like a
notable housewife as she was. But we trusted in each other so entirely
that even Harry's duty towards his wife would not make him quarrel with
his brother. He loved me from old times, when my word was law with him;
he still protested that he and every Virginian gentleman of his side
was loyal to the Crown. War was not declared as yet, and gentlemen of
different opinions were courteous enough to one another. Nay, at
our public dinners and festivals, the health of the King was still
ostentatiously drunk; and the assembly of every colony, though preparing
for Congress, though resisting all attempts at taxation on the part of
the home authorities, was loud in its expressions of regard for the King
our Father, and pathetic in its appeals to that paternal sovereign
to put away evil counsellors from him, and listen to the voice of
moderation and reason. Up to the last, our Virginian gentry were a
grave, orderly, aristocratic folk, with the strongest sense of their own
dignity and station. In later days, and nearer home, we have heard of
fraternisation and equality. Amongst the great folks of our Old World I
have never seen a gentleman standing more on his dignity and maintaining
it better than Mr. Washington: no--not the King against whom he took
arms. In the eyes of all the gentry of the French court, who gaily
joined in the crusade against us, and so took their revenge for Canada,
the great American chief always appeared as anax andron, and they
allowed that his better could not be seen in Versailles itself. Though
they were quarrelling with the Governor, the gentlemen of the House of
Burgesses still maintained amicable relations with him, and exchanged
dignified courtesies. When my Lord Bottetourt arrived, and held his
court at Williamsburg in no small splendour and state, all the gentry
waited upon him, Madam Esmond included. And at his death, Lord Dunmore,
who succeeded him, and brought a fine family with him, was treated with
the utmost respect by our gentry privately, though publicly the House of
Assembly and the Governor were at war.

Their quarrels are a matter of history, and concern me personally only
so far as this, that our burgesses being convened for the 1st of March
in the year after my arrival in Virginia, it was agreed that we should
all pay a visit to our capital, and our duty to the Governor. Since
Harry's unfortunate marriage Madam Esmond had not performed this duty,
though always previously accusto