ch, for his mistress, and she threw
him aside; he had endowed her family with all they had, and she talked
about giving him alms as to a menial! The grief for his patron's loss;
the pains of his own present position, and doubts as to the future: all
these were forgotten under the sense of the consummate outrage which he
had to endure, and overpowered by the superior pang of that torture.

He writ back a letter to Mr. Tusher from his prison, congratulating
his Reverence upon his appointment to the living of Castlewood:
sarcastically bidding him to follow in the footsteps of his admirable
father, whose gown had descended upon him; thanking her ladyship for her
offer of alms, which he said he should trust not to need; and beseeching
her to remember that, if ever her determination should change towards
him, he would be ready to give her proofs of a fidelity which had never
wavered, and which ought never to have been questioned by that house.
"And if we meet no more, or only as strangers in this world," Mr. Esmond
concluded, "a sentence against the cruelty and injustice of which I
disdain to appeal; hereafter she will know who was faithful to her,
and whether she had any cause to suspect the love and devotion of her
kinsman and servant."

After the sending of this letter, the poor young fellow's mind was more
at ease than it had been previously. The blow had been struck, and he
had borne it. His cruel goddess had shaken her wings and fled: and left
him alone and friendless, but virtute sua. And he had to bear him up, at
once the sense of his right and the feeling of his wrongs, his honor
and his misfortune. As I have seen men waking and running to arms at a
sudden trumpet, before emergency a manly heart leaps up resolute;
meets the threatening danger with undaunted countenance; and, whether
conquered or conquering, faces it always. Ah! no man knows his strength
or his weakness, till occasion proves them. If there be some thoughts
and actions of his life from the memory of which a man shrinks with
shame, sure there are some which he may be proud to own and remember;
forgiven injuries, conquered temptations (now and then) and difficulties
vanquished by endurance.

It was these thoughts regarding the living, far more than any great
poignancy of grief respecting the dead, which affected Harry Esmond
whilst in prison after his trial: but it may be imagined that he could
take no comrade of misfortune into the confidence of his f