Castle-Deloraine; or, the Ruined Peer

Chapter I

The gaieties of a London season were beginning in earnest after the Easter recess of the year 184 — . As yet dissipation had not robbed the cheek of the newest debutante of her bloom, or dust deprived the budding foliage of the parks of their freshness. And side by side might be seen all the contrasts so often marvelled at in the wealthiest capital in Europe — its splendour and its squalor, its gaiety and its wretchedness — streets thronged with brilliant equipages, and the ragged beggar crouching in sullen misery on the pavement, — shops glittering with gold and jewels, VOL. I. B CASTLE-DELORAINE ; while hunger, gaunt and pale, with wistful look slunk by, and thought a single gem from out that dazzling show would buy him and his children bread, while the very trees under which caracoled Beauty and her cavalier by day, sheltered homeless destitution from the winds of Heaven by night.

And over all, rich and poor, the gleaming sunshine of April and the balmy breath of spring, making even the heart of poverty to rejoice, and earth and sky bright and beautiful under its influence. One sunny afternoon in that changeful month, a group of young men were collected under the portico of the Reform Club, talking with animation to each other, and, as might be inferred from sundry sidelong glances, criticising the claims on their admiration possessed by the fair inmates of the carriages which rolled swiftly by. At length a groom appeared leading a couple of hunters, and two of the party mounted and took their way to Plyde Park. The younger of these was a slight young man ; his features, though not decidedly handsome, Avere distinguished by an open and candid ex pression, whilst a certain something in his air and style of riding, denoted he belonged to the army.

For the rest, Charley Conyers, as he was familiarly called among his friends, was the elder son of a wealthy baronet in the West of England, addicted, with all the ardour of three-and-twenty, to the turf, on which he lavished his father's ample allowance, and welcomed in society as high animal spirits and a generous disposition usually make those on whom fortune has also conferred her favours. His companion was of a different stamp of character, as he was also unlike him in personal appearance. Above the average height in his person, he had a fair complexion, and clear blue eyes. His features were regular, and strikingly handsome, with white teeth, and a mouth small and delicate as a woman's. Perhaps the charm of his countenance was the smile that played round the latter feature, but any approach to effeminacy was obviated by the moustache on the upper lip ; and his hair clustered in short chesnut curls round a high, open brow.

This figure, at once both noble and graceful in its tout ensemble, was admirably well-proportioned, and the head, with the finely-developed chest and shoulders, might have served a sculptor for his model. But the physiognomist would have remarked there were opposite traits in his countenance, which might struggle for mastery in his character, and that while pride was the most B CASTLE-DELORAINE ; prevading, there were the traces of ardent pas sions and great sensibility. An aristocrat in appearance, Harry Fitzherbert Thornton was equally one by birth. He was the only son of a nobleman who had inherited vast estates, but with an encumbered and impoverished rent-roll in the sister island, where the picturesque but half-ruined castle of the lords of Deloraine was situate, in a southern county.

Harry Thornton had sustained one loss that was irreparable, — the death of his mother. Lady Deloraine had died while her child was still an infant; and from that time his father had finally quitted Ireland, and become a permanent absentee from his country. Lord Deloraine, who was a man of pleasure and prodigal habits, became every day more heedless of the debts and embarrassment that had de scended to him with the family patrimony, and which had sustained an alarming increase at his hands. An Hibernian spirit of extravagance seemed to descend from father to son in their race, nor was the present generation an exception to the rule. Had his lordship condescended to inspect in person the vast estates that called him owner, and the condition of its unfortunate tenantry, the state of both might have been ameliorated; but agent and middleman came between, and he only remembered their exis tence when he dispatched a brief note from Paris or Naples, for a speedy and ample remit tance.

It was impossible this state of things could continue, without developing its consequences. Too indolent to investigate his affairs, they had become progressively worse, until a few weeks before the commencement of our story, Lord Deloraine had been aroused from his epicurean enjoyments by an unexpected communication from his steward. We wdl not enter into detail here, as this sketch will put the intelligent reader in posses sion of the carte du pays. He will perceive from the tenor of our young hero's conversation, that the time has arrived when he has been initiated into some of the graver realities of existence. How soon does that period arrive when the tangible anxieties of daily life first assume a palpable shape, and rise, dark and threatening, as substantial impediments in our path before us!

Who cannot remember the first pressure of misfortune, that weighed so heavy on the young and buoyant spirit, as if time could never have removed the burden ? — the hour when the bright CASTLE-DELORAINE ; colours of the world of our youth were turned to gloom, and all things seemed to change around us? In that hour — sometimes of temptation, always of trial, — how many have not turned aside from the narrow and thorny paths of rec titude into the alluring ways of expediency, and the Gospel precepts of early childhood have been first forgotten ! And if it is misfortune only, we never look on life again as we did before. Bare and rugged, its realities are stripped of the rosy veil our imagination flung around them ; the prestige of that light, unthinking happiness is gone ; its charm has fled, and will return no more !

Henceforward we distrust the future. We rejoin our equestrians, who have now reached the Park. " So you had an interview with his lordship, eh?" asked Conyers, " and that is the reason you won't buy these hunters to go with me to Melton next season." " It is, Conyers, I admit (quiet, Sultan !). For the present, I fear there is no prospect of my accompanying you there ;" and Harry Thornton spoke of relinquishing the sport with regret. " Now, my dear boy, why do you mind these things?" rejoined his light-hearted companion; " they only come periodically, you know — every Christmas my governor calls me into his study. and gives me a lecture against trainers and steeple-chasing, with a prophecy, of course, of my immediate ruin, which he made a couple of years ago, and has never come to pass yet.

I always hear it with exemplary patience, especially if it happens to be a frosty morning, and only beg to remind him, that prudence requires I must keep my stud till their engagements are over, as he wouldn't like me to incur the expense of forfeits, &c. ; and then, as the worthy old soul is perfectly innocent whether its Astarte, Lightning, or the Conjuror to severally run for the Derby or St. Leger, it's the easiest thing in the world to regularly mystify the old gentleman about them." "But Lord Deloraine couldn't be mystified," remarked Harry Thornton absently. " Nonsense, Harry, go to Tattersall's, and get them to-morrow — we'll keep them in my stables, and I'll manage it for you, old boy." " Thank you, Conyers, I could not do that, but depend upon it, I shall go to Melton if I can," (in a tone, that said somewhat plainly, I will) " how can a fellow get through the winter without !"

Captain Thornton paused — a graver expression came over his countenance, and changing his tone, he added, " No, after all, I would not do it CASTLE-DELORAINE ; without his consent ; my father's differently situated to your's, Conyers, very differently." "You're too scrupulous, Harry. Did I tell you the trick I served my worthy papa last week?" rattled on his gay companion. "I made uncommonly brilliant promises of reform last Christmas, ' never intended to patronise that low pursuit, the turf, again,' when he suddenly took it into his head to inspect my stud himself, and see how they had been verified. The first stable we came to, there were the two young things I had entered for Goodwood. ' Light cattle there,' said the old gentleman, eyeing them rather sus piciously. ' As gentle as a lamb, sir,' replied I, promptly. ' I am having them broke for my sisters' britska ; they are complaining the horses are worn out, and Jones won't look out any fresh ones for them.' But now, Harry, what is the state-secret you have given me such mysterious hints about ?"

The young man paused, as if doubting the discretion of his gay and unthinking companion. " Ah," said he, at last, " you must keep it as one, if I tell you." " By Jove, Thornton, you look as demure as a young lady over her first proposal, or when you handed that hundred and fifty to Croston yester day, over my little bay mare, and her trotting match ; confoundedly unlucky, was it not ? Dost fear to tell the ' secrets of the prison-house,' eh ? Well, it will be safe in my keeping," he continued, more seriously; "we always helped each other through our scrapes at Eton, why shouldn't we do so now ? Do you remember the row when you saved me from being expelled, by swearing an alibi that I was ill in bed, while I was rowing with half-a-dozen fellows on the river? Come, let me hear what kind of affair is it — love, law, or a deficit in your betting-book?"

" Neither, Conyers — I trust your discretion, remember — it's matrimony !" " Matrimony ! the deuce !" said his friend, with a low, shrill, and somewhat prolonged whistle, " faith, that's a dose I'm in no hurry to take myself. Has a lady proposed to you ?" " Pray be serious, Conyers ; if I did not know you for one of the best fellows breathing, I dare not utter another word." The young man became grave, as he noticed the altered expression of his companion's countenance. " Tell me all without reserve," said he ; "I hope there's nothing worse behind the curtain." " That is precisely what I've got to teU you,'' replied Thornton ; " when I left our mess to go to St. James's Square last evening, I was surb3 CASTLE-DELORAINE ; prised to find my father, instead of discussing his claret, surrounded with papers in the library, and looking positively worried, and perplexed over them. ' tlarry,' he began with saying, ' I am afraid I have some bad news for you this evening.' Of course I hoped it was nothing that had annoyed him.

Here are some letters, he replied, from my agent about those odious Irish affairs ; I confess their contents have been as great a surprise to me, as they will be to you." " That preamble does not sound promising," said his friend, anxiously. " Go on." " I will not bore you," replied his companion, " with the details of my questions and his answers, but I soon gathered the too probable result ; in one word, unless Lord Deloraine could raise an immense sum on his already heavily burdened estates, within the next twelve months — we are ruined." " But explain, my dear fellow." " The interest on the mortgages, made many years ago, has accumulated to a large amount, and my father has had notice, it appears, to pay the principal also back. Lord Deloraine's pro perty in shire, inconsiderable, you know, compared to his Irish possessions is, like them, strictly entailed on myself ; and his lawyer assures him, that such is the impoverished condition of the Deloraine barony, that it would be impossible to raise another mortgage the amount of the former, while my father has no other resources with which to meet the demands of his creditors.

I confess I was so stupified with surprise at that unexpected announcement, that I could not make a single suggestion to him ; it is the first time he has ever consulted me on his affairs, and then to be informed of such a crisis impending! True, I have always been aware that the estates were heavily mortgaged, but I had not the remotest conception that my father's debts and embarrassments were so great. Had he only made me acquainted with them, I would certainly not have added mine to his own, for they have been thoughtlessly incurred in complete ignorance of the real state of things; though the expenses attending my holding a commission in the Guards, have formed the largest item in my expenditure." "My dear Harry, I feel for you; count upon me for any assistance I can render ; accept a loan now if it can be of any service."

Harry Thornton shook his hand in acknow ledgment of his sympathy. " Indeed, Conyers," he replied, at length, " I feel your kindness, but at present I do not require assistance, and I cannot help indulging a hope that Lord CASTLE-DELORAINE ; Deloraine may employ his interest with ministers to do something for him. I made the proposal to change at once into a regiment of the line, but he strongly opposed it, on the ground that my com mission having been presented to me through his intimacy with the Commander-in-chief, it would be impossible to throw it up without giving offence in that quarter ; a decision I acquiesced in with reluctance, for I would infinitely have preferred taking that or any other course to the one Lord Deloraine urges me to follow." " But," eagerly interrupted his companion, " what has the project of matrimony to do with this unfortunate state of affairs, for by all that's sentimental, when a man's hard-up, it's not a time for marrying, unless you could manage to pick up a heiress — by the way, I'm told those valuable creatures are uncommonly rare in London this season."

" That is the very alternative my father has decided in his own mind I must adopt; he declares it is the only practicable means of avert ing the eclair cissement of our affairs that must otherwise ensue." " And the lady," rejoined Conyers, " but I think I may hazard a conjecture on that score — is it a certain East India heiress in whose good graces and those of her famdy you are supposed to stand very high ? But the idea of such a connection cannot be a novelty to you. Why, ever since the Actons' dinner-party, when we were introduced to the Marsdens at the same time, they have visited in St. James's Square and you in Portland Place, tdl every one believes it a settled thing." " The conclusions of the world," returned his companion, with a graver expression on his features than Conyers had ever seen before, " are not always correct ; now I give you my word, the first time Lord Deloraine ever broached the scheme to me, was only last week, when I had not the slightest idea it would ever become a matter of necessity, and this intimacy with them has been entirely kept up through his means.

I then found the imprudence I had committed in visiting them at his instigation so often, as it was evident the construction Sir John and his wife would put upon my visits, conjoined with his friendship and flattery, if they continued longer." " After all," said Conyers, gravely, " perhaps it is the best thing you can do under the circum stances ; why should you object when Miss Mars den is evidently disposed to receive your atten tions favourably ? She cannot certainly boast of beauty or fashion, but no one can doubt her amiability of disposition." CASTLE-DELORAINE ; " I am prepared," replied Harry Thornton, " to hear you ridicule my objections, in spite of your friendship for me. Sometimes I even think they may be absurd myself, but it is inconsistent with my notions of a man's independence, to marry from interested motives, and owe one's prosperity and position in the world to a rich wife !

No, Con yers ; were I master of my own destiny, I would rather join a campaign in Scinde, and fight for it." And the young man drew himself up as he spoke with a conscious pride that made his eyes flash with unusual fire. " But remember, Harry, such a proceeding would increase Lord Deloraine's difficulties by leaving him alone to contend with them." " True," he replied, in a sad, yet impatient tone ; " but I feel a strong and undefinable repug nance to contrast ties so indissoluble as those of matrimony with a person whom I cannot regard with warmer feelings than friendship. Consider me romantic, if you will ; but while I admit I have never been in love, I often imagine that the true happiness of life is to be found in a reciprocated attachment ; and if a woman crossed my path, who united to grace and beauty a character congenial to my own, I might realize such an idea."

" 'Pon my soul, my dear fellow, I am coming out in quite a new character as your mentor; but don't you think if you could forget these romantic fancies of your imagination, you would have less difficulty in disposing of your hand and heart, though I never heard, by the way, that the gift of the latter was an essential in the marriage contract. It's merely a pleasant fiction to be talked of during courtship. Vanity blinds one to the fact, but in the matrimony of modern days, the possession of one's heart is only considered worth gaining, when it prefaces the more impor tant gift of a title or family diamonds. And, by Jove ! Harry, don't think it necessary to pistol me for the observation if I tell you, that every one is expecting you, in newspaper parlance, to lead the little heiress to the altar; and I fancy it's high time you made up your mind about the matter."

" Pshaw !" said Harry Thornton, impatiently, and continued in a half-musing and irresolute tone, " I cannot deny, Conyers, your praises of Miss Marsden; and were Lord Deloraine's ruin immediate and inevitable, I should probably con sent under the pressure of necessity ; but a year still intervenes — in that time some other method may occur to Lord Deloraine to extricate himself from these embarrassments than by my marriage. Strong as is my dislike to marry from interested CASTLE-DELORAINE ; motives, and be considered a lucky fortune hunter who has secured a rich wife, I cannot gainsay Lord Deloraine's reasoning, when he sarcastically tells me that I ought to consider myself a fortunate fellow, if, by marrying Miss Marsden, I can save Castle-Deloraine from the Court of Chancery, with the certainty of enjoying every luxury a man can desire, or that wealth can purchase.

But I have more scruples of con science than you give me credit for. I doubt if I could school my inclinations to make a woman happy I did not care about, and therefore don't like risking the experiment. No ! you have not converted me, Conyers," and a snide for the moment chased away the gloom from his brow. "But a truce to the subject. I did not think you had such matter-of-fact opinions on it. Let us leave this dusty road, and canter by the river."

Chapter II

The reader may share in our hero's surprise at the sober tone of the counsel he had received from his light-hearted friend; but Conyers' friendship led him to take a more serious view of Harry's situation than he would probably have done of his own, had fate placed him in a simdar one ; and from his knowledge of Lord Deloraine's mode of life, the announcement of his embarrassments had not altogether surprised him. Between Lord Deloraine and his son there was little congeniality, and it would not have been easy to discover an instance of two persons so closely related, yet whose characters varied so much. From the pre ceding conversation, our readers may gain an insight into that of our hero. At the date of our tale, Harry Thornton was in his twenty-fifth year, and having entered the Guards a few months CASTLE-DELORAINE ; before attaining his majority, he had been for some five or six years launched into the pleasures and dissipations of London life.

Handsome — eagerly sought after by society, and the enfant gate of the fair sex — master of his own time and actions without check or control — and holding a commission in a crack regiment of that most aristocratic part of Her Majesty's ser vice, the Household Brigade, — how was it that Harry Thornton was not a " fast man " like most of his gay companions ? He had quaffed the first intoxicating draught of pleasure with boyish eagerness — then mar velled to find that the cup which at first seemed so exhilarating, had left, he knew not why, a half saddened ennuye feeling behind; and something like a conviction began to dawn upon his mind, that dissipation and pleasure failed to satisfy the faculties of the soul. The present was a pause, a breathing time, as it were, in the whirl of that glittering, false, and sensual existence, and no longer dazzled as at his entrance upon it, he looked around him with a certain weariness and some little disgust.

There were some noble qualities, or rather the germs of them, in Harry's character; with an ardent and susceptible temperament, he had a generous disposition, undouted courage, and an innate refinement that made itself visible in the peculiar gentleness of his manner to women. But they were counterbalanced by many faults. The courage was that which springs from a fine physique. He could have led a forlorn hope against the enemy in an Indian jungle, and met death with fortitude ; but he would have shrunk with morbid sensitiveness from the ridicule of society, or the prospect of losing caste in its ranks. He was the slave of impulse, and the caprice of the minute ; his character was wholly undisciplined, without stability or firmness, and a certain alloy of selfishness marred his better nature.

With that inconsistency, which is either the result of imperfect training or want of deci sion, theory and practice in Harry Thornton were ever at variance, while from habit, or easily influenced by the persuasions of others, he seldom strove to reconcile them. In spite, however, of these faults, and the defects of an education, in which self-denial or prudence had never been inculcated, Harry Thornton possessed not only a considerable share of talent, but a latent energy of character, whose powers only wanted calling out to be exercised with benefit to himself and others. CASTLE-DELORAINE ; A cool breeze rippled the water, breaking its surface into a thousand miniature waves, as the two young men reached its margin, and they had gaUopped their horses for some distance over the green sward before either thought of checking their speed.

At the moment they did so, two carriages emerged from a glade of trees, where they had halted to receive their occupants ; the first quickly passed them, but the second ap proached at a more leisurely pace, and its inmates speedily rivetted their attention. The elder was a tall person, whose age might have been some five-and-forty years, with an extraordinarily re pulsive expression of countenance, though she had been handsome in her youth, and still retained pretensions to be called so. Her hair of a jet black was drawn away from her face, and piercing black eyes, with a wide mouth, and somewhat prominent white teeth, completed a physiognomy, the expression of which had some thing singularly repulsive in it to the beholder. At the first glance, you involuntarily shrank back from her cold, pitiless scrutiny ; but when she spoke with the carefully modulated voice, whose every word was the offspring of consummate craft and talent, while the glittering eyes were fixed on your own, you felt then the power of the fascination which is ascribed to the rattle-snake.

This woman was elegantly dressed; her figure, though too much given to embonpoint, was well formed, and it did not require a second glance to discover she was a Frenchwoman. Singular as was her appearance, it did not entirely occupy the regards of the young men, for Conyers rapidly whispered, in an under tone, " What a beautiful girl ! Do you see her, to the left?" But his companion's attention was too intently absorbed with the fair stranger to even hear the question. Slowly dropping the reins on his horse's neck, he remained gazing on her with mingled feelings of awe, admiration, and surprise. The face which he beheld was well calculated to call forth such emotions. Her com plexion was transparently fair, yet glowing with health and animation ; large dark blue eyes of the colour of the violet were fringed with long black lashes, and belonged, in the peculiarity of their almond-shaped lids and arched eyebrows, to the Circassian, rather than English, style of beauty ; while her hair, whose glossiness might have rivalled the raven's wing, was arranged in simple bandeaux round her face.

Little could be seen of her figure, but the pose of CASTLE-DELORAINE ; her attitude was full of grace, and unlike her companion, she was dressed in deep mourning. A vivid blush crimsoned the young girl's features when she caught the eyes of Harry Thornton fixed on her own; then turning quickly away, as if annoyed at his pertinacity, the young man for the first time glanced at her unprepossessing companion. What was it that made him shrink with a feeling almost akin to fear, before her cold, pitdess scrutiny? It was strangely opposite; the thrill of indescribable pleasure which succeeded, when he felt her young companion was intently regarding him ; their eyes met, while she withdrew her's with conscious embarrassment, and he gazed till the carriage had dis appeared through the gates of the Park.

He could not discern in the distance the direction it took, but he inwardly resolved that it should not be long before he discovered the names of its occupants. And had not the presence of his companion restrained him, he would, no doubt, have turned Sultan's head in pursuit of the retreating equipage, if the look of regret with which he watched it disappear was any criterion of his feelings. Conyers, however, had not observed the demeanour of his friend ; for he, too, had been struck with surprise at the appearance of the strangers, and the contrast they presented. " I never saw a lovelier face !" he exclaimed. " That girl reminded me of a painting of the Madonna I've seen in some Italian church. Who can she be? — and that black-browed duenna, — she did not look to belong to the same class of mortals !"

" She was not so singular as repulsive-looking," said Harry. " What can be the link of fellowship which binds persons so opposite together, — and one so beautiful too?" And without knowing why he muttered the last phrase in an inaudible tone, while something like a sigh escaped him as Conyers turned the conversation again on Lord Deloraine's affairs, and the unexpected disclosures of the morning. But Captain Thornton listened with an apathy that might have been mistaken for coldness to the renewed expressions of sympathy from his friend, and was thoughtful and abstracted during the remainder of their ride. Arrived at the Piccadilly entrance, the young men separated ; Harry Thornton to return to his apartments near the Regent's Park Barracks, and Conyers to his father's residence in Belgrave Square.

CASTLE-DELORAINE ; Some change, however, would seem to have occurred in Captain Thornton's resolution, for he slowly walked his horse some paces down Piccadilly, then suddenly wheeling round, rode back into the Park by the same gates through which he had watched the unknown equipage disappear. Here he made the first attempt to gratify his new-born curiosity, and perhaps the sight of the purse which he carelessly held in his hand, might have had a stimulating effect on the gatekeeper's recollection ; for after our hero, with a patience very unusual with him, had minutely described the carriage and its occupants, that functionary informed him it was the equipage of a French lady, who dady drove through the Park, and had recently arrived in the neighbourhood. Her name he believed to be Leclercq, and her residence between Kensington Gardens and the road to Knightsbridge.

Now this was certainly very opportune in formation from the gatekeeper; but why did Harry Thornton still rein in his horse, and enquire who was the younger lady, her com panion ? It was not surprising that the man should have been unable to gratify such minute curiosity, and Captain Thornton, feeling but half satisfied with the result of his inquiries, rode musingly on, resolved at least to survey the exterior of the dwelling which shrined so fair an inhabitant. He had no difficulty in discovering it ; a laurel avenue led to the house, the windows of which, sheltered by a stone verandah, opened on a large grassy lawn. No trace, however, was to be seen of its inmates ; End after a close but unavailing scrutiny, Captain Thornton once more pursued his way home wards. As he returned, the gay throng still lingering in the Park appeared in the distance like a moving mass of flowers in their brilliant colours ; the earlier among the forest trees were putting forth their leaves of that delicate green, which has been so aptly compared to the budding hopes and affections of the young heart, and the bright blue sky arched over head, dappled with white fleecy clouds, sailing swiftly o'er the horizon.