l. There was
Monsieur Marais, a surgeon in Auvergne, who had a palsy in both his legs,
which was cured through the king's intercession. There was Philip Pitet,
of the Benedictines, who had a suffocating cough, which wellnigh killed
him, but he besought relief of Heaven through the merits and intercession
of the blessed king, and he straightway felt a profuse sweat breaking out
all over him, and was recovered perfectly. And there was the wife of
Monsieur Lepervier, dancing-master to the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, who was
entirely eased of a rheumatism by the king's intercession, of which
miracle there could be no doubt, for her surgeon and his apprentice had
given their testimony, under oath, that they did not in any way contribute
to the cure. Of these tales, and a thousand like them, Mr. Esmond believed
as much as he chose. His kinswoman's greater faith had swallow for them
all.

The English High Church party did not adopt these legends. But truth and
honour, as they thought, bound them to the exiled king's side; nor had the
banished family any warmer supporter than that kind lady of Castlewood, in
whose house Esmond was brought up. She influenced her husband, very much
more perhaps than my lord knew, who admired his wife prodigiously though
he might be inconstant to her, and who, adverse to the trouble of thinking
himself, gladly enough adopted the opinions which she chose for him. To
one of her simple and faithful heart, allegiance to any sovereign but the
one was impossible. To serve King William for interest's sake would have
been a monstrous hypocrisy and treason. Her pure conscience could no more
have consented to it than to a theft, a forgery, or any other base action.
Lord Castlewood might have been won over, no doubt, but his wife never
could: and he submitted his conscience to hers in this case as he did in
most others, when he was not tempted too sorely. And it was from his
affection and gratitude most likely, and from that eager devotion for his
mistress, which characterized all Esmond's youth, that the young man
subscribed to this, and other articles of faith, which his fond
benefactress set him. Had she been a Whig, he had been one; had she
followed Mr. Fox, and turned Quaker, no doubt he would have abjured
ruffles and a periwig, and have forsworn swords, lace coats, and clocked
stockings. In the scholars' boyish disputes at the University, where
parties ran very high, Esmond was noted as a Jacobite, and very lik