to destroy, and the good
to the world I have thereby been a mean of frustrating, I can pronounce
d----n----n upon myself. How then can I expect mercy any where else?

I believe I shall have no patience with you when I see you. Your d----d
stings and reflections have almost turned my brain.

But here Lord M. they tell me, is come!--D----n him, and those who sent
for him!

I know not what I have written. But her dear heart and a lock of her
hair I will have, let who will be the gainsayers! For is she not mine?
Whose else can she be? She has no father nor mother, no sister, no
brother, no relations but me. And my beloved is mine, and I am her's--
and that's enough.--But Oh!--

She's out. The damp of death has quench'd her quite!
Those spicy doors, her lips, are shut, close lock'd,
Which never gale of life shall open more!

And is it so?--Is it indeed so?--Good God!--Good God!--But they will not
let me write on. I must go down to this officious Peer--Who the devil
sent for him?

LETTER XXIV

MR. BELFORD, TO RICHARD MOWBRAY, ESQ.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 10. FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON.

I have your's, with our unhappy friend's enclosed. I am glad my Lord is
with him. As I presume that his phrensy will be but of short
continuance, I most earnestly wish, that on his recovery he could be
prevailed upon to go abroad. Mr. Morden, who is inconsolable, has seen
by the will, (as indeed he suspected before he read it,) that the case
was more than a common seduction; and has dropt hints already, that he
looks on himself, on that account, as freed from his promises made to the
dying lady, which were, that he would not seek to avenge her death.

You must make the recovery of his health the motive for urging him on
this head; for, if you hint at his own safety, he will not stir, but
rather seek the Colonel.

As to the lock of hair, you may easily pacify him, (as you once saw the
angel,) with hair near the colour, if he be intent upon it.

At my Lord's desire I will write on, and in my common hand; that you may
judge what is, and what is not, fit to be read to Mr. Lovelace at
present. But as I shall not forbear reflections as I go along, in hopes
to reach his heart on his recovery, I think it best to direct myself to
him still, and that as if he were not disordered.

As I shall not have leisure to take copies, and yet am willing to have
the whole subject before me, for my own future contemplation, I mus