You have engaged me to communicate to you, upon my honour, (making
neither better nor worse of the matter,) what Mr. Lovelace has written to
me, in relation to yourself, in the period preceding your going to
Hampstead, and in that between the 11th and 19th of June: and you assure
me you have no view in this request, but to see if it be necessary for
you, from the account he gives, to touch upon the painful subjects
yourself, for the sake of your own character.
Your commands, Madam, are of a very delicate nature, as they may seem to
affect the secrets of private friendship: but as I know you are not
capable of a view, the motives to which you will not own; and as I think
the communication may do some credit to my unhappy friend's character, as
an ingenuous man; though his actions by the most excellent woman in the
world have lost him all title to that of an honourable one; I obey you
with the greater cheerfulness.
[He then proceeds with his extracts, and concludes them with an address
to her in his friend's behalf, in the following words:]
'And now, Madam, I have fulfilled your commands; and, I hope, have not
dis-served my friend with you; since you will hereby see the justice he
does to your virtue in every line he writes. He does the same in all his
letters, though to his own condemnation: and, give me leave to add, that
if this ever-amiable sufferer can think it in any manner consistent with
her honour to receive his vows on the altar, on his truly penitent turn
of mind, I have not the least doubt but that he will make her the best
and tenderest of husbands. What obligation will not the admirable lady
hereby lay upon all his noble family, who so greatly admire her! and, I
will presume to say, upon her own, when the unhappy family aversion
(which certainly has been carried to an unreasonable height against him)
shall be got over, and a general reconciliation takes place! For who is
it that would not give these two admirable persons to each other, were
not his morals an objection?
However this be, I would humbly refer to you, Madam, whether, as you will
be mistress of very delicate particulars from me his friend, you should
not in honour think yourself concerned to pass them by, as if you had
never seen them; and not to take advantage of the communication, not even
in an argument, as some perhaps might lie, with respect to the
premeditated design he seems to have had, not against you, as you; but as
against the sex; over whom (I am sorry I can bear witness myself) it is
the villanous aim of all libertines to triumph: and I would not, if any
misunderstanding should arise between him and me, give him room to
reproach me that his losing of you, and (through his usage of you) of his
own friends, were owing to what perhaps he would call breach of trust,
were he to judge rather by the event than by my intention.