MR. BELFORD, TO RICHARD MOWBRAY, ESQ.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 10. FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON.
I have your's, with our unhappy friend's enclosed. 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 on 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 be 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.
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 you 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.