Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

'4 RAVENSHOE.
son than Lord Segur, the leading Roman Catholic nobleman of
the county. He, accompanied by several of the leading gentlemen of the same persuasion, burst into the room where the
Squire sat, overpowered him, and, putting him bound into a
coach, carried him off to Segur Castle, and locked him up. It
took all the strength of the Popish party to save him from attainder. The Church rallied right bravely round the old house,
which had always assisted her with sword and purse, and never
once had wavered in its allegiance. So, while nobler heads went
down, Ambrose Ravenshoe's remained on his shoulders.
Ambrose died in 1759.
John (Monseigneur) in 1771.
Howard in 1800. He first took the Claycomb hounds.
Petre in 1820. He married Alicia, only daughter of Charles,
third Earl of Ascot, and was succeeded by Densil, the first of our
dramatis personae,- the first of all this shadowy line that we
shall see in the flesh. He was born in the year 1783, and married, first in 1812, at his father's desire, a Miss Winkleigh, of
whom I know nothing; and second, at his own desire, in 1823,
Susan, fourth daughter of Lawrence Petersham, Esq., of Fairford Grange, county Worcester, by whom he had issue: —
Cuthbert, born 1826.
Charles, born 1831.
Densil was an only son. His father, a handsome, careless,
good-humored, but weak and superstitious man, was entirely in
the hands of the priests, who during his life were undisputed
masters of Ravenshoe. Lady Alicia was, as I have said, a
daughter of Lord Ascot, a Staunton, as stanchly Protestant a
house as any in England. She, however, managed to fall in
love with the handsome young Popish Squire, and to elope with
him, changing not only her name, but, to the dismay of her family, her faith also, and becoming, pervert-like, more actively
bigoted than her easy-going husband. She brought little or no
money into the family; and, from her portrait, appears to have
been exceedingly pretty, and monstrously silly.
To this strong-minded couple was born, two years after their
marriage, a son, who was called Densil.
This young gentleman seems to have got on much like other
young gentlemen till the age of twenty-one, when it was determined by the higher powers in conclave assembled that he
should go to London and see the world; and so, having been
cautioned duly how to avoid the flesh and the devil, to see the
world he went. In a short time intelligence came to the confessor of the family, and through him to the father and mother, that
Densil was seeing the world with a vengeance; that he was the
constant companion of the Right Honorable Viscount Saltire, the