Holmes_; I like him because he takes such inveterate likenesses.
There is a war here; but a solitary traveller, with little baggage,
and nothing to do with politics, has nothing to fear. Pack him up
in the Diligence. Don't forget."

[Footnote 33: These lines--perhaps from some difficulty in introducing
them--were never inserted in the Tragedy.]

* * * * *

LETTER 417. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"Ravenna, April 3. 1821;

"Thanks for the translation. I have sent you some books, which I do
not know whether you have read or no--you need not return them, in
any case. I enclose you also a letter from Pisa. I have neither
spared trouble nor expense in the care of the child; and as she was
now four years old complete, and quite above the control of the
servants--and as a _man_ living without any woman at the head of
his house cannot much attend to a nursery--I had no resource but to
place her for a time (at a high pension too) in the convent of
Bagna-Cavalli (twelve miles off), where the air is good, and where
she will, at least, have her learning advanced, and her morals and
religion inculcated.[34] I had also another reason;--things were
and are in such a state here, that I had no reason to look upon my
own personal safety as particularly insurable; and I thought the
infant best out of harm's way, for the present.

"It is also fit that I should add that I by no means intended, nor
intend, to give a _natural_ child an _English_ education, because
with the disadvantages of her birth, her after settlement would be
doubly difficult. Abroad, with a fair foreign education and a
portion of five or six thousand pounds, she might and may marry
very respectably. In England such a dowry would be a pittance,
while elsewhere it is a fortune. It is, besides, my wish that she
should be a Roman Catholic, which I look upon as the best religion,
as it is assuredly the oldest of the various branches of
Christianity. I have now explained my notions as to the _place_
where she now is--it is the best I could find for the present; but
I have no prejudices in its favour.

"I do not speak of politics, because it seems a hopeless subject,
as long as those scoundrels are to be permitted to bully states
out of their independence. Believe me,

"Yours ever an