lip. "The safest
conveyance to me will be through the general post-office, Helvoetsluys,
where I will take care to leave orders for forwarding my letters. As for
Falconer, our only encounter will be over a bottle of Burgundy; so make
yourself perfectly easy on his score."

Lady Bothwell could NOT make herself easy; yet she was sensible that her
sister hurt her own cause by TAKING ON, as the maidservants call it,
too vehemently, and by showing before every stranger, by manner, and
sometimes by words also, a dissatisfaction with her husband's journey
that was sure to come to his ears, and equally certain to displease him.
But there was no help for this domestic dissension, which ended only
with the day of separation.

I am sorry I cannot tell, with precision, the year in which Sir Philip
Forester went over to Flanders; but it was one of those in which
the campaign opened with extraordinary fury, and many bloody, though
indecisive, skirmishes were fought between the French on the one side
and the Allies on the other. In all our modern improvements, there
are none, perhaps, greater than in the accuracy and speed with which
intelligence is transmitted from any scene of action to those in
this country whom it may concern. During Marlborough's campaigns, the
sufferings of the many who had relations in, or along with, the army
were greatly augmented by the suspense in which they were detained
for weeks after they had heard of bloody battles, in which, in all
probability, those for whom their bosoms throbbed with anxiety had been
personally engaged. Amongst those who were most agonized by this state
of uncertainty was the--I had almost said deserted--wife of the gay Sir
Philip Forester. A single letter had informed her of his arrival on
the Continent; no others were received. One notice occurred in the
newspapers, in which Volunteer Sir Philip Forester was mentioned as
having been entrusted with a dangerous reconnaissance, which he had
executed with the greatest courage, dexterity, and intelligence, and
received the thanks of the commanding officer. The sense of his having
acquired distinction brought a momentary glow into the lady's pale
cheek; but it was instantly lost in ashen whiteness at the recollection
of his danger. After this, they had no news whatever, neither from Sir
Philip, nor even from their brother Falconer. The case of Lady Forester
was not indeed different from that of hundreds in the same situation;
but a fe