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The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. - A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne by William Makepeace Thackeray
page 7 of 601 (01%)
how one who ever bore it, should change it for that of Mrs. THOMAS
TUSHER. I pass over as odious and unworthy of credit those reports
(which I heard in Europe and was then too young to understand), how this
person, having LEFT HER FAMILY and fled to Paris, out of jealousy of
the Pretender betrayed his secrets to my Lord Stair, King George's
Ambassador, and nearly caused the Prince's death there; how she came to
England and married this Mr. Tusher, and became a great favorite of
King George the Second, by whom Mr. Tusher was made a Dean, and then a
Bishop. I did not see the lady, who chose to remain AT HER PALACE all
the time we were in London; but after visiting her, my poor mamma said
she had lost all her good looks, and warned me not to set too much
store by any such gifts which nature had bestowed upon me. She grew
exceedingly stout; and I remember my brother's wife, Lady Castlewood,
saying--"No wonder she became a favorite, for the King likes them old
and ugly, as his father did before him." On which papa said--"All women
were alike; that there was never one so beautiful as that one; and that
we could forgive her everything but her beauty." And hereupon my mamma
looked vexed, and my Lord Castlewood began to laugh; and I, of course,
being a young creature, could not understand what was the subject of
their conversation.

After the circumstances narrated in the third book of these Memoirs, my
father and mother both went abroad, being advised by their friends to
leave the country in consequence of the transactions which are recounted
at the close of the volume of the Memoirs. But my brother, hearing how
the FUTURE BISHOP'S LADY had quitted Castlewood and joined the Pretender
at Paris, pursued him, and would have killed him, Prince as he was, had
not the Prince managed to make his escape. On his expedition to Scotland
directly after, Castlewood was so enraged against him that he asked
leave to serve as a volunteer, and join the Duke of Argyle's army
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