The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench’d by an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding.
Sir Walter Scott
Macbeth.
AFTER THIS PERIOD, but under the most strict precautions
against discovery, the sisters corresponded occasionally,
exchanging letters about twice every year. Those
of Lady Staunton spoke of her husband’s health and
spirits as being deplorably uncertain; her own seemed
also to be sinking, and one of the topics on which she
most frequently dwelt was their want of family. Sir
George Staunton, always violent, had taken some aversion
at the next heir, whom he suspected of having irri-
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tated his friends against him during his absence; and he
declared, he would bequeath Willingham and all its lands
to an hospital, ere that fetch-and-carry tell-tale should
inherit an acre of it.
“Had he but a child,” said the unfortunate wife, “or
had that luckless infant survived, it would be some motive
for living and for exertion. But Heaven has denied
us a blessing which we have not deserved.”
Such complaints, in varied form, but turning frequently
on the same topic, filled the letters which passed
from the spacious but melancholy halls of Willingham,
to the quiet and happy parsonage at Knocktarlitie. Years
meanwhile rolled on amid these fruitless repinings. John,
Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, died in the year 1743,
universally lamented, but by none more than by the
Butlers, to whom his benevolence had been so distinguished.
He was succeeded by his brother Duke
Archibald, with whom they had not the same intimacy;
but who continued the protection which his brother had
extended towards them. This, indeed, became more necessary
than ever; for, after the breaking out and sup-