He was a stern father and a severe master.

His servants hated, and his wife feared him.

His only son Richard appeared to inherit his father's strong will and imperious manner.

Under careful supervision and a just rule he might have been guided to good; but left to his own devices outside, and galled by the iron yoke of parental discipline at home, he became reckless and prodigal.

The mother--poor, timid Ellinor, who had been rudely torn from the love of her youth, her cousin, Lord Bellasis--tried to restrain him, but the head-strong boy, though owning for his mother that strong love which is often a part of such violent natures, proved intractable, and after three years of parental feud, he went off to the Continent, to pursue there the same reckless life which in London had offended Sir Richard.