“Do you think,” I said, “that he would have known how to snuff the candles?” “I rather think not,” says Mr. Lewis.  Mie Mie is more satisfied with his talents; she thought him an excellent Escaramouche; ce seroit quelque chose au moins.  But I am more disposed to think that Mr. Lewis is in the right, and I hope, for the young nobleman’s own sake, that toutes les fois qu’il s’avise de se donner en spectacle, et faire de pareilles folies, il aura manque a sa vocation.  Sa mere ne jouoit pas un beau role, mais elle y a mieux reussi.

But enough at present of this.  No harm of any sort has come from it, but Mie Mie tells me that Mr. Campbell’s anxiety the whole time was excessive.  After all, she was not in the places which I had provided for the greater security, but went into those which were originally intended for her.  The Prince was there, but not the Duke of York, or my friend the Duke of Q.

Now a d’autres choses.  I have in my last fright forgot one where there were better grounds for it.  The day I wrote to you last, as you know, I was at Isleworth.  Coming from thence, and when I landed, the first thing I heard was that people with guns were in pursuit of a mad dog, that he had run into the Duke’s garden.  Mie Mie came the first naturally into my thoughts; she is there sometimes by herself reading.  My impatience to get home, and uneasiness till I found that she was safe and in her room, n’est pas a concevoir.  The dog bit several other dogs, a blue-coat boy, and two children, before he was destroyed.  John St. John, who dined with me, had met him in a narrow lane, near Mrs. Boverie’s, him and his pursuers.  John had for his defence a stick, with a heavy handle.  He struck him with this, and for the moment got clear of him; il l’a culbute.  It is really dreadful; for ten days to come we shall be in a terror, not knowing what dogs may have been bitten.  Some now may have le cerveau qui commence a se troubler.

John(291) has a legacy from Lord Guilford(292) of 200 pounds a year, the General(293) one of a thousand pounds; Mr. Keene has a hundred.  He has left in legacies about 16,000 pounds, as Mr. Williams tells me, but not much ready money besides.  His estate was about 2 or 3,000 per annum.  It is to be a Peer, I hear, who shall succeed him.  I will write no more to-day.  I will send you the extract from Lady Sutherland’s(294) letter in my next.  The President has told me this morning that Mr. Neckar(295) a faille d’etre pendu.  Il voulut tirer son epingle du jeu; il fut sur le point de partir; on ne pousse pas la Liberte a ce point en France; il n’avait pas demande permission a la Populace; ainsi, sans autre forme de proces, on voulut le conduire du Controle a la Lanterne.  I am glad to hear that the brats are well.  You set off, I understand, on Tuesday; so this will find you in your Chateau antique et romanesque.  J’en respecte meme les murailles; tout y a un air si respectable.

I will write to my Lord in a few days, and when I hope to have seen the Dean, but from what his neighbour Mr. Woodcock told me yesterday, I shall have nothing very comfortable to tell him touchant la sante de son bon precepteur, ni sur la mienne; elle exige un management et une regime que je n’ai pas encore observee avec la rigueur necessaire.