The Project Gutenberg eBook, Venetia, by Benjamin Disraeli

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Title: Venetia

Author: Benjamin Disraeli

Release Date: April 2, 2004 [eBook #11869]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VENETIA***

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VENETIA

BY THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD, K.G.

1905

'Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child?'

'The child of love, though born in bitterness
And nurtured in convulsion.'

TO

LORD LYNDHURST.

In happier hours, when I first mentioned to you the idea of this Work,
it was my intention, while inscribing it with your name, to have
entered into some details as to the principles which had guided me in
its composition, and the feelings with which I had attempted to shadow
forth, though as 'in in a glass darkly,' two of the most renowned and
refined spirits that have adorned these our latter days. But now I
will only express a hope that the time may come when, in these pages,
you may find some relaxation from the cares, and some distraction
from the sorrows, of existence, and that you will then receive this
dedication as a record of my respect and my affection.

This Work was first published in the year 1837.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

Some ten years before the revolt of our American colonies, there was
situate in one of our midland counties, on the borders of an extensive
forest, an ancient hall that belonged to the Herberts, but which,
though ever well preserved, had not until that period been visited by
any member of the family, since the exile of the Stuarts. It was an
edifice of considerable size, built of grey stone, much covered with
ivy, and placed upon the last gentle elevation of a long ridge of
hills, in the centre of a crescent of woods, that far overtopped its
clusters of tall chimneys and turreted gables. Although the principal
chambers were on the first story, you could nevertheless step forth
from their windows on a broad terrace, whence you descended into the
gardens by a double flight of stone steps, exactly in the middle
of its length. These gardens were of