onel of Engineers
of our army. The colonel was an exile from his country for no grave
crime: but, as he told us, as much an exile as if he had committed a
capital offence in being the father of nine healthy girls. He had been,
against his judgement, he averred, persuaded to fix on his Tyrolese spot
of ground by the two elder ones. Five were now married to foreigners;
thus they repaid him, by scattering good English blood on the race of
Counts and Freiherrs! 'I could understand the decrees of Providence
before I was a parent,' said this dear old Colonel Heddon. 'I was looking
up at the rainbow when I heard your steps, asking myself whether it was
seen in England at that instant, and why on earth I should be out of
England!' He lived abroad to be able to dower his girls. His sons-in-law
were gentlemen; so far he was condemned to be satisfied, but supposing
all his girls married foreigners? His primitive frankness charmed us, and
it struck me that my susceptible Temple would have liked to be in a
position to reassure him with regard to the Lucy of the four. We were
obliged to confess that she was catching a foreign accent. The old
colonel groaned. He begged us to forgive him for not treating us as
strangers; his heart leapt out to young English gentlemen.

My name, he said, reminded him of a great character at home, in the old
days: a certain Roy-Richmond, son of an actress and somebody, so the
story went: and there was an old Lord Edbury who knew more about it than
most. 'Now Roy was an adventurer, but he had a soul of true chivalry, by
gad, he had! Plenty of foreign whiffmajigs are to be found, but you won't
come upon a fellow like that. Where he got his money from none knew: all
I can say is, I don't believe he ever did a dirty action for it. And one
matter I'll tell you of: pardon me a moment, Mr. Richmond, I haven't
talked English for half a century, or, at least, a quarter. Old Lord
Edbury put him down in his will for some thousands, and he risked it to
save a lady, who hated him for his pains. Lady Edbury was of the Bolton
blood, none of the tamest; they breed good cavalry men. She ran away from
her husband once. The old lord took her back. "It 's at your peril,
mind!" says she. Well, Roy hears by-and-by of afresh affair. He mounted
horse; he was in the saddle, I've been assured, a night and a day, and
posted himself between my lady's park-gates, and the house, at dusk. The
rumour ran that he knew of the marquis play