LETTER XVIII.
Mr. Belford, To Richard Mowbray, Esq;
Sunday, Sept 10. 4 in the Afternoon.
I have yours, with our unhappy friend's inclosed. I am glad my Lord is with him. As I presume that his phrensy will be but of short continuance, I most earnestly wish, that on his recovery he could be prevailed upon to go abroad. Mr. Morden, who is inconsolable, has seen by the Will (as indeed he suspected before he read it) that the case was more than a common seduction; and has dropt hints already, that he looks upon himself, on that account, as freed from his promises made to the dying Lady, which were, that he would not seek to avenge her death.
You must make the recovery of his health the motive for urging him on this head; for, if you hint at his own safety, he will not stir, but rather seek the Colonel.
As to the lock of hair, you may easily pacify him (as you once saw the angel) with hair near the colour, if he be intent upon it.
At my Lord's desire I will write on, and in my common hand; that you may judge what is, and what is not, fit to read to Mr. Lovelace at present. But as I shall not forbear reflections as I go along, in hopes to reach his heart on his recovery, I think it best to direct myself to him still; and that as if he were not disordered.
As I shall not have leisure to take copies, and yet am willing to have the whole subject before me, for my own future contemplation; I must insist upon a return of my Letters some time hence. Mr. Lovelace knows that this is one of my conditions; and has hitherto complied with it.
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Thy Letter, Mowbray, is an inimitable performance. Thou art a strange impenetrable creature. But let me most earnestly conjure thee, and the idle flutterer Tourville, from what ye have seen of poor Belton's exit; from our friend Lovelace's phrensy, and the occasion of it; and from the terrible condition in which the wretched Sinclair lies; to set about an immediate change of life and manners. For my own part, I am determined, be your resolutions what they may, to take the advice I give.
As witness J. Belford.