| Chap. | Page | |
| I. | Introduction | [ 1] |
| II. | First Interviews | [ 10] |
| III. | The First Discord | [ 21] |
| IV. | Smooth Waters | [ 39] |
| V. | Fresh Difficulties | [ 55] |
| VI. | Comparative Calm | [ 79] |
| VII. | Aspirations and Rebuffs | [ 98] |
| VIII. | A Peaceful Period | [ 120] |
| IX. | Misunderstandings | [ 149] |
| X. | A Breathing Space | [ 166] |
| XI. | The Final Rupture | [ 183] |
| XII. | Conclusion | [ 210] |
| APPENDIX | [ 221] |
THE LETTERS OF WELLINGTON.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
These hitherto unpublished Letters from the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., and the Diary of the latter, have lain for years in a trunk in the attic of a country-house within thirty miles of New York city. Their publication is permitted through the kindness of a friend with whose family Miss J. was remotely connected. The facts with regard to Miss J.'s life and character have been in part obtained through those who knew her personally, but mainly through her own Diary,—a worn volume once handsome, that at the first glance would be taken for a Bible. This book is supplied with a spring-lock. Its hundreds of pages are closely covered with a minute handwriting, and the ink with which they were traced has faded to a yellowish brown, indistinct in places, but never quite undecipherable. The Duke's letters are written in a peculiar, irregular hand, very difficult to read, and becoming more crabbed as he advanced in years. While the spelling is almost invariably correct, the construction of the sentences is often involved, and the punctuation follows no known method.
At the time Miss J.'s correspondence with the Duke of Wellington opened, she was a very beautiful woman about twenty years of age. Her parents were from among the smaller English gentry, and in her girlhood she, with her elder sister, attended one of the best schools in England. Many of her companions were of noble birth, and the associations then formed were continued in later years. Miss J.'s father died while she was little more than a child, and not long after the mother followed. At her death the daughter writes that a vision was vouchsafed to her of the heaven her mother was entering.
The elder sister married an American physician and came with him to this country, leaving Miss J. with a companion and in the nominal care of her guardian, who seems to have confined himself to supplying her with the funds accruing from the investments made of the property left by her mother. Miss J. lived now in lodgings, now in a rented house, in company with a devoted elderly friend to whom she constantly alludes in her Diary, and made many visits to the country-houses of former schoolmates. She appears never to have had any taste for general society. A woman of deeply devotional nature, her fervor in spiritual matters had been heightened by associations into which she had been thrown soon after quitting school, and further strengthened by the example and precepts of her bosom companion, Mrs. L. But while the latter evidently possessed strong common-sense and a well-balanced mind, Miss J. was impulsive, enthusiastic, undisciplined. Whatever she did was done with all her might. In her sight there could be no middle course, no half-way measures. By much introspection and pondering of the Scriptures she developed into a religious zealot, fanatically anxious for the conversion of those about her. And this conversion was in her mind nothing less than the turning aside from all worldly pursuits, and the entire dedication of time and self to religious avocations. She shrank with horror from what she called "The World," and interpreted this to mean public offices, wealth, and honors conferred by the State. All these she considered as snares to draw the soul from the contemplation of God and eternity, and bind it down to the things of time and sense.
While little more than a girl, she had had a love-affair with a young man, of whom she writes as "Henry," or "H." Although attached to him, he fell short of her standard in matters spiritual, and she therefore gave him up. She describes with feeling her deep anxiety for his salvation, the prayers she offered for him, and her trembling hope that he might become converted and they might yet be happy together. As the young man still clung to "The World," she nerved herself to break the bond between them and to crush down her affection for him. For a while she seemed to succeed; but the victory over herself was not complete. In her Diary she writes:—