John Darrell took the losing side. He escaped to France with his only
son. He is said to have been an accomplished, melancholy man; and my
belief is, that he composed that air which you justly admire for its
mournful sweetness. He turned Roman Catholic and died in a convent. But
the son, Ralph, was brought up in France with Charles II, and other gay
roisterers. On the return of the Stuart, Ralph ran off with the daughter
of the Roundhead to whom his estates had been given, and, after getting
them back, left his wife in the country, and made love to other men's
wives in town. Shocking profligate! no fruit could thrive upon such a
branch. He squandered all he could squander, and would have left his
children beggars, but that he was providentially slain in a tavern brawl
for boasting of a lady's favours to her husband's face. The husband
suddenly stabbed him,--no fair duello, for Sir Ralph was invincible with
the small sword. Still the family fortune was much dilapidated, yet
still the Darrells lived in the fine house of the Haughtons, and left
Fawley to the owls. But Sir Ralph's son, in his old age, married a
second time, a young lady of high rank, an earl's daughter. He must have
been very much in love with her, despite his age, for to win her consent
or her father's he agreed to settle all the Haughton estates on her and
the children she might bear to him. The smaller Darrell property had
already been entailed on his son by his first marriage. This is how the
family came to split. Old Darrell had children by his second wife; the
eldest of those children took the Haughton name and inherited the
Haughton property. The son by the first marriage had nothing but Fawley
and the scanty domain round it. You descend from the second marriage,
Mr. Darrell from the first. You understand now, my dear young sir?"
"Yes, a little; but I should very much like to know where those fine
Haughton estates are now?"

"Where they are now? I can't say. They were once in Middlesex.