"It is impossible that I should not look up with the highest respect to the character and the noble qualities of the Duke of Tyrconnel, the unshaken friend of his sovereign, whether seated on his throne, or an exile from his realms; uncorrupted by prosperity, unshaken and unchanged by adversity; comporting himself with that equanimity of temper, that what Horace[49] says of Aristippus would apply to him--one whom every change, whom every station, and every event became!
[49] "Omnis Aristippum, decuit color, et status et res."--HORACE.
"How days, and months, and years, my friend, advance, proceed, and are gone like the track of an arrow through the buoyant air, or a keel cutting its foaming course through the vasty deep! Alas, my dear,
'We take no note of time but by its loss.'
Seven years have passed by since our sojourn in Brabant--sad and solitary;--oh no, I cannot be so wicked--so ungrateful, as to assert it has been; that portion of time having fled in the happy home of my beloved Lord, and along with my _alter idem_, my second self, as Cicero expresses it, my adored Adelaide. Oh, unjust indeed I should be to complain; however, I may confess, _en passánt_, that the climate of Brussels is somewhat humid, especially during the autumnal months; and the society somewhat _tristè_, with a notable lack of public amusements; but believe me I truly feel no loss in the deprivation of the latter. Oh, my friend, once more freely to breathe my native mountain air!--once more to reach the verdant isle, and again to inhabit the towers of Tyrconnel! then were my Adelaide suitably mated and matched, my sum of human happiness would be consummated. We purpose staying here a few days longer, and then set out on our return, by land, to our mansion in the _Rue Ducale_ at Brussels.
"I know well, my dear and kind friend, how warmly interested you and the good bishop are in every thing regarding or connected with our interest and happiness, and whenever I can write to you upon the subject, although poor exiles as we are, I feel not very sanguine in my hopes of having cause of speedily so doing; yet should a change in our fortunes occur, write I shall assuredly--you may depend upon it!
"Having now, I fear, fairly tormented you with this long and tiresome epistle, I shall not add another word but what I know you will readily believe, which is, that wherever I am, wherever I go, be assured that I remain