Lord Greville had never visited the North since the death of his
first wife, a young and beautiful woman whom he had tenderly loved,
and who died and was interred at Greville Cross. She left no
children, and the heir, a fine boy in the full bloom of childhood and
beauty, who now accompanied Lord Greville, was the sole offspring of
his second marriage.
Helen, the present Lady Greville, was by birth a Percy; and although
her predecessor had been celebrated at the Court of Charles, as one
of the most distinguished beauties of her time, there were many who
considered her eclipsed by the lovely and gentle being who now
filled her place. She was considerably younger than her husband; but
her attachment to him, and to her child, as well as her naturally
domestic disposition, prevented the ill effects often resulting from
disparity of years. Lord Greville, whose parents were zealous
supporters of the royal cause, had himself shared the banishment of
the second Charles; had fought by his side in his hour of peril, and
shared the revelries of his court in his after days of prosperity.
At an age when the judgement is rarely matured, unless by an untimely
encounter with the dangers and adversities of the world, such as
those disastrous times too often afforded, he had been employed with
signal success in several foreign missions; and it was universally
known that the monarch was ever prompt publicly to acknowledge the
benefit he had on many occasions derived from the prudent counsels of
his adherent, as well as from his valour in the field.
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