ey were all of
the English Church, she carried away with her to the upper apartment which
she destined for herself. The ladies showed Mr. Esmond, when they were
completed, the fond preparations they had made. 'Twas then Beatrix knelt
down and kissed the linen sheets. As for her mother, Lady Castlewood made
a curtsy at the door, as she would have done to the altar on entering a
church, and owned that she considered the chamber in a manner sacred.

The company in the servants' hall never for a moment supposed that these
preparations were made for any other person than the young viscount, the
lord of the house, whom his fond mother had been for so many years without
seeing. Both ladies were perfect housewives, having the greatest skill in
the making of confections, scented waters, &c., and keeping a notable
superintendence over the kitchen. Calves enough were killed to feed an
army of prodigal sons, Esmond thought, and laughed when he came to wait on
the ladies, on the day when the guests were to arrive, to find two pairs
of the finest and roundest arms to be seen in England (my Lady Castlewood
was remarkable for this beauty of her person), covered with flour up above
the elbows, and preparing paste, and turning rolling-pins in the
housekeeper's closet. The guest would not arrive till supper-time, and my
lord would prefer having that meal in his own chamber. You may be sure the
brightest plate of the house was laid out there, and can understand why it
was that the ladies insisted that they alone would wait upon the young
chief of the family.

Taking horse, Colonel Esmond rode rapidly to Rochester, and there awaited
the king in that very town where his father had last set his foot on the
English shore. A room had been provided at an inn there for my Lord
Castlewood and his servant; and Colonel Esmond timed his ride so well that
he had scarce been half an hour in the place, and was looking over the
balcony into the yard of the inn, when two travellers rode in at the
inn-gate, and the colonel running down, the next moment embraced his dear
young lord.

My lord's companion, acting the part of a domestic, dismounted, and was
for holding the viscount's stirrup; but Colonel Esmond, calling to his own
man, who was in the court, bade him take the horses and settle with the
lad who had ridden the post along with the two travellers, crying out in a
cavalier tone in the French language to my lord's companion, and affecting
to grumbl