l you that I am extremely glad (whosoever gave you the
occasion) to hear from you, since (without compliment) there are very
few persons in the world I am more concerned in; to find that you have
overcome your long journey, and that you are well and in a place where
'tis possible for me to see you, is such a satisfaction as I, who have
not been used to many, may be allowed to doubt of. Yet I will hope my
eyes do not deceive me, and that I have not forgot to read; but if you
please to confirm it to me by another, you know how to direct it, for I
am where I was, still the same, and always

Your humble servant,

D. OSBORNE.

For Mrs. Paynter,
In Covent Garden.

(Keep this letter till it be called for.)

_Letter 3._

_January 2nd, 1653._

Sir,--If there were anything in my letter that pleased you I am
extremely glad on't, 'twas all due to you, and made it but an equal
return for the satisfaction yours gave me. And whatsoever you may
believe, I shall never repent the good opinion I have with so much
reason taken up. But I forget myself; I meant to chide, and I think this
is nothing towards it. Is it possible you came so near me as Bedford and
would not see me? Seriously, I should not have believed it from another;
would your horse had lost all his legs instead of a hoof, that he might
not have been able to carry you further, and you, something that you
valued extremely, and could not hope to find anywhere but at Chicksands.
I could wish you a thousand little mischances, I am so angry with you;
for my life I could not imagine how I had lost you, or why you should
call that a silence of six or eight weeks which you intended so much
longer. And when I had wearied myself with thinking of all the
unpleasing accidents that might cause it, I at length sat down with a
resolution to choose the best to believe, which was that at the end of
one journey you had begun another (which I had heard you say you
intended), and that your haste, or something else, had hindered you from
letting me know it. In this ignorance your letter from Breda found me.
But for God's sake let me ask you what you have done all this while you
have been away; what you have met with in Holland that could keep you
there so long; why you went no further; and why I was not to know you
went so far? You may do well to satisfy me in all these. I shall so
persecute you with questions else, when I see you, that you will be glad
to go thither again to avoid m