sons in my state of mind, I shall proceed immediately
to acquaint you with the motive and end of addressing this epistle to
you, which is equally interesting to us both. You are to know, then,
that my present situation in life is such, that I should prefer
annihilation to a continuance in it. Desperate diseases require
desperate remedies; and you are the man I have pitched upon, either to
make me or unmake yourself. As I never had the honour to live among the
great, the tenor of my proposals will not be very courtly; but let that
be an argument to enforce a belief of what I am now going to write.
It has employed my invention for some time, to find out a method
of destroying another without exposing my own life: that I have
accomplished, and defy the law. Now, for the application of it. I am
desperate, and must be provided for. You have it in your power: it is
my business to make it your inclination to serve me, which you must
determine to comply with, by procuring me a genteel support for my life,
or your own will be at a period before this session of parliament
is over. I have more motives than one for singling you out upon this
occasion; and I give you this fair warning, because the means I shall
make use of are too fatal to be eluded by the power of physic. If you
think this of any consequence, you will not fail to meet the author on
Sunday next, at ten in the morning, or on Monday (if the weather should
be rainy on Sunday), near the first tree beyond the stile in Hyde-Park,
in the foot-walk to Kensington. Secrecy and compliance may preserve you
from a double danger of this sort, as there is a certain part of the
world where your death has more than been wished for upon other motives.
I know the world too well to trust this secret in any breast but my own.
A few days determine me your friend or enemy. "FELTON.

"You will apprehend that I mean you should be alone; and depend upon it,
that a discovery of any artifice in this affair will be fatal to you. My
safety is insured by my silence, for confession only can condemn me."

The duke, in compliance with this strange remonstrance, appeared at the
time and place appointed, on horseback and alone, with pistols before
him, and the star of his order displayed, that he might be the more
easily known. He had likewise taken the precaution of engaging a friend
to attend in the Park, at such a distance, however, as scarce to be
observable. He continued some time on the spot wit