marry the whole of that German family with whom he had connected himself), that I found my mistress one day in tears, and then besought her to confide herself to the care and devotion of one who, by God’s help, would never forsake her.  And then the tender matron, as beautiful in her Autumn, and as pure as virgins in their spring, with blushes of love and “eyes of meek surrender,” yielded to my respectful importunity, and consented to share my home.  Let the last words I write thank her, and bless her who hath blessed it.

By the kindness of Mr. Addison, all danger of prosecution, and every obstacle against our return to England, was removed; and my son Frank’s gallantry in Scotland made his peace with the King’s government.  But we two cared no longer to live in England:  and Frank formally and joyfully yielded over to us the possession of that estate which we now occupy, far away from Europe and its troubles, on the beautiful banks of the Potomac, where we have built a new Castlewood, and think with grateful hearts of our old home.  In our Transatlantic country we have a season, the calmest and most delightful of the year, which we call the Indian summer:  I often say the autumn of our life resembles that happy and serene weather, and am thankful for its rest and its sweet sunshine.  Heaven hath blessed us with a child, which each parent loves for her resemblance to the other.  Our diamonds are turned into ploughs and axes for our plantations; and into negroes, the happiest and merriest, I think, in all this country:  and the only jewel by which my wife sets any store, and from which she hath never parted, is that gold button she took from my arm on the day when she visited me in prison, and which she wore ever after, as she told me, on the tenderest heart in the world.