Chapter 6

"No; She has not yet Come to Court"

'Tis but a small adventure for a youth who is a strong swimmer to save
a party of cits from drowning in a river, but 'twas a story much
repeated, having a picturesqueness and colour because its chief figure
Nature had fitted out with all the appointments which might be expected
to adorn a hero.

"'Tis a pretty story, too," said a laughing great lady when 'twas
talked of in town. "My lord Marquess dashing in and out of the river,
bearing in his big white arms soused little citizen beauties and their
half-drowned sweethearts, and towering in their midst giving
orders--like a tall young god in marble come to life. The handsomest
Marquess in Great Britain, and in France likewise, they tell me."

"The handsomest man," quoth the old Dowager Lady Storms, who had a
country seat in Oxfordshire and knew more of the tale than any one
else. "The handsomest man, say I, for it chanced that I drove by the
river at that moment and saw him."

And then--freedom of speech being the fashion in those days and she an
old woman--she painted such a picture of his fine looks, his broad
shoulders, and the markings of his muscles under his polished skin, as,
being repeated and spread abroad, as gossip will spread itself, fixed
him in the minds of admirers of manly beauty and built him a reputation
in the world of fashion before he had entered it or even left his
books.

When he did leave them and quitted the University, it was with honour
to himself and family, and also with joy to his Governour and Chaplain
Mr. Fox, who had attended him. At his coming of age there were
feastings and bonfires in five villages again, and Rowe rang the bells
at Camylott Church with an exultant ardour which came near to being his
final end, and though seventy years of age, he would give up his post
to no younger man, and actually blubbered aloud when 'twas delicately
suggested that his middle-aged son should take his place to save him
fatigue.

"Nay! nay!" he cried; "I rang their Graces' wedding peal--I rang my
lord Marquess into the world, and will give him up to none until I am a
dead man."

At the Tower there was high feasting, the apartments being filled with
guests from foreign Courts as well as from the English one, and as the
young hero of the day moved among them, and among the tenantry
rejoicing with waving flags and rural games in the park, as he danced
with lovely ladies in the ball-room, and as he made his maiden speech
to the people, who went wild with joy over him, all agreed that a noble
house having such an heir need not fear for its future renown,
howsoever glorious its history might have been