Henrietta Temple: A Love Story Read online

  Produced by David Widger

  HENRIETTA TEMPLE

  By Benjamin Disraeli

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  TO THE COUNT ALFRED D'ORSAY

  THESE VOLUMES ARE INSCRIBED

  BY

  HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND.

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  HENRIETTA TEMPLE

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  BOOK I.

  CHAPTER I.

  _Some Account of the Family of Armine, and Especially of Sir Ferdinand and of Sir Ratcliffe._

  THE family of Armine entered England with William the Norman. Ralphd'Armyn was standard-bearer of the Conqueror, and shared prodigally inthe plunder, as appears by Doomsday Book. At the time of the generalsurvey the family of Ermyn, or Armyn, possessed numerous manors inNottinghamshire, and several in the shire of Lincoln. William D'Armyn,lord of the honour of Armyn, was one of the subscribing Barons to theGreat Charter. His predecessor died in the Holy Land before Ascalon.A succession of stout barons and valiant knights maintained the highfortunes of the family; and in the course of the various struggles withFrance they obtained possession of several fair castles in Guienne andGascony. In the Wars of the Roses the Armyns sided with the house ofLancaster. Ferdinand Armyn, who shared the exile of Henry the Seventh,was knighted on Bosworth Field, and soon after created Earl ofTewkesbury. Faithful to the Church, the second Lord Tewkesbury becameinvolved in one of those numerous risings that harassed the last yearsof Henry the Eighth. The rebellion was unsuccessful, Lord Tewkesbury wasbeheaded, his blood attainted, and his numerous estates forfeited to theCrown. A younger branch of the family, who had adopted Protestantism,married the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, and attracted, by histalents in negotiation, the notice of Queen Elizabeth. He was sent on asecret mission to the Low Countries, where, having greatly distinguishedhimself, he obtained on his return the restoration of the family estateof Armine, in Nottinghamshire, to which he retired after an eminentlyprosperous career, and amused the latter years of his life in theconstruction of a family mansion, built in that national style ofarchitecture since described by the name of his royal mistress, at oncemagnificent and convenient. His son, Sir Walsingham Armine, figured inthe first batch of baronets under James the First.

  During the memorable struggle between the Crown and the Commons, in thereign of the unhappy Charles, the Armine family became distinguishedCavaliers. The second Sir Walsingham raised a troop of horse, and gainedgreat credit by charging at the head of his regiment and defeatingSir Arthur Haselrigg's Cuirassiers. It was the first time that thatimpenetrable band had been taught to fly; but the conqueror was coveredwith wounds. The same Sir Walsingham also successfully defended ArmineHouse against the Commons, and commanded the cavalry at the battleof Newbury, where two of his brothers were slain. For these variousservices and sufferings Sir Walsingham was advanced to the dignity ofa baron of the realm, by the title of Lord Armine, of Armine, in thecounty of Nottingham. He died without issue, but the baronetcy devolvedon his youngest brother, Sir Ferdinando.

  The Armine family, who had relapsed into popery, followed the fortunesof the second James, and the head of the house died at St. Germain. Hisson, however, had been prudent enough to remain in England and supportthe new dynasty, by which means he contrived to secure his title andestates. Roman Catholics, however, the Armines always remained, andthis circumstance accounts for this once-distinguished family no longerfiguring in the history of their country. So far, therefore, as thehouse of Armine was concerned, time flew during the next century withimmemorable wing. The family led a secluded life on their estate,intermarrying only with the great Catholic families, and duly begettingbaronets.

  At length arose, in the person of the last Sir Ferdinand Armine, oneof those extraordinary and rarely gifted beings who require only anopportunity to influence the fortunes of their nation, and to figure asa Caesar or an Alcibiades. Beautiful, brilliant, and ambitious, the youngand restless Armine quitted, in his eighteenth year, the house ofhis fathers, and his stepdame of a country, and entered the Imperialservice. His blood and creed gained him a flattering reception; hisskill and valour soon made him distinguished. The world rang withstories of his romantic bravery, his gallantries, his eccentric manners,and his political intrigues, for he nearly contrived to be elected Kingof Poland. Whether it were disgust at being foiled in this high objectby the influence of Austria, or whether, as was much whispered at thetime, he had dared to urge his insolent and unsuccessful suit on a stillmore delicate subject to the Empress Queen herself, certain it is thatSir Ferdinand suddenly quitted the Imperial service, and appeared atConstantinople in person. The man whom a point of honour prevented frombecoming a Protestant in his native country had no scruples about hisprofession of faith at Stamboul: certain it is that the English baronetsoon rose high in the favour of the Sultan, assumed the Turkish dress,conformed to the Turkish customs, and finally, led against Austria adivision of the Turkish army. Having gratified his pique by defeatingthe Imperial forces in a sanguinary engagement, and obtaining afavourable peace for the Porte, Sir Ferdinand Armine doffed his turban,and suddenly reappeared in his native country. After the sketch we havegiven of the last ten years of his life, it is unnecessary to observethat Sir Ferdinand Armine immediately became what is called fashionable;and, as he was now in Protestant England, the empire of fashion was theonly one in which the young Catholic could distinguish himself. Let usthen charitably set down to the score of his political disabilitiesthe fantastic dissipation and the frantic prodigality in which theliveliness of his imagination and the energy of his soul exhaustedthemselves. After three startling years he married the Lady BarbaraRatcliffe, whose previous divorce from her husband, the Earl ofFaulconville, Sir Ferdinand had occasioned. He was, however, separatedfrom his lady during the first year of their more hallowed union, and,retiring to Rome, Sir Ferdinand became apparently devout. At the end ofa year he offered to transfer the whole of his property to the Church,provided the Pope would allow him an annuity and make him a cardinal.His Holiness not deeming it fit to consent to the proposition, SirFerdinand quitted his capital in a huff, and, returning to England,laid claim to the peerages of Tewkesbury and Armine. Although assured offailing in these claims, and himself perhaps as certain of ill successas his lawyers, Sir Ferdinand nevertheless expended upwards of 60,000L.in their promotion, and was amply repaid for the expenditure in thegratification of his vanity by keeping his name before the public. Hewas never content except when he was astonishing mankind; and while hewas apparently exerting all his efforts to become a King of Poland,a Roman cardinal, or an English peer, the crown, the coronet, and thescarlet hat were in truth ever secondary points with him, comparedto the sensation throughout Europe which the effort was contrived andcalculated to ensure.

  On his second return to his native country Sir Ferdinand had notre-entered society. For such a man, society, with all its superficialexcitement, and all the shadowy variety with which it attempts tocloud the essential monotony of its nature, was intolerably dull andcommonplace. Sir Ferdinand, on the contrary, shut himself up in Armine,having previously announced to the world that he was going to write hismemoirs. This history, the construction of a castle, and the prosecutionof his claims before the House of Lords, apparently occupied his time tohis satisfaction, for he remained quiet for several years, until, on thebreaking out of the French Revolution, he hastened to Paris, became amember of the Jacobin Club, and of the National Convention. The nameof Citizen Armine appears among the regicides. Perhaps in this vote heavenged the loss of the crown
of Poland, and the still more mortifyingrepulse he may have received from the mother of Marie Antoinette. Afterthe execution of the royal victims, however, it was discovered thatCitizen Armine had made them an offer to save their lives and raise aninsurrection in La Vendue, provided he was made Lieutenant-general ofthe kingdom. At his trial, which, from the nature of the accusation andthe character of the accused, occasioned to his gratification a greatsensation, he made no effort to defend himself, but seemed to glory inthe chivalric crime. He was hurried to the guillotine, and met his fatewith the greatest composure, assuring the public with a mysterious air,that had he lived four-and-twenty hours longer everything would havebeen arranged, and the troubles which he foresaw impending for Europeprevented. So successfully had Armine played his part, that hismysterious and doubtful career occasioned a controversy, from which onlythe appearance of Napoleon distracted universal attention, and which,indeed, only wholly ceased within these few years. What were hisintentions? Was he or was he not a sincere Jacobin? If he made the offerto the royal family, why did he vote for their death? Was he resolved,at all events, to be at the head of one of the parties? A middle coursewould not suit such a man; and so on. Interminable were the queries andtheir solutions, the pamphlets and the memoirs, which the conduct ofthis vain man occasioned, and which must assuredly have appeased hismanes. Recently it has been discovered that the charge brought againstArmine was perfectly false and purely malicious. Its victim, however,could not resist the dazzling celebrity of the imaginary crime, and hepreferred the reputation of closing his career by conduct which at onceperplexed and astonished mankind, to a vindication which would havedeprived his name of some brilliant accessories, and spared him to alife of which he was perhaps wearied.

  By the unhappy victim of his vanity and passion Sir Ferdinand Armineleft one child, a son, whom he had never seen, now Sir Ratcliffe.Brought up in sadness and in seclusion, education had faithfullydeveloped the characteristics of a reserved and melancholy mind.Pride of lineage and sentiments of religion, which even in early youthdarkened into bigotry, were not incompatible with strong affections,a stern sense of duty, and a spirit of chivalric honour. Limited incapacity, he was, however, firm in purpose. Trembling at the name of hisfather, and devoted to the unhappy parent whose presence he had scarcelyever quitted, a word of reproach had never escaped his lips against thechieftain of his blood, and one, too, whose career, how little soeverhis child could sympathise with it, still maintained, in men's mouthsand minds, the name and memory of the house of Armine. At the deathof his father Sir Ratcliffe had just attained his majority, andhe succeeded to immense estates encumbered with mortgages, and toconsiderable debts, which his feelings of honour would have compelledhim to discharge, had they indeed been enforced by no other claim. Theestates of the family, on their restoration, had not been entailed; but,until Sir Ferdinand no head of the house had abused the confidenceof his ancestors, and the vast possessions of the house of Armine haddescended unimpaired; and unimpaired, so far as he was concerned, SirRatcliffe determined they should remain. Although, by the sale of theestates, not only the encumbrances and liabilities might have beendischarged, but himself left in possession of a moderate independence,Sir Ratcliffe at once resolved to part with nothing. Fresh sums wereraised for the payment of the debts, and the mortgages now consumednearly the whole rental of the lands on which they were secured. SirRatcliffe obtained for himself only an annuity of three hundred perannum, which he presented to his mother, in addition to the smallportion which she had received on her first marriage; and for himself,visiting Armine Place for the first time, he roamed for a few days withsad complacency about that magnificent demesne, and then, taking downfrom the walls of the magnificent hall the sabre with which his fatherhad defeated the Imperial host, he embarked for Cadiz, and shortly afterhis arrival obtained a commission in the Spanish service.

  Although the hereditary valour of the Armines had descended totheir forlorn representative, it is not probable that, under anycircumstances, Sir Ratcliffe would have risen to any eminence in thecountry of his temporary adoption. His was not one of those minds bornto command and to create; and his temper was too proud to serve and tosolicit. His residence in Spain, however, was not altogether withoutsatisfaction. It was during this sojourn that he gained the littleknowledge of life and human nature he possessed; and the creed andsolemn manners of the land harmonised with his faith and habits. Amongthese strangers, too, the proud young Englishman felt not so keenly thedegradation of his house; and sometimes, though his was not the fatalgift of imagination, sometimes he indulged in day dreams of its rise.Unpractised in business, and not gifted with that intuitive quicknesswhich supplies experience and often baffles it, Ratcliffe Armine, whohad not quitted the domestic hearth even for the purposes of education,was yet fortunate enough to possess a devoted friend: and this wasGlastonbury, his tutor, and confessor to his mother. It was to him thatSir Ratcliffe intrusted the management of his affairs, with a confidencewhich was deserved; for Glastonbury sympathised with all his feelings,and was so wrapped up in the glory of the family, that he had no greaterambition in life than to become their historiographer, and had been foryears employed in amassing materials for a great work dedicated to theircelebrity.

  When Ratcliffe Armine had been absent about three years his motherdied. Her death was unexpected. She had not fulfilled two-thirds of theallotted period of the Psalmist, and in spite of many sorrows she wasstill beautiful. Glastonbury, who communicated to him the intelligencein a letter, in which he vainly attempted to suppress his ownoverwhelming affliction, counselled his immediate return to England, ifbut for a season; and the unhappy Ratcliffe followed his advice. Bythe death of his mother, Sir Ratcliffe Armine became possessed, for thefirst time, of a small but still an independent income; and having paida visit, soon after his return to his native country, to a Catholicnobleman to whom his acquaintance had been of some use when travellingin Spain, he became enamored of one of his daughters, and his passionbeing returned, and not disapproved by the father, he was soon aftermarried to Constance, the eldest daughter of Lord Grandison.