Edward Seymour

“ Sir Edward Seymour, who had been created lord Beauchamp the year before, was now made earl of Hertford; and high places at court and commands in the army attested the favor of his royal brother-in-law. Thomas Seymour, afterwards lord high-admiral, attained during this reign no higher dignity than that of knighthood; but considerable pecuniary grants were bestowed upon him; and whilst he saw his wealth increase, he was secretly extending his influence, and feeding his aspiring spirit with fond anticipations of future greatness. ”

“ Seymour was not less arrogant than his relative “the Proud Duke ” of Somerset; but he was described by Burnet as “ the ablest man of his party, the first speaker of the House of Commons that was not bred to thelaw; a graceful man, bold and quick, and of high birth.” Sir Edward Seymour was twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, Edward, 5th baronet, whose son Edward became the 8th duke of Somerset, and William, who became a lieutenant-general ”

“ The eldest son, Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp (1561–1612) , was born in the Tower on 24 Sept. 1561 (the exact date, in Hertford's writing, is given in a bible used by the earl in the Tower, and now at Longleat) . He owes his importance to inheriting the Suffolk claim to the royal succession [see Seymour, Catherine] . On 22 Dec. 1576 he matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not graduate. In June 1582 he married, without his father's consent, Honora, daughter of Sir Richard Rogers of Bryanstone, Dorset. ”

“ The house wont into a committee of supply, and voted his majesty the same revenue that Charles had enjoyed, namely, one million two hundred thousand pounds a year for life. But when several petitions against some of the late elections were presented, a serious opposition presented itself in a most unexpected quarter. This was from Sir Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy Castle, the member for Exeter. Seymour was both a tory and a high churchman, proud of his descent from the lord protector Seymour, and who had great influence in the western communities. ”

“ In January 1702 he was made lord lieutenant of his own county of Buckingham, only to be dismissed from this as well as all his other offices in July, upon the accession of Anne, who is said to have had a strong personal dislike for him, doubtless regarding him as the enemy of the church. The comptrollership went to his special foe, Sir Edward Seymour, whom he had done his best to injure over the East India Company inquiry. ”

“ In order to stop his flirtations, which were now becoming serious, he was clapped in the Tower, but his enemies were considerate enough to send a bishop to him to preach patience, and as Ely was selected, who prosed exceedingly, the preaching was accompanied by a practical lesson in patience, with which it is to be hoped that Seymour was sufficiently edified. He was accused of treason, and at a council the boy Edward, who had no doubt been crammed for the occasion, delivered an elaborate judgment, which his parasites puffed as extemporaneous. ”

“ Eldest son of the late Colonel Seymour, and grandson of Lord Francis Seymour, Dean of Wells, the fourth son of Edward, eighth Duke of Somerset.
This officer was born at London, Sept. 2d, 1788; and entered the royal navy, as midshipman on board the Malta 80, Captain Albemarle Bertie, in July 1801. We next find him, during the short peace of Amiens, joining the Leander 50, fitting out for the flag of Sir Andrew Mitchell, commander-in-chief on the North American station. In Feb. 1805, he assisted at the capture of la Ville de Milan, French frigate; and recapture of the Cleopatra 32 [1] . ”

“ Somerset was very stern with Edward, and kept him very short of money, so Seymour tried to win the young King's liking by kindness and by gifts of pocket-money, which kings like as well as other boys. But Seymour's enemies were too strong for him; he was shut up in the tower, and Somerset so influenced the child king that he consented to have his kind uncle condemned to death. It seems a pity that a boy so wise and good should have been so cold-hearted. It must have been because all the men around him were hard and cold ”

“ He was a most hopeful young man, and had behaved so bravely against the Turks at the siege of Vienna, that the Emperor made him a Count of the Empire. It was falsely reported that Sir Edward Seymour was dead, a great man; he had often been Speaker, Treasurer of the Navy, and in many other lucrative offices. He was of a hasty spirit, not at all sincere, but head of the party at any time prevailing in Parliament.
29th September, 1701. I kept my first courts in Surrey, which took up the whole week. My steward was Mr. ”

“ Nevertheless the entry that young Edward wrote in his journal upon the subject was as follows: ‘The Lord Seymour of Sudeley married the queen, whose name was Catherine; with which marriage the lord protector was much offended.’ The step was clearly indefensible from a political point of view; for the royal authority during the minority was properly vested in the council. Lord Seymour was a dangerous man, and seemed not unlikely now to supplant his elder brother the protector. ”

“ His enemies, such as Warwick and Southampton, who seem to have been the prime movers in Seymour's ruin, perceived more clearly than Somerset, how fatally his brother's death would undermine his own position and alienate popular favour in the struggle on which he had now embarked in the cause of the poor against the great majority of the Council and of the ruling classes in England. ”

“ You, sir, too, will understand us; and if you proceed farther with any follies you may have gotten into your head, you will incur our heavy displeasure, which is not a light matter for any man to bear. So be wise, if wisdom can enter into so young a pate. Now you may retire, sir."
Seymour bowed, and withdrew; and, to say the truth, had not the matter so much affected his happiness, he might have inclined to laugh at the reprimand of the King. ”

“ Seymour, sir, where is he?" said the deep voice of the boatswain, as he advanced farther into the room. The light fell full upon him. He was a splendid specimen of athletic manhood; tall, powerful, long-armed, slightly bent in the shoulders; decision and courage were seen in his bearing, and were written on his face, burned a dull mahogany color by years of exposure to the weather. He was clothed in the open shirt and loose trousers of a seafaring man, and he stood with his feet slightly apart, as if balancing himself to the uneasy roll of a ship. ”

“ The slow, sleepy train (the London express never stops at Clinton) jerked through the deep valleys, heavy with woods, golden brown at their heart, the low hills carrying, on their horizons, white drifting clouds that flung long grey shadows. Seymour felt suddenly as though he could never return to London again exactly as he had returned to it before. "That period of my life is over, quite over.... Some one is taking me down here now—I know that I am being compelled to go. But I want to go. I am happier than I have ever been in my life before." ”

“ A sudden Explosion—a hit by one of the Sportsmen, which the other takes amiss.
A blustering wind arose, and like a burly coachman on mounting his box, took up the rain!
The two crouching friends taking advantage of the cessation in the storm, prepared to start. But in straightening the acute angles of their legs and arms, Mr. Sprigg's piece, by some entanglement in his protecting garb, went off, and the barrel striking Mr. Grubb upon the os nasi, stretched him bawling on the humid turf.
"O! Lord! I'm shot."
"O! my heye!" exclaimed the trembling Spriggs.
"O! my nose!" roared Grubb. ”

“ I offer'd you a heart verbally, and you said 'No!' I writ this ere wollentine, and you returns it vith a big 'No!'
“O! Molly your 'No's,' is more piercinger and crueller than your heyes. Me! to be used so:—Me! as refused the vidder at the Coal Shed! (to be sure she wore a vig and I didn't vant a bald rib!) Me!—but it's o' no use talking; von may as vell make love to a lamp-post, and expect to feed von's flame vith lights! But adoo to life; this 'ere rope, fix'd round the 'best end o' the neck' will soon scrap me, and ven I'm as dead as mutton, p'r'aps you may be werry sorry. ”

“ How long did you stay upon this visit?"
"I have no desire, your Majesty," replied Seymour, with some haughtiness in his tone, "to speak aught but the truth; it is not my custom. I might have stayed with the Lady Arabella some two minutes and a half, or three minutes."
"The man says five, sir," cried the King.
"About five, your Majesty," said one of the councillors; "he is not precise."
"It may have been five, sire," answered Seymour, slightly smiling; "pleasant society makes the time pass quick, and unpleasant things will make it seem tardy--methinks I have been here an hour." ”

“ Taking advantage of the smoke and of the weather-gage, the Yarmouth was suddenly headed for the Randolph. As the enormous bows of the line-of-battle ship came slowly shoving out of the smoke, towering above them, covered with men, cutlass or boarding pike in hand, Seymour discerned at once the purpose of the manoeuvre. Raising himself upon his elbow to better direct the movement,—
"All hands repel boarders!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the ship as powerfully as ever. ”

“ Pic-nics are his delight; but he always leaves others to bring the grub, and brings nothing but himself. I hate Pic-nics, squatting in the grass don't suit me at all; when once down, I find it no easy matter to get up again, I can tell you."
Hereupon there was a general laugh.
"Talking of Pic-nics," said Mr. Timmis. "reminds me of one that was held the other day in a meadow, on the banks of the Lea. The party, consisting of ladies only, and a little boy, had just spread out their prog on a clean table-cloth, when they were alarmed by the approach of a cow. ”

“ Crobble; “d'ye think—have you any friends?”
“None, sir; my father is a poor man, and quite unable.” I could scarcely speak—like the driver of the one-horse chaise, I could neither advance nor recede.
“The father,” said Mr. Timmis, “is only a poor shoe-maker—a good fellow tho'—an excellent fit!”
“You mean to say,” cried Mr. Wallis, “it were bootless to seek security of the shoe-maker.”
A laugh ensued; and, notwithstanding my agitated feelings, I could not forbear being tickled by Mr. Wallis's humour, and joining in the merriment. ”

“ He is a splendid fellow; I wish we had him. He would be of great service to the cause, with his name and influence, and the money he would bring; and then the quality of the young man himself would be of value to us. You have met him, Seymour, I believe?"
"Yes, sir, several times; and I agree with you entirely. It is his mother who keeps him back. I have had one or two conversations with her. She is a Tory through and through."
"Not a doubt of it, not a doubt of it," said the colonel. "Katharine, can't you do something with him?" ”

“ The spanker sheet was cut in two, and the boom swept out to windward, knocking one of the men overboard. There was neither time nor opportunity to pick him up, and he went to his death unheeded.
Seymour dropped his sword, every instinct of a sailor aroused, and sprang to the horse-block. ”

“ God Almighty bless you, sir! I—" said the old seaman, breaking off suddenly and looking wistfully at the young man he loved, who, understanding it all, returned his gaze, wrung his hand, and then turned and sprang aft without another word.
The ships were rapidly closing, when Seymour's keen eye detected a dash of color and a bit of fluttering drapery on the poop of the line-of-battle ship. Wondering, he examined it through his glass.
"Why! 't is a woman," he exclaimed. ”

“ He hurried away. "If I am mad I'm awfully happy," he said.
III
The white vicarage gate closed behind him with precisely the old-remembered sound—the whiz, the sudden startled pause, the satisfied click. Seymour stood on the sun-bathed lawn, glittering now like green glass, and stared at the house. Its square front of faded red brick preserved a tranquil silence; the only sound in the place was the movement of some birds, his old friend the robin perhaps in the laurel bushes behind him. ”

“ They were rapidly drawing down upon the shoal at the point from which they must come by the wind, on the starboard tack. Some far-away lights on Cape Cod had just been lighted, which enabled Seymour to get his bearing exactly. He had talked the situation over quietly with Bentley, and they had not yet lost hope of escaping. The men had worked hard and faithfully, carrying out the various orders and lightening ship, and now, having done all, some few were lying about the deck resting, while the remainder hung over the rails gazing at their pursuer. ”

“ Although Seymour never wholly abandoned oil-painting, he mainly confined his energies to preparing illustrations for the publishers of books, journals, and caricatures. Nothing seemed to come amiss to him. He was as much at home with ‘Don Juan’ as the ‘Book of Martyrs,’ and passed with the confidence of youth from the illustrations of Demosthenes and Ovid, to Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Gay, and Southey. He thus spent six busy years, during which all his work was drawn on the wood, or at any rate with a view to the graver. He worked with extraordinary rapidity, and at a very low price. ”

“ Is not Thomas Seymour one of the first of this land? Does not all England look on him with pride and tenderness? Does not every woman to whom he deigns a look, feel herself honored? Does not the king himself smile and feel more pleased at heart, when Thomas Seymour, that young, bold, and spirited hero, stands by his side?”
“You are right!” said Catharine, whose heart every one of these enthusiastic words, lacerated like the stab of a dagger—“yes, you are right. He is worthy of being loved by you—and you could hit upon no better choice. ”