I told my mother that I had done nothing, absolutely nothing, but
attend to the wants of my son's people, just as I had been used to
see my grandmother, and my aunt Thistlewood, or any English lady, do
at home.
'And to what had that brought England?' cried my mother. 'No, child,
those creatures have no gratitude nor proper feeling. There is
nothing to do but to keep them down. See how they are hampering and
impeding the Queen and the Cardinal here, refusing the registry of
the taxes forsooth, as if it were not honour enough to maintain the
King's wars and the splendour of his Court, and enable the nobility
to shine!'
'Surely it is our duty to do something for them in return,' I said;
but I was silenced with assurances that if I wished to preserve the
wardship of my child, I must conform in everything; nay, that my own
liberty was in danger.
Solivet had hinted as much, and the protection of my child was a
powerful engine; but--shall I confess it?--it galled and chafed me
terribly to feel myself taken once more into leading-strings. I, who
had for three years governed my house as a happy honoured wife, and
for three more had been a chatelaine, complimented by the old uncle,
and after his death, the sole ruler of my son's domain; I was not at
all inclined to return into tutelage, and I could not look on my
mother after these six years, as quite the same conclusive authority
as I thought her when I left her.
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