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The Virginians: White
The boy has never seen London, and what a realm of enchantment it is! The fireworks at Vauxhall; the theater where Garrick plays to royalty; Doctor Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the wits of the day whom one meets at White's or the Cocoa-Tree! What is Tunbridge Wells after seeing London! Harry takes lodgings--luxurious lodgings, for must he not maintain the dignity of his family? And he goes to White's in his chair, where the gay macaronis are only too ready to welcome him and gamble the gold from out his pocket. To London, too, come the Lamberts, and with them General Wolfe, whom Harry has already met at Tunbridge. Every-body comes to London, and an alluring career our Virginian leads there. Then suddenly his luck changes. One evening he loses at White's; he loses a second evening, and a third. He plays with my Lord Castlewood (my lord's honor at cards might be challenged) and all his hoard of wealth is swept away. Creditors appear. Tradesmen who were servile but a day or two before now become insolent. Presently on returning from an evening party Harry Warrington is arrested for debt and led away to Chancery Lane.
It is incredible! The misfortune is, however, merely temporary, he tells himself. Some one of the many friends who have shared his money and drunk his wine will, of course, come forward and go bail for him. He writes to first one and then another. Not one of them will aid him. The baroness sends a proposal that if he will give up his marriage to Lady Maria she will pay his debts and release him from his present embarrassing dilemma. This Harry refuses to do. Has not Maria but a moment before come to him, loyally offering to give him her jewelry and trinkets? Keen-eyed woman of the world that she is, Maria has not miscalculated the effect of this dramatic action. It binds Harry to her more securely than ever.
It is just as Colonel Lambert and General Wolfe are coming to the boy's aid that a miracle occurs.
Into the jail stalks George Esmond Warrington, the beloved brother who was supposed to have been killed two years before. He quickly discharges Harry's indebtedness and the two go away together, happy as children. But what a revolution the appearance of this elder brother makes in society's attitude toward poor Harry! He is no longer the favored child of fortune. Debts are nothing--everybody has those. Nor is the jail a disgrace. Many a darling of fashion has passed a night there. But to be a younger son! Society turns up its nose. Accordingly it is George Esmond Warrington who now becomes the idol, while Harry is thrust into the background. Acquaintances pass him by. What right had the wretch to masquerade as heir to the Esmond estates? The story of his brother's rescue from death is a thin one. No doubt the scapegrace knew all along that George was alive.
Had there not been the deepest and most enduring affection between the twins such a state of affairs might perhaps have created a breach between them. As it is they pay no heed to society's cruel tongue.
George meets the baroness, the Castlewoods, and the Lamberts, and immediately falls in love with Theo. He also meets Lady Maria, and after telling her that Harry will now have no fortune that far-sighted worldling breaks off the match of her own accord. It was the money she wanted, not Harry. Our young rascal is jubilant enough to be free and in due time casts in his lot with the army, going with the English to France and later with General Wolfe against Canada. In both these campaigns he wins distinction which reinstates him with his former friends.
But he has had enough of London. His mother is growing old and he will go to her. He arrives just as the Colonies are on the brink of revolution. Madam Esmond is still a stout royalist; but Harry, a child of the younger generation, is a Virginian, an American. He joins General Washington, the friend of his youth, and serves under him through the war for independence. In the mean time George Esmond Warrington, dressed in a coat of scarlet, is serving the king in the command of General Clinton.
The two factions clash, but the Warringtons contrive to meet and exchange greetings. Their politics may differ, but their hearts are unchanged one toward the other.
Eventually George weds Theo Lambert and settles down in the Old World, an English gentleman; but General Harry Warrington ends his days in Virginia. "On the library wall of one of the most famous writers of America there hang two crossed swords which his relatives wore in the great War of Independence. The one sword was gallantly drawn in the service of the king, the other was the weapon of a brave and honored republican soldier," says Thackeray. "The colonel in scarlet, and the general in blue and buff, hang side by side in the wainscoted parlor of the Warringtons in England, their love never having materially diminished, however angrily the contest divided them. . . . These effigies have always gone by the name of 'The Virginians,' by which name their memoris are christened."