When they were married, Pitt would have liked to take
a hymeneal tour with his bride, as became people of
their condition. But the affection of the old
lady towards Lady Jane had grown so strong, that she
fairly owned she could not part with her favourite.
Pitt and his wife came therefore and lived with Miss
Crawley: and (greatly to the annoyance of poor
Pitt, who conceived himself a most injured character—being
subject to the humours of his aunt on one side, and
of his mother-in-law on the other) Lady Southdown,
from her neighbouring house, reigned over the whole
family—Pitt, Lady Jane, Miss Crawley, Briggs,
Bowls, Firkin, and all. She pitilessly dosed
them with her tracts and her medicine, she dismissed
Creamer, she installed Rodgers, and soon stripped
Miss Crawley of even the semblance of authority.
The poor soul grew so timid that she actually left
off bullying Briggs any more, and clung to her niece,
more fond and terrified every day. Peace to thee,
kind and selfish, vain and generous old heathen!—We
shall see thee no more. Let us hope that Lady
Jane supported her kindly, and led her with gentle
hand out of the busy struggle of Vanity Fair.
CHAPTER XXXV
Widow and Mother
The news of the great fights of Quatre Bras and Waterloo
reached England at the same time. The Gazette
first published the result of the two battles; at
which glorious intelligence all England thrilled with
triumph and fear. Particulars then followed; and
after the announcement of the victories came the list
of the wounded and the slain. Who can tell the
dread with which that catalogue was opened and read!
Fancy, at every village and homestead almost through
the three kingdoms, the great news coming of the battles
in Flanders, and the feelings of exultation and gratitude,
bereavement and sickening dismay, when the lists of
the regimental losses were gone through, and it became
known whether the dear friend and relative had escaped
or fallen. Anybody who will take the trouble
of looking back to a file of the newspapers of the
time, must, even now, feel at second-hand this breathless
pause of expectation. The lists of casualties
are carried on from day to day: you stop in the
midst as in a story which is to be continued in our
next. Think what the feelings must have been
as those papers followed each other fresh from the
press; and if such an interest could be felt in our
country, and about a battle where but twenty thousand
of our people were engaged, think of the condition
of Europe for twenty years before, where people were
fighting, not by thousands, but by millions; each
one of whom as he struck his enemy wounded horribly
some other innocent heart far away.
