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GORE, AUTHOR OF " MOTHER.S AND DAUGHTERS," " CECIL." ETC. '• But I confess that, after I had been too copious in talking of my own beloved country, of our trade, our wars by sea and land, and parties in the state, the prejudices of the kingof Brobdignag's education prevailed so far that he could not forbear taking me up in his right hand, and stroking me gently with the other ; asking me, after a hearty fit of laughing, whether I was a Whig or Tory ? Then, turning to his first minister, he observed how paltry a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such contemptible insects as 1 !" — Gulliver's Travels. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET ; AND BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH. 1850. London : SpoTTiswooDEs and Shaw, New-street- Square. THE HAMILTONS. CHAPTER I. Such as I oft have chanced to espy. Lost in the dreary shades of dull obscurity. Shenstone. Scarcely a town in England but possesses its " coigne of vantage." Brighton prides itself on its royal marino ; — Oxford on its university ; — Birmingham on its factories ; — every place on its something. Laxington, a neat obscure borough, some ten miles East of Northampton, had long been accustomed to pique itself on its gentility ! — A coterie of maiden and widow ladies, whose domiciles overlooked its grass-grown market-place, were no less thankful to Providence for sparing them the strikes, frame-break- ings, and incendiarisms which agitate a manufacturing population, than to government for securing them from the terrors of a garrison. No " captain bold," disturbed their " country quarters ;" — no steam-en- gine smoked to defile their snowy dimity. Though a rapid stream gurgled through the Laxington meadows, so little were the inhabitants disposed to speculation, that a solitary corn-mill alone enlivened the banks. — Not a sound was to be heard there on the stillest day, B //. 2 THE HAMILTONS. but the dinner-bells of Weald Park and Everleigh Hall ; two family seats of some mark and distinction, within a mile's distance from the town. The thrones and dominions established in authority over the Laxingtonians, were in fact deeply interested in maintaining their self-satisfied mediocrity. The borough, close as a confessor, was the property of the Earl of Tottenham ; whose agent (a wealthy attorney fattened upon the office) was careful not to augment the revenues of his employer by the sale of a single inch of ground calculated for building leases or the manufacture of aianufactories; while the vicar, another delegate of his lordship, was no less assiduous to re- press the institution of any society or association tend- ing towards the spirit of enlightenment so active and so mischievous elsewhere. A single Sunday-school sufficed the ignorance of the poor; — a single whist- club the social wants of the rich. The names of Bell and Lancaster were eschewed as an abomination. A proposal for a Reading-Room was denounced as Jaco- binical, and of mischievous intent. The vicar and the attorney — nay ! even the attorney's sister, Pen. Smith, the most active-minded inhabitant of the place, — were content with Lord Tottenham's second day's Courier and the weekly intelligence of the County Chronicle. Newspapers and magazines would have been productive of political discussions ; — political discussions, of squabbles among neighbours hitherto united. Things were better as they were. The bo- rough could not be kept too quiet ; or the Earl's de- puted be too watchful against innovation. In this desire for tranquillity, the place and the people appeared to coincide. The very chimes of the church got out of order, and were condemned. No whereabout for a rookery was to be found among the THE IIAMILTONS. 3 pollard willows, flourishing in green luxuriance in the circumjacent meadows. In the High-Street, as in a Cathedral close, the mere sound of a knife-grinder's wheel seemed to impress the inhabitants with terror; and the traveller, pausing to contemplate the white walls of Laxington, lying compact and motionless amid its verdant pastures, was apt to compare it to a well- fed cat, purring itself to sleep in the sunshine. The Laxingtonians would, however, have been less vain of their gentility and of possessing no manufac- ture save that of members of parliament, had not the deficiency been compensated by what is provincially called " an excellent neighbourhood." Though Lord Tottenham and his agent were able to fix the limits of the borough, by saying, " Hitherto shalt thou build, and no further," — they had no control over the pleas- ing fact that five grooms in livery made their daily appearance at the post-office, with the letter bags of Stoke Park and Everleigh Hall ; of old Forbes of the Manor-House, Lady Berkely of Green-Oak Cot- tage, and Mrs. Warren of the Grove. — Without in- terest or occupation of their oAvn, the tabby coterie of the market-place, headed by Pen. Smith the attorney's sister, and Mrs. Mangles the vicar's lady, creating for themselves an excitement out of the pains and plea- sures, the sayings and doings, of these wealthier neighbours, the Tritons of their shallow waters, fan- cied they were enjoying the amusements of London, whenever Lady Ashley of Stoke went to town for the season ; and reformed their fashions after the model of Mrs. Cadogan, whenever the family arrived at Everleigh from the continent — All the affairs of the neighbourhood within ten miles round were familiarly discussed in their petty parliament ; — the gossip of which was as impertinent, as personal, and almost t;s B 2 4 THE HAlVnLTONS. prosy, as the debates of othei- representative as- semblies. A single circumstance had long sat heavy on the soul of Laxington ! — Weald Park, the prettiest re- sidence in its genteel neighbourhood and the nearest to its inquisition, had been long unoccupied. Having fallen to the inheritance of a young nobleman, a plu- ralist in country seats, who possessed parks in half the shires of the empire, its shrubberies had been allowed to run to waste, till the carriage road afforded a very advantageous sample of Northamptonshire pasturage; when lo ! one fine spring evening, Miss Pen. dropped in to tea at the vicarage, with intelligence that a travelling carriage was stopping at the Tottenham Arms, with " a family from town, come down to view Weald Park ! " " Weald Park to be let ? " It was something of a degradation to the gentility of the neighbourhood ; — and the vicar expressed himself severely against the immorality of young Lord Lancashire, on learning that the loss of thirty thousand pounds on the turf was the immediate cause. But he spoke with due hesitation. For it was the first time, during a long life, that Dr. Mangles had ventured to find fault with a lord ; and he was duly aware that the turf is a pri- vilege of all but right divine, to majesties, royal high- nesses, and peers of the realm. Nay, he almost forgave the noble delinquent, on finding that the new tenant of Weald was not only one of his Majesty's ministers, but the intimate friend of his right honour- able patron, the Earl of Tottenham. The fact was clearly ascertained. Mr. Smith had been written to — Mr. Smith's opinion of the manor ascertained. The lease, for fourteen years, was already in progress of engrossment ! — The value of such an accession to the great talkers THE IIAJIILTONS. 5 and little doers of Laxington, may readily be con- ceived. Their neighbourly sympathies had long re- quired extension. Lady Ashley, the fair widow ot Stoke, was almost always resident on the continent. The Cadogans of Everleigh were fonder of London or Brighton, than of their hereditary oaks. Old Forbes was getting into his dotage, — his only son, a rising lawyer, rarely seen in Northamptonshire. And al- though Lady Berkely of Green-Oak, and her two handsome daughters, were of inestimable value as heroines of their romance, not a single man of fortune was to be found in the county worthy the attention of either. When it appeared, therefore, that Mr. Hamil- ton, the new tenant of Weald, had a son and daughter of an age to form alliances in the neighbourhood. Lord Lancashire stood acquitted. They rejoiced to hear of their new neighbour's man-cook, and were proud of his groom of the chambers. But the prospect of a match for Marcia Berkely, and — who knows ? — per- haps a wife for Bernard Forbes, — was fairly worth them both. Pen. Smith walked over to Green-Oak under an umbrella the following morning, during a heavy shower, to acquaint Lady Berkely w^th the news. But her ladyship was not the woman to be startled into a confession of satisfaction. " These Hamiltons will not be here till September," she observed, with ostentatious equanimity. " I trust we shall then be at Worthing. K not, I shall have no objection to visit them. Though brought up a staunch Whig, I never allow family politics to interfere with neighbourly sociability. Mr. Hamilton, Tory as he is, may be a very worthy man ! " Her pretty daughters, Marcia and Susan, well aware that this tirade was intended only to mark their B 3 6 THE IIAMILTONS. mother's sense of superiority to the Smiths, and the patron of the Smiths, Lord Tottenham, smiled over their embroidery : being almost as sensible as the coterie of Laxington to the advantage of having young and cheerful neighbours at Weald Park. CHAP. II. S'il n'y avait que trois hommes au monde, I'un ferait la cour a I'autre, Tappellerait Monseigneur, et ces deux unis forceraient le troisieme a travailler pour eux. — P. L. Courier, The summer was a tedious summer at Laxington. Never before had the succession of hollyhocks to roses been watched for with so much anxiety in the gardens of the vicarage, or of Attorney Smith : for the months of July and August had brought exciting tidings of the merits of their expected neighbours. Already, the name of Hamilton seemed to belong to them ; and, for the first time, they invested a portion of their sympathies in the vicissitudes of official life. Their interest in the proceedings of parliament was no longer restricted to the " ayes " and " noes " of the honourable members by whom it was Lord Totten- ham's pleasure they should be represented. They already loved to read, in their stale edition of the Courier, that " Mr. Hamilton had said a few words inaudible in the gallery : " or that " The Right Hon. George HA:vnLTON had entertained the Lord Chan- cellor and a distinguished party at dinner, at his man- sion in Spring Gardens." For the Right Honourable George was the first denizen of their genteel neighbourhood who had ever THE HAMILTONS. 7 possessed "a mansion" in town! — Lady Ashley had only rooms at an hotel ; and even the Cadogaiis were content with a ready furnished house in Brook Street ! The attorney noticed with whom he paired off, and was curious touching every petition he presented. He was elected an F, R. S. ; and Dr. Mangles affected a sudden ardour in the cause of science : and when Miss Hamilton was quoted by the County Chronicle (in an extract from the Morning Post), as having danced at Carlton House with some scion of foreign royalty, Lady Berkely made secret reference to the Almanack of Saxe Gotha. — Nothing was thought of but the Hamiltons ! The auspicious moment approached. The new fur- niture was come — the new people were coming. Ponderous waggons, bearing the names of Gillow and Co., were duly watched into the park. A caravan of kitchen-maids and laundry-maids followed ; and, at length, a post-chaise containing a detachment of the steward's room, made its appearance. The tranquil High Street was now in an uproar ; Pen. Smith al- most in hysterics. Things were evidently to be done at Weald on a very different scale from the meagre gentility of the Warrens, Forbes's, and other notables of the district, — The butchers and bakers were of opinion that the Eight Hon. George might do more for them in a month than the Earl of Tottenham in a year. It was true, his lordship obliged them,^ by putting their supernumerary sons into the excise ; and had once procured the reprieve of a felon, who hap- pened to have been born in Laxington. But he never came among them — never bought their cheap calicoes or genuine fish-sauces. — They swallowed his two members ; he swallowed nothing of theirs in return ! On this hint, the High Street cleaned its windows ; B 4 8 THE HAJVIILT0N9. the haberdashers festooned their shops with less faded ribbons ; the grocer blockaded his doorway with a fresh hogshead of Muscovado sugar ; and the apothe- cary refreshed his blue and red bottles with new infu- sions of indigo and cochineal. " The cry was stiU — ' they come ! ' " At last, the creaking of the turnpike gate at the entrance of the High Street, brought every head to every window. The unobstructed ways of the town left them only a moment for observation. But when the dust and the rolling of the wheels subsided, there was, evidently, a little disappointment ! Instead of the crimson liveries and double crest they had anti- cipated, the Right Hon. George's attendants were a valet and a lady's maid, yawning in the rumble. His barouche was dingy brown. His daughter wore a green veil. — There was nothing at all sublime or beautiful in the accessaries. The Mangleses and Smiths accordingly determined to lose no time in pay- ing their respects to their new neighbours. They anticipated much pleasure in doing the honours of Laxington and its vicinity ; and fancied themselves of as much consequence to the Hamiltons, as the Hamil- tons to them. What therefore was the surprise of the unsophis- ticated vicar on visiting Weald with the intentions of a cicerone the following day, to observe the right honourable stranger as completely installed in his Northamptonshire library, as if he had never franked a letter in any other apartment of the realm ; or Attorney Smith's and Miss Pen.'s indignation, on finding themselves welcomed with the mechanical smile of official patronage, to a spot they in some de- gree regarded as their own. The aborigines of Lax- ington had nothing to suggest, — to hint, — to impart. THE HAJMILTONS. 9 The Hamiltons were as completely established as the oldest inhabitant; — were intimate with Lord Lanca- shire, his dowager mother, and the lord lieutenant of the county — (three occult objects of veneration in the little borough); — insolently fomiliar with the great name of the great Tottenham family, and condescendingly cognizant of Lady Ashley and the Cadogans of Everleigh Hall ! They knew everything, in short, of the neighbour- hood, which they seemed to think worth knowing ; and Mr. Hamilton was not only already completely master of the house — (to which the Smiths had so long asserted a claim by walking in its groves and pil- laging its gardens) — but doing the honours of its hos- pitality to a large party of friends, who had arrived late the preceding night, to open the shooting season ! Instead of doing business after the pottering style of Mr. Forbes of Manor- House and the other proprie- tors of the five letter bags, Mr. Hamilton was one of those who look upon country seats as places where official men do congregate during the holidays, to eat each other's venison, drink each other's claret, make love to each other's wives, and form plans for the arrangements of the ensuing session . " I' am afraid these new people will prove too fine for us," observed Lady Berkely to her eldest daugh- ter, on returning from her first visit to Weald Park. " Unless I am much mistaken, the Hamiltons will be no acquisition to the neighbourhood ; but import their pleasures and guests from London." " Mr. Hamilton appears to be an agreeable, well- bred man," said Susan Berkely, who had accompanied her mother in the visit. "I call no man well-bred," replied Lady Berkely, " who allows a visitor at his house to feel de trop, 10 THE HAJIILTONS. His manner to-day was so very absent, as to leave me no alternative but to ring for the carriage." "And Miss Hamilton ?" inquired Marcia, anxiously. "Very pretty, — very lively, — very elegant," re- plied her sister. " One of those favourites of fortune whose destiny has never known a care, or whose countenance, a cloud." " What an egotist ! " murmured Marcia. " But was she sociable? — had you much conversation?" " She seemed inclined to be chatty. But a Lady Leighton, and a gentleman staying in the house, were seated between us : and they all laughed and talked together about things and people with whom they seemed to think all the world must be acquainted, but of whom we know nothing." " Which confirms Bernard Forbes's observation that the Exclusives (and I have a presentiment these Ha- miltons will prove Exclusives !) fancy there exists but one circle in the world; that which they unite to form round their idol — Fashion." " Vastly impertinent, in a nobody, like Mr. Bernard Forbes, to give his opinion upon the proceedings of the higher orders of society ! " cried Lady Berkely : who, as grand-daughter to a Scottish peer and widow of an L'ish baronet, had hitherto assumed to herself the representation and championship of the aristocracy, in the neighbourhood of Laxington. " What should either he, or you, know about Exclusivism ? — The truth is, these Hamiltons are mere government people ; — parvenus probably, — like most of the Tory party. And, though I know the world too well to allow family politics to interfere with my neiglibourly feelings, I own I expect little from the new people." " Hamilton is not exactly a plebeian name ! " ob- served Marcia, calmly. THE IIAMILTONS. 11 " The Hamiltons are all in opposition," observed her mother. " I ought to know. Brought up a staunch Whig, I am tolerably au fait to the politics of our leading famihes. Pray, Susan, what was the name of that over-rouged woman, who sat near you on the sofa?" " Leighton, Mamma; — a Lady Leighton !" " Leighton ? — No such name in the peerage ! — Give me Lodge from the book-rack." And while her ladyship pi'oceeded to pore over the pages of a volume which opened mechanically at " Berkely (Sir Edward), a minor," the elder daugh- ter pursued her inquiries about their new neighbours. " Did Miss Hamilton mention her brother ? Pen. Smith informs me she has a brother." " He is on the Rhine. She said he would probably visit Northamptonshire for pheasant shooting." " What active people!— They deign to patronise the country only, when something is to be done." " I think we shall find them more amusing than most of our old-fashioned, tea-drinking neighbours," observed Susan. " So much the better," replied Marcia, ironically. " I am prepared to think wonders of them, and to dis- card all my old friends without loss of time. I doubt whether I shall venture to nod to Pen. Smith to- morrow, after church. As to Mrs. Warren, already I blush for her old black cloak ! " " Pray let me hear no more of such nonsense ! " interrupted Lady Berkely ; whose researches in the Baronetage having brought to light nothing more dis- tinguished under the head of " Leighton," than " (Sir Joseph) attorney-general," had considerably abated in her respect towards the circle at Weald. " We have troubled ourselves a great deal too much about 12 THE HAMILTONS. these people. It is time we should return to what we were before the Hamiltons were heard of in Northamp- tonshire." CHAP. m. All tongues speak of liim ; and the bleared sights Are spectacled to see him. Bulks, windows, Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed, In earnestness to look on him. Shakspeare. But this was impossible. As well might Lady Berkely have required The rose to shut, and be a bud again, as for the Laxingtonians to retrograde into their ob- scure barbarism. Scarcely had the Hamiltons been settled a week at Weald Park, when a total revolution occurred in the moral character of the neighbourhood! A new standard of merit was erected in the market place ; a new order of opinion adopted in the vicarage coterie. Mrs. Cadogan of Everleigh, who had long constituted Penelope Smith's ideal of a fashionable flirt, had subsided into a dowdy ; while Lady Ashley of Stoke, who was suspected of an occasional touch of rouge, was no longer whispered against by Mrs. Mangles as a second Jezebel ! These ladies, who were passing the summer to- gether at Spa, had, as yet, no suspicion that their kingdom and ill-name were taken from them. But Lady Berkely, who was on the spot, — poor Lady THE IIAMILTONS. 13 Berkely, whose pony-chaise crept hiimhly through the turnpike gate wliich had learned to revolve upon its hinges for the carriages of earls, marquises, and even dukes, — Lady Berkely was a fallen star ! The Laxingtonians had begun to discover that there were lords in the land independent of the all- puissant Earl of Tottenham ; and Pen. Smith saw clearly that the pompous widow of Green-Oak Cottage was far from the High-mightiness she had assumed herself to be. No distinction had been made in her favour by the Privy Councillor. The pine-apple condescendingly despatched from Weald to the Cottage, had been pre- ceded by a haunch of venison to Vicar Mangles, and a leash of partridges to Attorney Smith ; and, though Lady Berkely insinuated that Mr, Hamilton's neglect arose from his ignorance of her connection with Lord Cairnmarlerock, and her too frank exposition of the whiggism of her education, the shrewd Penelope was of opinion that he cared nothing at all about the matter. And she was right. Mr, Hamilton, the new pro- prietor of "Weald, was essentially an official man ; — had been born in place, bred in place, nurtured on place. His father had lived and died in Scotland Yard with the word " salary," hovering upon his lips ; and young George, at five-and-twenty the private secretary of a public minister, trusting to be at five-and-fifty a minister with secretaries of his own, regarded the treasury as his patrimony, the duties of office as the virtues of his vocation, and the stability of Tory as- cendancy as the immutability of the universe, — The very soul within him was steeped in officiality ! From the moment a man of ordinary faculties is thrown into the vortex of official life, all trace of his individual nature is lost for ever. Thenceforward, he 14 THE HAINHLTONS. eidsts but as a cipher of the national debt, — a fraction of administration, — a leaf upon- the mighty oak we claim as the emblem of Britain, There is no mis- taking an official man. All trades and professions have their slang and charlatanism ; and that of a privy councillor, though of a higher tone, is a no less inveterate jargon than that of a horse dealer. Long practice had rendered this technical dialect a mother- tongue to Mr. Hamilton. His arguments abounded in ministerial mysticism; — his jokes were parlia- mentary ; — his notes of invitation, formal as official documents. His anecdotes were authenticated by dates ; he spoke as if before a committee, or under the influence of the whipper-in. He scarcely knew how to leave a room, without the ceremony of pairing off, or to hazard an opinion, lest he should be required to justify it to his party ! To such a man, the incidents of private life were of trivial account. His friends might die when it suited them. Mr. Hamilton was too much accustomed to see places filled up, to fancy any loss irreparable ; and, as to births and marriages, what were they but drawbacks on the velocity of the great vehicle of public business ? — All was activity with him and about him. No time for pause, or prose, or deliberation. The business of the state, like that of the sun, must march ; and Hamil- ton was steady at his post. In the utmost relaxation of private life, it was evident that one eye and one compartment of his mind, were engaged elsewhere ; — entangled in some labyrinth of cabinet chicane, or devising some project for the glorification of govern- ment. He was, in fact, indispensable to his party ; not as a man of genius, but as a man of business. Such was the individual to whom Lady Berkely had intended to play the fine lady, and Penelope Smith the THE HAMILTONS. 15 sociable neighbour. Happily, he was unconscious of their plans of patronage. He had not a thought to waste upon them, except as part and parcel of the parliamentary estate of tlie Earl of Tottenham ; who, as a man of some account in the Tory party, was to be conciliated, even through the medium of the wooden puppets of his borough. *' I am afraid we must have these Laxington people here to dinner," said he to his daughter, shortly after Lady Berkely's visit to Weald. " You can manage it so that the moon will carry them all off by eleven. And the sooner you send out your invitations the better ; for your brother writes me word he will be here by Thursday, and that he brings down William Totten- ham." " William Tottenham ? " ej aculated Lady Leighton (while Julia Hamilton, too prudent to ejaculate any thing, went oif to write her notes of invitation, and to conceal her delight at the intelligence.) " What has he to do in Northamptonshire ? — To execute the re- pairs of his father's crazy popularity ? " " Too nonchalant, I fear, for any such arduous em- ployment !" observed Mr. Hamilton. " A nonchalant man is tlie last person to be made available in a country-house," retorted Lady Leighton ; " and we are sadly in want of somebody who could be trusted in our morning room, to read to us while we pretend to work ; — a man who would run over the newspapers and reviews and new novels, with tact to skip what ought to be skipped, and insist upon what ought to be remembered." " A man, in short, uniting the qualifications of a gentleman, a scholar, and a tame cat ? " " Precisely ! " " And pray is William Tottenham coming here to 16 THE HAMILTONS. fill these functions, at your ladyship's desire ? " in- quired Mr. Hamilton, watching the expression of her countenance. " My ladyship's ? " cried Lady Leighton, in amaze- ment. " What out of-the-way notions enter the heads of you official gentlemen ! — Engrossed, heart and soul, during the session, you make your appearance at the end like a bevy of owls emerging into the sunshine ; mistaking one person for another, and falling into the most ludicrous mistakes. — What have I to do with William Tottenham ? " " Then it must be Julia who attracts him to Weald !" exclaimed Mr. Hamilton. " He would never desert such shooting as that at Tottenham Park, without some object in view. How absurd of Augustus to invite him ! — A younger son without a guinea ! — How shall I get rid of him ! — " " Write at once to his father ! " said Lady Leighton, with a significant smile. " The match would suit none of you ; and you could candidly explain to Lord Tottenham, — but no," cried she, checking herself; " adroit as you are at explanation, I admit that candour, in this instance, would be difficult. How could you invest in phrase polite, ' My dear lord, your political friendship is invaluable ; but a family connection be- tween us is out of the question. We could not make up six scruples of principle between us, or the young couple five hundred a year ! ' " — " Have you quite done ? " inquired Mr. Hamilton, coolly, — aware that in her rage for saying witty things, his friend. Sir Joseph's wife, cared not whose feelings she ofiended. "Not half! — I am composing a postscript to inform Lord Tottenham that his son's pretensions are the more impertinent, because it is well known you have THE IIAJnLTONS. 17 bespoken for your duugbter, the hand of your ward, Lord Claneustace." " Am I indebted to your friend Colonel Eardley for that insinuation ? " retorted IVIi-. Hamilton, with some bitterness. "Colonel Eardley? — oh! are you there I'' cried Lady Leighton, leaning back on the sofa to admire the angry countenance of her host. " Is there so much miching malicho in you ? " " Mere innocent pleasantry ! " " When great men condescend to pleasantries, I have seldom found them innocent," replied the lady, with a laugh. " They play the fool so cleverly that the actor is always visible. You have heard, I see, of my flirtation with George Eardley ; and will probably retort upon my adage, that ' when fine ladies conde- scend to flirtations, you have seldom found them in- nocent ; ' as if there were something in the atmosphere of the high places of the land which tended to aggra- vate the disorder ! — Fie ! fie *' " Let us drop, I beseech you, my dear Lady Leighton, this absurd discussion," cried Hamilton, amazed by her sang-froid. " Beseech me no such tiling, — it amuses me ex- tremely. You remind me of the blockheads in the House, who cry ' Order,' the moment a question comes to be fairly discussed. But set your mind at ease, both as regards my reputation and Sir Joseph's peace of mind. He knows that I was not born or educated for the vocation of a woman of fashion, to which his pro- fessional elevation has condemned me ; — and forgives his wife for being stupid enough to prefer the society of an agreeable man, always in good spirits and good humour, to that of a tribe of artificial women, who will not even admit me to their presence till they have c 18 THE HAMILTONS. composed their complexions and tempers for the day. My husband perceives that I render the whole Opera- house a witness of my tete-a-tetes ; — and we often laugh together at the malicious interference of those who, having loved one or two of their neighbours more than is good for them, make war to the knife upon the reputations of the rest ! " " An admirable definition of scandal ! " cried Ha- milton, anxious to appease her wrath. " But I want to ask your advice with respect to Julia and William Tottenham. — Do you suppose my daughter really attached to this empty-headed fellow ? " " I hope not ; for it is my earnest wish she should marry Lord Claneustace. No thanks ! — It would suit me to pass at least three weeks at Claneustace Court., every autumn," " That you might manage with any other mar- chioness ! — Allow me still to believe in your goodwill towards my daughter." " You are right," cried Lady Leighton, in a more natural tone. " / am attached to Julia ; and my in- terest in her welfare leads me to regret that you have shown so little knowledge of human nature as to bring her up in familiar intimacy with Lord Claneustace. She looks upon him as her brother ; and falls in love with William Tottenham, who has nothing on earth to recommend him but white teeth, a good tailor, and consummate assurance." " What is to be done ! " ejaculated the Privy-Coun- cillor ; sadly to seek in the presidency of his family politics. " William Tottenham is a foolish flirting fellow. Invite some of the pretty women of the neighbourhood to meet him. — Mrs. Cadogan is " " Abroad ! " THE HAMILTONS. 19 "Lady Ashley?" — " At Paris." " What is the name of that charming girl who called here with her mother the other morning ? " "The very person! — Julia, my love," continued the statesman, addressing his daughter, who just then entered the room with her notes of invitation in her hand, — " We must put off the Laxington people for the present. But write a very civil letter to Lady Berkely, and invite her to dine here with her two daughters, on Saturday next." Such was the origin of the first overtures of civility between Green-Oak Cottage and Weald Park. CHAP. IV. La complaisance d'un liomme que Ton traitait A' Excellence, chatouilla son orgueil et remplit son esprit de fastueuseschimeres. DiABLE BOITEUX. The object of Mr. Hamilton's hollow hospitality was a lady of considerable pretensions, who had been left a widow early in life, by the death of Lieutenant- General Sir Clement Berkely, under circumstances of peculiar interest and distinction, in the peninsular campaign. The family estates of the general, of no very considerable extent, were so strictly entailed on their infant son, that her pension and jointure, united, scarcely sufiiced to maintain her in the sphere of life to which she was accustomed. Yet, sanguine of im- proving her condition by means of a second marriage. Lady Berkely persisted in retaining her house in town ; on pretext that the education of her daughters 20 THE HAMILTONS. demanded the sacrifice. Handsome and heartless, slie had passed the prime of life in .finessing and disap- pointment ; exceeding her income, and manoeuvring with bolder and bolder stratagems for a better esta- blishment : till, at length, the accomplishment of her elder daughter's seventeenth year found her still a widow ; in dudgeon and in debt ! And thus, the superficial education bestowed upon Marcia and Susan, avowedly with the view of qualifying them to shine in the gay world, was rendered fruitless. No sooner were they of an age to appear in London society, than Lady Berkely, in penance for her career of exti'avagance, was compelled to retire into the country. Having lived at the rate of two thousand a- year, when she had scarcely fifteen hundred, " in order to keep up appearances for the sake of her family," she was now obliged to vegetate in the provinces on a thousand, — for the sake of her creditors. This im- portant measure being with some diflSculty arranged between her ladyship and her ladyship's man of busi- ness, young Sir Edward was dispatched to Berlin, with a private tutor ; and the girls were no further admitted into her confidence, than by a hint that " the state of the times required them to economize for a few years in the country." As if the state of the times had any thing in common with Lady Berkely's coachmaker's and jeweller's bills ! — Away they all went into Northamptonshire, to form an episode in the genteel neighbourhood of Laxington ! Green-Oak Cottage, a shrubby little nook belonging to Mr. Forbes, of Manor-House, had been accidentally mentioned as to be let by her friend Mr. Cadogan, a Northamptonshire squire of ancient family and con- siderable fortune, who, being too young for herself, Lady Berkely kept in view as a future match for one THE HAMILTONS. 21 of her daughters ; and though her expectations were thwarted soon after her arrival in the country, by his marriage with Mr. Forbes's beautiful niece, Caroline Warren, her ladyship found so much to like at Green- Oak, that she almost forgave the offence. To the two girls, meanwhile, the change from London to the country was highly acceptable. Unvitiated by contact with the fashionable world, they rejoiced in the prospect of seeing more of the woods and waters than an autumn at some fashionable bathing-place had yet afforded them. The rural pleasures familiar to other girls, were new and strange to the daughters of a card-playing mother, having no dower-house to afford a retreat to her intervals of folly and flirtation ; and Lady Berkely's selfish amusements had fortunately secured their education from her pernicious influence. Having been given in trust to a governess " highly recommended," they had learned as little as was conve- nient to herself and them ; but, as she happened to be an inoffensive woman, they had learned no harm. The best masters rendered them good musicians, good ar- tists, good dancers ; while a happy combination of good sense and good feeling endowed them with excel- lent principles. The circumstance, however, most ostensible and most acceptable to Lady Berkely, was, that they were remarkably handsome. Susan, the younger, was a mild graceful creature, incapable of inflicting or en- during pain. Her eyes were so serene, her movements so gentle, and the expression of her smile so full of sweetness, that children were won at first sight. But she was inert, timid, and endowed with limited capa- cities of mind. The love she inspired was not likely to be increased by jealousy, or depressed by the appre- hension of her obtaining an overweening influence ; c 3 22 THE HAMILTONS. but where could a more soothing companion be found to soften the asperities of human destiny ! — Marcia, on the contrary, possessed beauty of the most commanding order, and abilities of a high class. Of a temper less docile than her sister, she had twice the energy to serve, to defend, to inspire, to reward. But the talents which a better education would have directed to more useful purposes were condensed into an acute appreciation of all that was passing around her ; and she had therefore less patience than Susan with the intrusions of their country neighbours, and the petty egotism of Laxington. Her character de- manded sympathies of a nobler kind. The two sisters, meanwhile, were as fondly attached as sisters isolated from society are apt to be. Marcia doated upon Susan, as the sweetest and prettiest crea- ture in the world : Susan looked up to Marcia, as the most gifted of human beings : and their happiness at Green-Oak was uninterrupted. The mildness of the one and philosophy of the other, enabled them to bear, in all duty and submission, the irritability which dis- appointments of every kind had engendered in their mother's disposition. They looked forward with eager- ness to their brother's return to England ; and now that an agreeable, party-giving family was come to settle at "Weald, had nothing further to desire. Susan was not without hope that the influence of the Hamil- tons might wean her sister from the grave society of old Mrs. Warren, whom Lady Berkely denounced as a methodist ; while Marcia trusted that a little ex- perience of the emptiness of dandyism would incline her pretty Susan in favour of the addresses of her devoted admirer, young Forb6s. But this was out of the question. Though Bernard Forbes figured largely on the narrow canvass of Lax- THE HAMILTONS. 23 ington and its neighbourhood, as heir to an estate of sixteen hundred per annum, there was nothing either in the Manor or its present or future master to cap- tivate the attention of a young and timid girl. The square brick house, with its mossy lawn and sweeping cedars, was scarcely more old-fashioned than its vale- tudinarian squire, sinking into apathy from the want of something to complain of or somebody to thwart him ; whose monotonous life was expended in the labour of keeping body and soul together. For many years old Forbes had spent the summer and autumn in pil- grimages to the various saline and mineral waters which nature keeps eternally bubbling for the benefit of the infirm or fanciful among her children ; and the winter and spring, in discussing with his apothecary their several degrees of influence over his rheumatism and sciatica. Who could have predicted that an eaglet's egg would be hatched in such a nest ! Young Forbes, — the first man of his year at Cambridge, — was already quoted by the voice of fame for the highest professional dis- tinctions. There was nothing, however, in his person or address indicative of future eminence. Sallow, saturnine, hard-featured, careless of appearances, and trusting more to nature than nature is trustworthy, he was at no pains to conform to the customs of a com- munity whose corruptions he despised. Conscious of his superiority to the tittle-tattlers of the Laxington coterie, he set them at defiance long before he had demonstrated his right to sit in judgment on their absurdities. His opinions were peculiar ; he expressed them without compromise ; and the revenge of those whose prejudices he offended, and who could find no fault with his character or understanding, was to as- perse his temper. — He knew it, but receded not an 24 THE IIAMILTONS. inch. Nor was it till Lady Berkely came to settle at Green-Oak, and he beheld the gentle Susan, that he began to lament his own want of popularity. Between Susan Berkely and the philosophical Forbes, however, there existed a total incompatibility of dis- position. To her humble and submissive nature, the very loftiness of mind on which he prided himself was an offence. His abstruse studies and cool discussion of questions which were as sacred mysteries in her sight, appeared " flat blasphemy " to Susan. She dis- liked his person, his principles, his manners ; and would not have married him to become the Lady Chancelloress herself. This aversion was so far fortunate, that nothing would have obtained Lady Berkely's consent to the banishment of her favourite daughter to the ultra- montane region of pounce and parchment inhabited by the young lawyer. But Susan's dislike being openly avowed, her ladyship felt safe in receiving Bernard Forbes on a familiar footing, in order that his inter- vention with his father might secure her those little paltry concessions, which usually form a stumbling- block between landlord and tenant ; — a laundry to be built, a chimney to be taken down, or a path-way to be closed up ; — and sincerely did he reverence the meanness which caused him to be an acceptable guest at the cottage whenever he visited Northamptonshire ; trusting that his professional advancement would event- ually disarm the opposition of the mother, and his de- voted attachment the indifference of the daughter. But though content to labour through a seven years' servitude of love, so long as he had no rivalship to apprehend (for the slender curate of Dr. Mangles re- presented in his diminutive body and estate the whole bachelorhood of Laxington), he did not long retain his THE HA^IILTONS. 25 equanimity on learning what a plague of prosperity, and pestilence of fashion, the arrival of the Hamiltons had brought down upon the parish ! What had the peaceful inhabitants of Lord Tottenham's borough done to deserve the chastisement of such an influx of dandies and fine ladies ? — " Que diable venait-on faire dans cette gaUreV — Though new to the Smiths and Mangleses, the name of the Right Hon. George was only too familiar to Bernard Forbes! — The young patriot had learned to despise him, as one of the most corrupt members of a corrupt ministry, long before his pernicious intrusion into the Eden at Green-Oak ; and, on a hasty visit to the Manor-House in the course of the summer, had announced in a contemptuous tone, in presence of the whole Laxington coterie, his determination to hold no sort of intercourse with the family expected at Weald. But now that an intimacy was in progress between the Berkelys and Hamiltons, he almost repented the rashness of his declaration of war. It was not alone the Toryism of the Privy Councillor which rendered him an object of antipathy to Forbes. The levity of his fashionable daughter, — the libertinism of his hand- some son, — the rank and opulence of his ward. Lord Claneustace, — the evil example of his flighty inmate, Lady Leighton, — were all alarming to the peace of mind of Susan's lover ! He had been at college with Augustus Hamilton. The name of Sir Joseph Leigh- ton's wife was somewhat notorious in the profes- sion ; and he had public cognizance of the misdeeds of such persons as the Hon. William Tottenham, Colonel Eardley, and Peregrine Varden, the wag of Mr. Hamilton's party. When an ill-timed visit to his father on the day of the eventful dinner-party dedicated to the Berkelys, 26 THE HAMILTONS. informed him that these people were united at Weald for his molestation, and that his" beloved Susan was about to attempt the ordeal of the burning plough- shares, the intelligence was too much for him. He was crosser than he had ever been seen before. His father, exhilarated by a recent instance of professional success which had pointed out the name of his son to the applause of the County Chronicle, could by no means understand why Bernard turned so careless an ear to his recital of the vicissitudes of his lumbago ; and was provoked that he could gain no information respecting his niece Mrs. Cadogan's return to Ever- leigh Hall. But poor Bernard's soul was elsewhere. In reply to his father's winding up of the cures per- formed by death or doctors during his six weeks' stay at Buxton, " I will walk over to the cottage to- morrow morning ! " cried the ruminative barrister. " It is my duty to give that pompous silly woman some insight into the character of these people. — If she choose to admit Colonel Eardley and Lady Leigh- ton into the society of her daughters, it shall not be for want of enlightenment. — What evil fortune brought these detestable people to Weald Park ! " CHAP. V. A perfect butterfly ! — a thing Without substance, and almost Without shadow ! Fielding. Had Penelope Smith witnessed the fruition of those philanthropical matrimonial projects which agitated THE HAMILTONS. 27 her bosom at the first sight of Mi\ Hamilton's carriage drawn up in the yard of the Tottenham Arms (as they became developed at the Weald Park dinner party), she would have had ample cause for exultation. But the proprietor of the carriage itself was really to be pitied ! His ward, Lord Claneustace, had most inopportunely chosen to accompany his son from town ; and the charms of the two beauties of Green-Oak, instead of diverting "William Tottenham's attentions from the fair Julia, served only to engross those of the gay and brilliant Augustus Hamilton, and enchant the young Marquis, who happened to have been the Eton chum of their brother, Sir Edward Berkely ! It was not that Mr. Hamilton believed his son suffi- ciently idiotic, or sufficiently honest, to stumble into a tender passion for a girl with a pretty face and empty pockets ; for Augustus was a man of renowned gal- lantly, and had been already crowned with half-a- dozen myrtle wreaths at the expense of half-a-dozen reputations. But a flirtation of this nature would create an intimacy with the Berkely s, to the detriment, perhaps, of his daughter Julia's interests ; and might reach the ears of Lady Ashley of Stoke, whose join- ture of eight thousand a-year would be the very thing for Augustus, in the event of his obtaining the peerage which his usefulness in the lower House had long held in tantalization before his eyes. — He was provoked, therefore, beyond measure with Julia, for inviting the Miss Berkelys to play, and the Miss Berkelys to sing, while she sat slyly enjoying an undisturbed flirtation with William Tottenham ; and was thankful to Mr. Peregrine Varden (the business of whose life it was to render himself agreeable to the greatest man or best patron in company) for observing, in an audible 28 THE HAMILTONS. wliisper, that the performance of the young ladies was doubtless " very well intended." It was good enough, however, to keep Claneustace and Augustus Hamilton stationary in the music room ; — and that was enough to keep Lady Berkely in ecstasies. — She was delighted with every thing and everybody at Weald. The style of all she saw carried back her recollections to the more brilliant epoch of her destiny ; and renewed her disgust at the humdrum ways of Laxington and its neighbourhood. The hand- some establishment of Mr. Hamilton touched a sym- pathetic chord in her bosom. — The proprietor of so admirable a cook, so varied a cellar, a service of plate so rich, and menials so accomplished, could not but be an estimable man. — The notion of Lord Claneustace's forty thousand a-year, and the elegant address of Augustus Hamilton, bespoke, moreover, her utmost graciousness for the guardian of the one and parent of the other ; — and while she sat by Mr. Hamilton, evolving courtesy from every pore, and expressing her hopes that they should become the best of neighbours (tempered by her usual avowal, that it would be im- possible for her to renounce, even in his favour, the staunchness of her Whig principles), she little sus- pected that he was already devising some plausible pretext for breaking off the acquaintance. Lady Berkely retired to rest that night to dream of Mr. Hamilton's gilt claret pitchers ; and of a dispute with the Herald's Office touching the quarterly em- blazonment of the arms of Berkely and Claneustace ! " Marcia, my love," said she to her elder daughter, on rising from the breakfast table the following morn- ing, "pray take off that old green gown, and dress your hair more becomingly. Some of the Weald Park party will probably call here to-day." TIIK IIAMILTONS. 29 " Most likely, mamma. But / am engaged to my old green gown and Mrs. Warren." " Are you going to see the poacher who was shot the other night in the Weald preserves?" inquired Susan. " Precisely ; and I hate to visit the poor in fine clothes. I read lately in a new French work that, to the unfortunate, even the sun in its glory looks pompous." " I wish you would read fewer new works, and be* come more like other people!" cried Lady Berkely, with indignation. " And, above all things, I wish you would desist from parading your sensibilities from cottage to cottage, with that odious Mrs. Warren. In my opinion, it is vastly indelicate for young ladies to run after all the wounded poachers and lying-in women in the country. And pray remember " " I hear a carriage coming up the drive," said Susan, eager to interrupt her mother's reprehensions. " Ring, ring, my dear, and say we are all at home !" cried Lady Berkely, scudding away into the draw- ing-room ; when lo ! in compliance with her injunc- tion, the door being thrown open, Mrs. Mangles and Penelope Smith curtseyed their way into the room — all apologies for coming so early, but making mani- fest their intention of a long stay, by sending the carriage round to the stables. Lady Berkely, long accustomed to the habit of the Laxingtonians of luncheon-hunting in couples, and making visitations of investigation the day after any festive solemnity among the five letter-bag families, — sat down re- signedly to listen to the humdrum catechism of the two gossips ; satisfied that she had no chance of getting rid of them till they had ascertained every dish and every guest of the Weald Park dinner party of the day before. 30 THE HAMILTONS. " And so, that Lady Leighton is still staying with the Hamiltons !" observed Miss Pen., provocatively. " Is there any connection between them ? " " A political connection between Sir Joseph and Mr. Hamilton, I fancy. Both are staunch Tories ; and, although I was brought up " "Lady Leighton, my dear Mrs. M., is the identical person the Burtonshaws were telling you that strange story about the other night," remorselessly inter- rupted Miss Pen., addressing her friend Blrs. Man- gles. "I should not be surprised if the handsome colonel came down to meet her at Weald." " J£ you mean Colonel Eardley, he has been there this week past>" observed Miss Berkely. " I desire, Marcia, that you will not lend 7/our voice to the circulation of scandal!" cried Lady Berkely, with angry pomposity. And poor Marcia imme- diately set about cogitating what could possibly con- stitute the scandal of the case. " Well ! If / had a young daughter, as Mr. Hamil- ton has," resumed Pen. (who, from the moment that gentleman engrafted himself upon the Laxington neighbourhood, had managed, with the aid of an ex- tensive female correspondence, to pry into his concerns and those of his associates), " I hope I should know better than to domesticate such an inmate as Lady Leighton ! — What is she, I should like to know, — and what was she ? — Grand-daughter to a retired grocer at Southampton, and first cousin to the great haberdasher in Pall Mall ! — And, as to conduct, if a house-maid were to present herself at Laxington Statute with such a character tacked to her calimanco, — you and I, Mrs. M., should know what to say on the subject. — But some people " " Mr. Hamilton talks of building a lodge at the west THE IlAinLTONS. 31 gate at Wealtl, which will be a vast accommodation to the neighbourhood," interrupted Lady Berkely, ad- dressing her conversation to Mrs. Mangles. " Ah ! he may talk of building ! " cried Pen., ap- propriating the observation to herself: " but while he is about it, why don't he build himself a house ? — I'm told he has been living for the last sixteen years at May Field, a country seat belonging to the young marquis. Very convenient for some people, — a ward with a long minority ! And now the young peer is coming of age, and the Hamiltons are obliged to turn out, they are going to marry him to IVIiss Julia, by way of a discharge in full, on closing the accounts. Ahem! — the old story — a match with my guardian's daughter ! Mi. Hamilton may think himself mighty clever, but he will find plenty of people to keep an eye on his proceedings." "With respect to Lord Claneustace you are mis- taken," said Susan, eagerly. " Miss Hamilton is evi- dently engaged to one of Lord Tottenham's younger sons." " One of Lord Tottenham's younger sons ? " reiter- ated Penelope; — her indignation that the Green-Oak family should have been invited to dine at Weald without an extension of the honour to herself and her brother, being only augmented on finding that a piece of news respecting the Tottenhams was likely to reach Laxington through some other channel than the agency of their agent's sister. " I don't believe a word of it ! There is not a wilder set in London than the young Tottenhams. Not a marrying man in the family but the archdeacon ; and his father contrived to get him engaged, before he left college, to a bishop's daughter. No, no ! — Lord Tottenham knows better than to stoop and pick up nothing. Depend upon it, 32 THE HAMILTONS. no son of his will marry Miss Julia Hamilton!" — And turning suddenly round at the conclusion of her tirade, she encountered the large dark eyes of Lady Leighton, who was entering through the French win- dows from the lawn ! — In another minute, the drawing-room door was thrown open, to announce Lord Claneustace, Mr, Au- gustus Hamilton, and Mr. Peregrine Varden, who had escorted her on horseback ; the two former being deputed to offer Mr. and Miss Hamilton's apologies for not being of the party. " The Duke and Duchess of Ptarmighan were expected to take their luncheon at Weald, on their way to the North." The gratification of Lady Berkely at possessing the individual person of an unmarried marquis, and fami- liar mention of a duke and duchess, in her little drawing-room, was sadly deteriorated by the circum- stance that it should be encumbered by two such very incongruous individuals as Mrs. Mangles and Penelope Smith. The room contained only a dozen seats, nine of which were occupied ; and when she looked hard in supplication to the two Laxingtonians to hasten their departure, the Laxingtonians were inexorable ! They did not often find themselves in such amusing company ; and, with all poor Pen.'s excitement against Weald and its ways, her match-making spirit found ample occupation in observing with how much gal- lantry the young marquis addressed himself to the handsome Marcia ; and how familiarly Augustus Ha- milton seated himself at Susan's work-table. Lady Berkely, of course, saw nothing of all this. Mammas never do. She was engaged in eager conversation with Lady Leighton ; while Peregrine Varden, accus- tomed to do the disagreeable in all tlie houses into which he was admitted on sufferance, addressed his THE IIAHni.TONS. 33 civilities to the luiriKlriims. All was ilint, good liuraour, and sociability. The ladies were all smiles, — the dandies all devotion! Such was the inauspicious moment selected by Forbes for his visit of remonstrance ! He came, like Peter the Hermit, to preach a crusade against the infidels of Weald, and lo ! on entering Lady Berkely's room, it was already invested by the enemy. The first thing that caught his eye was Susan's beaming face, turned with interest and approbation towards the libertine, Augustus Hamilton ! Lady Berkely, who no longer required his services to get her letters franked, and who, in the prospect of a marquis for her son-in-law, scouted the notion of the new laundry, received him coldly ; nor had Marcia, hemmed in be- tween the marquis and Mr. Varden, an opportunity of atoning for her mother's ungraciousness. Had it not been for the oiRcious volubility of Penelope Smith, the intruder would have been strangely embarrassed. The object of Lady Leigh ton's visit, meanwhile, was partly explained. However anxious to pique Julia Hamilton's vanity by the spectacle of Lord Cla- neustace's attentions to Marcia, it was impossible to invite the Berkelys to a second dinner, or expect that the dining-room at Green Oak would stretch to re- ceive the Weald party in return. But dull must be the neighbourhood that does not afford some spot of interest for a picnic, and young people to turn it to account ; and Mr. Hamilton had, accordingly, com- missioned his son and Lady Leighton to make ar- rangements for an excursion to some celebrated ruins, a few miles distant from Laxington. " My friends at Weald are bent upon showing me the lions of the neighbourhood," observed Lady Leigh- ton to her hostess, immediately after Forbes's abrupt D 31 THE liAMILTONS. entrance ; " and not being at present familiar with the road to their den, Mr. Hamilton is in hopes, my dear Madam, you will condescend to act as our cicerone to this abbey of St. Margaret's, or St. Martin's, or Avhat- ever it pleases to call itself." " St. Margaret's Priory, ma'am," interrupted Pene- lope, who, as a Laxingtonian born and bred, was scarcely satisfied with this disparaging mention of a spot which constituted a chief feather in the cap of the neighbourhood. " And if you wish for any infor- mation on the subject, here is our friend Mr. Forbes who will be delighted to give it you." " May I inform the Hamiltons you will join our party ? " resumed Lady Leighton to Lady Berkely, having rewarded the strange woman's ofRciousness with a stare of wonder; while Bernard Forbes, furious at being thus apostrophised, looked more bilious and misanthropic than ever. " We shall be most happy." " WiU Saturday be agreeable to you ? " " Perfectly." " On Saturday, mamma, we are engaged to dine with Mrs. Warren," interrupted Marcia. " I will write and excuse myself," replied her mother. " It is too late in the season for the picnic to be deferred ; and we can dine with Mrs. Warren at any time." The Laxingtonians exchanged glances ; while Forbes's heart swelled within him at the recol- lection that he had been invited to the Grove to meet the Green -Oak party. " And where shall be our rendezvous ?" said Lady Leighton. " Is St. Martin's Abbey " (" St. Margaret's Priory," perseveringly interrupted Penelope.) " — nearer to Weald or Green-Oak ?" Till', II a:\ii r,TONS. 35 " You must breakfast lierc," said Lady Berkely, " and we will arrange a jilnn de camjyagne.^^ " With all my heart ! " cried Lady Leighton. " There is a room kept in repair, it seems, among the ruins, to afford shelter to pilgrims in search of the picturesque ; — and there we will eat, drink, and be merry." Again, the Laxingtonians exchanged glances. St. Margaret's Priory was the property of Mr. Forbes ; to whom, as a stiff country gentleman of the old school, it was a great satisfaction to receive notes from his neighbours, requesting permission to make parties to the ruins ; to eat his filberts, and boil their tea-kettles in the damp dismantled room, in which, on Midsummer- day, it was his pride to receive the rents of two or three petty farmers, his tenants. And here was this stranger within the gates of a stranger, disposing of the old gentleman's privilege without hesitation or apology ! Penelope Smith looked hard at Bernard, in hopes that his professional oratory and private in- dignation would explode ; without suspecting that the wrath within him waxed too hot for words. " I will make Mr. Hamilton's wishes known to my friend and landlord, Mr. Forbes," said Lady Berkely, lowering her voice, in the determination to make no appeal to Bernard which might render it necessary to include him in the party. " What has Mi-. Forbes to do with tlie matter ? " — inquired Lady Leighton, apprehending no motive for caution. " Who is Mr. Forbes ? — " " The lord of the manor of St. Margaret's, my lady ; — an estate which has been in his family three hundred years and more ! " cried Miss Pen., unable to repress her irritation. " So, after all, the place has an owner, — and tin. le 36 THE IIAMILTONS. is leave to be asked, and thanks to be returned, and all that sort of bore ! " — cried the imperturbable Lady Leighton. " Not worth while, in my opinion ! — My dear Miss Berkely, your face looks full of meaning ! — Have you some more feasible project to suggest? — Is there no hill or dale in this part of the wilderness, where we may establish our sa7js souci, and eat our cold chicken, without the nuisance of petitioning some Northamptonshire squire ?" " Tliere is "Whitchurch Mill," said Marcia, terrified lest Bernard Forbes should at length break silence. " Not half so fine a view as St. Margaret's," cried Miss Penelope. " Nothing like St. Margaret's, nearer than Fountain's Abbey. Is there, Mr. Bernard ? — And 1/ou could go with the ladies, and show them the short cut through the woods to Goldington Well." Forbes had some difficulty in preventing himself from audibly wishing them all at the bottom of it ! Meanwhile, he profited by Lady Leighton's example to turn a deaf ear to Miss Pen.'s superfluous inter- ruptions. " At all events, we will meet here on Saturday morning," said Lady Leighton, gathering up her habit, and rising to take leave. " I dare say we shall dis- cover some pleasant way of passing the day together. Augustus — Claneustace! — I am sorry to tear you away, but I have promised to be back in time for a petit mot d'adicii to the Ptarmighans." And when the Laxingtonians perceived that tlic horses were rung for, it was but natural that, having so long made themselves disagreeable by staying, they should now choose an inconvenient moment for going. Mrs. Mangles's eighteenth century chariot was brought to the door, just in time to produce confusion in the little carriage sweep. Away they all went ; and Ber- nard Forbes was left alone with the Berkelys. TlIK II.VMILTONS. 37 CHAP. VI. Voila les jeunes gens ! — ils ne se doutent de rien ; L'imagination leur fait tout voir en bien ! Si je n'arretais pas votre inexperience, Bientot vous sentiriez toute votre imprudence. Le Pessimiste. An intimacy once foirly begun between two families of young people in fine weather and a picturesque neigh- bourhood, with horses, carriages, and servants at their command, proceeds as briskly and uninterruptedly as a conflagration in the prairies. The picnic at Whit- church Mill was succeeded by another in the woods of Apthorpe ; and parties were made to ride here and drive there, with a degree of activity which, could locomotion have assisted in transferring Julia Hamil- ton's affections from Mr. Tottenham to Lord Clan- eustace, might have fulfilled the utmost anticipations of her father. But William Tottenham, an empty-headed, empty- hearted slave of fashion, whose admiration had been originally attracted towards the Privy Councillor's pretty daughter by hearing her announced at Almack's as the future bride of the young Marquis, and who persevered in his courtship because too stupid to per- ceive that its fruition would sink the fashionable beauty into a mere Honourable Mrs. William, scorned to relax in his devotions so long as Claneustace was on the spot to supply his place. The Cupid of modern times is a very different imp from the arch but na'if divinity of the olden time ; and, while Lord Totten- ham's son persisted in his gallantries to Miss Hamilton 38 THE IIAlVnLTONS. lest the Marquis's pretensions should be realised, the attentions of her brother to Susan Berkely were aug- mented by the intelligence (adroitly circulated by Lady Berkely, through the medium of the steward's room,) that her daughter had refused the hand of Mr. Forbes of Manor House, on the very day of his visit to Green-Oak. It is true her ladyship was careful to conceal that the offer had been most injudiciously hazarded in the midst of a fierce attack upon Weald Park and its society, — more honourable to the young barrister's understanding than to his temper ; that he had visited the cottage only to offer advice, and been betrayed into the tender of his hand by Lady Berkely 's ungra- cious challenge of his right to become their counsellor. But she did not know half the advantage which this circumstance gave her over the feelings of Augustus Hamilton. To him, young Forbes was an object of envy and aversion. At college, Bernard had snatched every prize over his head ; and assumed, on more than one occasion, a tone of superiority, warranted by eight years' seniority in age and a century's in under- standing : and, on quitting Cambridge, all acquaint- ance between them had dropped. They had cut each other in the streets, at theatres, at clubs, at election dinners, — at all places, in short, where fine gentlemen and learned gentlemen are occasionally jumbled to- gether. Forbes had been retained to plead against Hamilton in a cause which did little honour to the defendant ; and his declaration of war against Weald and its allies, previous to the arrival of the Hamiltons in Northamptonshire, had been reported to Susan's new admirer in a tone far from calculated to appease the feud existing between them. Augustus was there- fore doubly furious on learning that a fellow in spec- THE ILA.MILTONS. 39 tacles, with such a coat and such a cravat as those in which Forbes defied the criticisms of society, had pre- sumed to aspire to the hand of the lovely Susan. He almost grudged him the honour of rejection! Not that the dandy of Downing Street entertained the most remote idea of a connection with Lady Berkely's daughter. He admired her as a beautiful bit of china, — a choice picture, — a rare exotic ; and, perhaps, as affording a charming contrast to his last world-worn rouge-seared love, — a countess, whose eldest son was rising seventeen and whose husband seventy. But he pretended only to monopolise her smiles and conversation during his autumnal stay at his father's new residence. What might afterwards become of her happiness and hand, never entered into his calculations ; or if it did, he wished she might live to become the wife of some more conjugally -minded in- dividual. Even Mr. Hamilton, that epitome of worldly wisdom, witnessed the attentions of Augustus without anxiety. Lady Berkely was there to take care of her daughter ; and he had perfect confidence in the want of principle of his son. One person, however, scrutinised with painful mis- givings the proceedings of all parties. Marcia Berkely had scarcely more patience than Bernard Forbes with the Hamiltons and their guests. Indignant tliat Lady Leigh ton should have rendered her the cats- paw of her plots, — a manoeuvre which her clear judgment soon enabled her to discover, — she was still more seriously hurt by the apprehension that Susan's peace of mind might be sacrificed to the momentary caprice of the useless, valueless, soulless heir of Mr. Hamilton's fu- ture peerage. She knew not how to put a stop to it all. Susan and her mother were eager in their ac- ceptance of the Hamiltons' invitations. Every day. 40 THE IIAMILTONS. every hour, increased the mischievous influence of Augustus over her sister's mind; and even an adroit attempt to alarm the prudent father by a hint inten- tionally dropped in Peregrine Varden's presence, had proved infructuous. Mr. H. could not, would not, and might not, think so ill of his only son as to fancy he would prefer a girl without a guinea to Lady Ashley and Stoke Park ; and Miss Berkely had begun to sigh for November, when the whole covey were to take flight for Brighton ; when an untoward family event accelerated their departure ! While Mr. Hamilton was devising a pretext for dis- missing William Tottenham from his house, without provoking a breach with the Tottenham family, the hint innocently dropped by Susan Berkely, in presence of Penelope Smith, reached the ears of the earl. To him, the intelligence was far from displeasing. A marriage of any kind might serve to wean his son from Crockford's and the Green Room ; and he fancied that his friend Hamilton could not have been brooding so long in a government nest, without depositing a few golden eggs for the benefit of his children. Lord Tottenham determined, therefore, to offer a liberal provision to the young people ; and as the prudent proprietor of Weald sat one morning in his library, about to adopt Lady Leighton's original plan, and ad- dress himself to Lord Tottenham for an interdiction of the match, the following letter was placed in his hands : — " Tottenham Park, " October 28th, 1 82-. " My dear Hamilton — You and I have been friends too long to stand on ceremony with each other. I am gratified to find that one of my boys has formed an attachment to your daughter ; and propose making THE HAMILTONS. 41 over to William my sinecure in the Exchequer, (seven hundred and fifty pounds per annum,)and continuing his present allowance of" two hundred and fifty pounds. I know not whether you have any little thing you can resign to him. If not, they might do very well with an allowance from you of five hundred a year, till you can hit upon something to ask of our friends in power. In the event of a dissolution, I mean to bring in Wil- liam for Laxington : and all this will afford the young couple such a position in society as we could desire. My love to my daughter-in-law, and best wishes to yourself, from. My dear Hamilton, Your faithful servant, TOTTENILVM." Even the right of remonstrance was denied. Scarcely had Mr. Hamilton finished reading this off-hand epistle, when the " young couple " who had received a com- munication from Tottenham Park by the same post, made their appearance in the library, to plead their own cause, and, eventually, to thank him for his re- luctant consent. But when Julia quitted him to announce to her friends and guests the unexpected change in her pro- spects, a new source of vexation became manifest to her father. It had been evident, for some days past, that there was more earnest than simulation in Lord Claneustace's passion for the elder Miss Berkely ; and what was to prevent the marquis from offering his hand, in a fit of spleen or fickleness, to the nymph of Green-Oak ? Now, if it had appeared advisable to avoid a rupture with Lord Tottenham, whose interest was essential to his expected peerage, it was scarcely less important to prevent the too early marriage of 42 THE HAMILTONS. Claneustace with any other than his own daughter. There were accounts to be settled, and resignations to be made, by the guardian, which the attainment of a majority (deferred by the will of the late marquis till the age of twenty-five) still allowed him three years to provide for ; and Hamilton had observed too much shrewdness in Lady Berkely to consider her an auspi- cious mother-in-law for a ward over whom he hoped to retain a paramount influence. To remain at Weald and afford the marquis an opportunity for increased intimacy with Marcia, at such a critical moment, might be fatal. It was essential to break up the party ; and on pretext of the necessity of meeting his Majesty at Brighton, it was settled that Julia should accompany Lady Leighton, already on the wing for her winter campaign of marine flirtation. Within four-and-twenty hours from the receipt of Lord Tottenham's letter, accordingly, every chaise- seat and imperial in the house was packed. The post- horses starved at the Tottenham arms, as well as an appendix from the nearest post-tovrn, were bespoken ; and, before Miss Hamilton's letter, announcing her marriage and the departure of the family, reached Green-Oak, the equipages of the Weald party had once more passed the creaking turnpike gate! — Even the hope conceived by Lady Berkely, on her first perusal of the startling billet, that Augustus would remain behind, to shoot, hunt, and convert his mysterious whispers of attachment into an intelligible proposal of marriage, were frustrated on reaching the breakfast table. On the snowy damask that graced her lady- ship's plate, lay the cards of Mr. Augustus Hamil- ton, and the Marquis of Claneustace " P. P. C." the two young men having paused for a moment at THE IIAMILTONS. 43 the Grccn-Oak gate> before the family were up, so as not to quit Nortliamptonshire without the ceremony of a farewell visit ! — CHAP. vn. Cato made no distinction of times or things ; no allowance for tlie weakness of the republic, and the power of those who op- pressed it. In an age, therefore, of the utmost libertinism, when the public discipline was lost, and the government tottering, he struggled with the same zeal against all corruption, and wagetl perpetual war with a superior force, — Middleton. It has been already admitted that Bernard Forbes, in spite of his sallow complexion and quizzical coat, was one of those remarkable men who make up, with ninety-nine of mediocre capacity, the complement of every hundred of the human race. He possessed great endowments, great attainments. There had been nothing in his monotonous home, nothing in the im- pulses of his own retiring disposition, to abstract him from studies which a strong capacity for personal en- joyment often renders fruitless. From his earliest years, he had distinguished himself; and, though his politics were of a nature to close against him the chief avenues to preferment, as well as all access to parlia- ment without such pecuniary aid from his father as the timid politics of old Forbes determined him to withhold, the ambition of the rising barrister was as ardent as his address was frigid. One advantage, indeed, resulted to him from the restraints of his posi- tion ; — he was prevented from stunning the public ear with that effervescence of boyish oratory, which 44 THE HAMILTONS. has precociously deteriorated the reputation of many a public man ; as well as from thrusting the crude fruit of his studies upon the experienced palate of veterans, accustomed to the rich flavour and nutritive properties of more mature productions. But though thus sedate, thus contemplative, thus engrossed by a mighty sympathy with the interests of the human race, and though (for the whole truth must be told) a very ugly man, the destinies of Forbes were tinctured by a due admixture of romance. About a mile from the dull drowsy Manor House, stood the mansion of his father's sister, Mrs. Warren ; — gloomy with the shade of its grove of firs, — gloomy with the severe Calvinism of the widow by whom it was in- habited. Yet, in this peculiarly mournful retreat, had one of the caprices of nature fostered the girlish beauty, and more than girlish levity of his cousin, Caroline Warren ; between whom and young Bernard, the pro- vidence of the brother and sister, eager to unite the fortunes of their only children, had instituted one of those cradle engagements which form so severe a libel on parental wisdom. They had even gone the usual absurd length of admitting the children into their con- fidence ; and Caroline, educated in considerable awe of her mother, was pi'evented from expressing her dis- taste fur her shy, awkward cousin, only by her know- ledge that Mrs. Warren's resolves were immutable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. Satisfied that she should be obliged, at last, to marry Bernai'd, a prudence somewhat too calculating for her years prompted the mortified beauty to conceal her disgust and forbear all opposition. Bernard, engrossed by his studies, was too rarely domiciliated at the Manor to have leisure for observing more than that cousin Caroline had the prettiest face THE IIAMILTONS. 45 and gentlest manners of any girl of his acquaintance. riie harsh rationalities of her mother satisfied hira of the strictness of her education ; and the courtesy of her demeanour towards himself announced the most submissive and feminine of wives. She had never visited the metropolis, and knew nothing of its fashions and frivolities ; but had mixed freely in the society of the " genteel " neighbourhood of Laxington ; more freely, indeed, than appeared desirable to her mother, when the marriage of Sir William Ashley introduced at Stoke the dashing, pleasure-loving woman, who was now his widow. Mr. Cadogan of Everleigh, too, be- came more assiduous in his attentions at Fir Grove than seemed eligible to its grave proprietress. Not that she foresaw permanent mischief from the intimacy. For Mr. Cadogan was a child of reprobation, — a Roman Catholic ; and bigoted and credulous even be- yond the bigotry and credulity of the church which was the object of her abhorrence, she could not con- ceive it possible that a child of hers, — a child of re- generation and grace, — should incline towards a Papist. For if Mrs. Warren did not absolutely desire to see her neighbour Mr. Cadogan burnt at the stake, she regarded him as predestined to a far more fearful order of conflagration. While thus engrossed by a fanaticism of her own, Caroline found time to form other opinions, in which the well-bred, well-dressed Cadogan played a distin- guished part. She contrasted his attentions with the insulting sa?^^;/'^o^■rev('nt me from enjoying an opera, or taking my daughter to a ball." "/ have no daughter to take," observed Marcia, turning with interest towards the fair girl thus al- luded to ; whose countenance pleaded strongly in her favour, howbeit the daughter of Lady Leighton. "But do not add, tliat you cannot enjoy an opera!" said Blanche, in a timid voice, replying to the in- quiring gaze of Mrs. Forbes " Surely, you appreciate Pasta?" " You will blush for me when I own that I have never heard her ! " replied Marcia, pleased with the gentle manners of her young visitor. " I was brought up in the country ; and have married into a situation of life which forbids much participation in public amusements." " But you enjoy music ?" persisted Blanche, glancing at a harp and piano, and profusion of music books. " Exceedingly — as serving to lighten many a soli- tary hour. But professional music I seldom hear. In every position of society, one is obliged to sacrifice something." "Blanche would not like to sacrifice Pasta !" said Lady Leighton, laughing. " She is an enthusiast." " If, like Mrs. Forbes, I had never heard Pasta," said Miss Leighton, blushing at her own courage in ad- dressing their severe hostess, " I should think it no sacrifice to relinquish the opera. Nor can I, like her, appreciate music, for I have never had a solitary hour to lighten. / have studied music only for the amuse- ment of others. Some day or other, perhaps, I shall love it for my own." R 2 244 THE IIAMILTONS. " No," replied Mrs. Forbes, smilkig. " Vou ai-e not likely to live in retirement — Voii are born for the world." "We know not what we were born for!" ci'ied Lady Leighton, pleased to see how soon the merit of her daughter thawed the coldness of Mrs. Forbes. " I, for instance, saw the light in a settlement among the Ghauts — obscure, poor, feeble. Yet it has been my fate to walk through life under the shadow of majesty, in the most polished country of the West. Blanche, whose youth has basked in the sunshine, may have to freeze in the shade." " I am not afraid ! " said the girl, smiling fondly at her mother. " There was a warrior who said, ' What is fear ? I never saw it ! ' I say. What is misfor- tune!" "Do not, however, disbelieve in its existence!" said Marcia, gravely. " The boastful man you speak of, died defeated and disgraced." " Away with your inference ! " cried Lady Leighton, the colour rising vividly in her cheeks. " Have you the heart to predict misfortune to my Blanche ! " " God forbid ! " exclaimed Mrs. Forbes, astonished to perceive the genuine emotion agitating the frame of Lady Leighton, usually regulated by the strictest dis- cipline of fashionable immobility. She began to con- ceive that maternal atFection might operate the miracle of regeneration even in a nature like hers. " I trust you will come and see me in Berkeley Square ? " inquired her ladyship, rising to take leave, with the tears still glistening in her eyes. And after glancing at the soft cheek of Blanche Leighton, flushed by the excitement of a conversation so different from the cold insipidities she was in the habit of hearing, Mrs. Forbes found it impossible to answer " No." THE HAMILTON'S. 245 CHAP. XXXVI. " Monsieur le comte, on vous demande ! Si vous ne mettez le hola Le peuple se revoltera." " Dites au peuple qu'il attende, II faut que j'aille a I'opera." Pont Neuf du Comte de Maurepas. The season and the session, meanwhile, had opened together ; and opened with auspicious promise to the quietists of the court party. All was sunshine. The Marquis of Shetland pi-ogressed, like a god of light, in daily festivities, from Lord Tottenham's to Lord Bal- dock's, from Lord Baldock's to Lord Laxington's ; and so on, through all the signs of his zodiac. L'eland grumbled a little, — the manufacturers groaned, — and the continent occasionally growled in the distance. But who could give ear to such inharmonious sounds, when Donzelli and Malibran were singing ; or who deign to notice the menacing gestures of a mob of wretches who cried aloud that their bread was taxed and their children starving, when Taglioni, the hand- maid of the graces, was making her debut at the opera ! The Bayadere was in possession of every heart and eye. No ear was disengaged for the " sound and fury, signifying nothing," of the most high court of Parliament. The world of luxury is an entrancing world ! Let no one presume to undervalue the mightiness of its influence who has not encountered and overcome the ordeal! Its lights burn so brightly, — its harmonies breathe so deliciously, — its beauties shine so softly, — its impressions succeed each other so rapidly, — that 246 THE HAJHLTONS. the young and even middle-aged philosopher had need retreat into his tub ere he ventux*e to defy its allure- ments. And yet it is from the midst of the crowd thus infatuated with pleasure, that the wretched seek sympathy for their sordid and repellent woes. It is from the puissant and the pampered, that the interests of the people demand legislative protection. It is to the man covered with purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day, that the beggar lifts up his sores, in confidence of mercy ! Vain delusion ! When God hardened Pharaoh's heart, it was by the influence of prosperity ; and, to render him even just towards the children of Israel, plagues and adversity became his portion ! The Marquis of Shetland, for instance, was a man humane towards individuals, but without sympathy with the mass. The same faculties which had ren- dered him a mighty soldier, converted him into a little minister. His arguments of cast-iron might be snapt asunder, but never modified. As he floated on the surface of the waves, in a ti*im galley with well-filled sails and music and sunshine on the deck, it never occurred to him how vast, how powerful, how fearful, how cold, how engulphing, the element that ministered to Ills course ! It was made, he fancied, to float the vessel of the state ; and what signified the numberless living tilings, leviathans or minnows, obscured in the unfathomable abyss ? Meanwhile the galley did float. The Cleopatra of Luxury sat there in her gorgeous chair ; and Fashion measured its progress with her silver oars. Tlie in- fluence of the class represeiited by Bernard Forbes was like the sweeping whirlwind's sway, which, hush'd in j;rim repose, expects its prey, THE HAMILTONS. 247 overlooked or derided. Julia Tottenham and her sister butterflies flew, with sparkling wings, from ball- room to ball-room. Tlie Eardleys and Tottenham s, and their gay associates, could scarcely find time, in tlie four-and-twenty hours, for the sleep they were compelled to steal from such a variety of pleasures. It was admitted by every foreign ambassador who visited England, that the surface of things was wrought to the highest pitch of polish. They ad- mired its Parliament, matched in eloquence, like the hounds of Theseus, with " mouths each under each ;" its public virtue, so symmetrically diminutive, " small by degrees, and beautifully less ; " its army, so well flogged ; its architecture, if not of marble, so well stuccoed. The French Ambassador protested that the cuisine in London must be irreproachable, since every Milor talked like a professor of cookery ; the Neapolitan, that it was only in the Haymarket a can- tatrice could sing, or figurante dance, since the House of Peers legislated behind the scenes ; his Austrian Excellency, that it was only in Saint James's Street a man could gamble, where, to gain admittance into a club, required as many quarterings as for a Chapter of the Empire ! Vice was so exceedingly decorous that it might have taken its seat on the Bench of Bishops ; and corruption, in phosphorescent rottenness, sent forth a shining light. England, in short, was as the beautiful Savannah ; where rattle-snakes are hidden among the flowers, and pestilential vapours lurk in eveiy entanglement of verdure. Such was the state of things, when a word went forth which, though cautiously whispered, sounded like a knell in the ears of the wanton crew dancing hand in hand in that meadow of noxious beauty. " The King was indis- posed ! " Accustomed to listen to such announce- R 4 248 THE HAMILTONS. ments, on the mere aching of a royal finger, the courtiers made a wry face, and were exceedingly sorry. But the wry face was soon changed to one of real dismay ; for this time, the wolf was come in earnest ! — A few were deeply concerned ; for George the Fourth was a kind master, and gracious to his frogs ; and, exhibiting, in a higher degree, the most showy qualifications of his aristocracy, might, in a better school, have acquired the best virtues of his people. But the many were full of consternation ; and the country cowered under the shadow of coming events ! Windsor Castle became invested with a mournful and peculiar interest. Society, which had not hitherto attempted to penetrate the secrets of its gilded por- tals, became full of curiosity, now that a gloomy ensign was hoisted on its towers. The great (and how many had been made great by his influence !) be- lieving that the anchor of Toryism would be torn up in the approaching tempest, prayed fervently for the life of the King ; while the little were eager to learn whether he who had so little troubled himself " to teach them how to live," would " teach them how to die." The AYhigs were gathering by twos and threes ; and the people hailed their appearance as that of the sea-birds which harbinger a storm. A new era was already in its morning twilight. Meanwhile, in a remote room of that stately castle, whence expresses were now hourly despatched with tidings of the decline of the king, and where every bi'eath and murmur was supposed to prognosticate a change, sat Susan Hamilton, watching over the cradle of a little helpless dying child, — the diminishing point of that mighty chain of being which commenced in the chamber of Majesty. — Her husband was in unre- THE IIAMILTONS. 249 mitting attendance on the King, who, in the softened mood of sickness, had kindly forbidden the removal of his wife and child. " Let them stay here," faltered one to whom the decay of mortal nature was teaching the gentler secrets of the heart. " Let them benefit by my medical at- tendants." And very often, when the skill of his physicians was insufficient to secure remission from pain and uneasiness, he would ask, gaspingly, of Sir Henry Halford after the state of IMrs. Hamilton's child, — a creature no other person living cared for but its mother. There was a bond of sympathy between the dying infant and dying King. Their infirmity re- duced them to an equality. " Go to your wife, Hamilton," he was often heard to say ; "I understand she is fretting sadly; — go to your wife." And Augustus, who cared so little for his child, and so much for the golden source of his prosperity, was compelled to play the fond father and tender husband, — at the command of the King ! His task, whether of courtier or parent, was not of long duration. The heir of his honours, and the sove- reign by whom they had been conferred, were alike on the confines of the dust. Archbishops, chancellors, — the Church, the Law, the Court, — were ministering to the comfort of the last hours of one about to ap- pear, unsupported and uncounselled, before the throne of God : — a mother's tears poured the only sacrament of grace on the brow of the suffering babe, about to return, in its innocence, to the parent Sj^irit of the creation ! The Angel of Death stood by the couch of majesty, unawed by its paraphernalia of greatness. But akeady his sternness had resisted the clinging, clasping, agonised tenderness with which the love of 250 THE HAMILTONS. the young mother defended her child against his ap- proach. For though, during the last week of his life, the King was informed, on inquiring daily after "poor Mrs. Hamilton's child," that it was better, lest the word " dead " should produce a sinister impression on his feelings, Susan was already following its little body on the road to Laxington. It was fitting that the last piece of intelligence afforded to George the Fourth should be a falsehood ! Susan, ever tractable, was, in her mood of affliction, more tractable than ever. When her husband ex- plained that, in the precarious state of his majesty, it was impossible for a servant (and the son of a servant) so deeply indebted to his bounties, to quit the castle in order to follow to the grave the remains of a child scarcely more than a twelvemonth old, she made no opposition to his will. Her kind Marcia came down from town to be the companion of lier melancholy journey ; and on a fine morning in June, a fine summer morning when the earth is all gladness and the sky all brightness, a mourning coach, followed by Lord Laxington's travelling carriage, quitted the castle, ere day-break, so as to create no confusion in the royal household, soon to be disorganised by a more imposing ceremony. Mrs. Hamilton's grief was pious and tranquil. While the child was there in life before her, occupying her every thought and care, she fancied it all in all. Now it was gone, and she saw that nothing missed it, and no one mourned for it, she felt that it had been important only to herself; — that heaven had given it for her joy, and withdrawn it for her humiliation. No one but herself had marked the glances of love in its mournful eyes ; — -no one but herself had doated upon the occasional gleams of health that spoke promise on THE HAMILTONS. 251 its cheek. All was over ; and no one but herself wept that the silver lozenge on the little coffin before her, from which she had turned back the pall to con- template the inscription of " Clement, son of Augustus Frederick Hamilton and Susan his wife," contained the sole record of its brief existence. Her head throbbed, her eyes were blinded with tears, as she pressed the hand of Mrs. Forbes ; for she felt that, brief as it was, that existence included her sum of mortal happiness ! It was strange that Susan, at whose marriage her future residence at Weald Park affiarded a chief pro- spect of joy, was now, for the first time, returning into Northamptonshire ! One autumn passed on the con- tinent, and one at Windsor, had engrossed the two years of her married life ; and now, she was about to revisit those well-remembered scenes of home, as a mourner, — as a Rachel, — as one who had tasted the sparkling chalice of life, and found it bitterness. The critical state of public affairs forbad either Lord Lax- ington or his son to bear her company at this melan- choly epoch. But Marcia promised to remain with her some days at Weald. She dreaded her mother's company for the tender nerves of Susan. Nothing was easier than for Mrs. Hamilton to ac- quiesce. She only wept. She hoped to listen and reply on the morrow ; when, after passing the night at Weald Park, the ceremony of interment was to take place. One thing, however, she heard, and heard with pain, as towards evening they approached Lax- ington. The church bells were ringing a merry peal — just such a peal as they had rung when, on her wedding day, she departed from the place. Susan flung herself upon her sister's bosom, and sobbed con- vulsively. The funeral procession had not been ex- 252 THE IIAMILTONS. pected during day-light; and the inhabitants had only just time to close their windows as it passed, and silence their ill-timed rejoicings in honour of the birth of a son and heir to Everleigrh Hall. CHAP. XXXVII. A power is passing from the earth To breathless Nature's dark abyss ; But when the mighty pass away What is it more, than this — That man by God's high will sent forth JMust still to God return ; Such ebb and flow shall ever be, Then wherefore should we mourn ? Wordsworth. Meanwhile a greater event had taken place; an event which, though of no deeper importance than the transit of a single soul from time to eternity, was fated to form an epoch in universal history. The heralds of England had proclaimed the death and the accession of a king. Tlie new courtiers were drest in smiles, the old, in tears, and all in mourning. The people, forgetting apparently that, in a consti- tutional monarchy, a change of ministry is of more consequence than a change of Kings, overlooked the delinquencies of the old administration, in the merits of the new sovereign. It was a long time since a King had met them, face to face. The rising gene- ration were glad to ascertain that the crown was not worn by a hippogriff ; and His Majesty, bred in a pro- fession too critical in its vicissitudes to deal in the etiquettes of life, and, at present unlearned in the THE IIAMILTONS. 253 precept delivered to Louis XV., by liis Chancellor, that " Kings themselves are but ceremonies," — was well satisfied to set their minds at rest. — A female court, too, was, for the first time, for many years, esta- blished ; and the world began to talk of King George and Queen Charlotte, and fancy they had retrograded to those " good old times," which ended in the riots of Eighty, and the American war ! The Whigs, though surprised to find themselves little advanced by the grand vicissitude, soon became satisfied that the King had done wisely to let the fall of their adversaries become the work of the country, rather than of his single will, and confident that they were slowly, but safely, ascending the hill ; while the Tories were too well pleased to find themselves still ascendant, to have leisure for evil auguries. Perhaps the two members of the party least astonished at their own good fortune, were the Marquis of Shetland and Augustus Hamilton ; the former, because he fancied he could "command success," — the latter, because persuaded that he " deserved it." — Peregrine Varden punned on, more vivaciously than ever ; ungrateful to the kind master he had lost, and faithless to the new master he had gained. To Lord Laxington, it appeared essential that him- self and his family should be seen on the best of terms with the powers that were. Long, therefore, before her grief was pacified, Susan was recalled from Weald to the presidency of the mansion in Spring Gardens ; and required to figure at the meeting of Parliament under the new reign, and wherever their Majesties deigned to honour with their presence the resorts of the Aristocracy. Li the new court, Mrs. Hamilton was still more distinguished than in the former The gentle modesty which enhanced her beauty, and the 254 THE IIAMILTONS. virtuous name which had come out pure and spotless even from the deeply engrained hands of fashion, had their reward. Lord Laxington had the satisfaction to congratulate his daughter-in-law on the apjjointment of woman of the Bed-chamber ; and began to think that, in spite of her seeming want of tact, " rien 71' est si adroit gu'une conduite irreprochable ! " Three weeks passed in retirement at Weald Park had produced the most beneficial results for Sirs. Hamilton ; not only in re-establishing her health, but affording leisure for meditation. It is incalculable how much a month of complete abstraction from the in- fluence of the world, affects the human character: the scales fall from our eyes ; the mists of conven- tionalism disappear. Could Kings and Ministers, Sul- tans and Viziers, secure such a blessing, — some land- ing place to pause on, in their Scala dei Giganti, where contemplation might " prune her feathers and let grow her wings," — how diffei'ent would be the destinies of Nations ! Susan Hamilton's philosophy, however, was simply of a self-reprehensive nature. In the vigils of /i^r solitude, she reproached herself with having been selfish in her joys, selfish in her sorrows ; with having neglected the husband on whom she doated, the father-in-law to whom she was grateful, the friend who had been her comforter in a foreign land. Her first effort should be a visit to Everleigh ; and Mrs. Forbes, to whom she communicated her intentions, and who heard them with a heightened colour, secretly comforted herself with the notion that Caroline would not be well enough to receive company before their return to town. The Berkely family had entered into a com- pact to say nothing to Susan, particularly in her pre- sent shattered state of nerves, on the subject of her THE IIAMILTONS. 255 ill-fated connection with Mrs. Cadogan ; concluding that Caroline's sense of decency would prompt her to moderate their intimacy. They did not know, — fio7ie knew, Mrs. Cadogan ! The administrators of the law are often heard to say that no oifenders brought before them are so audacious as depraved women ; and it has passed into a proverb that A shameless woman is the worst of men ! But the depraved woman who is a hypocrite, if less injurious to public morals, is infinitely more wicked than the shameless. Poison, pent within the heart, concentrates its venom ; and there is no divining to what excess of crime the mind may attain that nourishes itself on vice. And Caroline was not only a revolted spirit, but a miracle of hypocrisy ! Born with bigh endowments of beauty and intellect, she fancied herself, as she grew up, a victim to the injustice of Providence; and loathing the marriage ordained for her, and the bigotry of her mother, found no refuge for a perverse nature but in duplicity ! Education had done nothing to en- large her mind ; and it contracted at last, in quintes- sential malignity, into the poison-drop that inflicts destruction on others. She had begun, by wearing a smiling face when she was discontented ; she found it easy, at last, to wear an innocent one while sinning. Her sole care was to abstain from such indiscretions as might forfeit the place she held in society ; and she was forced to adulate the woman she hated, in order to impose upon a husband she despised. But though she hated Susan, she could not despise her. The purity of Mrs. Hamilton's mind and character shone before the eyes of the fallen one, — the more than 256 TITE IIAMILTONS. fallen — the corrupted one, like a " rock of alabaster piled up to the clouds." Susan's face was to her as the face of an accusing angel. The judgments of God often overtake, in secret, the impenitent offender. Many a green tree is suddenly dried up and withered, and no man suspects that the lightning of Heaven scathed it in the night-season : and many a human being waxes wan and smileless, and no man conjectures that fear and remorse are in- flicting silent pangs upon his soul. In ]\Irs. Cadogan's hour of anguish, she recollected for how evil a pur- pose she had presented her services as the attendant and comforter of Susan. Even when her child (the cliild of shame, but far more an object of affection than the pledges of her lawful love) was placed in her arms, and she was thanked by her husband for the heir she had given to the honours of his ancient name, she re- membered the holiness of Susan's joy, the devoutness of her prayer, Avhile imprinting a first kiss upon the brow of hers, and shuddered as she looked upon the offspring of guilt. But a still severer retribution was in store for her. She knew of Mrs. Hamilton's loss, and rejoiced that it would secure her sick-room from her presence ; when, one morning, as she lay on her sofa, near an open window, enjoying the delicious balminess of the summer atmosphere, the door of her dressing-room was gently opened, and Susan, quiet and unannounced, stole in. Caroline would have given worlds to evade the visit. But there she was, chained to her couch, without even a bell at her disposal ; and when Mrs. Hamilton put aside her mourning veil, and bent over her with a kind, womanly kiss, a sudden flush of fever seemed to pervade the frame of the delinquent. A tear THE IIAMILTONS. 257 was on her face, that had fnllen from Susan's ; which scorched her like a drop of liquid lire ! While taking a solitary morning drive in the neigh- bourhood of Everleigh (Marcia being detained at home, writing letters to her husband), JMrs. Hamilton had found courage for the visit. " I have been very unhappy since we parted," said she, in all the simplicity of grief, " very unhappy. But, for Augustus's sake, I must learn to overcome my affliction." " You have so many remaining sources of happi- ness," observed Mrs. Cadogan, in a low voice ; but she could not finish her sentence. " We have all sources of happiness, if we knew how to render them available," said Susan, sighing ; " but some are fated to deeper afflictions than others ; some to brighter fortunes. — Yourself, dear Caroline ! How completely are all your desires realised ! With health — fortune — an adoring husband — beautiful children, and affectionate friends, how happy you are ! Do not think me despicable if I regard you as an object of envy ! " What would not Caroline have given for the entrance of her husband, or of a servant, to silence this ill-timed enthusiasm. " You must show me your little boy," resumed Mrs. Hamilton, after a painful pause. " Surely the sight of a child would be too painful to you ! " remonstrated the invalid. " No, no ! " replied Susan, with a quivering lip. " I must see children — I must accustom myself to see them, without emotion ; — and with whose can I better commence my hard lesson, than with yours? — You, so kind a friend, will show indulgence to my weak- npsa f " 258 THE IIAMILTONS. " I cannot — I — I " " Nay, dear Caroline ! Believe me to be the best judge of my own feelings ! It would soothe me to hold your child in my arms ! " " Not yet ! — You must excuse me ! " faltered Mrs. Cadogan, her heart beating more quickly than she had fancied it would ever beat again. But her will was not to be consulted. The head nurse, proud of the heir of Everleigh, and desirous to exhibit to a visitor the magnificent lace of its cockade, thought proper to parade her charge into the room ; without dreaming that the deep mourning of the lady-guest had any re- ference to a loss rendering its presence disagreeable. " See, ma'am ! " cried the old lady, approaching Mrs. Hamilton, without regard to the prohibitions of her mistress, " See what a pair of hazel eyes, — the very moral of its papa — pretty dear ! — Lord bless you, ma'am, I nursed Mr. Cadogan himself, ma'am, when he wasn't no bigger than this precious darling ; and he was as like this babby, he was, as two drops of water." But another resemblance was sickening in the heart of Susan ! Her own lost child seemed to rise before her eyes ! " Ah, Caroline ! " said she, seizing the cold hand of Mrs. Cadogan, and motioning to the nurse to take away the infant. " You were right ! Forgive me ! — I shall love your boy very much some day or otlier. I have long intended to ask you to let it be my god- child." " ]My dear Mrs. Hamilton, you do us too much honour ! " exclaimed Cadogan, who had entered, un- perceived, the door opened by the departing nurse. " Nothing will give me greater pleasure. Nay, you must persuade my friend Hamilton to take his share in your duties. Give my kind regards to him, and " THE HAMILTON3. 259 "No!" said Mrs. Cailogan, fivintly. "I wish — I rather intend — I " She stopped short. " Have you formed, then, witliout consulting me, any engagements on the subject?" said Cadogan, settling his chin in his cravat. " Not exactly — but " " Allow me, then, my dear, to arrange the matter at once. Supposing, my dear Mrs. Hamilton, we were to call the little fellow Augustus ? " he persisted, too full of his heir to notice the agitation of his wife ; and knowing that, as the Hamiltons' child had been chris- tened " Clement," the name would produce no painful associations. " As you please ! " replied Susan, overcome by the triumphant joyousness of his voice and mannei*, and eager to depart. " I will write a line, then, to my friend Hamilton, Better that the compliment of the request should come from me. Are you going, Mrs. Hamilton ? — Allow me to take you to your carriage." " Good bye, Caroline," said Susan, in a tremulous voice, as she quitted the room. " I shall see you again shortly." " I trust not — I devoutly trust not! " ejaculated the conscience-struck IMrs. Cadogan, when they were gone, and she found herself alone. " Such struggles, often repeated, would destroy me ! " But she was spared a repetition of her punishment. Within a few days Mrs. Hamilton was, by the mandate of Lord Laxington, recalled to London. s 2 260 THE IIAMILTONS. CHAP. XXXVIII. A plague of opinion ! — A man may wear it on both sides — like a leather jerkin. — Troilus and Cressida. These family events, combined with the death of the King and its consequences, spared Mrs. Forbes for a time the risk of disobedience to her husband, by com- pliance with the pressing invitations of Lady Leighton. But her ladyship was not to be distanced. — On pre- text of inquiring after the afflicted Susan, she again intruded on Marcia ; and this time, was so fortunate as to find the Marquis of Claneustace and Sir Edward Berkely established in Mrs. Forbes's drawing-room. How lucky she thought herself, at that moment, that the fair Blanche's suit of sables happened to be so peculiarly becoming ! " By the way, my dear Lady Leighton," cried Sir Edward, interrupting the compliments passing between his sister and her guest, " are we to congratulate or condole with you, on these recent events ? " " Whichever you please ! — No one is moi'e indif» fei'ent than myself to political changes." " A lady should never call herself indifferent. Let her be good, or bad, but not indifferent ! " cried the rattle-pate " Cool, then, in politics. Will that suit you ? " " Worse and worse ! — With the many, cool stands for impudent. Call yourself better names, I beseech you." " Well, then, I will call myself no politician ! " said Lady Leighton, resolved not to be affronted. " Quite right — politic, but no politician ! What THE IIAMILTONS. 261 woman, indeed, ever approached within millions ol miles of a politician ! — I have seen them swallow bad air and bud jokes, in the Ventilator ; and elbow each other in the gallery of the Lords, as though a Duchess could show as much temper as an apple-woman. But there is not such a thing in England — (Heaven be thanked) as a female politician. — Mrs. Masham was the last ; and she was a chambermaid." " Sui'ely," observed Blanche Leightou, — whose cou- rage was roused by a surmise that the tone of Sir Ed- ward was designedly disrespectful towards her mother, — " surely, we are to suppose that such women as Lady Lisle, Lady Fanshawe, and Lady Rachel Russell, en- tertained strong political opinions ; — though made theirs, perhaps, in the first instance, by the influence of those they loved ! " Sir Edward bowed ironically to the young lady. Even the modest blush with which she spoke, did not controvert his notion that Lady Leighton's daughter must be playing a part. — "I have heard of hereditary politicians, and conventional politicians, and politicians of all odd sorts and kinds," cried he. " But this is the first time I ever heard of a politician on sentiment." " Do not argue with my brother. Miss Leighton," interposed Mrs. Forbes. — " It is labour lost for a woman to take the part of her sex against a man predetermined not to be convinced." " My confidence is pretty equal in politicians of either gender," cried Sir Edward. " A man's political views are, like his views in perspective, dependent on his standing-ground. Once upon a time, I inclined towards liberalism myself. But Claneustace soon got so far beyond me on the same road, that, hating to be looked back upon, 1 turned and went a dift'erent way. And now, my politics are those of my red coat. I stand s 3 262 THE HAMILTONS. by the minister who, like Charlemagne, writes treaties with the point of his sword, and seals them with its pommel ; and not only say ' Vive le Roi, quand meme^ but ' Vive le ministre ! ' " " But does it follow that, because you are a weather- cock, there exists no solid rock ? " said his sister. " I have one brother-in-law, a radical, a greatest hap- piness man, a corn-law rhymer," cried Sir Edward ; — " the other, a junior lord of the Admiralty (who once asked me if tar was made of liquorice): — both very fine fellows ! But the mere fact of making first a low bow to one, and then to the other, converts me into a girouctte. You, my dear Lady Leighton," he continued, — determined to interrupt the conversation into which her ladyship was drawing Lord Claneustace, — " you, who have been, and are, all consistency, what do you intend to do, now our friends tlie Tories have insulted the people of England by assuring them they are not in half so much distress as it is their pleasure to be thought ? — Do you intend to retreat with the line of march, or loiter behind and be taken prisoner ? " " I intend," said Lady Leighton, afraid of giving him a rational answer, " to follow the standard of the worst minister who presents himself; sure and cer- tain that he will be the popular man." " While I," said Lord Claneustace, " am keeping my allegiance for the leader whose policy promises the extinction of pauperism." " The leader who is able to feed seven millions of craving stomachs with five barley loaves and two small fishes?" cried Sir Edward. "Right! he shall be my man, too ; and may we witness his avatar, before we find ourselves swallowed up by that \ oracious Mam- moth, tlie starving poor. The English are always ex- pecting to be devoured alive by some giant or other. THE HAMILTONS. 263 111 my childliood, Bonaparte was the Ogre ; in my boy- hood, Sir Robert Wilson threatened us with the Rus- sians. Now, our croque-moiitou lives at home, — the Pauper mob." " We hear too much of them to have much to ap- px'ehend ! " said Lady Leighton, sick of the conversa- tion. " The most dangerous enemies are those who come like Lear's soldiers, shod with felt ; not those who advance, like Chrononhotontologos, with drums beating and colours flying. What constituted, the other day, the irresistible force of the Parisian mob ? — Unity of purpose and suddenness of impulse." " The people of Paris had to resist unconstitutional measures," said Lord Claneustace, — " measures only to be frustrated by the power of brute force. We would purge and purify the constitution itself; — an operation that requires time, forethought, counsel, de- liberation." " The longer you deliberate the better ! " exclaimed Sir Edward. " I am not fond of witnessing demoli- tions, till convinced that something better will arise in the vacant space. It is easy to fancy and design amendments. But recollect Staines Bridge, which, condemned for insecurity thirty years ago, has sur- vived three new ones, on improved principles ! What says our sister, learned in the law, to a case so much in point ? " " I say, as Bernard says, that you ramble too loosely on such matters. In times like these, every man should make choice of a banner ; and, having satisfied his con- science that he has chosen worthily, fight firmly and bravely to the last." " ' Under which king, Bezonian ? — speak, or die ! ' No longer a war of Two Roses, but of two Thistles ! 264 THE HAMILTONS. No I Marc'ia, no order of political battle lor me ! — Swing may make free with a few of Lord Laxington's barns, and frighten my mother and Pen. Smith out of their senses. But the good sense of the middle classes of England, ' by their own weight made steadfast and immovable,' Avill prevent the conflagration from spreading." " ]VIy dear Edward," rejoined his sister, " you see things with the eyes of your club, hear them with the eai's of your mess, and talk with the moutli of a mandarin of the Celestial empire ! But this wnll not do. Were a Bavarian or Tyrolian to deny tlie exist- ence of the ocean, because he never beheld it, you would call him a fool. And you, who know little more of the spirit and condition of the people than may be learned in a battue at Stoke Park, or in St. James's Street on a levee day, have no right to impugn the better information of Lord Claneustace, who has had to deal with a large and disaffected body of tenantry ; or of Bernard, whose correspondents at Sheffield and Birmingham (men of first-rate importance among the manufacturing classes) have lately communicated to him intelligence the most alarming. Only last night, I heard him confidently predict to Lord Claneustace that, within three months, there must be a total change in the measures of government, or a revolution in the country." " Thank goodness we leave town for Brighton next week I " cried Lady Leighton, rising to take leave. " I long to get a little respite from hearing of these things." '■' Hespite?" gravely reiterated Lord Claneustace. '• Better prepare yourself for listening to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The Tories of to-day remind one of the Scythians of old, THE HAMILTONS. 265 who used to put out the eyes of their shives that nothing might divert their attention while grinding their masters' corn. But tlie People are beginning to insist on the use of" their own eyes ; and it is time for all England to know that a new era of our national his- tory is approaching. Let us devoutly trust that the regeneration of the country may not be solemnised by a baptism of blood." CHAP. XXXIX. And now the storm-blast came, — and lie Was tyrannous and strong ; He struck with his o'ertaking wings, And chased them south along. Ancient Mariner. Who does not remember the fearful approach of the great crisis of the autumn of 1830, when the people of England, habituated to the excitement of public changes by the death of their sovereign, and the de- position of the King of France, seemed unwilling that a day should pass without its historical event ? For many months, their attention had been engaged by public lamentations, or public rejoicings, — by funeral knells or joyous rebecks, — by outcries against the Wellington administration, or threats against that of Polignac ; and a peaceful return to their avocations and submissive citizenship, appeared impossible. Every hour brought tidings of mischief from the provinces. The country was in an uproar. Chaos was come again ! The event of the general election dealt dismay to an administration attacked on one side by the Ultra- 266 THE IIAMILTONS. Tories, on the other by the Radicals, and menaced in full front by the more efficient forces of the Whig party. The fire-raisings and riots devised by a set of lawless madmen, while they served no political pur- pose, added to the general consternation ; and, as the pacific part of the community became overwhelmed with terror, the temerity and activity of the agitators hourly increased. Before the close of October, the meeting of the new parliament brought the chief families connected with government to London. Al- ready, the Shetlands, Tottenhams, and Hamiltons were at their post. Few persons suffered more, under the system of in- timidation pursued at that moment by the opposition press, than the gentle Susan Hamilton. The sanguinary details of the French and Belgic Revolutions were never absent from her mind. With restless anxiety, she perused the threats of the public journals ; and already beheld, in imagination, her husband and her husband's father, fugitives, like Folignac and Feyron- net before the fury of the populace ; or confined for life in those pleasant apartments on the banks of the Thames which are entered through the Traitor's Gate I — Her brother, scarcely believing in the reality of her fears, did his best to exaggerate the picture. One day, he arrived in Spring Gardens with tidings of the discovery of a revolutionary plot ; the next, he in- formed her, in confidence, that Bernard Forbes was about to bring forward a motion for the impeachment of ministers ; very rarely did he allow her a day of peace. She was never easy, during the absence of Augustus; and Augustus was almost always absent. " Poor fellow ! he had such a weight of public busi- ness on his hands ! " When at home, however, his conduct towards his TUE HAMILTONS. 267 wife was kind and exemplary. Never had his manners appeared so gentle, or his professions so aliectionate. The Hamiitons had passed a month together at Weald ; a month partly enlivened by the splendid festivities of Everleigh, and partly saddened by the melancholy condition of Lady Berkely, who had been visited by a paralytic seizure which left her imbecile and helpless. But even Mrs. Hamilton's anxiety on her mother's account was merged in her more poignant fears for her husband. She had lost her child. Circumstances tended to estrange her from her brother and sister. She had nothing, nothing left but Augustus ! Right glad was she, indeed, to quit Weald on the meeting of parliament. During her stay in North- amptonshire, scarcely a day had passed in which Pen. Smith did not manage to cross her path Avith tidings of some new outrage directed or purposed against the Hamilton family. The town of Laxingtou, foreseeing its early liberation from the authority of the house of Tottenham, exhibited the usual temper of a slave on the eve of emancipation ; as if it could not sufficiently atone, in turbulence, for the tranquillity of its long subjection. The High Street, satisfied in its mind that the day of Hamilton influence was over, instead of re-festooning its shop windows on the approach of the family, hung out banners of disaffection in the shape of long streamers of cotton pocket-handkerchiefs, bearing the effigies of O'Connell and Cobbett. The apothecary arranged his red, blue and white bottles a la tricolor ; while the proprietor of the hogshead of muscovado had a petition in favour of Reform al- ways lying ready for signature on his counter. To the great disgust of IMr. Attorney Smith, two manu- factories were in process of erection on a parcel of land in the Laxington meadows, disposed of by Lord 268 THE HAMILTONS. Lancashire for that purpose, at therate of a guinea an inch, and likely to be included in any future enlarge- ment of the liberties of the borough, A readinsr- room was established, in which the Examiner news- paper and Westminster Review were unblushingly read, in open day-light, by the subscribers. Alto- gether, things wore so heinous an aspect, that it was plain the white cat was no longer purring in the sun- shine, but setting up her back for a contest, and pre- paring her claws for future mischief. In vain did the Earl and Countess of Tottenham, and their sons and daughters, pass a week at Weald Park, for the purpose of doing the popular, and patch- ing up their dilapidated influence. Old Mrs. Mangles shook her head, and shed a tear or two on learning that they had been welcomed to the neighbourhood by a bonfire of the outbuildings of one of their farms ; nor could Susan Hamilton forbear repeating to herself that if the working classes were thus exasperated against the inoffensive Earl, of whom they knew so little, saving through his courtesies, they were far more likely to wreak vengeance upon her husband ; who, from the moment of his settlement among them, had not scrupled to " whelm them with a weight of scorn," break the fences of the farmers, — horsewhip their labourers, — ride over their corn, — shoot their game, — and accost them with all the virulence of polite execration. Heartily did she rejoice when the family was once more established in Spring Gardens I " I am so happy to be in London, these long dark nights ! " said she to Mrs. Tottenham, soon after their arrival. " At Weald, I was always in apprehension of something, — I hardly know what." " 1 am afraid you have more to dread in town," re- plied Julia, with little sympathy for the nervous tre- THE IIAMILTONS. 269 moiirs of iier sister-in-law. " I recollect, wlien living in Clifford tStreet, as a child, seeing Mr. Robinson's house pulled down by the populace, during the Corn Riots. A man or two were shot in the affray." " But you surely do not apprehend they will pro- ceed to such extremities on this occasion?" " I wish they would ! " cried William Tottenham, grinding his teeth. " If they would only afford us a pretext for bringing a field-piece or two into play, or, at least, for a charge of cavalry and a few volleys of musket-shot, to give the people a hint ivho are their masters, things would go on afterwards as smooth as glass." " Fire upon the people ? " ejaculated Susan. " Why not ? It is the only language they under- stand." " One might as well first try the effect of civil woi'ds," cried his wife, laughing. " If / were the Duke of Wellington," cried her husband, gradually woi'king himself into a passion, " I would hang a dozen of those incendiary black- guards as high as Haman, as an example to the country. We should hear no more of ' vSwing.' " " But have we reached that convenient point of legislation, when Prime Ministers proclaim military law, and play the provost-marshal with their fellow- subjects, at their own good will and pleasure ?" ex- claimed Julia, who delighted in seeing her usually apathetic husband in a passion. " No, no, no ! " " So much the worse for the country." " Do you know, my dear William," she persisted, " Lady Leighton is of opinion that you, and Peregrine Varden, and Eardley, and a few other absolutists, do the Tory party more harm than all the speeches of Brougham." 270 THE IIAMILTONS. " Let Laily Leigliton stick to lier rubber, and not trouble lier head about wliat she does not understand." " Oh ! but she is trying to improne her under- standing. She has put herself to school (beg pardon, Susan !) in Mrs. Forbes's bureau cVesprit. She came home the other morning, with her hair standing on end, in admiration of Bernard Forbes's patriotism and eloquence." " The deuce she did ! Then I'm afraid things are worse with us than I was aware of," cried Tottenham. " It will be shameful if the Duke of Wellington goes out of office just before Christmas, when we have all our debts to pay," exclaimed Mrs. Tottenham, between joke and earnest ; surveying the exquisite furniture of her bijou of a house. " What does Augustus say about it?" said she, addressing Susan. "About what?" " About the only subject which just now engrosses the thoughts of mankind, — our continuance in office." " I never asked him. But I am sure I wish the Duke would resign. Any thing rather than these popular murmurs and menaces." " You stock, — you stone, — you worse than senseless thing !" cried Julia. " My very dear sister-in-law, I have long been of opinion that you have not a grain of (I will not say common sense ; for who in the world has?) but not so much as a spark of genius, which, in these times, every one pretends to ; and now, I regard you as fit for Bedlam ! — What on earth is to become of us, if the Whigs come in ? " " We must retire to the country. And surely the country will be quiet enough then, having got what it wanted. I shall be much happier at Weald, under such circumstances, than I have ever been in town." THE IIAMILTONS. 271 " But who, tin you expect, will keep up Weald for you ? " " I conclude we shall still reside with Lord Lax- ington," said Susan, blushing. " And where do you suppose he will reside, so long- as the privilege of peerage is not abrogated, which keeps him out of the King's Bench ? " cried William Tottenham. "Lord Laxington is a ruined man; — that is, not ruined, for he had never any thing to be ruined with. — But he has not a thousand a year, in- dependent of office. And do you suppose his pension will enable him to retain so expensive a place as Weald Park?" " Wherever he may choose to go, I shall not molest him by discontent. I am not fond of show ; and every thing, connected with public life, pains and alarms me," said vSusan. [William Tottenham shrugged his shoulders.] " I am prepared to be happy in some snug little corner, with Augustus, without troubling my head about parties or places ! " " Poor Augustus ! " involuntarily ejaculated Julia; sincerely pitying her brother for having so stupid a wife. " As if the Radicals would leave you a corner to be snug in !" sneered Tottenham. " God forbid ! I hate snug corners ! " exclaimed his wife. " Better apply to Pen. Smith to say a good word for us to her friend Mi: Burtonshaw, the new Radical member." " Is he a friend of hers ? Tliat man who made the revolutionary speech the other night in the House ? They say, if the Whigs come in, he will be one of the Secretaries." " Impossible ! a mere parvenu — a person no one knows!" 272 THE IIAMILTONS. " Youl' parvenu makes a very tolerable politician. He has a double end to gain."' " Mr. Burtonshaw in office ! " cried Julia. " Why, Susan, these are the very people Augustus w^as so scandalized by your noticing at Baden ! I remember father wondering where you could have incurred such acquaintance ! Do you still keep it up, my dear? K so, I recommend you to call on the new people as soon as possible ! '' "Thank you for your good advice!" said Mrs. Hamilton, rising to take leave. '' But Lady Leighton's policy and mine differ in most instances." "Policy!" reiterated William Tottenham, after his sister-in-law had quitted the room. '•'■ PoUcif I — My dear good Mrs. Hamilton, there is not in your whole composition as much tact as would serve to govern a hen-roost ! " CHAP. XL. Can a national principled union be resisted by the tricks of office, or ministerial manoeuvres? Will heaping papers on your table, or counting majorities on a division, aveit or postpone the hour of danger ? It must arrive, my lords : and then these boastful ministers, in spite of all their confidence, shall be com- pelled to hide their heads. — Lord Chatham. Susan was not sorry to have had her eyes opened by the Tottenhams, to the precarious situation of her husband and his family. It enabled her to understand the pre-occupation of Augustus, when they were tete- a-tete ; and rendered excusable the virulence of his hatred against Bernard Forbes, whom he regarded as THE HAMILTON8. 273 a source of misfortune to his father. Now that she was aware how much her husband had to apprehend from the political events of the day, she became more than ever considerate in her demeanour towards him ; — forestalling his wishes, and giving up her whole time and engagements to his convenience. Till she saw him on the brink of ruin, she had never seemed to know how essential was his happiness to her own. When he returned home irritated by the rumours of the day, from his club or office, she stole about the room on tiptoe, fearful of disturbing his contemplations ; or seated herself at work in some quiet nook, to avoid the necessity of noticing the disturbance of his feel- ings. " Susan ! " said he to her, one day, suddenly rousing himself from a reverie, as if touched by her attentions ; " you are a very good wife ; you are kinder to me than I deserve ! " And Susan had some difficulty in restraining her tears. It was the kindest thing he had said to her since their marriage ! Of Lord Laxington, meanwhile, she saw little ; he was constantly occupied in conferences with the greater powers. His party hung closely together ; for though all had not the motives of the Hamiltons and Leightons to cling to office, for the Tottenhams and Baldocks were among the most opulent personages of the realm, the oyster-bed was too hardly knitted to the rock, and too closely intergrown within itself, to admit of the introduction of the dredge without danger to the whole community. Had Lord Laxington stolen leisure, however, from the cares of state to bestow upon those of his private interests, he might have found cause for gratification in the respectful regard testified towards him by his T 274 THE HAMILTONS. ward Lord Claneustace. For more than a year past, the political connections of the young Marquis had tended to alienate him fi'om his guardian's house. But no sooner did the common voice proclaim the approach- ing downfall of the Tory party, than he sought an in- terview with Lord Laxington. " I cannot but be aware, my dear lord," said he, " that any great political change may prove of imme- diate inconvenience to your affairs. You have ever treated me as a son ; I trust you will follow up your system of kindness, by considering my means as much at your disposal as fathers have a right to consider those of their children. Honour me by the use of all I have to offer, till your affairs are arranged. May- field, which you made a happy home to my boyhood, is again at your disposal. Why should there be any settlement between us ? In a few months, I shall attain my majority. Accept iiow my signature, to which you can then affix a general discharge of our accounts. I have no head for business. Continue, my dear lord, to overlook and distribute my revenues. Am I not a son of your own ?" Lord Laxington was deeply moved. He had in fact a son of his own, by whose conduct to measure the nobleness of Lord Claneustace's sentiments ! " Rely upon it," said he, pressing the hand of his ward, " when I want assistance I will apply to you. I did not know I possessed such a friend. You are teaching me to think better of human nature." " By the mere fulfilment of a duty ? " " Alas ! my dear Claneustace, the world inter- poses such clouds betwixt us and our duties, that they are easily lost sight of. Nor had I a right to expect such kindness, such disinterestedness, from the neo- phyte of a Bernard Forbes." THK HAMIL'IONS. 275 '* Disinterestedness is one of the chief virtues of his code. You are mistaken in my friend Forbes." " The disinterestedness of a man who has had neither opportunity to acquire, nor power to abjure, the distinctions and advantages of public life !" " The power, you will admit, is not far distant," re- plied the Marquis, respectfully ; " and I pledge my life on his non-acceptance of office, on any terms upon which, for years to come, it is likely to be offered." " Then he is a fool, or worse !" cried Lord Laxing- ton. " Recollect the wise inculcation of Lord Bacon, that ' Power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring ; for good thoughts (though God accept them) yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act ; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage or commanding ground.' Forbes can have little confidence in his own princi- ples, if he reject the occasion of putting them in practice." " Pardon me, — 1 distinctly specified that he would not accept office on terms requiring him to act on the principles of other people. No doubt, he looks for- ward confidently, as I do, to modifications of the con- stitution, tending more largely to the happiness of the community. To borrow the words of the great statesman you have just quoted, he would 'reduce things to the first institution; but yet ask counsel of both times ; — of the ancient what is best, — of the latter, what is fittest ! ' " " Modification of the constitution ! " groaned Lord Laxington. " You write yourself down a Radical, yet assure me I have trained you as a son." " Fear no reproach from the world on that score," cried the Marquis, again kindly taking his hand. " I have, at present, no intention to expose my insuffi- T 2 276 THE HAMILTONS. ciency, by taking an ostensible part in public life. My inanaediate object is to render myself of use, when and where I feel equal to the effort. My proxy is in Lord Holland's hands, and I am about to pass the winter at Claneustace Court. The neighbourhood is all but in a state of insurrection. The miners and iron workers on Lord Baldock's estates, adjoining my own, have formed a political union of a peculiar and frightful character. I am vain enough to believe these people personally attached to me. At all events, my ancestors, dwellers among them for centui-ies, have ad- ministered liberally to their interests ; and I am san- guine that I shall persuade them to follow a more judicious course." " Persuade them ! — Persuade men in a state of rebellion, living on the plunder of other men's pro- perty and in the commission of every lawless out- rage, to return to daily labour and daily priva- tions? — A brigade of cavalry w^ould do them better service !" " By making it their iiiterest to return to habits of subordination, I shall be gaining time till the march of events opens their ears to better arguments." " You are not yet five-and-twenty, my dear boy," observed Lord Laxington, with a bitter smile. " Your views perhaps may be the first to change. But your intentions are noble. Go to Claneustace Court. You will at least be out of the way of the disturbances fermenting here." " Remember, however," exclaimed the Marquess at parting, " that I rely on you to command my pre- sence, the moment I can be of use or comfort to you. Your son, your daughter, have engrossing ties of their own. / have none. My time is at your disposal. May I rely on you ? " TIIK HAMILTONS. 277 " You may !" said Lord Laxington, striving to con- ceal his emotion as he recalled to mind how little the real interests of his ward had ever occupied his atten- tion. " Your friendliness at this moment would yield me unmixed pleasure, did it not remind me that I find more duty and affection in the son of my friend, than in my own !" But the motives of Lord Claneustace's absence at this juncture were not by every one so honourably interpreted. " So Claneustace has sneaked out of town to be out of the way of the city dinner ! " observed Colonel Eardley to Lady Leighton and her daughter. " I see nothing very sneaking in putting himself at the head of his yeomanry, in one of the most disturbed districts in England," said Lady Leighton, coolly. "Besides, he has a delicate part to act just now to- wards Lord Laxington." " When a man is resolved to take a part in public life, personal deferences are out of the question. Clan- eustace votes against us. Guardian or no guardian, therefore, he must rejoice to see us going down hill." " Lord Claneustace never seems to know his own mind," observed Blanche. "First, attached to Mrs. Tottenham, — then to Mrs. Forbes ; two persons of such totally opposite character! And now, though brought up among Lord Laxington's party, to become the partizan of the opposition. I wonder how Sir Edward Berkely, whose character is so decided, can have chosen so inconsistent a friend." " You hear her ! " whispered Eardley to Lady Leighton ; " and perceive, I trust, the uselessness of making up to Mrs. Forbes, so as to commit Leighton with bis political associates ? Nature will have its T 3 278 THE HAMILTONS. way. You will never make a Marchioness of Clan- eustace of your daughter." " When you have seen more of the world, dearest Blanche," said Lady L., not even deigning to reply to the insinuations of the handsome colonel, "you will find that the minds of young gentlemen in their teens are seldom noted for stability. The freaks and changes of ordinary boys pass unnoticed. It is only the child- ish follies of a Byron, or a marquess with forty thou- sand a year, which obtain publicity. Scarcely one man in fifty but has changed his opinions, political or private, fifty times before he is fifty years of age. The cunning ones keep their fickleness to themselves ; the vain ones (like our friend here the colonel) make a boast of them. The candid (like our friend Clan- eustace, who I regret is here no longer) make neither a mystery nor a vaunt of an infirmity common to all mankind." " I do not like changeable people ! " was Blanche's unchangeable reply. " I wonder how Sir Edward Berkely can be so fond of Lord Claneustace." Lady Leighton was struck by this reiteration of speech, and began to wonder in her turn. She was amazed that, in spite of her own clear-sightedness and Eardley's malicious aid, she should have so long re- mained blind to the fact that Blanche's young affV-c- tions, instead of travelling to Claneustace Court, had singled out the gay, frank, generous, honest Sir Ed- ward Berkely. — Alas ! an ensign in the guards, with twelve hundred pounds per annum ! THK JIAMILT0N8. 279 CHAP. XLI. Since, then, Cataline, such is the state of public affairs, finish what you have begun, — quit the city, — carry with you all your confederates ; — if not all, as many as you can. The supreme safety of the commonwealth ought not to be again and again ex- posed to danger, for the sake of a single man. — Cicero. " Save me from my friends," is an axiom as applicable to ministries as to individuals. Tlie ill-advised well- wishers of the Tory administration began to beset the councils of government with rumours of evil ; creating giants, in the hope of adding to their importance by a pretence of aid in killing them. Gossips ran hither and thither with tales of insults offered to the different members of the administration, most of them fabulous. The public journals loudly echoed the cry ; till at length the People, believing they had unwittingly in- timidated the constituted authorities, set about alarm- ing them in right earnest ! They would hear of nothing but the banishment of their once loved Coriolanus. November set in gloomily. The yellow fog, usually pervading the metropolis at that opaque period of the year, looked thicker and heavier and more ominous than usual. The Lord Mayor's day, annually ap- pointed to bestow on the citizens of London glimpses of a procession whose pomps are rather to be guessed at than discerned through the mists of the Thames, approached in all its dignity of gloom. The new king, having announced his gracious intention to dine with the new mayor in Guildhall, the public prints teemed with details of the oceans of custard prepared by the worshipful aldermen and the common council, for the T 4 280 THE HAMILTONS. welcome of the sovereign ; and tlie ells of broadcloath laid down at the feet of Gog and Magog, to create a dining chamber of state. Bills of fare were published, till the mouths of his majesty's lieges watered, at bare imagination of the feast. The Duke of Wellington, as by custom bound, was to be of his majesty's com- pany ; as well as the Tottenhams, Hamiltons, Baldocks, Leightons, Eardleys, Vardens, and creeping things in- numerable, of lesser notoriety. Already, rumours were afloat that a day of so much public confusion would be selected by the enemy for an outbreak. But the parties menaced were men of sense and courage, not to be intimidated by idle words; and the preparations of the City of London were bidden to proceed. Foolhardy, indeed, did it appear to poor Susan Hamilton that, while so many persons (from Pen. Smith upwards) were of opinion that the metropolis was to be burned and sacked, on the me- morable 9th of November, his majesty's ministers should persist in driving in their carriages through two miles of police-and-military-guarded streets. — But her terrors were of brief duration. Certain persons, more officious than the rest, addressed an official warning to the Home Office that a diabolical plot Avas in progress ; and the monarch, if not the monarchy, in danger ! To resist such a plea, would have been to incur a charge of high treason ; and, however unwil- lingly, government was compelled to decree the post- ponement of the feast ! — On the fatal morning, official placards appeared on the walls, announcing that his majesty could not fulfil his gracious intentions of dining with his good city of London. But this was poor comfort to Susan. The plot, thus formally announced, did not the less exist for the postponement of the royal visit to Guildhall. Accord- THE HAMILTONS. 281 ing to her private interpretation of the case, conspi- rators were already on the watch; — not lying in wait for monarch or monarchy, — prince or peer ; — but in ambuscade against the solitaiy life of the Hon. Au- gustus Hamilton ! The town was full of military. But what could the military effect against a plot so admirably organised that not a man, woman, or child, of the million and a half existent in the metropolis, but was able accurately to point out the various public buildings about to be set on fire, and the exact line of march to be pursued by the insurgents ! The minis- ters were assembled in council ; Augustus was at his office. How did she know but that the conflict had ah-eady begun ? A darkness was over the land. There was scarcely sufficient light that day in London to enable the citizens to pursue their usual avocations. It seemed as if the finger of heaven were inscribing a new sen- tence on the wall ; and that the destinies of Assyria were accomplishing ! Mrs. Hamilton was too much overcome to weep. She saw clearly, and saw without regret, that the ex- istence of their party was at an end ; but how did she know that the existence of her husband was not at an end also ? The sky grew gloomier and gloomier. At one o'clock, she despatched a messenger to Whitehall. " IVIr. Hamilton w^as not there." She trembled! — Into what dangers might he not be rushing ! His person was well known, and most obnoxious to the mob. For a moment, she thought of attempting to traverse the throng assembled in St. James's Park, to ascertain whether he had passed, and what was become of him She dared not send a messenger with in- quiries to Apsley House, or the residence of Sir Robert Peel ; for on no point was Augustus more sus- 282 THE HAMILTONS. ceptible than that of appearing- an object of undue solicitude to his wife. But at every fresh rumour, her temples thi'obbed more painfully. Occasional yells of triumph reached her from a distance, when some well- known member of the senate passed through the crowd ; and every now and then, Susan fancied she could discern shrieks and groans, mingling with the cries of the rioters. " Thank God this will not last!" cried she, pressing her hands to her forehead. " A few hours more, and I should expire here of agony on the spot ! " — In the extremity of her terror, she summoned Daw- kins, the old and confidential house steward of Lord Laxington. Instead of entering into her distress, the man of routine could do nothing but wonder " at what o'clock my lord would return to dinner, and for how many covers the table was to be laid ? " She rang for her own maid. But the fastidious Mrs. "Wheeler was too full of a history of some filthy missiles thrown into Lady Leighton's carriage by the uproarious mob, to listen to a word uttered by her mistress. '' Lord, loi'd ! — vfhat tvill them lower classes come to ! " was her parting ejaculation, as she flounced off at Mrs. Hamilton's order in search of her confederate, the valet- de-chambre. " Have you any idea where Mr. Hamilton is gone?" cried Susan, addressing the gentleman's gen- tleman. " Probably, madam, to the Admiralty." " I have sent there ; — he is not there." " To the House, then." " There is no House sitting." " Perhaps, to the Duke of Wellington's ! I really, madam, cannot take upon me to say." " Was Mr. Hamilton sent for to Apsley House?" THE UAMILTONS. 283 " Not that I am aware of. Some notes have arrived for my master since lie went out this morning." " Wliere are they ? ' inquired Mis. Hamilton, hoping they might throw some light upon her husband's en- gagements. " In my master's dressing-room, madam," said the valet. And, having already repented his candour, he was about to quit the room and remove them from the depository assigned by Mr. Hamilton for his private letters, when he found that his lady was beforehand with him. When he entered the dressing-room, the letters were already in her hands. He had only to retire from the field. " Mere notes of invitation !" cried she, in a disap- pointed tone, glancing over a billet from William Tot- tenham, and another from Eardley, bearing no reference to the events of the day. Another was a letter from a tailor : a man of liberal principles, who, foreseeing, like herself, the extinction of the Tory administration, wrote, in no measured terms, to acquaint Mr. Hamilton, that his bill, twice renewed, was again due, and about to be placed in a lawyer's hands. The fourth letter was a still more impertinent reminder from a horse- dealer. There remained but one : and, disgusted as she was by the two preceding, she hesitated to open it. A certain perfumed vapour, emanating from the enve- lope, suddenly stimulated her curiosity ! The hand- writing was not a female handwriting ; yet the letter was evidently a woman's letter I It was the first time in her life she had ever tres- passed on the private papers of her husband. Though her own letters were treated by Augustus as common property, and, though he had never expressly forbidden her access to his own, she was well aware that the in- terdiction had never been uttered, only because he be- 284 THE HAMILTONS. lieved her incapable of so much presumption. But so far, the mischief was done. She had opened four ; what availed it to be more scrupulous with the fifth ? A single outburst of displeasui'e would suffice for all ; and the mysterious-looking missive so closely sealed at either end, might afibrd her a clue to his present retreat. With a trembling hand she tore open the letter. The mere signature of " Caroline " filled her heart with dismay. Ere she had perused the first half- page, the happiness of Susan's life was at an end ! Not alone from the infamous connection it served to betray. Not alone from the vauntings it contained of the beauty of their child {their child !) — the child she had held in her arms, had pressed to her bosom, had sanctified with her kisses ! But because she found herself an object of hatred and derision to both : — to the husband she loved — to the friend who had pre- tended to love her. She found herself reviled between them, as cold-heai'ted, selfish, inconsistent, weak ! In acquainting her paramour that she had succeeded in persuading her husband of the insecurity of their re- sidence at Everleigh, in order to settle in town for the winter and satisfy her anxieties on his account by daily meetings, Mrs. Cadogan did not scruple to add that, at such a moment, she could not bear to abandon him to the society of a woman so indifferent to his danger as his cold-blooded wife. Mrs. Hamilton sank breathless on a chair while she perused these cruel accusations. Did her senses de- ceive her ? Could such heinous hypocrisy exist ? Could she have been thus wronged — thus insulted — thus basely betrayed ? She gasped for breath. A cold dew overspread her face. The ground seemed insecure under her feet ; and her poor bewildered head sank on the outspread arms that had fallen on the THE HAMILT0N8. 285 table beside her. She did not weep — she could not weep. She was more inclined to laugh — to laugh with that bitter, poignant, convulsive mirth, which bursts from a heart that is breaking ! CHAP. XLII. Bring ine a constant woman to her husband, One that ne'er dream'd a joy but to content him ; And to that woman, when she hath done most, Yet will I add an honour, — a great patience ! Shaksi'eare. Lucky was it for Mrs. Hamilton that this disastrous discovery took place at a moment when her husband was shut up in ministerial conference ; for, had he made his appearance then, when the wound was smart- ing in its first insupportable anguish, there would have been no suppressing her impulses of indignation. She could not but have said : " What have I done, that you should thus betray me ? What have I done, that you should impose that woman on me as a friend?" An hour — two hours, elapsed, before calmer thoughts ensued ; before she had subdued her determination to quit the roof where she had been so dealt with, and abjure for ever the society and protection of the deceiver. But, with time, indignation sobered into grief ; with time, pride saddened into tears. Nothing would be easier than to abandon one so gracelessly ungrateful. But was he not on the point of being abandoned by all the world ! The alternative was be- fore her of deserting her husband in his change of fortunes; or justifying her conduct by an exposure of 286 THE HAMILTON S. the truth to the circle which formed his tribunal and her own. And what would be the consequences of such a re- velation ? The woman (the woman she had once called " Caroline ! ") would be driven from the house she had profaned ; driven from the husband who re- spected her, and two innocent children, who had no share in the errors of their mother. Even the last, — the unfortunate, — the offspring of one man and heir of another, — what a fate of contest and condemn- ation would be heaped on its sinless head ! She had pledged herself, at the baptismal altar, to train that little victim in the paths of godliness and peace. Yet at her sentence, the name of an ancient house was to be soiled in the dust, and the inheritor of that name cast forth, an Ishmael, into the wilderness ! And then, the mother of the offender — the grave, grey-headed, virtuous. God-fearing, mother. Would she survive such a disclosure ? Nay, (for there is no end to the evils generated by a single breach of the immutable social contract, based upon a law divine) would not her own warm-hearted brother stand forth as her champion, and perhaps involve himself in a fatal quarrel with his brother-in-law ? She no longer thought of him as," Augustus." She no longer breathed of him as her " husband ! " No ! he had too vilely, too meanly, too deliberately deceived her ! Again, she perused the letter. Again, poor Susan saw herself scoffed at as a poor-spirited, cold-blooded thing, whose selfishness had justly forfeited her hus- band's affection. Tears began to steal down her face. It was fitting that the reproach of selfishness should be added to such a weight of injury ! At that moment, just as she had steeled her heart to the courage of quitting the house and departing for THE HAMILTONS. 287 Green-Oak, a sudden roar proclaimed the entrance of the mob into Spring Gardens. They were advancing to attack Lord Laxington's house. At every attempt made by the police constables to repel their approach, the name of Laxington, coupled with a thousand offen- sive epithets and frightful threats, reached the ear of the bewildered Mrs. Hamilton. They served to recal Lord Laxington to her mind. She had forgotten him ! Accustomed to over-estimate his kindness towards her, she had ever regarded him with gratitude. And now, on the day of his public disgrace, — of his pri- vate ruin, — what additional calamities was she not about to bring down upon his head ! Every living soul was in a state of panic. The very nation was un- dergoing a grand crisis of its history. Its guardians were harassed and undecided. Blood had perhaps been spilt, or was still spilling. The liberties of the people were at stake. Had she a right, — she, poor Susan Hamilton — to dwell at such a moment upon private grievances of her own ! She expected every instant the return of Augustus. He might rush in pursued, — wounded, — mutilated ; and, though the populace had been driven back from the purlieus of his house, missiles were still discharged at intervals, against the windows. And how could she accost him, if he came to say, " Susan, let us share our fate together. Your husband is a ruined man," — with " Your misfortunes have been richly earned. Hence- forward we are strangers!" — No, no! Her gentle nature recoiled from such cruel justice. But the case admitted no deliberation. Either she must at once resent and punish ; or, locking up her injuries for a time within her heart, act as though the fatal letter had never met her eye. In mercy to many. 288 THE HAMILTONS. therefore, she resolved to dissejiible. With burning eyes, and a tongue that clove to her parched palate, she kept muttering unintelligible exhortations to her- self, while she re-sealed the letters, and placed them in the drawer from which she had taken them. Nor had she courage to await the result. Hastily retiring to her own room, she summoned her attendant, at- tributed her disordered appearance to the effect of recent alarm, and expressed a desire to lie down and rest. " Do not let me be disturbed," said she. " When Lord Laxington and Mr. Hamilton return home, tell them I am indisposed, and wish to sleep." And when, at a very late hour of the night, they did return, the pretext sufficed to secure poor Susan from interruption. In the morning a message was brought fi'om Augustus, inquiring if she wished to see him before he quitted home ; and the reiterated plea of a head-ache, and a desire for quiet, again sufficed her. A very short visit of ceremony, paid to her bedside by Lord Laxington and his son, towards evening, when they came home to dress for a political dinner, secured her from further interruption ; they were too much engrossed by the state of public affairs to trouble themselves much about her. Lord L. con- sidered it only natural, that his young and timid daughter-in-law should suffer from fright of the pre- ceding day ; while the careless husband mechanically expressed his regret at being obliged to leave her, as- sured her the weather was very cold, recommended her to remain in bed, and suggested that Spicer, the family apothecary, should be sent for. Yet, trivial as were these remarks, and careless the tone in which they were uttered, not a syllable but cut to the heart of his wife! — It was the first THK HA.MIMONS. 2H9 time she had heard his voice si7ice ; and it reminded her, as by a chain of association, of all the perfidies, all the falsehoods, it had long served to convey to her ears. — She recollected how plausible a tone it had assumed, for many months past, in recommending Mrs. Cadogan to her kindness, as an old friend, who must not be neglected; and how careless a one, in originally alluding to his intimacy at f^verleigh, and announcing the arrival of the family at Vienna. — She remembei'ed how coolly he had accepted, if not encou- raged, her inference that his acquaintance with the Cadogans had been a mere screen to his flirtation with Lady Ashley : — Lady Ashley, like herself, a dupe ! Poor Susan! — Her colour rose ; her breathing grew quicker and quicker ; her pillow more and more un- easy. All night, she imagined that Augustus was still standing by her bed-side, addressing her in words of common-place civility, as if nothing particular had occurred, or was likely to occur, to a person so in- different and so complying ! All night, she fancied Caroline in the room ; and that they were wliispering together behind her curtains, and deriding her. She longed to ring for Wheeler, who was sleeping in the dressing-room. But the dread of creating alarm and inquiry inspired her with self-control. Next morning, Wheeler herself, alarmed by the change in jNIrs. Hamilton's appearance, procured the attendance of the apothecary, who pronounced her disorder to be a feverish cold, brought on by " the state of the weather,^'' and aggravated by recent agitation. After all, it was but one mischief more to attribute to that unlucky atmosphere of England, concerning which all the world seems in league to utter calumnies. At length Augustus himself made his appearance in u 290 THE HAMILTONS. the darkened chamber ; and, having taken her burning hand, recommended a saline draught. " I find Spicer is attending you," said he. " I have a great opinion of Spicer. — Spicer assures me there is nothing the matter vpith you but a heavy cold, and that you will be about again in a day or two. I would send for Halfoi'd. But if Sir Henry's carriage were seen at our door, at this unlucky moment, people would conclude we were taking this cursed change of affairs wonderfully to heart, and had fallen ill upon it. Or, I would write to Mrs. Forbes, to come and sit with you ; but just now, my father would scarcely have patience to hear her name." Susan did not answer. She was trying gradually to withdraw her throbbing hand from the pressure of the traitor. " Perhaps you Avould like to see your friend Mrs. Cadogan ? " he continued. " I learnt yesterday, from Cadogan, that she is in town ; at Kirkham's, I fancy, or Miv art's, or some other hotel. I could easily find out, if you wished her to be sent for." " Thank you ; I only wish to be quiet," faltered the invalid. " At all events, I Avill call on her as I go to the House, and let her know how much you are indis- posed. I have no doubt she will be here in the course of the day." " Oh ! no, no, no ! " said Susan, faintly, and, trying to raise her hand, interdictingly. " Indeed, I can see no one." " I believe you are right," he replied. " Under all the circumstances, it is as well you should be alone. When women get together, they ivill chatter ; and the fewer remarks that get abroad into society from this house, the better. It will not do to let people suppose THE IIAMILTONS. 291 we are in a state of dismay. Things may yet come round. Keep your spirits up, Susan, If we can only fight on till the holidays, the duke will secure every thing before the re-assembling of parliament." CHAP. XLIII. " Nous voila done dans la minorite. Entendez-vous ? eh ? " — Walpole's Letters. No man suffers by bad fortune, but he who has been deceived by good. If we grow fond of her gifts, fancy that they belong to us and are perpetually to remain with us, if we look upon and expect to be considered for them as our own, we shall sink into the bitterness of grief, as soon as these transitory benefits pass away. — Lord Bolingbroke. Spicer might be a very knowing compounder of saline draughts ; but he knew no more than Galen of such disorders as that under which Mrs. Hamilton was suffering. The few days he had announced as the period of her recovery, elapsed ; and there she still lay, on her bed of sickness. When the grand event of the 15th of November arrived, Susan was in a state of mental and bodily prostration, which prevented her from even learning that the Whigs were in office and the Tories in opposition ; or, (which was of more im- portance in Spring Gardens,) that Lord Laxington was a pensioner of government, instead of a place- man. It was not till many days afterwards, that Mrs. Wheeler, during the absence of Augustus, dolo- rously apprised her of the fact. " Thank Heaven ! We shall now leave town ! " u 2 292 THE HAMILTON'S. ejaculated the invalid. But Wheeler, who had looked forward with confidence to ending her days in easy- independence, as housekeeper at the Custom-house or laundress at Chelsea Hospital, and was all indignation at her own disappointment, was by no means inclined to echo the pious ejaculation. " I don't hear no talk of going into the country, ma'am," said she. " It is Mr. Dawkins's intention to send in his resignation, when my lord goes for per- manence into the country ; and when he was dis- cussing of it, last night in the steward's room, he said there was no fear yet awhile." Mrs. Hamilton sighed heavily. " To be sure, times is sadly changed with us, ma'am ! " observed Wheeler, with a responsive sigh. " Since you have been indisposed, ma'am, instead of the heap of names as used to be in the porter's book, whi?never any thing or nothing was amiss, not a soul have we had but poor JNIrs. Forbes (whom my master gave orders shouldn't be admitted), and them Cado- gans, as have been so long a making up to my lord, in hopes of getting a peerage (Cadogan's people don't scruple to say so!) And there's the Slietlands scud- ding away out of Downing Street, like poor folks shifting lodgings at Bartlemy tide ; and the Baklocks quitting the Admiralty, as if the constable were at their heels ; and my Lord Tottenham, and all. Dearee me ! it 's enough to make one sick of politics, to see such ups and downs ; and them as thought themselves masters and more, so down in the mouth." " Has Mrs. Tottenham been here lately, Wheeler ?" inquired Susan, desirous to silence her familiarity. " I don't know, ma'am," replied the waiting-woman, with a significant smile. " Inquire of the porter," persisted her mistress. THE IIAMILTONS. 293 " There's no need for that, ma'am." " What do you mean, Wheeler? — Is any thing the matter in Brook Street ? " " Nothing particular, ma'am. Only there 've been some words, I understand, between my lord and Mr. Tottenham, and they 're not so well together as they have been. It is said, ma'am, in the steward's room, that even Mr. Hamilton and my lord are not quite upon velvet. They 're all pretty much out of sorts ; and no wonder ! It isn't so pleasant to be turned out of one's place, without saying with your leave nor by your leave ; and Shetland's people who thought the ground not good enough to walk upon, and looked upon themselves as good as purvided for, who " " That will do, Wheeler," said the invalid, eager, her toilet being completed, to dismiss her voluble com- panion ; when, just as she had thrown herself on the sofa of her dressing-room, a knock at the door, and a voice requesting admission, startled her with the ap- prehension that Augustus, whom she had not yet seen alone, was come to visit her. It was an agreeable surprise when Lord Laxington made his appearance, and took his seat by her side. " My dear Susan," said he, as she half rose to offer him her hand. " I fear, by your looks, that your ill- ness has been more than a common cold." Mrs. Hamilton, nervous as she was, could not pre- vent tears from rising in her eyes. "You are taking this contre temps too much to heart," he continued, attributing her agitation to the disastrous change of aifairs in his family. " Rely upon it, things cannot last as they are. We have every hope that, before the re-assembling of parlia- ment, all will be right again. The first popular ques- tion brought forward must turn these people out. It u 3 294 THE HAMILTONS. is not in the power of any ministry to redeem the rash pledges they have given to the country." " I rejoice that you should feel satisfied on the sub- ject," replied Mrs. Hamilton, pleased to find her emo- tions so completely misconstrued. " But surely you would be happier in a release from the cares of public life ? For years, you have scarcely had a moment at your own disposal ; and were you to retire for a year or two into the country " " The country ! " interrupted Lord Laxington. " You forget, my dear, the impossibility of abandon- ing, at such a crisis, the party to which I am so largely indebted. Even were they strong enough to dispense with my services, I am afraid the excitement and oc- cupation of public life have somewhat unfitted me for country pleasures." " The Continent, then. You seemed so much to enjoy yourself abroad ! " " I enjoyed the dignities derived from ray public capacity, and the honourable reception it insured my family in foreign courts. To reside as an humble individual in Paris or at Naples, is not exactly the same thing as to appear at the court of France as an envoy from its most potent enemy or ally. Besides," continued he, attempting to smile, " what would ?/ozi say to me, were I to tear you from London, and all your friends and admirers ? " " Do not consider fue ! " said Susan, earnestly. " I am willing, — more than willing — eager, to go where- ever you are likely to be happiest. In quitting London, you would consult my inclinations even more than your own convenience. Wherever you go, I trust you will allow me to be your companion ? " she continued, looking beseechingly at her astonished father-in-law. " You have only to dictate in what T1U-: IIAMILTONS. 295 manner I can best administer to your comfort and happiness. You will not find me disobedient or un- grateful." Lord Laxington could not immediately reply. He was no less amazed than deeply touched by expres- sions of kindness, for which the conduct of his own son and daughter, in his reverse of fortune, had not prepared him. In a moment, he felt that Susan, whose meek submission to her husband and blindness in the Cadogan affair, had often tempted him to tax with meanness of spirit, had not hitherto received justice at his hands. " I thank you ! " said he at length, pressing her hand more affectionately than he had ever done since she became the wife of his son. " It is a consoling thing to have found friends where I least anticipated, and perhaps least deserved them. Claneustace has been with me to-day ; and acted the part I had a better right to expect from my son. From Augustus I have heard nothing but murmurs and reproaches. As to Julia — " — " " Let us make some allowance for a moment of vexation and disappointment, which they may have felt as much on your account as their own," said Susan, gently : unwilling to be made the confidante of his lordship's displeasure against his children. " On my account ? " reiterated he, with indigna- tion. " No ! It was only of their own interests they spoke ; accusing me of selfish ambition in the acquire- ment of a peerage, at one time so dear an object to their wishes ! I have learned many useful lessons, my dear Susan, within the last fortnight. That rascal Varden writes to insult me for having decoyed him from his professional practice, in order to thrust him into an unprofitable and precarious secretaryship; u 4 296 THE IIAMlLTOXa. while my children upbraid me for having reared them in habits of folly and indulgence which I have not the means to gratify. Julia and her fool of a husband are ruined : but was the match one of my making ? Augustus has nothing ; but he knew the risks in store for him." Lord Laxington paused ; then quickly added, "But no! in that he judged more wisely than myself. Lady Ashley would not have come forward to nie in my misfortunes, as yo\i have done." His change of countenance avouched his sincerity. " And do you, then, intend to remain in this house ? " inquired Mrs. Hamilton, wishing to give a new turn to the conversation. " At present. We must make no changes that look like defeat. Some months hence, if, unfortunately, our prospects are not amended, this house and Weald must be given up." Susan's countenance bx'ightened. " I shall reside at an hotel during the sitting of par- liament ; and Augustus and yourself at Mayfield, which Claneustace has forced upon my acceptance." Poor Mrs. Hamilton ! A little month ago, what happy prospects would such a plan have unfolded to her imagination ! But to live, in intimate country companionship, with the father of Mrs, Cadogan's child ; with the bold, yet pitiful, Augustus ! To be- come the butt of his ennui — the victim of his ill-con- cealed disgust ! — Impossible. '•' However," continued Lord Laxington, reassuming his usual tone of recklessness, as if apprehensive he had been too candid in exposing the seriousness of his apprehensions, " there is no occasion, at present, to build castles in which we may never have occasion to fix our residence. Li a few weeks, we shall be hold- ing our heads higher than we have held them yet. THE UAMILTONS. 297 Meanwhile, dear Susan, get well as fast as you can ; and look pretty and gay, and appear as niucli as pos- sible in society. I must not have the world suppose that a daughter of mine has taken too much to heart the loss of a few thousands a year." Susan coloured deeply. She knew that, were every thousand thus forfeited a million, its loss would never have occasioned her the loss of an hour's rest or a moment's peace of mind. " You have not seen much of Augustus, lately ? " he continued, watching her countenance. " I have seen rmich of no one," was her evasive reply. '• As Mr. Spicer prescribes perfect quiet, I have declined admitting visitors. The shock I re- ceived on the day of the city dinner " " Very true, very true ! Urgent business makes me forget every thing ! And, on the whole, perhaps it has been better for you not to be much in his company in your present weak state. My son is one of those who are misjudging enough to regard the recent changes as an injury, and resent them with violence. As if the King were not at liberty to choose his servants ! As if the country were not at liberty to express approval or disapproval of his choice ! " " I am happy to see you so temperate on the sub- ject," replied Susan, suspecting, and with reason, that his secret feelings coincided \vith those of his son. " We shall pass the Christmas holidays, I conclude, at Brighton ? " " For lohat 7 " cried Lord Laxington, hastily. " Now that our resignation has been accepted " (Susan knew not that it had been even tendered, — so much were the Hamilton family accustomed to treat her as a non-entity!) "we have nothing to do at Brighton. No, my dear, I go to Weald the moment 298 THE HAMILTONS. parliament is prorogued. Weald is a central place of rendezvous for our friends ; and Lord Shetland, and most of my colleagues, will meet me there. By that time, Susan, you must manage to recover your spii'its. You are fond of Northamptonshire ; and will be quite yourself the moment you get into the country." CHAP. XLIV. L'amour propre est comme les enfans, qui tombent sans pleurer, pourvu qu'on ne les regarde pas. Une publieite de malheur est autre chose. — Grouvelle. The opinion previously formed by IVIrs. Hamilton, that it is easier to bear with dignity the burthen of office, than with dignity to lay it down, was very shortly confirmed. So soon as she was sufficiently recovered to be under the necessity of reappearing in Lord Laxington's circle (and it was less painful to be in company with her husband than receive his visits in her dressing-room), she observed, with no less disgust than amazement, the vulgarity of meanness with which persons moving in the highest rank of life, fought and squabbled among themselves concerning the extent and nature of their sacrifices ; and clung, in the face of the whole country, to every shred and patch of their dismembered robes of state. Small, indeed, was the number of those who comported themselves as if they looked on place as a mere medium of service to the country. There were such, however. One or two had the sense to adjust their mantles and fall with decency ; principally, because they were sanguine of speedy reestablishment in their lost ascendancy. Meanwhile, the generous public was not sparing of THE IIAMILTONS. 299 its sarcasms; and the coteries (perched like jackdaws on the top of the tree, and fancying mere elevation a source of dignity !) chattered more loudly than ever. " What a fool Matthewson has been, not to secure his peerage ! " cried one of the idlers assembled round the Duchess of Ptarmighan's fireside, early in the Christmas holidays. " By making himself so deuced useful in the Lower House, his party is kicked out of office before they found it convenient to bench him in the House of Incurables ! " " They hesitated about a peerage to Matthewson," sneered another, " who has some thousands a year to conti'ibute towards the pomps and vanities of the Order ; and gave one to Hamilton, who never had a guinea, save of government money, in his pocket, since he wore a coat." " Ay, because our friend Laxington asked for a coronet, only as a gewgaw to barter for what Harpagon calls ' the tangible.' He was in hopes it would secure Lady Ashley for his son, and justify his daughter as a marchioness. Poor Laxington ! — Laxington is one of those long-sighted people, who are always stumbling over mole-hills." "And Augustus Hamilton, too — 'Pon my honour, Gussy has been making a confounded ass of himself ; or, rather, has let others make him one. To those Cado- gans, he has been a mere cat's paw to reach Lord Shet- land, for the revival of that old Barony which they swear was in the family six hundred years before the flood." " And for such a set of people has this country been nearly revolutionized ! " observed one who had long been in the habit of dining among them three days in the week. " Leighton, 1 see, sticks to his place ! " 300 THE HAMILTONS. " Why not ? As her ladyship says, ' Sir Joseph has no principles ! ' If he had, his place is not a po- litical one. Lady L. was always a great ally of Clan- eustace ; and Claneustace, I fancy, has spoken a good word for her to Lord Grey." " Lucky that one person in the world is so inclined. Eardley, I understand, has made over his property to his tailor ; and is to live on an annuity, at some village in Normandy. How he has been able to carry on the war so long, is a marvel to every body. Clarence has done better for himself. He is going to marry the daughter of the new man they talk of for the Board of Trade, — Burtonshaw." " The man who spoke so finely the other night ? " "Exactly! — One of the most rising men of the day!" " Just what we were saying last year of Jack Tot- tenham ! — And where is he to end now ? " "In the Rules, — I suppose — selon les regies ! " " And so will his brother William, if these people carry the Reform Bill. Poor Lord Tottenham ! — To have four worthless sons returned insolvent upon his hands : and soon, not a borough left to cover their multitude of sins ! " "William's marriage has not done much for him !" "I beg your pardon, it has done him np f People talk of the folly of intermarriages in families. What is it to the folly of intermarriages in parties ? — If Billy Tot. had thrown himself away on a Miss Burtonshaw, he might have kept his place." " And his place would have kept him ; which is more than he has to expect from either father or father- in-law." But it was not the insolence of such foes as these that could deepen the gloom overspreading the destinies THE HAMILTONS. 301 of Susan Hamilton. So long as she continued to trust in her husband's affection, she remained insensible to the uncongeniality of the persons and things by whom she was surrounded, and had made to herself a haven of happiness in the sunshine of her innocent heart. But the bitterness of her experience in human treachery had left her no rock of trust whereon to anchor. The chain that linked her with the world, was broken by the same blow which had rent the veil of the domestic sanctuary " where she had garnered up her heart." — The hollow intercourse between herself and her family, created by the necessity for concealment, marred even her pleasure in their presence. Nor could she bear to darken the bright and prosperous home of Marcia, — of Marcia who had so warned and so upbraided her, — with the spectacle of her mournful face. Sir Edward Berkely was with his regiment in Ireland; — her mother peevish, complaining, and absorbed in in- creasing infirmities. — To whom, alas ! to whom, could she turn for a word of solace? — She heard nothing but murmurs, she saw nothing but consternation. Instead of the gratitude heretofore heaped upon Lord Laxington, he was reviled as the enemy of his country ; and, for every former bless- ing, was rendered him a curse. Even the servants of the establishment did their spiriting rudely. — The tradesmen were negligent, — the world was forgetful. No crush of carriages at the door ; no importunate invitations ; no officious visits ; no entreaties for the honour of her patronage ; no rhapsodies in the servile papers respecting the beauty and elegance of the all- accomplished Mrs. Hamilton ! Every thing connected with that name was in the minority ; offensive to the ear of the people; and distasteful to the eye of that feeble, tawdry, giggling jade, called Fashion. The 302 THE HAMILTONS. coteries observed that Mrs. Hamilton was lookino- like a ghost ; while the circle of her more immediate acquaintance added, that thej Jiad given poor dear Mrs. Hamilton credit for a better-regulated mind. Meanwhile, although darkness was over the house of Lord Laxington, and despair in the hearts of his associates, a promise of redemption from captivity had been pledged to the people of England, which called forth triumph and rejoicing from one end of the kingdom to the other ! The very name of " Reform " contained a cabalistic spell for the ears and hearts of the populace. The benefits imputed to the mysterious concession were illimitable. The very poor conceived that it would whitewash their cottages, convert their hard crusts into roast beef and their well-water into XX.; while the equally unenlightened, of better worldly means, conjectured that it implied the extinction of such unpopular agents as tax-gatherers, excisemen, and the new police. They had been too long ac- customed to swallow the nostrums of charlatans, not to expect miracles from the wholesome medicaments of the physician. The clear-sighted, who regarded this sweeping away of the dust and cobwebs collected by the lapse of ages in the stupendous machinery of the state, as enabling it to move with greater ease and security in whatever direction it might be impelled by the policy of those to whom its direction would be entrusted, accepted the benefit with, satisfaction ; but rather as the payment of a debt, long delayed, than as a ministerial bene- faction. The stagnant pond was cleared of its mud ; the waters it might hereafter contain, were yet to be analyzed. Still, there was something in the wild hilarity of the people, peculiarly oifensiveto the ears of the ejected THE HAM1LT0N8. 303 party. The tumults of a general election conveyed insults and defiance to more than one spoiled cliild of fortune, hitherto accustomed only to the pasans and plaudits which surround the triumphal car of the victorious. For John Bull (so far from being the generous foe he is wont to assume himself) is, in fact, as apt to kick a man when he's down ("by the fist of my fathex'S I blush for thee, Ben ! ") as his Gallic neigh- bour, who spat in the face of the captive Louis Seize, hooted the abdicating Napoleon, and would fain have lapidated the exiled Charles the Tenth. Not satisfied with breaking the windows of their now undeified idols, they showed considerable inclination to break their heads ; and nothing but the noble self-possession exhibited on public occasions by several leading mem- bers of the Tory party, succeeded in disarming the malignant feelings of the mob. In every great national crisis, false prophets arise to delude the people, and injure the good cause. But it is difficult to misguide, for any length of time, the public mind. When the storm is over, opinion subsides into its natural channel ; and, as is finely said by a French writer, " Les nations ne doivent leur energie qu'a de grands sentimens." It afforded, however, a considerable source of ag- gravation to the mortification of the Tories, that the new party, which it had announced as a gang of de- mocrats intent on overturning the ancient institutions of the country, should be at once recognised as forming a nucleus of all that was venerable in descent or de- voted to the maintenance of social order. There could be no pretence for supposing that men possessed of the mighty stake in the country, vested in the families- of Grosvenor, Cavendish, Russell, Wentworth, or Lambton, would wantonly endanger the stability of a constitution on which the fortunes of their houses 304 THE HAMILTON'S. leant for security. A party so highly aristocratic as the ministry of Lord Grey had, in fact, seLlom dig- nified the annals of government ; and the outcries of the Baldocks and Tottenhams, disseminated by the puny echoes of the Vardens and their kind, were speedily drowned in the high announcements and lofty style of the personages surrounding the throne. On the meeting of parliament, the Court was more brilliant than ever ; and the prolonged debates upon the Reform Bill imparted to the summer and autumn the bi'illancy of a double season. That summer of 1831 presented, in fact, a curious epoch in the history of London society. All was ac- tivity, all was expectation. Triumphant as were the Whigs, the Tories were still sanguine of success ; while a third party, small, but powerful in energy and compactness, was silently forming in the back ground. — A general emancipation appeared to have taken place. — People seemed to fancy that, since such won- drous revolutions of opinion had occurred in the most momentous departments, without shame or blame, they might be permitted to throw off long-standing pre- judices and mental subservience. Literature, the arts, nay, even the forms of society, underwent a modifica- tion. The Quarterly Review no longer afforded to the intellectual world a table of the law. Almack's, the fourth estate of fashion, was shaken to its basis. Was it possible still to exclude from the benefit of its saving grace, such individuals as the Burtonshaws, — the head of the family being a man whom the king de- lighted to honour ? Or could the august conclave reject Lady Leighton's officious and unauthorised mediation in favour of the beautiful Mrs. Forbes, when nothing but the learned wig of Brougham interposed between her husband and the woolsack ? A few solemn dow- THE UAMlLTUiNS- 305 agers, of the Williaiu-the-Conqueror school, still held off, and bridled indignantly in their buckram. But the majority of High Mightinesses were too busy with their coi'onation robes, and the precedence of the ap- proaching ceremonial at Westminster, to note inch by inch, curtsey by curtsey, the abrogation of their privileges of caste. It was only the defeated foe which still kept up, at intervals, alarums of consternation ; as if to remind the ten-orists that their citadel was in danger, and their constabulary force in order of battle. The Jack Tottenhams, who had lost their seat, and the William Tottenhams, who had lost their five-guinea whist ; — the Vardens, who, like Michael Angelo's statue of snow, had melted from sublimity into rain-water ; — the Baldocks, who were now unprofitable as a last year's almanack ; — besides the innumerable swarms of ephemeral insects so brilliant while buoyant in the sunshine, but creating a pestilence the moment they fall to the ground, — chose, since they couLl be nothing else, to be alarmists. But they were alarmists who created no alarm, unless in such slender minds as those of the venerable Mrs. Mangles, and Pen. Smith. Revolution, — that " word of fear, unpleasing to a noble ear," had ceased to excite consternation. Eng- land saw itself self-secure in the mightiness of its civilisation; — in the triumph of opinion over brute force. That glorious spirit of enlightenment, (at once a source of wealth and aggrandisement to the empire, and the protection of the wealth and aggrandisement so created,) which affords to Great Britain a dignity in the eyes of Europe and in the pages of history, such as her insular position alone prevents her from converting into an omnipotent influence over the manners and customs of her contemporaries, could not 306 THE HAJMILTONS. but prove a safeguard to the wholesome and uncor- rupted portion of her institutions. The country was its own defence. It was soon seen that, although the pinnacles of the temple might have decayed in excess of sunshine, the foundations, the walls, and rafters were as solid as before. Little had Susan Hamilton imagined that she should ever learn to rejoice in the vehemence of the political discussions which now distracted the counsels of Lord Laxington and his guests. She, who in her girlhood used to tremble with alarm whenever her mother raised her voice to reprehend the rebellious Marcia, or over- throw the assumptions of Pen. Smith, was now almost pleased at the warmth of debate which absorbed from herself the attention of her husband and his father. She was not blind enough to suppose that Augustus was really unobservant of her. But it was enough that he had a pretext for fixing his observation else- where. Nothing she dreaded so much as an expla- nation ! — It was not, in fact, in the nature of things, for Au- gustus Hamilton to be insensible to the change that had taken place in Susan's sentiments and demeanour towards him ; and, while he affected to ascribe the alteration in her health and looks to the mortification arising from her change of worldly prospects, the man of the world was not slow in attributing all to its true origin. The abstraction of her manner, the sadness of her face, the hoarse, yet plaintive tones of her broken voice, proclaimed the disappointments of her heart ; and he almost hated her for the forbearance which in- duced her to keep silence under such emotions. He wished her to burst forth into accusation. He was conscious of having used her too ill not to wish to wreak further vengeance on her head. He persuaded TilK UAMILTONS. 307 himself he had a right to recriminate ; to urge against her his former backwardness in proposing a marriage which he had pre-discovered would be a source of misery to both ; to charge her with indiffei-ence and neglect, in having failed to assimilate her habits and tastes to his own ; to reproach her with having adopted his mode of life as a task, and trifled with dignities transcendent in his eyes. Often, after involuntarily contemplating her grave face, and thrilling under her accusing silence, he burned to tell her it was by a wife-like sympathy of taste, and higher energies of character, that Caroline had obtained and kept her dominion over his heart. But, as we have already quoted from Machiavel, " few men have courage to be altogether bad, or altogether good ; " and there were moments when Susan's loveliness and gentleness, and grace and good- ness, had their revenge, by rousing a better spirit in her husband. A man must live in the enjoyment of high prosperity, who can find fault with equanimity of temper in his wife ; and Hamilton was now too much thwarted by public mortifications, too much harassed by his creditors, too much tormented by his friends, and, above all, too deeply wounded by the worship tendered by the Cadogans to the rising star of the ascendant party, not to admit, at times, that a soft voice, gentle deportment, and uncomplaining spirit, are, after all, precious endowments in the wife of one's fireside ! If he came home distempered and morose, to insult his father with surly answers and swear at the servants, it was something that, though Susan no longer flew to the door to welcome him, she neither remonstrated with his intemperance, nor joined in the indignant rejoinders of Lord Laxington. Had any evidence been wanting, meanwhile, of her perfect cognizance of his misdoings, the guilty husband X 2 308 THE HAMILTONS, must have found it in her conduct towards Mrs. Ca- dogan. There she had been firm. From the moment of her return to town after the holidays, Susan had neither entered Caroline's house, nor admitted her into her own. She had even, as far as possible, avoided meeting her under the roof of a third person. But they had come into occasional collision amid the throngs of the great world ; where the deadly paleness that overspread her face, and the dignity which sud- denly elevated her person, in the encounter, revealed in a moment to Caroline that her secret was at the mercy of her rival. To propitiate the enemy created by her treachery, appeared an impossible task, even to JVIrs. Cadogan's genius for cajolement. To resent her enmity was no less impossible. The only manoeuvre, therefore, that remained, was to turn upon her with irony ; to aifect to look upon poor, dear Mrs. Hamilton, as an amiable, feeble, nervous, fanciful creature ; wonder what new chimera had got into her head ; and express a pitying hope that some day or other, when the effects of her recent disappointments had subsided, she would return to a more reasonable frame of mind. The larger half of the world, caring little for either of them, listened and bowed assentingly ; while a select few of the initiated were of opinion that Mrs. Hamilton, who had been an inmate of royal cottages, and a Woman of the Bedchamber, ought to know more of the world than bring such awkward subjects under discussion. Besides, Mrs. Cadogan could not but be in the right She was such a favourite in the new Downing Street ! — The barony of Everleigh was on the eve of being restored ! — Mrs. Cadogan could not be to blame ! — THK HAMILTONS. 309 CHAP. XLV. On lie meprise pastous ceux qui out des vices ; rnais on meprise eux qui n'ont aucune vertu. — La Rochefoucauld. Miserable as was the tenor of Susan's life, her hus- band's was fiftyfold more pitiable. He was an am- bitious man, and his pride had been humbled in the dust ; he was a prodigal, and his sources of wealth were cut off; he was a libertine, and saw his homage becoming importunate where it had once been courted ; he was a husband, and found himself an object of abhorrence to one towards whom the usances of society compelled him to exhibit the courtesies of married life. No longer the spoiled child of the clubs, where his flippancy had been recorded as wit, and his insolence tolerated as eccentricity, so long as he had money and credit to back some extravagant bet, it was whispered that he had debts of honour both unpaid and unpay- able. Men began to take off their hats to him, who had once passed him with a friendly nod ; while others passed him with a familiar nod, who had once stood respectfully uncovered in his presence. He had no fund of personal respectability on which to draw, in the failure of his worldly fortunes. Time had been, that his acquaintance was a stepping-stone to preferment ; that he was the influencer of the influ- ential ; the bird that carried whispers of what was passing in the world, even into the King's chamber. But now, there was a long farewell to all his great- ness ! Even he could not remain blind to the fact X 3 310 THE HAMILTONS. that he was good for no other purpose than to form a lay-figure in the gaudy pageant of aristocratic life. He knew nothing. He could do no single thing to- wards advancing the great purposes of existence. He was useless to a fallen party; — was no orator; — had neither wit for attack, nor wisdom for defence ! And such was the man who had presumed to despise, — to insult, — to trample on others; assuming the pride of the serpent, when he was, in truth, the weakest of worms He saw the Shetlands and Baldocks retain their high position in the world. Even his own father commanded the respect of parliament, and a certain degree of toleration in the country. For Lord Lax- ington happened to be one of those who had worked for government, as well as received its wages ; and it was conceived, — falsely or not, — that his present poverty was a sufficient attestation of his disinterest- edness during a long continuance in office. By dint of much tact and practice, too, he had become an able and popular speaker. Like the late Lord Liverpool, his arguments were addressed to the ear of the country rather than that of the House ; and, as he vras the most temperate and statesmanlike, he was, of course, the least obnoxious of the Tory leaders. Lord Lax- ington did not share the shame of the do-nothings and crave- alls: and the world knew better than to treat him as it treated his son. But the unkindest cut of all those directed against the callous heart of Augustus Hamilton, was the con- duct of Mrs. Cadogan ! Although he would, probably, had his golden career continued, have replaced her in his affections by some fairer or newer idol, he could not pardon her for having quitted him. There was something in the audacity of coolness with which she THE HAMILIONS. 311 now art'ected to hold biin at bay, which roused all his indignation. He, who had never experienced a gene- rous emotion, exacted the utmost devotion from the woman he both despised and had rendered despicable. He even taxed her with the meanness of her defalca- tion ; and, without a blush, she reproached him with want of savoir vivre. She could hardly conceive how a man, who had lived so much in the world, could exhibit such a total manque (Tusage ! And away she glided, before his face, to shower smiles upon a Secre- tary of State, and exchange nothings with a new lord of the Treasury ! — At such moments, — and they recurred more than once during the progress of that long-lingering season, — Susan's triumph was great. Willingly would Hamil- ton have dragged himself to her feet, and implored her to forgive him, or at least to believe his punish- ment sufficient for his offence. He stood sometimes watching his wife from the pit at the Opera, as she leaned back in her box (in compliance with Lord Lax- ingtous' desire for her constant appearance in public), pale, marble-like, beautiful ; without a smile, without a hope, like a spring whose flowers have been withered by untimely frost, till his heart melted within him. She would not have deserted |him in his adversity ! But for his treachery, that pure and womanly crea- ture would have been still, and more than ever, his own ! — Nor, though his passion for Mrs. Cadogan had now assumed the bitterness of hatred, was he by any means secure from the perils of exposure. If there had been no confidante, there had been a cunning observer of their intimacy, whose secrecy had been dearly bought ; a man of bad character, who sought in the infamy of others a safeguard from the consequences 312 THE HAMILTONS. of his own. He had been appeased with money, — he had been appeased with patronage, — so long as Augus- tus Hamilton had money or patronage to bestow. But Hamilton suspected that intercepted letters were still retained in his hands as instruments of mischief, Mrs. Cadogan, who knew no more of these circum- stances than that Watts, her former butler, had been provided for by Augustus Hamilton by a place in the Customs, treated with scorn the insinuations occa- sionally dropped on the subject by her former lover. She was persuaded that Hamilton's object was to in- timidate and molest her ; and, eager to evade all com- munication with him on a subject so humiliating, re- fused to listen to her partner in guilt, when, one evening as she was quitting her box at one of the summer theatres, he whispered that the misdemeanours of Watts had caused him to be suspended from his appointment ; and, that it was essential her interest should be ex- erted to procure his re-instatement ; and, in the sequel, Augustus was compelled to solicit, in favour of their common enemy, the influence of a personal acquaint- ance, towards whom, as a political opponent, he was conscious of the indelicacy of the demand. Unluckily for all parties, the man, whom drunk- enness had incapacitated for the discharge of his duties, was tempted to boast among his former col- leagues the origin of his interest ; and, on his re-in- statenient, the whole history, accompanied by perti- nent comments, was communicated, by a disappointed brother clerk who had expected to become his suc- cessoi", to a weekly paper. An ofiicial inquii-y was instituted into the circumstances of the case. The misdemeanours of Watts were established, his decla- rations attested, and his dismissal publicly announced, by the journal whose comments originated the inves- THK IIAMILTONS. 313 tigation. Nor, however cautious in Mr. Cadogan's presence the gossipers of his chib, was it possible that a man, the matei'ial affair of whose morning was the perusal of tlie newspapers (to ascertain how far him- self and his impending barony engrossed the attention of the public), should escape the vexatious information afforded by the public journals. Even a tortoise has its unguarded part ; and the world-hardened Cadogan was fated to suffer tortures from this exposure to the scoffs and sneers of society. His heart indeed was invulnerable ; but his pride ! His resolution was soon taken. The moment the honour of a " gentlemanly man " becomes impaired, he places it in the hands of " a friend," just as, were an eye injured, he would confide it to an oculist; and the active and energetic friend he happened to select, made it his business to seek out Watts ; and, by the aid of a fifty pound note, place Mr. Cadogan in pos- session of facts, which he would have given half his fortune to prove untrue. So suddenly was the mystery unravelled, that Ha- milton was still deliberating in what way to secure the discretion of his confederate, and prevent tidings of the affair from reaching the ears of his wife, when Mrs. Cadogan, (while occupied in deep consultation with her new friend, Mrs. Burlonshaw, on the com- parative merits of gold lace or blonde for the fraise of her peeress's robes at the approaching coronation,) re- ceived a legal mandate, which exiled her for ever from the roof of her husband ; severed her from the com- panionship of her sex, the society of her daughters ; and unveiled to the sneers and abhorrence of society, one of the most specious of its hypocrites. She had no time for remonstrance, — no time for appeal, — no time for even a communication with her partner in guilt. 314 THE HAMILTONS. Mr. Cadogan's solicitor informed her that a carriage was at the door to convey her to her mother's resi- dence in Northamptonshire ; and that prompt obe- dience to the suggestion would afford her the best chance of meriting future forbearance on the part of her indignant husband. CHAP. XL VI. Des que le desespoir peut retrouver des larmes, A la melancolie il vient les confier, Pour adoucir sa peine, et non pour I'oublier ! Delille. One soft evening in August, Susan Hamilton, in total ignorance of the catastrophe of the day, was sitting alone beside her dressing-room window ; lulled by the distant murmurs of children at play in the park ; and musing over a book by which she had been vainly attempting to divert her attention from the anxious thoughts gradually becoming a part of her existence. She had dined tete-a-tete with Lord Laxington, who was gone down to the House ; and congratu- lated herself that he had sanctioned her refusal to join a water party formed by the Baldocks to pass the day at Richmond, — an arrangement which left her secure from interruption from their pleasure-loving clique. Emancipated from the false glare that serves to kindle the false excitements of society, Susan sat soothing herself by that vague and dreamy contempla- tion of the sky, which forms so ready a solace to the unhappy; — the sky which shields beneath its common THE HAMILTONS. 315 roof so many ot" our brethren in affliction, — so many who were once afflicted, and are at rest. But her meditations were suddenly interrupted by approaching ibotsteps ; and, before she had time to regret the intrusion, her cheeks tingled with a sudden flush on observing that it was her husband who had entered the room. Some months had elapsed since Augustus approached at such an hour ; and the sur- prise caused her to half-arise from her chair, as if receiving a stranger. " Do not let me disturb you," said he, advancing towards the window, and speaking in a tone of voice which assured her that, whatever might be the motive of his visit, it was not of an offensive nature. " You have returned early from Richmond ? " she observed, unwilling that he should notice her surprise. " I understood you were to come back with the tide, by moonlight ; and that you had the band of the Life- Guards?" '' I have not been to Richmond. I detest water- parties." " As there is so little doing in town, I thought you might be tempted," " No ! When there is little doing in town, what is done, is always done badly. People grow tired of each other, — have nothing to say, — and what they invent is little to the purpose." Susan could almost have smiled to perceive that they, too, were beginning to invent conversation for each other. " I am come to wish you good-bye," observed Au- gustus, abruptly. " I am going out of town early to- morrow morning, — for a week, — perhaps longer. Is there any thing you wish me to do for you, previous to my departure ? " 316 THE HAMILTONS. Mrs. Hamilton, still more amazed by this unusual ceremony, replied by inquiring whither he was going ; — " to Weald, — to Brighton, — or to Mayfield ? " " To neither. I am not very well. — These com- mittee-hours are too much for me. I have a certificate for a fortnight's absence, and intend to make a tour ; — perhaps to the Isle of Wight. I have not yet de- termined." It suddenly occurred to Susan that he was desirous she should accompany him ; an apprehension that suggested greater reserve. " Change of air will probably be of use to you," said she, calmly. " You are fortunate in being able to get away. I wish you a pleasant journey." " You have not replied to my question ? " resumed Augustus, undismayed by her coldness. " Can I do any thing for you before I leave home ? — Would you like to visit Green-Oak while I am away ? — Would you like to go to Mayfield ? " " Thank you. I have promised Lord Laxington to remain with him till parliament is up. I have no wish to quit London." Instead of being aiFronted by this definitive answer, Augustus took a chair ; and sat down so near her, on pretence of ud miring, from the window, the beauty of the night, that she began to wish herself at Richmond. She feared he was going to proceed to an explanation ; instead of which, to her indescribable amazement, he suddenly burst into an eulogium of Bernard Forbes ! — Forbes had made an eloquent speech on the Reform Question, the preceding night. But her husband was certainly the last person in London from whom she had expected its praises. " I believe Forbes to be a highly honourable man," said Hamilton. " He is the only member of his party TUE HAMILTONS. 317 who has acted consistently with his principles ; and, wholly as they ditFer from mine, 1 respect them as manly and disinterested. He is an honourable man in public, and an honest man in private life. I have often done Forbes injustice. But he has a sincere re- gard for you, Susan ; — and if, under any circum- stances, you should ever want a friend or adviser, you could not be better provided." What could be the meaning of such a preamble ! Was he come to propose a separation, or was he going abroad, instead of to the Isle of Wight ? She was mistaken, perhaps, in supposing that a coolness ex- isted between him and Mrs. Cadogan. They were, perhaps, on the eve of an elopement ! The word divorce next presented itself to Susan's imagination. After all, she might be fated to undergo the humilia- tion of a public exposure of her grievances. After all, he had resolved to alienate from her the slight tenure upon him she possessed in the empty name of wife ! '■'• I apprehend no want of friends or counsellors," said she, as soon as she could command firmness of voice. " ]\Iy brother has a better head than his vola- tility gains him credit for ; his heart needs no ad- vocate." " Berkely is absent," observed Mr. Hamilton ; un- consciously confirming her belief that the crisis of her fate was approaching. Then, as if apprehensive that he might excite her solicitude, he added : " His pro- fessional duties too often call him away from town. Forbes is always on the spot. But even during his absence, Susan, you are sure of a friend in my father. He appreciates you as you deserve. He loves you better than either son or daughter of his own ! " — Mrs. Hamilton's heart thrilled within her I How 318 THE HAHnLTONS. long since she had gathered suoh expressions — such allusions — from the lips of her husband! Yet she dared not welcome them. She had learned to mis- trust, on his part, every pretence of courtesy or kind- ness, as the prelude, or screen, to some treacherous act. " And now, let me wish you good bye," he con- tinued ; having unnerved his own feelings far more than hers, by this reference to her excellence. He extended his hand towards her ; and Susan's trembled, as she accepted the pledge of parting. But not with a softened heart. Persuaded that he was on the point of quitting her for ever, in order to become the com- panion of Caroline Cadogan, her spirit rebelled against this hollow show of repentance. She saw him on the eve of violating in the face of man, as he had already violated in the eye of God, the marriage vow which made him her own ; and loathed the hypocritical attempt to cast her oiF with an aifectation of reluct- ance. " As we may not meet again for some time," he persisted, little suspecting what harsh fancies had taken possession of that gentle bosom, — "one kiss, Susan, — that we may at least part in kindness ! " But, as he bent towards her, Mrs. Hamilton recoiled ; and, leaning for support against the window frame, her cheeks flushed, — her delicate figure, proudly erect, though trembling with emotion, — she exclaimed, in a voice such as he had never yet heard from her lips, — " Never ! You have injured and insulted me by every means in your power. But my own self-respect shall secure me from the pollution of your caresses." Startled into silence, Hamilton was not wholly dis- couraged by this burst of indignation ; and, without renewing his request, he was about to renew his ad- vances ; when his wife, uplifting her hand to interdict THE HAMILTONS. 319 his approach, exclaimed almost frantically, and with one foot advanced upon the balcony of the open win- dow, — " I would sooner throw myself upon the stones below, than receive from you the slightest token of tenderness." " As you please ! " said he, vexed into the resump- tion of his usual petulance. " But there is no occasion for so much heroism. You have nothing to appre- hend. I am no enterprising Knight Templar ; nor is St. James's Park a fitting site for the exploits of Front de Boeuf 's castle. I came here in kindness. If I quit you with renewed enmity, remember, it is of your own creating. Good night ! " — Already, the handle of the door was turning in his hand for departure ; and Susan was half inclined to recall him, — to soften what she had said, — to listen to what he might have to say. He even paused, for a moment, as if in expectation of some such act of grace. But the effort was too much for her. She had sunk into a chair, and her heart was beating as if it would burst. But, as she uttered not a word, nothing re- mained for him but to pursue his way. The door closed upon him ; — she heard his departing footsteps. In another moment, she heard nothing but the painful pulsation of her temples, her bosom, her whole frame. 320 THE HAMILTONS. CHAP. XLVII. Oh I what portents are these ? Some heavy business hath my lord in hand, And I must know it ! Henry IV. Part I. It was some time before Mrs. Hamilton recovered the control of her faculties ; some time before the burning flush upon her cheeks subsided, and she could calmly reconsider the past. There was evidently a mystery ; — Augustus was certainly in earnest. He was not heated by wine. He had been consistent, mild, rea- sonable ; more like his better self than she had seen him for years. What could it mean ? Had she done wrong in rejecting his penitential overtures? Was he not on the brink of a precipice from which her interference might save him ? Was some crime of deeper turpitude about to be perpetrated by his hand ? Agitated by a thousand perplexities, she resolved to hurry to her sister for advice. The fatal subject must, at length, be broached between them ; and Marcia's clearer judgment would afford ready en- lightenment to her doubts. Half an hour would con- vey her to Russell Square. The carriage was ordered ; and Augustus heard the departing sound of its wheels, as he sat writing in the library ; satisfied that it conveyed his wife to some place of frivolous amuse- ment ; and suspecting that she was, after all, little less heartless than the rest of her sex, - her sex, as re- corded in his experience of womankind ! Meanwhile, the road from Spring Gardens to those antipodes of the fashionable world to which Mr. THE UAMILTONS. 321 Croker's satire has imparted peculiar distinction, was very tedious to Susan. The narrow streets appeared closer and more oppressive than usual ; and, when she arrived at the Forbes's door, and found, to her infinite mortification, that her sister had been sent for into Northamptonshire that morning by old Mrs. Warren (by whou), since she became her favourite nephew's wife, she bad been regarded more as a daughter than her own graceless child), Mrs. Hamilton's distress was complete ! She knew that Forbes would be detained till a late hour at the House. But could she not drive round to Westminster, and request a few minutes' in- terview with him in her carriage ? Hastily alighting, she wrote, in his own library, a line or two, expres- sive of her wishes ; then desired her servants to drive round by the Waterloo Road to Westminster Bridge, that she might secure an hour for deliberation, ere she addressed herself, for the first time, to her former lover, respecting the misconduct of one whom he had been the first to denounce to her as worthless. The night air was refreshing. The smooth motion of the carriage, when she reached the broad level of the Surrey Road, soothed the excess of her agitation ; and, at the foot of Westminster Bridge, late as it was, — almost midnight, — a crowd was assembled to watch the arrival of the Admiralty Barge, with its gay awTiing and gayer strains of music ; — Lady Baldock and her giddy friends returning from their pleasure-party at Richmond ! Trifling as was this incident, it renewed in Susan's mind that susceptibility to the influence of society, — that apprehension of " the world's dread laugh," — so instinctive in the human mind. If, after all, she were assigning importance to a thing of no manner of con- T 322 THE HAMILTONS. sequence ? If it were known that she had withdrawn her grave brother-in-law from an important debate in the House of Commons, to consult him upon tlie pro- priety of intercepting her husband's elopement with his cousin ; — when Augustus might, in truth, be in- tent only on a week's bathing at Cowes, and Mrs. Cadogan, on effecting some new conquest ? The Lax- ington livery would be recognised by the ushers who would receive the note from her servant : or the billet be delivered into wrong hands, the story transpire, and cover her with confusion ! As the carriage turned into Palace Yard, she suddenly bade the coachman drive home ; and dispersed into the street the frag- ments of the note she had involuntarily torn to pieces at this harassing suggestion. Installed, however, once more in her own dressing- room, in the room which recalled to her eyes the nays- terious scene which grew more mysterious on reflection, her embarrassment returned. Again she felt persuaded that some real and serious evil was impending. Au- gustus, the most conventionised, the most world-go- verned of men in his manners and demeanour, could not have so exceeded the usual bounds of his frigid egotism, unless acting under some powerful influence. The excitement of some step about to emancipate him from all connection with herself, could alone have sug- gested the concessions to which he had condescended. She resolved to lay her anxieties before Lord Laxing- ton. He, at least, would have no right to deride them ; and, having dismissed her maid, she threw herself into her great chair, to count the tedious minutes till his lordship's return from the House. Two or three hours might elapse, — even more ; for, at that critical period, the debates of the Lords were frequently pro- longed till a late hour. But he would, at least, return THK HAMILTONS. 323 before his eon was likely to start for his journey ; and all would be safe. The time passed slowly, very slowly, as she sat with her eyes fixed on the gorgeous clock, which had scarcely seemed to mark the earlier moments of her married life ; but which she had lately adopted as a sort of admonitory companion, — a companion that re- minded her how rapidly even the bitter hours of ad- versity glide from our endurance. Till that night, she had never felt them tedious. Her mind, fixed on a single object, was usually careless of the lapse of time. But now, a thousand varying cares assailed her. She was displeased with herself. She fancied she had acted harshly — unworthily; that her harshness might prove the origin of guilt, — the origin of suffering. Throwing aside the book she had vainly taken into her hands, she leaned her heavy head upon her hand ; till the confused noises ringing in her ears, and the burning tears that fell from her eyes, became almost too painful. At length, the cause of Hamilton's extraordinary conduct suddenly flashed upon her mind. He was about to fight a duel, about to hazard his life ! and in the careful moments, which might be his last, had been anxious to reconcile himself to her, perhaps to con- fess his faults, — appeal to her forgiveness, — seek her counsels, or bestow advice or warning, upon herself. This new idea was sufficient to chill the glow upon her cheeks, and strike new anguish into her heart. In the hour of danger, the offender became again Augustus, — again her husband, — again the lover of her girlhood! — She determined to go to him, — to in- terrogate, — to explain ! — The communication between his dressing-room and her own had been so long closed, that she was not sur- T 2 324 THE HAMILTONS. prised, on gently unlocking, and attempting to open the door, to find her entrance impeded by a heavy wardrobe ; placed there, probably, in some moment of scorn and defiance, by the order of Hamilton. But she was not discouraged. She had only to go round by the vestibule and a corridor, to reach his private door. There was something, however, in the pub- licity of this attempt, which startled her. The coved ceiling of the grand staircase caused the shutting of every door to be heard throughout the house. The porter, who was sitting up for Lord Laxington in the hall below, would certainly hear her, and make his remarks public on the morrow. But the case was too urgent for scruples ; and, as quietly as she could, Susan quitted her room, stole along the passage, and stood beside her husband's door. And now, indeed, she trembled from head to foot. She felt that her voice would be inarticulate in attempting to address him ; and, with a hand almost powerless from agita- tion, she began to turn the handle of the door. It was locked ! She tapped gently — louder — more loudly still. No reply. She placed her head against the door, and listened. Not a sound I " He is already sleeping soundly," murmured Susan. " It would be impossible for hmi to sleep on the eve of an event such as I anticipated. I am mistaken." As she was on the point of returning to her room, Lord Laxington's carriage stopped at the house ; and, with infinite joy, she heard his lordship cross the hall and enter the library. " At least," thought she, " no harm will be done by disclosing my conjectures to his father." And, waiting only till the servants in attend- ance on his lordship retired to bed, she crept down stairs, and made her way into his presence. " My dear Susan, — up at this hour?" exclaimed TUE IIAMILTONS. 326 Lord Laxington, as soon as he recovered the surprise occasioned by the sudden apparition of the tall white figure, with a taper in its hand, which glided into the room, as he was pacing up and down in the excitement of release from tedious confinement. "Is anything the matter ? " And, on noticing her pale cheeks and swollen eyelids, he took her hand kindly, and led her to the sofa. In the sympathy arising from the flood of tears which burst from her eyes, he even added, in an under voice, — " That fellow has been tormenting her again ! That damned fellow will be the death of her ! " — Lord Laxington was, in fact, in a mood to render any disagreeable interruption particularly inopportune. He was in the highest spirits. He had been making an able speech, — the great speech of the night, — the great speech of his own life ; — one which had been received by all parties with applause and admiration ; and which he fancied, as orators are apt to fancy, had done much to turn the scale of victory on the side it advocated. The overwhelming cheers, and still more deferential attention of the House, dwelt in his ears, when Susan entered the room. He was still in- toxicated with victoxy, still engrossed by the con- gratulations he had received from his colleagues and anticipations of the morrow's triumph in the impres- sion his arguments were likely to produce on the country. No man better understood than Lord Laxington the vivid force of that electric chain with which the press unites the scattered energies of the mighty empire it was his ambition to convince and subjugate; — a chain which, during the agitation of every great popular question, communicates from city to city, with the velocity of lightning, the vibrations of opinion created in the stormy metropolis. He Y 3 326 THE HAMILTONS. knew that his name was about- to become rife in the mouths of men ; and with greater favour than had given it utterance for months or even years before. These circumstances considei'ed, he listened with greater patience than might have been anticipated to Susan's recapitulations ; but though with patience, with very little sympathy. " My dear child ! " said he, in a tone of kindness arising from his own self-satisfaction; "you shut yourself up from society till you become so miserably nervous that you have no control over your feelings. All this is mere fancy. Augustus may find it con- venient to leave town for a week, for reasons he can- not explain to you. He has embarrassments — he has engagements ; and being perfectly and scandalously indifferent to his public duties, suits his own con- venience without referring his absence to my opinion, or your inclinations. So far from being likely to meditate an elopement with Mrs. Cadogan, 1 have rea- son to know that, for many months past, they have been on terms of complete estrangement. I was at Brookes's this evening. If my son had got into a quai'rel of any kind, I am persuaded the rumour would have reached me. Go to bed, my dear Susan, and sleep away your apprehensions, or you will make yourself ill to very little purpose." " And you will not go into his room for a few minutes' conversation, before " "I will send Dawkins to him the moment he is awake in the morning," said Lord Laxington, half- yawning. "It must be a journey of a very remarkable nature that could get Augustus out of his dressing- room before nine o'clock." " Perhaps the porter can tell us at what o clock his horses are ordered ? " THE HAMILTONS. 327 " The poor devil is gone to bed. Don't let us wake him for such nonsense. However," continued Lord Laxington, taking up his candle and kissing his daughter-in-law on the forehead in token of dismissal, •' it gives me real satisfaction to perceive that, in spite of the delinquent's offences, he has not quite forfeited the affections of his wife ; — eh, Susan ? I fancy we may yet retire to Mayfield, — to our Sabine farm, — to roast turnips and cultivate the domestic virtues ? Come, come ! Don't shake your head ! Take a good night's rest, and think better of it. This has been a red letter day to me ; and I shall not look back upon it with the less satisfaction, if it prove the means of effecting a reconciliation between you and Augustus. Good nisht ! " CHAP. XLVill. And now, the stillness of the country seems To come about her with its listening dreams. Leigh Hunt. " Why, why — did you not wake me earlier ? " cried INIrs. Hamilton to Wheeler, when, roused from a heavy sleep on the following day, she had the mortifi- cation to find herself lying half-dressed on the bed ; having thrown herself down for a few minutes' rest, and been overtaken by that heavy torpor, into which nature often subsides after any trying crisis. " It is scarcely one o'clock, ma'am," replied the at- tendant, in a tone more than usually subdued ; " and my lord gave 'special orders, before he went out, that you was on no account to be disturbed." 328 THE HAMII/rONS. " Has Lord Laxington left home, then, without see- ing me?" ejaculated Susan. " His lordship is gone out riding with Sir Robert Peel," answered the chambermaid, to whom the polite art of lying was as second nature. " But my lord begged me particularly to say, ma'am, that he had made the investigation you desired, and that Mr. Ha- milton was gone into the country for a short time, with his friend Lord Henry Reresby." " At what hour this morning did Mr. Hamilton set off?" " At no hour this morning, ma'am. Master slept at Lord Henry's last night, in order not to disturb the family here. Now the House sits so late, ma'am, and my lord comes home at such unconscionable hours, the poor dumesticks is positively worked off their legs ; and though, to be sure, 'tis only the servants'-hail people as sits up, Mr. Hamilton very considerately con- sidei-ed that " " Yes, yes ! I understand ! " interrupted Susan ; vexed to have been betrayed into so much unnecessary excitement the preceding night ; and entertaining little doubt, from the manner in which Wheeler watched her during this explanation, that her nocturnal visit to the door of Augustus's empty room had produced considerable merriment among the servants. " As ray lord is out, ma'am, perhaps you'll please to breakfast in your boudoir?" inquired Wheeler, as she completed her lady's toilet. And, on receiving an answer in the affirmative, the waiting gentlewoman quitted the room, to issue orders to the " servants'-hall people." "How absurd have I been!" ejaculated Susan, on finding herself alone : " and how strangely have my presentiments deceived me ! For never was my heart THE HAlvnLTONS. 329 80 heavy as last night, — never, never were my dreams so uneasy ; and, even this morning, I feel as if I had undergone some severe affliction, some great peril ! Heigiio! Were Mnrcia in town, or were poor Julia as gay as formerly, she would scold me out of my low spirits. But noio, I scarcely dare show myself in Brook Street. Lord Laxington is so displeased when he hears of my being there, and Julia herself so peevish when we meet, that my visits are productive of vex- ation to both. Heigho !" Susan's reflections were interrupted on entering her boudoir, by finding not only her breakfast waiting for her, but Lady Leighton and her daughter ; Lady Leighton, whom she so systematically avoided, and who had latterly appeared to avoid hei\ " My dear Mrs. Hamilton ! " cried the untimely visitor, rising and offering her hand, " I should feel ashamed of this intrusion, were I not here by the ex- press sanction of Lord Laxington. I met him riding just now in the pai'k, as I was on my way to pass the day with Blanche and the children, at Hammersmith ; and he told me you were ill and nervous, and would be the better for a breath of country air. Nay, he went so far as to promise you would accompany me this morning to my cottage." " I very much regret " — Susan began — " No, no ! " exclaimed Lady Leighton, reseating her- self at the table. " I knoiv that you have no engage- ment. Lord Laxington gave me his word that you were only going to spend the day alone, and make a bad head-ache still worse. Believe me it will be more easily cured, even in company which suits you so little as mine. So be very kind, and give Blanche and my- self a cup of coffee, instead of the breakfast which is waiting for us at Fairlywell ; and then put on your 330 THE HAMILTONS. bonnet, and come and tell me what you think of my rus in icrbe." The former part of the request, at least, Susan had no plea for refusing : and Blanche Leighton's gentle smiles were well calculated to create forbearing feelings towards her mother. Mrs. Hamilton noticed too, that, in spite of her assumed gaiety, Lady Leighton herself was looking ill. No rouge, — no finery ; and when her hand encountered Susan's in receiving the coffee cup, it was cold as marble. " Remember," continued her ladyship, "I am enticing you to no gay villa; — no Boyle Farm, — no Percy's Cross. Fairlywell is merely a family-den, which Sir Joseph has been good enough to buy, in order to hide the nurses and children during that part of the year when hot weather and London air conspire to make them sick, and cross, and disagreeable. You will not see a soul at the cottage." " That, indeed, is an inducement ! " sighed Susan, " This long season in town has made me quite im- patient of society. I am at best a poor weak creature ; and shall rejoice if, some day or other, I can persuade Lord Laxington to settle wholly in the country." " You will do very wrong. An official man, whose days have passed in the hubbub of committee-rooms, council chambers, cabinets, and clubs, becomes, at length, a portion of the mass, and exists only in a crowd. Such people must be always talking or listen- ing." " But I do not ask him to become a recluse. Let him amuse himself in the country by listening to his country-neighbours, and talking to me" said Mrs. Hamilton, forcing a smile. " Talking to you, and listening to his country neigh- bours, from June to January, from January to June!" THK HAMILTONS. 331 e aculrtted Lady Leighton, with a look of commiseration. " lie would ' x-atlier be a dog and bay the moon,' in St. Margaret's Church-yard ! No, no ! it would never do ! The intercourse of civilised society becomes as indispensable as air or food to those who have expended their lives and souls in communication with persons of their own condition and modes of thinking. You might as well expect my friend Laxington to feel at ease in the blanket of a Red Indian, as satisfied with the humdrum limits of provincial life." Susan sighed ; wondering that frail human crea- tures should presume to be so fastidious in their ac- ceptance of human happiness, and beginning to murmur a quotation from Beattie's very artificial stanza in praise of the charms of nature. " Now, infidel, I have you on the hip ! " inter- rupted Lady Leighton. " Although my ' warbling woodlands ' are only the shrubberies of Hammersmith, and tni/ ' resounding shore ' the green banks of the Thames, you cannot ' renounce them/ and ' hope to be forgiven.' Blanche, my dear ! Mrs. Hamilton has finished her breakfast. Ring for her bonnet and gloves, as resolutely as if you were ringing your own bell, for your own." In her eagerness to secure Susan's company. Miss Leighton readily obeyed. There was no further hope of escape ; for so little was Lord Laxington's daughter- in-law accustomed to maintain her own will in oppo- sition to that of others, that it did not surprise her to find herself driving along the King's Road with Lady Leighton, instead of passing the morning, as she wished, in her own dressing-room. But she expe- rienced benefit from the change, and the feelings of restraint it served to impose ; and when they reached the environs of the river, and the fresh air came 332 THE HAMILTONS. breathing upon her feverish forehead, she was almost inclined to thank her companions for the polite per- secution by which they had forced her from home. The London sunshine had already begun to wear that copper-coloured hue, which renders an autumnal airing in Hyde Park so dispiriting a recreation. But the moment they emerged from the smoky atmosphere of the metropolis, and the blue skies and white clouds appeared in all their majesty, Susan's heart felt light- ened of half its cares. Yet, strange to tell, in propor- tion as her spirits rose, those of Lady Leighton declined ; and when, as they entered the short bye- road overgrown on either side by a hedge of ever- greens, leading to Fairlywell. and Mrs. Hamilton, while she listened to the carolling of the birds, and inhaled the fragrance of the gai-dens, suddenly ex- claimed, — " How much I thank you for forcing me to be of your party. What a delightful morning. What a happy day I am going to pass ! " an expression of the deepest sadness overspread the countenance of her companion. But this was speedily dissipated when they ap- proached the house. On the door steps stood the children, full of smiles, — full of welcome; with nose- gays, fresh gathered for mamma, and kisses still sweeter upon their little lips. Mrs. Hamilton had never before seen Lady Leighton surrounded by her family, or given her credit for the kind and womanly affections which their presence served to call forth. The youngest was soon in her arms. One fine boy insisted upon dragging his sister to the newly-mown lawn, sloping towards the river, that she might see him roll in the short grass he had gathered and in- sisted on calling a haycock ; — while a little curly- haired girl possessed herself of Susan's hand, and THE HAMILTONS. 333 made her one of the family party. All seemed so merry, so joyous, so contented ; — the trees rustling in the wind, — the fresh breeze from the river, — the ripple of its tide against the bank, — the freshness and sunniness of the whole scene, were so refreshing to her senses, — that Mrs. Hamilton seated herself on a bench under a fine tulip-tree upon the lawn, with a feeling more nearly approaching to enjoyment than she had experienced for months. Lady Leighton at Fairlywell was a very different person from any Lady Leighton she had seen before. She was now calm, subdued, rational — nay, even feminine ; while Blanche seemed to take especial plea- sure in doing the honours of her favourite retreat to the sister of Sir Edward Berkely. The weather was so inviting, that, after strolling through the gardens to satisfy the restlessness of the cliildren, they returned to their shady seat commanding a view of the river, with its panoramic movement and endless variety ; and the morning passed pleasantly away in conversa- tion, in which the scandal of London had less share than might be supposed possible, when it is remem- bered that the season was still in progress ; and the garden which sheltered the fair gossips, within view of Kew Bridge and reach of the Richmond steam- boat ! 334 THE HAMILTONS. CHAP. XLIX. Ce doux sentiment de jouissance et d'esperance qui vivlfie la jeunesse, desormais me quitta pour jamais. Je recherchai le passe qui n'etoit plus, et qui ne pouvoit renaitre. Je ne vis plus devant moi que les tristes rtstes d'une vie insipide ! — Rousseau. It had been arranged that Mrs. Hamilton should re- turn to town in the evening ; Lady Leighton and her daughter being tempted by the beauty of the weather, to sleep, and pass the following day at Fairlywell. But during dinner, the sound of a carriage was heard on the gravel ; and while Susan was beginning to lament that their little social party should be broken by an arrival, a letter from Lord Laxington was placed in her hands. " Understanding from Sir Joseph Leighton," he said, "that his family would remain at Fairlywell for a day or two, he entreated Susan to comply with Lady Leighton's desire, and profit by the opportunity to enjoy a little country air." He mentioned engage- ments which would prevent his seeing her, even if she returned to Spring Gardens the following day ; and begged her forgiveness for having abetted Lady Leighton's plot to entrap her into a visit. ■•' I perceive that our secret is betrayed ! " said her hostess, as Susan closed the letter. " But as Mr. Hamilton is away, you must not rebel against Lord Laxington's authority. You are not wanted at home, you see, much as we want you here. So comply with a good grace, where resistance is useless. Lord Lax- ington promised me to send down Wheeler with your night things; so that you have no excuse." THE HAMILTONS. 335 " Indeed, I require none," said Susan, " Since you are so kind as to accept my company, I am well content to be your visitor." Every thing was soon arranged, and Mrs. Hamilton installed in a quiet little bed -room commanding a view of the river ; where, exhausted by the vigils of the preceding night, she laid her head upon a strange pillow, not a little startled to find her- self the inmate of Lady Leighton. The following morning, however, disappointed her expectations. When she awoke, a heavy shower was pouring upon thelaw^n and stirring up the mud of the Thames ; nor was it till late in the afternoon that a gleam of sunshine afforded a renewal of her pleasures of the preceding day. It was, however, somewhat vinre than a renewal. Having accepted the eager in- vitation of the children, the redoubled fragi'ance of the flowers and freshness of the verdure, almost com- pensated for the morning's confinement. Lady Leigh- ton, engaged in conversation with Blanche and her elder boy, did not immediately follow ; and Susan, outstripped by her playful companions, found herself in undisturbed possession of a broad gravel terrace, overhanging the river and overhung by straggling groups of Spanish chesnuts. To her, to be alonf, and meditative, and mournful, were synonymous. She could not help contrasting the isolation of her social position with the household comforts of her hostess. Even Lady Leighton was happy at home ! In the affections of her children, even Lady Leighton possessed a refuge from the world and its mal-interpretations. They loved her, — they respected her, — they would have turned fiercely on all or any who presumed to disparage their mother. Yes! — at that moment, — involun- 336 THE HAMILTONS. tarily, — almost unconsciously, -^ Susan beheld in the long-contemned Lady Leigh ton an object of envy I In the generous and frank character of Blanche, too, there was something peculiarly attaching ; and never had the charm been more apparent to Susan than on the present occasion. Her young companion profited by their prolonged tete-a-tete to indulge in a thousand inquiries concerning Sir Edward ; and a thousand comments which, to any other than the un- suspecting Mrs. Hamilton, would have betrayed the secret of her preference. But it appeared a matter of course to Susan that every one should evince an in- terest in her noble, warm-hearted brother ; and, if she wondered at all, it was at the air of indifference with which Lady Leighton, on joining them, listened to his praises. Mrs. Hamilton was at a loss to interpret the depressed tone and manner of her hostess ; for, ex- cept while the children were present, the lady of the house seemed too much dispirited to talk. Insensibly even the cheerful voice of Blanche saddened into a whisper ; and Susan was glad when the hour of re- tiring enabled her to have recourse to a book in her own room. She had no desire to penetrate the secrets of her companions ; yet could not bear to witness a despondency to which she had no means of admini- stering consolation. Little did she imagine that Lady Leighton's change of manner bore reference solely to herself; or that she was detained at Fairlywell by stratagem, to spare her the painful knowledge of impending misfortune; — that her husband was stretched upon a bed of tor- ment, — a bed of danger, — a bed of death ; — and that Lord Laxington, in mercy to the tenderness of her nature and frailty of her health, had been careful to spare her the spectacle of his dying agonies ! THK HAMILTONS. 337 Yes! — the aggressor and the aggrieved had met; and Mr. Cadogan's injuries been fully revenged ! Hamilton had been left upon the ground, mortally wounded ; and though, by the advice of Lord Henry Reresby, he avoided the usual mock-heroic display of firing in the air (as implying an avowal of injury to his antagonist fatal to the reputation of Mrs. Cadogan), the future Lord Everleigh took his hasty departure with his " friend," with the pleasing consciousness that he had forfeited his life to the laws of his country, by the infliction of such justice on the betrayer of his honour, as would cut short Augustus Hamilton's career of villany, or render him back to society a maimed and mutilated being ! — Within a few hours of Lord Laxington's interview with Susan, the intelligence of this disastrous meeting had reached Spring Gardens ; and, overpowering as it was, and embittered by the consciousness that his daughter-in-law's timely warning ought to have fore- stalled the event, his lordship did not leave home to repair to the presence of his unfortunate son, without taking the kindest precautions in her favour. The surgical attendants of the wounded man had an- nounced that an operation was indispensable, de- manding the utmost tranquillity for the sufferer ; and on this, as well as every other account, the afflicted father resolved to prolong, to the latest moment, Mrs. Hamilton's ignorance of the event. But to whose care could he entrust her, to secure her against intrusion under circumstances so af- flicting ? Her sister was absent. His own giddy daughter was not the person to whom so ci-itical a duty could be confided ; nor, among those London acquaintances whom Susan had carefully refrained from adopting as friends, was there one possessed of z 338 THE HAMILTONS. courage for such a task. He couM think of no person but Lady Leighton ; in whose strength of mind he had ample confidence, and to whose kindness of nature he afforded more credit than was granted by the rest of the world. He was aware of Susan's distaste for her society. But it was less a comforter he required for his daughter-in-law, than a companion who possessed the means of secluding her from a premature dis- closure. Having, accordingly, despatched a confidential note to Berkely Square, his lordship had the satisfaction of receiving instant and personal promises of compliance. Nor was Lady Leighton's assistance unwillingly af- forded. She was at once eager to prove to her alien- ated friend, that, in spite of contending party-interests, she was not ungrateful for former concessions ; and to strengtlien her bond of friendship with a family whose good will was indispensable to the happiness of her child. Deeply touched by the afflicting position of the gentle Susan, she did not venture to confide even to Blanche the real motive of Mrs. Hamilton's visit to Fairlywell ; fearing that the sympathy of her young and W' arm -hearted daughter would be uncontrollable by those considerations of prudence which sufficed as a restriction upon her own. But to maintain this system of imposition, or detain Susan another day without explanation, was im- possible. On the morrow, her suspicions became ex- cited by the pretext adopted by Lady Leighton, to dissuade her from returning to town ; and, as a last resource, a letter from Lord Laxington was remitted to her, stating that " a serious accident " had befallen Augustus, and imploring her to remain quiet a few hours longer. But an announcement of such a nature served only to increase her agitation, and redouble her THE HAMILTONS. 339 anxiety to be gone. " It was her duty to be on the spot, — to be with the sufferer, — to be with her hus- band." She insisted on returning to Spring Gardens ; and, on interrogating Wlieeler, succeeded in drawing forth a modified admission of the state of the case. " Mr. Hamilton had been wounded in a duel; — Mr. Hamilton's life was in danger ! " Susan's first impulse was to break through all further opposition on the part of Lady Leighton, and hasten to his presence. But in the height of her agony, a chill- ing surmise repressed the movement. Alas ! one only motive could have determined his father to forbid her coming ! Caroline was doubtless by his side ! He had sent for Caroline to be the soother of his suffer- ings, — the comforter of his last moments ! She, — his wife, — was banished ; and the dying bed of Augustus Hamilton was no place for an encounter between his mistress and his wife ! The mere suggestion seemed to convert her into marble. From that moment, she spoke not a word, — shed not a tear, — attempted not to rise from her seat. But there was something in this state of rigid immo- bility more appalling to Lady Leighton than all her previous agitation ; and it was a relief to every one at Fairlywell, when, towards evening, Lord Laxington himself was announced ; who, on entering the presence of his daughter-in-law, folded her in his arms with a degree of fervour that at once revealed the extent of her misfortune. Yes ! all was over ! — She was indeed a widow. Pressed to the heart of the sorrowing father of Augus- tus, the frozen springs of nature were once more loosed. Her tears burst forth, and mingled with his. All restraint was at an end. There was nothing, — there was no z 2 340 THE HAMILTONS. one to interpose between herself and the dead. — Au- gustus was her own again. Who, — who would mourn for him with a tenderness and a constancy like hers! — CHAP. L. " Pourquoi succomber au malheur?" dit Zadig au pecheur. " C'est," repondit-il, " que je n'y vois pas de ressource." — Vol- taire. Susan's cup of afflictions had, at length, received the overbrimming drop fated to complete its measure of bitterness. There was no further motive for fortitude, — no encouragement for patience ; and, as might have been anticipated, she resigned herself unresistingly to the influence of her anguish. But if any thing could be more deserving commiseration than the frantic despair of the young widow, it was the dignified com- posure with which the heart-stricken Lord Laxington stood, face to face with sorrow, and wrestled with his feelings for her sake. To him, the blow was indeed a heavy dispensation ; and, during the trials of the two preceding days, old age appeared to have come suddenly upon him, and self-reproach to have seared his brow with furrows. The horrors he had witnessed, the tortures and im- precations of his dying son, the prospects of his own withered ambition, his heirless honours, his isolated existence, had scattered his grey hairs like a storm. Still he bore up. He sought no repose, betrayed no impatience, uttered no lamentations ; — but took his sta- tion beside Susan, listening in silence to those thousand THE UAMILTOK3. 341 incoherent exclamations which conveyed the most cutting reproaches to his heart. Unconscious of Lord Laxington's presence, the frantic mourner accused Jihn as the author of all the errors, all the vices of his son ; and upbraided him as the source of her despair. She fancied — (for what do not the afflicted fancy) that had she not been kept in ignorance of the con- dition of her husband, her aid might have effectually ministered to his recovery; — that he had not been treated with sufficient care ; — that his sufferings might have been softened by her tenderness, — his dying agony soothed by her forgiveness. But to these ravings. Lord Laxington forbore to reply ; submitting patiently to her injustice, rather than admit how unfit for a woman's presence had been the departing scene ; — how fierce, how unresigned, the spirit of the dying man. He would not wound her feelings by describing those bodily pangs which must have inflicted an in- delible impression on her tender nature ; or drive her to despair by confessing that, callous to the last, Au- gustus had neither regarded the future with trembling, nor the past with repentance. In silence, too, he listened to Susan's lamentations that she had been denied the poor consolation of look - ing for the last time upon the features of the dead Oppressed by harrowing recollections, it was not for him to depict the defeaturement of the face she loved, — the rapid progress of decay, — the victory of death over the frailty of mere mortality ; — but, secretly re- joicing that it was no longer possible for her to ac- complish her desire of beholding the mangled remains of her husband, he consented that she should return on the following day to Spring Gardens, whither the body had been removed. He it w^as who, with totter- ing steps, supported her into the darkened chamber. z 3 342 THE HAMILTON'S. He it was who cast himself on his" knees beside her, as she knelt before the coffin. He it was who exhorted her to the duty of resignation to the decrees of heaven ; — even while himself bowed down to the dust by ex- tremity of grief. And it was thus that, after months and months of sullen estrangement, she was doomed to be united to Augustus! That voice which had so often replied to him in chilling monosyllables, noAV cried aloud upon his name with a thousand epithets of endearment ; and those arms, which had so recently repelled him, were now flung with frantic caresses round the coffin that covered his remains. But there was no Augustus to reply, — no Augustus to rejoice in the renewal of her unavailing tenderness! — The offender was gone, — was gone I So lately as he had stood in that very chamber, in the full vigour of health, — so lately as his accents had sounded in her ears, — so lately as his footstep had traversed the floor ! It seemed as if even yet her intervention might avail to recall him to life ; — to impede that fatal meeting — to annul the past, and secure their future happiness. The whole scene of their last interview was again before her. Oh ! baffling, persecuting, distracting retrospections of our early days of bereavement ! How readily do ye sug- gest remedies for the irremediable ; how cruelly per- plex us with profitless axioms of experience, vouchsafed only when the lesson has ceased to be available! Bending over the newly dead, we live again their last moments, — their last days; and, at length wise, — at length enlightened, — believe we can yet withhold them from the grave ! Alas ! one touch of the clammy forehead, — one glance at tlie fearful paraphernalia of death, — realises the fatal truth! THE UAMILTONS. 343 From reveries such as these, nothing appeared to rouse the mind of poor Susan ; nor could any per- suasions induce her to quit the chamber of death. Mrs. Tottenliam came (appalled, if not tenderly af- fected, by the sad end of her only brother) to suggest " custom " as a law for the instant removal of the father and widow to Mayfield ; where propriety re- quired them to remain till the last mournful cere- monies had taken place. The Forbeses, too, apprised of the dread event, hastened from Northamptonshire (from the dying bed of the disgraced and broken- hearted mother of Mrs. Cadogan), with the view of withdrawing Susan from the afflicting scene. But all that Bernard's eloquence could urge was urged in vain ; all that Marcia's tenderness could suggest, was suggested to thankless ears. Even in Lord Laxing- ton's presence, they did not scruple to represent to Mrs. Hamilton that, after what had occurred, the pro- tection of her own family was indispensable, and a home among the friends of her childhood, the only home that remained for her. " Do not let them torment me thus ! " was her reply, throwing herself for secui'ity into the arms of the grief-stricken father of Augustus. " Do not let them say I am without a friend — without a home' Tell them that you are my friend — that your rool will shelter me ; — that you will suffer me to be unto you as a daughter. He was your only son, — /, his faithful wife ; and, whatever disunion chanced between us, he would have learned to love me again : yes ! I am sure Augustus would have one day learned to love me again. My patience would have won him back to me. We should all have been once more happy ! " " You deserved to be happy, my poor child ; no one 344 THE HAMILTONS. could better deserve to be happy ! " murmured Lord Laxington, tenderly embracing her. " He calls me his child ! " cried Susan, turning wildly towards her sister. " You hear him ? He does not abandon me. My husband's father will not turn me out to mourn among strangers ! " " Abandon you ! " exclaimed the unhappy old man : " when I do, may my God abandon me I You are all that is left for my consolation. But I am a fallen man, Susan ! Can you resign yourself to share my broken fortunes ? " " Let me but dwell under your roof," she replied. " Let me live among those who claimed kindred with him — let me mourn with them — let me intercede with them to Heaven for his pardon and happiness, and I shall be content. Do not drive me from you ! " she continued, seizing the hands of Lord Laxington, as if apprehensive that the arguments of Forbes might induce him to relinquish his intentions in her favour. " 1 will be no trouble to you. 1 will obey all your commands, — forestall all your wishes, — so you will only pei-mit me to fulfil the duties of a daughter to- wards the father of the husband of my youth ! " And thus, invoking him with the tender expostula- tion of Ruth the Moabitess, Susan clave to her ruined father-in-law. It was beside the bier of Augustus, that Lord Laxington uttered a grateful benediction upon her head ; and that the widow, kneeling before heaven, pronounced a solemn engagement that whither he went she would follow ; — that his people should be her people ; — and that nought but death should part them for evermore. Marcia saw that it was in vain to contend against the force of such devoted affection. THE HAMILTONS. 345 CHAP. LI. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, The Gods themselves throw incense. Lear. Nearly two years had elapsed, after the death of Augustus Hamilton ; and the world, accustomed to witness the expiration of eternal attachments and the consolement of inconsolable grief, was not a little per- plexed to find his widow still a mourner, and still the inmate of Lord Laxington. The father and daughter resided together at Mayfield, in comparative solitude ; deriving their sole comfort from the study (thou"-h tardy, not unavailable) of those lessons of wisdom, which shine for us during the gloomy season of ad- versity as the stars during the night season. Lord Laxington's infirm health afforded a pretext to absent himself from his parliamentary duties, Susan shrank from the remotest idea of returning to town ; nor (with the exception of a few weeks passed in attendance on the death-bed of Lady Berkely) had she yet quitted her father-in-law. Lord Laxington, on the other hand, in spite of the tendencies of his nature, had a thousand motives to strengthen his inclination for seclusion. Though the ex-Minister had wisely declined in- stituting legal proceedings against the antagonist of his unfortunate son, he was aware that the scandalous origin of the duel had obtained the utmost publicity ; that it had been descanted upon by the newspapers, and circumstantially discussed in his own class of society. He knew that Cadogan — undivorceable and undivorced, — was regarded as a deeply injured man ; 346 THE HAMILTONS. that Mrs. Warren had fallen a victim to her profound sense of the infamy of her daughter ; that Mrs. Cado- gan, disinherited by her mother, and driven into exile by the reprobation of the world, was living in obscurity abroad ; that the memory of his son was still accursed ; and he had the mortification of believing the errors of the offender to be deeply registered against himself ! Dark, too, as were his own prospects, those of his country appeared, in his estimation, deeper and deeper still. The Reform Bill had opened the way for further innovations. New people had arisen, — new measures were in contemplation. His former friends were dis- persed, his associations broken up. The whole occu- pation of his life had ceased with his official engage- ments. His place knew him no longer. The mansion in Spring Gardens was tenanted by a Whio- Lord ; a notable Reformer in his day, whose patriotism had subsided to a singular moderation of temperature since he became a sharer of the public loaves and fishes. Weald Park was in the occupation of the great Mr. Burtonshaw ; — nay, the very club he had been accustomed to frequent, was deserted for the more ostentatious purlieus of Carlton Terrace. His old haunts were indeed strange to Lord Laxington ! But, above all, the party in which his identity had mero-ed, — the party in whose service he had laboured, to the sacrifice of evei-y higher duty, — had virtually ceased to exist. In the effervescence of the great national crisis, one portion of its supporters had foamed up into Conservatism ; the other half, a caput mor- tuum, fallen to the bottom, — heavy, helpless, extinct ; and Lord Laxington, in his compulsory visits to the metropolis, found himself a disconnected link between the two, unable to whip up his opinions into the froth of Lord Baldock, unwilling to let them fall to the THE HAM1LX0N3. 347 ground, with the stupid indifference exhibited by the King Priam of the Tottenham generation. And thus, mistrusted alil: :■*■: :t*f-: :^: ■:^; ^' '0. r :*: .¥: :*: ■;*■: :^: :■*; :^- -^^ -^^ .:*: :*; >; -^^ ;*: •;=^. :^: ^ y^. .¥ :•*■; .^: ':*: :■*■: :*•: ':*-: :*: :*: 'm .■*: ^^: *: '*: '^ '*. 'r. ':*■: .*: '•¥. :■*-: *:*■: ':*■: :■*: 'Mr. '^. :■*■ :■*; .^: .*: ■*; ¥" ■*■: ^ .^' .^: H^: :*: :^: ':*■: :■*: '^ .*: :*: '^. :■*•: :*: '^ ;?^: '^. '^. f-: .^: :-^: :■*•: :-*■: :•*: ":*-: :*: :*: :-?»r ^t; :•*; ;-j^: .-*; :■*■; ■■*: 'i^^: '^ w. 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