The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-21

daring heart the loving spirit that had
 been taken from him on that fatal day,
 and all the acres of Virginia were worth
 less to his simple loyal soul.
 The imperious lady of Esmond, looking
 up her own grief in her stout heart, and
 (who may say0 thankful, perhaps, with
 out daring to confess 1t to herself, that her handsome Harry had not gone with
 Rraddock in Georges place, graciously
 ordered that he should go to England to
 recover from the illness that had followed his return. The anniversary of his broth CTS loss found him arrived and introduce 1 ing himself to his family.
 1 Met only coldly at first and referred to
 secretly as the Cherokee and the Iroquois, his amiable relatives gradually changed
 their tune when they heard and began to believe the stories that rumor soon built around him. "The Princess Pocohontas,"
 as Madam Esmond had long been called
 by her English friends, had given him inn
 mense sums; so the society of London
 translated the allowance of e250 year
 which his mother had made him. Harry,
 condescending to tell nobody his business.
 did not undeceive the gossips, nor did he descend to correction when they spoke of
 his principality in Virginia. He listened
 with silent contempt to the stories, know
 ing that his slave and body servant Gum
 bo had started them all; and he did not presume or the standing that the rumors
 gave him, but acted like simple, we'll
 bred fellow
 Lord Castlewood, the grandson of the
 man for whom Col. Esmond had re-
 nounced the estate, promptly decided to
 pluck him. Castlewood's brother, penni-
 less, disreputable, cowardly, resolved the same Lady Maria, Castlewoods elderly but well preserved sister, decided that province in America was the refuge for which she had been waiting.
 Of all he found in Castlewood, there
 was only one who loved him unselfshly. That was the old Baroness Bernstein, the
 daughter of Col Esmonds wife by her first husband and therefore Madam Es- monds half sister.
 If Harry had ever read the records of
 his family, which he could never bring himself to do, he would have known that
 
 dered old woman was no less than the fa-
 mcus beauty, Beatrix Esmond, in defense | of whose honor Col. Esmond had faced l the Pretender sword in hand, ending by breaking that sword, destroying his pat ent of Marquis and renouncing allegiance l to the forsworn family for whom his had shed their blood.
 Beatrix, thus protected quite against her will, had followed the young prince when he fled to France. Her name had never been mentioned again by the Virginia Es-
 monds. By what tawdry. intriguing. hunt bling stages Beatrix Esmond had been passed from royal court to court, finally being married to a gentleman who was | made bishop for his complaisance and ending, on his death, by marrying a still l less particular person, who was made d German Baron, only the Baroness herself
 could say--and her lips were clever ones | that told only what she wished. | Old and her influence over kings gone, she returned to England to amuse her | self by plaguing Lord Castlewood and l his family, flashing them with her scorn | and open disdain, which they bore hero ically for the sake of inheriting her I wealth
 She saw in Harrys face the spirit of | Colonel Esmond. That was the only man there ever was in this family" said she to the Castlewoods There never was one of the male Esmonds that had more brains than a goose except him. He was not fit for this selfish, wicked old | world of ours, and he was right to go and live out of it. Where would you have been but for him?'
 The memory of Colonel Esmond was | the one softened thing that stirred in the wicked old heroine's heart. Even when
 she had followed the Pretender, she had
 thought in her soul that her kinsman
 challenging the royal race in his wrath, had looked more like a King than the humiliated young Prince. And now she
 saw in Harry Warrington some of that
 same noble light of eyes and simple bravery of bearing.
 So she warned him against Castlewood.