Princess Pocahontas, as she was called, was to be envied in the midst of
her dominions. The Princess's husband, who was cut off in early life, was
as well perhaps out of the way. Had he survived his marriage by many
years, they would have quarrelled fiercely, or, he would infallibly have
been a henpecked husband, of which sort there were a few specimens still
extant a hundred years ago. The truth is, little Madam Esmond never came
near man or woman, but she tried to domineer over them. If people obeyed,
she was their very good friend; if they resisted, she fought and fought
until she or they gave in. We are all miserable sinners that's a fact we
acknowledge in public every Sunday--no one announced it in a more clear
resolute voice than the little lady. As a mortal, she may have been in
the wrong, of course; only she very seldom acknowledged the circumstance
to herself, and to others never. Her father, in his old age, used to
watch her freaks of despotism, haughtiness, and stubbornness, and amuse
himself with them. She felt that his eye was upon her; his humour, of
which quality she possessed little herself, subdued and bewildered her.
But, the Colonel gone, there was nobody else whom she was disposed to
obey,--and so I am rather glad for my part that I did not live a hundred
years ago at Castlewood in Westmorland County in Virginia. I fancy, one
would not have been too happy there. Happy, who is happy? Was not there a
serpent in Paradise itself? and if Eve had been perfectly happy
beforehand, would she have listened to him?

The management of the house of Castlewood had been in the hands of the
active little lady long before the Colonel slept the sleep of the just.
She now exercised a rigid supervision over the estate; dismissed Colonel
Esmond's English factor and employed a new one; built, improved, planted,
grew tobacco, appointed a new overseer, and imported a new tutor. Much as
she loved her father, there were some of his maxims by which she was not
inclined to abide. Had she not obeyed her papa and mamma during all their