I expressed to the Colonel my apprehensions, that his cousin’s dying injunctions would not have the force upon him that were to be wished.

‘They have great force upon me, Mr. Belford,’ said he; ’or one world would not have held Mr. Lovelace and me thus long.  But my intention is to go to Florence; and not to lay my bones there, as upon my cousin’s death I told you I thought to do; but to settle all my affairs in those parts, and then to come over, and reside upon a little paternal estate in Kent, which is strangely gone to ruin in my absence.  Indeed, were I to meet Mr. Lovelace, either here or abroad, I might not be answerable for the consequence.’

He would have engaged me for to-morrow.  But having promised to attend Mr. Lovelace on his journey, as I have mentioned, I said, I was obliged to go out of town, and was uncertain as to the time of my return in the evening.  And so I am to see him on Thursday morning at my own lodgings.

I will do myself the honour to write again to your Lordship to-morrow night.  Mean time, I am, my Lord,

Your Lordship’s, &c.

LETTER LIII

Mr. Belford, to Lord M.
WEDN.  Night, Oct. 4.

MY LORD,

I am just returned from attending Mr. Lovelace as far as Gad’s-Hill, near Rochester.  He was exceeding gay all the way.  Mowbray and Tourville are gone on with him.  They will see him embark, and under sail; and promise to follow him in a month or two; for they say, there is no living without him, now he is once more himself.

He and I parted with great and even solemn tokens of affection; but yet not without gay intermixtures, as I will acquaint your Lordship.

Taking me aside, and clasping his arms about me, ‘Adieu, dear Belford!’ said he:  ’may you proceed in the course you have entered upon!—­Whatever airs I give myself, this charming creature has fast hold of me here—­ [clapping his hand upon his heart]:  and I must either appear what you see me, or be what I so lately was—­O the divine creature!’ lifting up his eyes——­

’But if I live to come to England, and you remain fixed in your present way, and can give me encouragement, I hope rather to follow your example, than to ridicule you for it.  This will [for I had given him a copy of it] I will make the companion of my solitary hours.  You have told me a part of its melancholy contents; and that, and her posthumous letter, shall be my study; and they will prepare me for being your disciple, if you hold on.

‘You, Jack, may marry,’ continued he; ’and I have a wife in my eye for you.—­Only thou’rt such an awkward mortal:’  [he saw me affected, and thought to make me smile:] ’but we don’t make ourselves, except it be worse by our dress.  Thou art in mourning now, as well as I:  but if ever thy ridiculous turn lead thee again to be beau-brocade, I will bedizen thee, as the girls say, on my return, to my own fancy, and according to thy own natural appearance——­Thou shalt doctor my soul, and I will doctor thy body:  thou shalt see what a clever fellow I will make of thee.