To Miss Montague, at Silleri.
Dear Madam,
I send you the inclosed from my mother: I thought it necessary you
should see it, though not even a mother's wishes shall ever influence
me to break those engagements which I have had the happiness of
entering into with the most charming of women, and which a man of honor
ought to hold sacred.
I do not think happiness intirely dependent on rank or fortune, and
have only to wish my mother's sentiments on this subject more agreable
to my own, as there is nothing I so much wish as to oblige her: at all
events, however, depend on my fulfilling those promises, which ought to
be the more binding, as they were made at a time when our situations
were more equal.
I am happy in an opportunity of convincing you and the world, that
interest and ambition have no power over my heart, when put in
competition with what I owe to my engagements; being with the greatest
truth,
My dearest Madam,
Yours, &c.
G. Clayton.
You will do me the honor to name the day to make me happy.