



Produced by Hanno Fischer





THERESA MARCHMONT,

OR,

THE MAID OF HONOUR.

A TALE.

By Mrs. Charles Gore



"La cour est comme un edifice bati de marbre; je veux dire qu'elle est
composee d'hommes fort durs, mais fort polis." _LA BRUYERE._


London, MDCCCXXIV





CHAPTER I.


  "Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
   shall never tremble. Hence horrible shadow!
   Unreal mockery, hence!"--_MACBETH_


It was a gloomy evening, towards the autumn of the year 1676, and the
driving blasts which wept from the sea upon Greville Cross, a dreary
and exposed mansion on the coast of Lancashire, gave promise of a stormy
night and added to the desolation which at all traces pervaded its vast
and comfortless apartments.

Greville Cross had formerly been a Benedictine Monastery, and had been
bestowed at the Reformation, together with its rights of Forestry upon
Sir Ralph de Greville, the ancestor of its present possessor. Although
that part of the building containing the chapel and refectory had been
long in ruins, the remainder of the gloomy quadrangle was strongly
marked with the characteristics of its monastic origin. It had never
been a favourite residence of the Greville family; who were possessed of
two other magnificent seats, at one of which, Silsea Castle in Kent,
the present Lord Greville constantly resided; and the Cross, usually
so called from a large iron cross which stood in the centre of the
court-yard, and to which thousand romantic legends were attached, had
received few improvements from the modernizing hand of taste. Indeed
as the faults of the edifice were those of solid construction, it would
have been difficult to render it less gloomy or more convenient by any
change that art could affect. Its massive walls and huge oaken beams
would neither permit the enlargement of its narrow windows, nor the
destruction of its maze of useless corridors; and it was therefore
allowed to remain unmolested and unadorned; unless when an occasional
visit from some member of the Greville family demanded an addition to
its rude attempts of splendour and elegance. But it was difficult to
convey the new tangled luxuries of the capital to this remote spot;
and the tapestry, whose faded hues and moulding texture betrayed the
influence of the sea air, had not yet given plan to richer hangings. The
suite of state apartments as cold and comfortless in the extreme, but
one of the chambers had been recently decorated with more than usual
cost, on the arrival of Lord and Lady Greville, the latter of whom had
never before visited her Northern abode. Its dimensions, which were
somewhat less vast than those of the rest of the suite, rendered it
fitter for modern habits of life; and it had long ensured the preference
of the ladies of the House of Greville, and obtained the name of "the
lady's chamber," by which it is even to this day distinguished. The
walls were not incumbered by the portraits of those grim ancestors who
frowned in mail, or smiled in fardingale on the walls of the adjacent
galleries. The huge chimney had suffered some inhospitable contraction,
and was surmounted with marble; and huge settees, glittering with
gilding and satin, which in their turn would now be displaced by
the hand of Gillow or Oakley, had dispossessed the tall straight
backed-chairs, which in the olden times must have inflicted martyrdom on
the persons of our weary forefathers.

The present visit of Lord Greville to the Cross, was supposed to
originate in the dangerous illness of an old and favourite female
servant, who had held undisturbed control over the household since the
death of the first Lady Greville about ten years before. She had been
from her infancy attached to the family service, and having married a
retainer of the house, had been nurse to Lord Greville, whom she still
regarded with something of a maternal affection. Her husband had died
the preceding year; equally lamented by the master whom he served, and
the domestics whom he ruled; and his wife was now daily declining, and
threatening to follow her aged partner to the grave. It was imagined by
the other members of the establishment, that the old lady had written to
her master, with whom she frequently corresponded, to entreat a personal
interview, in order that she might resign her "steward-ship" into his
hands before her final release from all earthly cares and anxieties; and
in consideration of the length and importance of her services, none were
surprised at the readiness with which her request was granted.

Lord Greville had never visited the North