who a short time before would not speak to him, as Tom passed under my
lord's coach window, his lordship going in state to his place at Court,
while his nephew slunk by with his battered hat and feather, and the
point of his rapier sticking out of the scabbard--to his twopenny
ordinary in Bell Yard.

Thomas Esmond, after this reconciliation with his uncle, very soon began
to grow sleek, and to show signs of the benefits of good living and
clean linen. He fasted rigorously twice a week, to be sure; but he made
amends on the other days: and, to show how great his appetite was, Mr.
Wycherley said, he ended by swallowing that fly-blown rank old morsel
his cousin. There were endless jokes and lampoons about this marriage at
Court: but Tom rode thither in his uncle's coach now, called him father,
and having won could afford to laugh. This marriage took place very
shortly before King Charles died: whom the Viscount of Castlewood
speedily followed.

The issue of this marriage was one son, whom the parents watched with an
intense eagerness and care; but who, in spite of nurses and physicians,
had only a brief existence. His tainted blood did not run very long in
his poor feeble little body. Symptoms of evil broke out early on him;
and, part from flattery, part superstition, nothing would satisfy my
lord and lady, especially the latter, but having the poor little cripple
touched by his Majesty at his church. They were ready to cry out miracle
at first (the doctors and quack-salvers being constantly in attendance
on the child, and experimenting on his poor little body with every
conceivable nostrum) but though there seemed, from some reason, a
notable amelioration in the infant's health after his Majesty touched
him, in a few weeks afterward the poor thing died--causing the
lampooners of the Court to say, that the King, in expelling evil out of