name of his grandson and my Lord
Castlewood, in England, set up a claim to our property in Virginia.
He said it was not my lord's intention to disturb Madam Esmond in her
enjoyment of the estate during her life, but that his father, it had
always been understood, had given his kinsman a life-interest in the
place, and only continued it to his daughter out of generosity. Now my
lord proposed that his second son should inhabit Virginia, for which
the young gentleman had always shown the warmest sympathy. The outcry
against Van den Bosch was so great that he would have been tarred and
feathered, had he remained in Virginia. He betook himself to Congress,
represented himself as a martyr ruined in the cause of liberty, and
prayed for compensation for himself and justice for his grandson.

My mother lived long in dreadful apprehension, having in truth a secret,
which she did not like to disclose to any one. Her titles were burned!
the deed of assignment in her own house, the copy in the Registry at
Richmond, had alike been destroyed--by chance? by villainy? who could
say? She did not like to confide this trouble in writing to me.
She opened herself to Hal, after the surrender of York Town, and he
acquainted me with the fact in a letter by a British officer returning
home on his parole. Then I remembered the unlucky words I had let slip
before Will Esmond at the coffee-house at New York; and a part of this
iniquitous scheme broke upon me.

As for Mr. Will: there is a tablet in Castlewood Church, in Hampshire,
inscribed, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, and announcing that
"This marble is placed by a mourning brother, to the memory of the
Honourable William Esmond, Esquire, who died in North America, in the
service of his King." But how? When, towards the end of 1781, a revolt
took place in the Philadelphia Line of the Congress Army, and Sir Henry
Clinton sent out agents to the mutineers, what became of them? The men
took the spies prisoners, and proceeded to judge them, and my brother
(whom they knew and loved, and had often followed under fire), who had
been sent from camp to make terms with the troops, recognised one of the
spies, just as execution was about to be done upon him--and the wretch,
with horrid outcries, grovelling and kneeling at Colonel Warrington's
feet, besought him for mercy, and promised to confess all to him. To
confess what? Harry turned away sick at heart. Will's mother and sister
never knew the t