"I do not know what the Duke means by marching into the
disturbed districts," said Lord Marney to Captain Grouse.
"These are disturbed districts. There have been three fires
in one week, and I want to know what disturbance can be worse
than that? In my opinion this is a mere anti-corn-law riot to
frighten the government; and suppose they do stop the mills--
what then? I wish they were all stopped, and then one might
live like a gentleman again?"
Egremont, between whom and his brother a sort of bad-tempered
good understanding had of late years to a certain degree
flourished, in spite of Lord Marney remaining childless, which
made him hate Egremont with double distilled virulence, and
chiefly by the affectionate manoeuvres of their mother, but
whose annual visits to Marney had generally been limited to
the yeomanry week, arrived from London the same day as the
letter of the Lord Lieutenant, as he had learnt that his
brother's regiment, in which he commanded a troop, as well as
the other yeomanry corps in the North of England, must
immediately take the field.
Five years had elapsed since the commencement of our history,
and they had brought apparently much change to the character
of the brother of Lord Marney.
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