Vellenaux by Edmund William Forrest


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Page 1

This gallant Knight had rendered that Monarch great service during his
wars in France, especially at Agincourt, where his skill and bravery was
so conspicuous, and used to so great advantage, that King Henry, on his
return to England, rewarded his faithful follower with a grant of land
in Devonshire, on which he was enabled, with the spoils he had acquired
and the ransoms received from his French prisoners of note, to erect a
magnificent chateaux, which he called Vellenaux, after Francois, Count
De Vellenaux, a French noble, whose ransom contributed largely to its
construction. Here he continued to reside until his death, which
occurred several years after.

It was now an irregular edifice, having been partially destroyed and
otherwise defaced during the contests which ensued between the cavaliers
and roundheads at the time of the Commonwealth. Since then alterations
and additions had been made by his successors, and, although of
different styles of architecture, was now one of the handsomest and most
picturesque structures that could be met with throughout the length and
breadth of the shire.

A broad avenue of noble elms led from the lodge at the entrance of the
domain and opened upon a beautiful carriage drive that wound round the
velvet lawn, which formed a magnificent and spacious oval in front of
the grand entrance.

Beneath the outspreading branches of the venerable oaks, with which the
home park was studded, browsed the red and fallow deer, who, on the
approach of any equestrian parties, or at the advance of some
aristocratic vehicle bearing its freight of gay, laughing guests towards
the hospitable mansion, would toss their antlered heads, or, startled,
seek the cover of those green shady alleys leading to the beech woods
which adjoined the park and stretched away towards the coast of Devon.

Sir Jasper, who was still a bachelor, and on the shady side of sixty,
retained much of the fire and energy of his earlier years, although at
times subject to an infirmity which the medical faculty describe as
emanating from disease of the heart. He had served with great
distinction during the Peninsular war, under the iron Duke, but, on
succeeding to the Baronetcy, left the service and retired to his present
estate, where he spent most of his time at this his favorite residence,
as hunting, shooting and field sports generally had for him a charm
that no allurements of city life could tempt him to forego; besides he
had, in the earlier part of his military career, visited many of the gay
capitals of Europe and engaged in the exciting pleasures always to be
met with in such places, until he had become satiated and lost all taste
for such scenes. His kind heartedness and benevolence won for him the
esteem of the neighboring gentry.

On the morning in question the Baronet, who had but the evening previous
returned from London, entered his study, and seating himself in an easy
chair, drew towards him a small but elaborately carved antique
escritoire, and for several moments was deeply engaged in the perusal of
certain papers and memoranda; finally he drew from his pocket a sealed
packet which, having opened carefully, he read over; then as if not
quite satisfied with the contents, allowed the paper to slip from his
hand to the table before him and was soon lost in thought. An English
gentleman, unquestionably in the highest sense of the word, was Sir
Jasper Coleman; a true type of that class who, from the time of the
Norman conquest to the present day, whether beneath the Torrid or Frigid
Zone's; on the bloody battlefield, or launching their thunders on the
billows of the white-crested main, nobly upheld the honor of their
country's flag, whose heroic deeds and honorable names have been handed
down unsullied and untarnished for many generations. Since leaving the
service the worthy Baronet had taken no part in the political events of
the nation, but devoted himself entirely to the welfare of his numerous
tenantry, and those residing in the neighborhood of his large estate, to
whom assistance and advice was at all times needed, nor was it ever
withheld or given grudgingly when any case of real distress came under
his notice.

A fine subject fog poet's pen or artist's pencil was that aristocratic
old warrior, as he sat there gazing upon the rich woodlands warmed by
the glorious autumn sun, thinking over by-gone days--days when he had
loitered by some fair one's side in many a brilliant assembly, or when
his nerves were steady and his voice all powerful, leading the charge on
many a well-fought field. How long he might have remained ruminating on
things of the past it is impossible to say; the retrospect might have
continued much longer had not his attention been arrested by a slight
noise, when suddenly raising his head a smile of pleasure lit up his
finely cut features as the door opened and a lovely girl, just merging
into womanhood, stepped softly into the room. She was, indeed, very
beautiful; hair of the darkest shade of brown hung in long and glossy
curls from her perfectly shaped head, and rested on the exquisite white
neck and shoulders, the contrast of which showed to a great degree the
almost alabaster whiteness of her skin; grecian nose, and eyes of the
deepest blue, whose long lashes, when veiled, rested lovingly on her
damask cheek, and when raised, revealed a depth and brilliancy which
does not often fall to the lot of mortals; a mouth not too small, whose
beautifully shaped lips, when parted, disclosed to the beholder teeth of
ivory whiteness, small and most evenly set, dazzling indeed was the
effect of those pearly treasures; tall, slight, and elegantly formed,
with a bearing aristocratic and queenly in the extreme; what wonder that
she was the sunshine of old Sir Jasper's declining days and his much and
dearly loved niece.

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Books | Photos | Paul Mutton | Fri 7th Feb 2025, 1:55