Elizabeth de Bruce Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1827 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. A FAMILY GROUP. Come homely characters that no one hit. Pope. And have I not the privilege of sorrow, Without a menial's staring eye upon me? Who sent thee thus to charter my free thoughts, And tell me where to shrink, and where to pause? Officious slave away Milman. It was nearly nineteen years from the memorable night of The Windy Wodensday, and early in a breezy bracing October morning, that Wolfe Grahame, a young Scottish gentleman of an ancient family in shire, prepared to leave the home of his childhood and youth, to join a regiment of horse, then stationed in the south-west of Ireland, in which he had lately been promoted to the rank of captain. The servants had been astir at a very early hour on the morning of a day so important to the family, as that on which the heir was to set out on a perilous expedition; for Ireland was then in rebellion. A profuse breakfast, served by a blazing hearth, in a handsome and highly-ordered, though old-fashioned wainscot parlour, only waited the appearance of the master of the mansion, and of the Reverend Gideon Haliburton, who, having obtained leave of absence from a rather rebellious flock to visit his relations in Gallowayshire, proposed to give his company to his young friend and quondam pupil as far as Portpatrick. Wolfe Grahame, early left an orphan, had, with the exception of the time spent at school and the university, lived wholly, till he joined his regiment, with his paternal uncle at Monkshaugh. This estate had once been of considerable magnitude, but it was now more remarkable for beauty of scenery than extent of acres. Such as it was, however, Wolfe was the heir apparent; for his uncle, Mr. Robert Grahame, was now a bachelor of threescore acknowledged, and perhaps a few more debatable yea...