But Esmond did not choose to enter on it, nor did the duke press him. Mr.
Esmond said, "No doubt he should come by his name if ever greater people
came by theirs."

What confirmed Esmond in his notion that the Duke of Berwick knew of his
case was, that when the colonel went to pay his duty at St. Germains, her
Majesty once addressed him by the title of Marquis. He took the queen the
dutiful remembrances of her goddaughter, and the lady whom, i