Morning, noon, and evening
the loving companion of the Count Sobieski, she saw with deepened
devotedness that the brave and princely virtues did not reign alone
in his bosom. Their full lustre was rendered less intense by the
softening shades of those gentler amenities which are the soothers
and sweeteners of life. His breast seemed the residence of love--of a
love that not only infused a warmer existence through her soul, but
diffused such a light of benevolence over every being within its
influence, that all appeared happy who caught a beam of his eye--all
enchanted who shared the magic of his smile. Under what different
aspects had she seen this man! Yet how consistent! At the first
period of their acquaintance, she beheld him, like that glorious orb
which her ardent fancy told her he resembled, struggling with the
storm, or looking dimmed, yet unmoved, through the clouds which
obscured his path; but now, like the radiant sun of summer amidst a
splendid sky, he seemed to stand the source of light, and love, and
joy.
Thus did the warm fancy and warmer heart of Mary Beaufort paint the
image of her lover; and when Sir Robert received intelligence that
the Scottish party had arrived in town and were impatient for the
company of the beloved inhabitants of Deerhurst, while preparing to
revisit the proud and gay world, she confessed that some embers of
human pride did sparkle in her own bosom at the anticipation of
witnessing the homage which they who had despised the unfriended
Constantine tine would pay to the declared and illustrious Sobieski.
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