e with pleasure the hope
of consolation shine out for those unfortunate people.

In seeking to deliver Mr Asgill from the fate which threatens him, I
am far from engaging you to seek another victim; the pardon, to be
perfectly satisfactory, must be entire. I do not imagine it can be
productive of any bad consequences. If the English General has not
been able to punish the horrible crime you complain of, in so
exemplary a manner as he should, there is reason to think he will take
the most efficacious measures to prevent the like in future.

I sincerely wish, Sir, that my intercession may meet success; the
sentiment which dictates it, and which you have not ceased to manifest
on every occasion, assures me, that you will not be indifferent to the
prayers and to the tears of a family, which has recourse to your
clemency through me. It is rendering homage to your virtue to implore
it.

I have the honor to be, with the most perfect consideration, Sir,
yours, &c.

DE VERGENNES.

* * * * *

LADY ASGILL TO COUNT DE VERGENNES.

[Enclosed in the preceding.]

London, July 18th, 1782.

Sir,

If the politeness of the French Court will permit an application of a
stranger, there can be no doubt but one in which all the tender
feelings of an individual can be interested, will meet with a
favorable reception from a nobleman whose character does honor, not
only to his own country, but to human nature. The subject, Sir, on
which I presume to implore your assistance, is too heart-piercing for
me to dwell on; and common fame has, most probably, informed you of
it; it therefore renders the painful task unnecessary.

My son, (an only son) as dear as he is brave, amiable as he is
deserving to be so, only nineteen, a prisoner under the articles of
capitulation of Yorktown, is now confined in America, an object of
retaliation. Shall an innocent suffer for the guilty? Represent to
yourself, Sir, the situation of a family under these circumstances;
surrounded as I am by objects of distress, distracted with fear and
grief, no words can express my feeling, or paint the scene. My husband
given over by his physicians, a few hours before the news arrived, and
not in a state to be informed of the misfortune; my daughter seized
with a fever and delirium, raving about he