As I have already troubled your brother with more than he will find
pleasure in deciphering, you are the next to whom I shall assign the difficult
employment of perusing this 2nd epistle. You will perceive from my 1st, that no idea of
Mrs. B.’s arrival had disturbed me at
the time it was written; not so the present, since the appearance of a note from the illustrious cause of my sudden decampment
has driven the ‘natural ruby from my cheeks,’ and completely blanched
my woe-begone countenance. This gunpowder intimation of her arrival (confound her
activity!) breathes less of terror and dismay than you will probably imagine from the
volcanic temperament of her ladyship,
and concludes with the comfortable assurance of all present
motion being prevented by the fatigue of her journey, for which my blessings are due to the rough roads and restive quadrupeds of his
majesty’s highways. As I have not the smallest inclination to be chased round the
country, I shall e’en make a merit of necessity, and since, like Macbeth, ‘They’ve tied me to the stake, I
cannot fly’ I shall imitate that valorous tyrant, and ‘bear-like
fight the course,’ all escape being precluded. I can now engage with less
disadvantage, having drawn the enemy from her intrenchments, though, like the prototype to whom I have compared myself, with an excellent
| 72 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1806. |
“I shall remain in town for, at least, a week, and expect to hear from you before its expiration. I presume the printer has brought you the offspring of my poetic mania. Remember, in the first line, to read ‘loud the winds whistle,’ instead of ‘round,’ which that blockhead Ridge has inserted by mistake, and makes nonsense of the whole stanza. Addio!—Now to encounter my Hydra. Yours ever.”
