chapter 1.
fortune’s favourite
george augustus frederick, duke of st. james, completed his twenty-first year, an event which created almost as great a sensation among the aristocracy of england as the norman conquest. a minority of twenty years had converted a family always amongst the wealthiest of great britain into one of the richest in europe. the duke of st. james possessed estates in the north and in the west of england, besides a whole province in ireland. in london there were a very handsome square and several streets, all made of bricks, which brought him in yearly more cash than all the palaces of vicenza are worth in fee-simple, with those of the grand canal of venice to boot. as if this were not enough, he was an hereditary patron of internal navigation; and although perhaps in his two palaces, three castles, four halls, and lodges ad libitum, there were more fires burnt than in any other establishment in the empire, this was of no consequence, because the coals were his own. his rent-roll exhibited a sum total, very neatly written, of two hundred thousand pounds; but this was independent of half a million in the funds, which we had nearly forgotten, and which remained from the accumulations occasioned by the unhappy death of his father.
the late duke of st. james had one sister, who was married to the earl of fitz-pompey. to the great surprise of the world, to the perfect astonishment of the brother-in-law, his lordship was not appointed guardian to the infant minor. the earl of fitz-pompey had always been on the best possible terms with his grace: the countess had, only the year before his death, accepted from his fraternal hand a diamond bracelet; the lord viscount st. maurice, future chief of the house of fitz-pompey, had the honour not only of being his nephew, but his godson. who could account, then, for an action so perfectly unaccountable? it was quite evident that his grace had no intention of dying.
the guardian, however, that he did appoint was a mr. dacre, a catholic gentleman of ancient family and large fortune, who had been the companion of his travels, and was his neighbour in his county. mr. dacre had not been honoured with the acquaintance of lord fitz-pompey previous to the decease of his noble friend; and after that event such an acquaintance would probably not have been productive of agreeable reminiscences; for from the moment of the opening of the fatal will the name of dacre was wormwood to the house of st. maurice. lord fitz-pompey, who, though the brother-in-law of a whig magnate, was a tory, voted against the catholics with renewed fervour.
shortly after the death of his friend, mr. dacre married a beautiful and noble lady of the house of howard, who, after having presented him with a daughter, fell ill, and became that common character, a confirmed invalid. in the present day, and especially among women, one would almost suppose that health was a state of unnatural existence. the illness of his wife and the non-possession of parliamentary duties rendered mr. dacre’s visits to his town mansion rare, and the mansion in time was let.
the young duke, with the exception of an occasional visit to his uncle, lord fitz-pompey, passed the early years of his life at castle dacre. at seven years of age he was sent to a preparatory school at richmond, which was entirely devoted to the early culture of the nobility, and where the principal, the reverend doctor coronet, was so extremely exclusive in his system that it was reported that he had once refused the son of an irish peer. miss coronet fed her imagination with the hope of meeting her father’s noble pupils in after-life, and in the meantime read fashionable novels.
the moment that the young duke was settled at richmond, all the intrigues of the fitz-pompey family were directed to that quarter; and as mr. dacre was by nature unsuspicious, and was even desirous that his ward should cultivate the friendship of his only relatives, the st. maurice family had the gratification, as they thought, of completely deceiving him. lady fitz-pompey called twice a week at crest house with a supply of pine-apples or bonbons, and the rev. dr. coronet bowed in adoration. lady isabella st. maurice gave a china cup to mrs. coronet, and lady augusta a paper-cutter to miss. the family was secured. all discipline was immediately set at defiance, and the young duke passed the greater part of the half-year with his affectionate relations. his grace, charmed with the bonbons of his aunt and the kisses of his cousins, which were even sweeter than the sugar-plums; delighted with the pony of st. maurice, which immediately became his own; and inebriated by the attentions of his uncle — who, at eight years of age, treated him, as his lordship styled it, ‘like a man’— contrasted this life of early excitement with what now appeared the gloom and the restraint of castle dacre, and he soon entered into the conspiracy, which had long been hatching, with genuine enthusiasm. he wrote to his guardian, and obtained permission to spend his vacation with his uncle. thus, through the united indulgence of dr. coronet and mr. dacre, the duke of st. james became a member of the family of st. maurice.
no sooner had lord fitz-pompey secured the affections of the ward than he entirely changed his system towards the guardian. he wrote to mr. dacre, and in a manner equally kind and dignified courted his acquaintance. he dilated upon the extraordinary, though extremely natural, affection which lady fitz-pompey entertained for the only offspring of her beloved brother, upon the happiness which the young duke enjoyed with his cousins, upon the great and evident advantages which his grace would derive from companions of his own age, of the singular friendship which he had already formed with st. maurice; and then, after paying mr. dacre many compliments upon the admirable manner in which he had already fulfilled the duties of his important office, and urging the lively satisfaction that a visit from their brother’s friend would confer both upon lady fitz-pompey and himself, he requested permission for his nephew to renew the visit in which he had been ‘so happy!’ the duke seconded the earl’s diplomatic scrawl in the most graceful round-text. the masterly intrigues of lord fitz-pompey, assisted by mrs. dacre’s illness, which daily increased, and which rendered perfect quiet indispensable, were successful, and the young duke arrived at his twelfth year without revisiting dacre. every year, however, when mr. dacre made a short visit to london, his ward spent a few days in his company, at the house of an old-fashioned catholic nobleman; a visit which only afforded a dull contrast to the gay society and constant animation of his uncle’s establishment.
it would seem that fate had determined to counteract the intentions of the late duke of st. james, and to achieve those of the earl of fitz-pompey. at the moment that the noble minor was about to leave dr. coronet for eton, mrs. dacre’s state was declared hopeless, except from the assistance of an italian sky, and mr. dacre, whose attachment to his lady was romantic, determined to leave england immediately.
it was with deep regret that he parted from his ward, whom he tenderly loved; but all considerations merged in the paramount one; and he was consoled by the reflection that he was, at least, left to the care of his nearest connections. mr. dacre was not unaware of the dangers to which his youthful pledge might be exposed by the indiscriminate indulgence of his uncle, but he trusted to the impartial and inviolable system of a public school to do much; and he anticipated returning to england before his ward was old enough to form those habits which are generally so injurious to young nobles. in this hope mr. dacre was disappointed. mrs. dacre lingered, and revived, and lingered, for nearly eight years; now filling the mind of her husband and her daughter with unreasonable hope, now delivering them to that renewed anguish, that heart-rending grief, which the attendant upon a declining relative can alone experience, additionally agonizing because it cannot be indulged. mrs. dacre died, and the widower and his daughter returned to england. in the meantime, the duke of st. james had not been idle.
