defect to those two paltry years which have slipped by since I had the happiness to see you. I am with the truest esteem, Yours, &c. FROM THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND.* SIR, September 14, 1716. I HAD the ill-fortune to miss of that letter you upbraided me with. I had deserved any reproaches you could make me, if it had come to my hands, and I not made due acknowledgments for your inquiries after me, I will make you wish you had not been so angry with me: for I will scrawl out myself, what you would rather Betty or my maid had, for they would have made shorter work of it; but I will answer every part of yours, that you obliged me with by Mr Ford. First, as to the lady you mention, the reason I had not seen her in a great while was, my being in the country. To tell you the truth, I believe her husband has been a better courtier, than either she, or any of her sex could be; because men have it in their power to serve, and I believe hers has effectually done what lay in him. * This melancholy letter, from an amiable and unhappy lady, was written after the Duke of Ormond, her husband, had thought it necessary to escape into France, and while she was struggling with the difficulties arising from indigence, his whole fortune being forfeited, and from the neglect of her powerful friends and relatives. It is highly to Swift's honour, that if he cultivated the great and ambitious in their hour of importance, he never neglected them in their fall. You kindly ask how my affairs go. There is yet no end of them, and God only knows when there will be. For when every thing was thought done, a sudden blast has blown all hopes away, and then they give me fresh expectations. In the mean time I am forced to live upon the borrow; my goods all taken away, that I shall not so much as have a bed to lie upon, but what I must buy; and no money of my own to do that with; so that you may imagine me in a cheerful way. I pray God support me. 3 The gentleman* you inquired after is very well now. The illness you heard he had, he has been subject to a good while. What you desire, I wish were in the power of either his brother or me; but all will go from both of us of every kind. Only they that the clothes upon my back I may perhaps call my own, and that's all. I was obliged to leave the country. I was so ill there, that if I had not come to the physicians, I cannot tell what might have happened. My daughter is your most humble servant, and is pretty well in health. say, Am not I one of my word, and troubled you twice as long as you would have wished? But But you will find by this, that a woman's pen should no more be set at work than her tongue; for she never knows when to let either of them rest. But my paper puts me in mind, that I have but just room to tell you, I wish much to see you here, if it could be with your satisfaction; and that I am, with great sincerity, Sir, Your faithful humble servant, M. ORMOND. *The duke. See p. 265.-N. FROM LORD BOLINGBROKE. * Oct. 23, 1716. It is a very great truth, that, among all the losses which I have sustained, none affected me more sensibly than that of your company and correspondence; and yet, even now, I should not venture to write to you, did not you provoke me to it. A commerce of letters between two men who are out of the world, and who do not care one farthing to return into it again, must be of little moment to the state; and yet I remember enough of that world to know, that the most innocent things become criminal in some men, as the most criminal pass applauded in others. Your letter breathes the same spirit as your conversation, at all times inspired, even when the occasions of practising the severest rules of virtuous fortitude seemed most remote; if such occasions could ever seem remote to men, who are under the direc tion of your able and honest friend Sir Roger. † To write about myself is no agreeable task, but your commands are sufficient at once to determine and excuse me. Know, therefore, that my health is far better than it has been a great while; that the money which I brought over with me will hold out some time longer; and that I have secured a small *Endorsed, "The 'Squire.-Received Nov. 7, 1716."-N. + Sir Roger is the name given to Lord-Treasurer Oxford, in the history of John Bull. As Bolingbroke is known to have hated and despised the treasurer, the words able and honest must be taken ironically.-H. fund, which will yield in any part of the world a revenue sufficient for one, qui peut se retrancher même avec plaisir dans la médiocrité. I use a French expression, because I have not one that pleases me ready in English. During several months after leaving that obscure retreat, into which I had thrown myself last year, I went through all the mortifying circumstances imaginable. * At present I enjoy, as far as I consider myself, great complacency of mind; but this inward satisfaction is em The following was the apology which Bolingbroke offered for his flight from England: "MY LORD, Dover, March 27, 1715. "I left town so abruptly that I had no time to take leave of you or any of my friends. You will excuse me when you know that I had certain and repeated informations from some who are in the secret of affairs, that a resolution was taken by those who have power to execute it to pursue me to the scaffold. My blood was to have been the cement of a new alliance; nor could my innocence be any security after it had been once demanded from abroad, and resolved on at home, that it was necessary to cut me off. Had there been the least reason to hope for a fair and open trial, after having been already prejudged, unheard, by two houses of parliament, I should not have declined the strictest examination. I challenge the most inveterate of my enemies to produce any one instance of a criminal correspondence, or the least corruption in any part of the administration where I was concerned. If my zeal for the honour and dignity of my royal mistress, and the true interest of my country, has any where transported me to let slip a warm and unguarded expression, I hope the most favourable interpretation will be put upon it. It is a comfort that will remain with me in all my misfortunes, that I served her majesty faithfully and dutifully, in that especially which she had most at heart, relieving her people from a bloody and expensive war; and that I have also been too much an Englishman to sacrifice the interest of my country to any foreign ally: and it is for this crime only that I am now driven from thence. You shall hear more at large from me shortly. Yours, &c."-Biogr. Brit. Lond. 1760, Vol. V. p. 3569. bittered, when I consider the condition of my friends. They are got into a dark hole, where they grope about after blind guides; stumble from mistake to mistake; jostle against one another, and dash their heads against the wall; and all this to no purpose. For assure yourself that there is no returning to light; no going out, but by going back.* My style is mystic, but it is your trade to deal in mysteries, and therefore I add neither comment nor excuse. You will understand me; and I conjure you to be persuaded that if I could have half an hour's conversation with you, for which I would barter whole hours of life, you would stare, haul your wig, and bite paper more than ever you did in your life. Adieu, dear friend; may the kindest influence of Heaven be shed upon you. Whether we may ever meet again, that Heaven only knows; if we do, what millions of things shall we have to talk over! In the mean while, believe that nothing sits so near my heart as my country and my friends; and that among these you ever had, and ever shall have, a principal place. If you write to me, direct "A Monsieur Charlot, chez Monsieur Cantillon, banquier, rue de l'Arbre sec." * Once more adieu. * Bolingbroke was now engaged in the intrigues of St Germains. His meaning may therefore, perhaps, be expressed in the words of Shakespeare: Unthread the rude eye of rebellion, And welcome home again deserted faith, Seek out King James, and fall before his feet. This is a strong picture of Swift's manner.-H. |