hout seeing any person
he could suspect of having wrote the letter, and then rode away: but
chancing to turn his head when he reached Hyde-Park-Corner, he perceived
a man standing at the bridge, and looking at the water, within twenty
yards of the tree which was described in the letter. He forthwith
rode back at a gentle pace, and, passing by the person, expected to be
addressed: but as no advance of this kind was made, he, in repassing,
bowed to the stranger, and asked if he had not something to communicate?
The man replying, "No, I don't know you;" the duke told him his name,
adding, "Now you know me, I imagine you have something to say to me."
But he still answered in the negative, and the duke rode home. In a
day or two after this transaction, another letter was brought to him,
couched in the following terms:

"My Lord,--You receive this as an acknowledgment of your punctuality as
to the time and place of meeting on Sunday last, though it was owing to
you it answered no purpose. The pageantry of being armed, and the
ensign of your order, were useless and too conspicuous. You needed
no attendant, the place was not calculated for mischief, nor was any
intended. If you walk in the west aisle of Westminster Abbey, towards
eleven o'clock on Sunday next, your sagacity will point the person whom
you will address, by asking his company to take a turn or two with you.
You will not fail, on inquiry, to be acquainted with the name and place
of abode. According to which direction you will please to send two or
three hundred pound bank-notes the next day by the penny post. Exert
not your curiosity too early; it is in your power to make me grateful
on certain terms. I have friends who are faithful, but they do not bark
before they bite.--"I am, &c, F."

The duke, determining if possible to unveil this mystery, repaired to
the Abbey at the time prescribed; and, after having walked up and down
for five or six minutes, saw the very same person to whom he had
spoken in Hyde-Park, enter the Abbey with another man of a creditable
appearance. This last, after they had viewed some of the monuments, went
into the choir, and the other turning back advanced towards the duke,
who, accosting him, asked him if he had anything to say to him," or
any commands for him? He replied, "No, my lord. I have not."--"Sure you
have," said the duke; but he persisted in his denial. Then the duke,
leaving him, took several turns in the aisle, while the stra