England rang with his name; and his coming, like a thunderstorm, was heard
from far: while I, unlettered and unfashioned, should, if I came in contact
with him, in the judgment of his courtly followers, bear evidence in my
very person to the propriety of that ingratitude which had made me the
degraded being I appeared.

With my mind fully occupied by these ideas, I might be said as if
fascinated, to haunt the destined abode of the young Earl. I watched the
progress of the improvements, and stood by the unlading waggons, as various
articles of luxury, brought from London, were taken forth and conveyed into
the mansion. It was part of the Ex-Queen's plan, to surround her son with
princely magnificence. I beheld rich carpets and silken hangings, ornaments
of gold, richly embossed metals, emblazoned furniture, and all the
appendages of high rank arranged, so that nothing but what was regal in
splendour should reach the eye of one of royal descent. I looked on these;
I turned my gaze to my own mean dress.--Whence sprung this difference?
Whence but from ingratitude, from falsehood, from a dereliction on the part
of the prince's father, of all noble sympathy and generous feeling.
Doubtless, he also, whose blood received a mingling tide from his proud
mother--he, the acknowledged focus of the kingdom's wealth and nobility,
had been taught to repeat my father's name with disdain, and to scoff at my
just claims to protection. I strove to think that all this grandeur was but
more glaring infamy, and that, by planting his gold-enwoven flag beside my
tarnished and tattered banner, he proclaimed not his superiority, but his
debasement. Yet I envied him. His stud of beautiful horses, his arms of
costly workmanship, the praise that attended him, the adoration, ready
servitor, high place and high esteem,--I considered them as forcibly
wrenched from me, and envied them all with novel and tormenting
bitterness.