Mrs. Piozzi herself had evidently now embarked on Retrospection, her most ambitious, and probably her least successful work, which was not completed till 1801.

Shrewsbury, Thursday, rejoycing day, 1798.

My very dear Friend,—Your sweet cordial letter should have had earlier thanks, tho' warmer I possess not, but I really dreaded having it to say we could not come; so many vexations and combinations happen'd which often and often did I think would hinder us. We are however so far on our road.... My Master's heel is very poorly, but we shall come hopping; and Mr. Pennington is most excessively kind in giving us so generous an invitation. You shall do whatever you please with us for one whole week, and then we will get, if possible into a nice house at Bath, where you shall return the visit for a month.

And now, that things may look, may really look as they used to do, Allen is returned to my Service.... We have neither of us been well settled or happy since we parted, so we are come together again. The Maid who succeeded Allen in my place was a Lady of good family and agreeable accomplishments; but I believe neither she liked me much, nor I her. To my much amazement and distraction, three days before we left home, a fortnight ago, the Lady married our Welsh Gardener.... This moment however I have the comfort of seeing myself once more with my old Attendant, who, after living seven years in my house, hated every other.... She will rejoice to see Dear Miss Weston again, but whose joy can be like mine? 'Tis seven years now since I was in Somersetshire, and six years since we embraced our dear Sophia. May God give us a happy meeting! but my poor Master is as lame as a tree....

[P.M. "Denbigh">[

I will write a very long letter to dear Mrs. Pennington this 1st of August 1798, in defiance of Miss Owen, who says she came hither for my company, and will lose none of it. She must lose some however, for I will not part with old Friends for want of pen and ink conversation. If it should please God that we might meet this next year, we would have much chat,—and I will not despair.... I do think we shall meet—and talk over the false and fading hopes which we see people entertain of Europe's peaceful re-establishment after all these commotions....

Of my heavy work I can give a better account by word than letter; you shall see it if we come to the West. But with regard to translating Barruel, my heart has wished to do it twenty times, only that some one has always stept in before me somehow; and rendered my trouble unnecessary.

You have Robinson's book, no doubt, and the strange coincidence between that and the French one must necessarily convince the whole world of those dreadful truths which they both assert. People should stand upon their guard at such times of enormous wickedness. Have you read Mr. Godwin's life of his deceased Lady? There's a morality worthy the new lights of philosophical religion: pray read it.

Helen Williams's Book is not without its danger. She infuses her venom in such sweetness of style, and in such moderate quantities; I think no corruption has a better chance to spread.

The two Emilys are delightful. Ever on the verge of impossibility, Sophia's charming pen leads one to read on, and to persuade oneself for a moment, from line to line, that a woman made completely ugly should be able to inspire the tenderest passion, and have power beside to keep a man from enjoyment of all those pleasures his rank, and that of their children, entitles him to. This may be so, but Lothayre's story of the skeleton is nearer to my credence. A wonder for ten minutes one's heart revolts not from, be it ever so contrary to nature and experience, a wonder for ten years—is a wonder indeed. The denouement however is exquisitely managed, and that return to ye subject, as Musicians call it, which marks all the last pages, bringing back the first to your remembrance, appears to me a chef d'œuvre of art and skill. 'Tis a very beautiful book.

I think Miss Seward never writes now. The Recluse Ladies at Llangollen, who pick up every rarety in literature, are much her admirers. Are you in correspondence with her now?

Here is my paper exhausted, and not a word of politics. But what does it signify? There are but two ways. Either you must creep to the French, as other nations do, or you must spend all your money to oppose them. I should not hesitate for myself; I had rather be taxed till I was forced to dig Potatoes and boil them, than I would see the Abbé Sieyes in our King's Drawing Room: and I hope His Majesty would rather be killed fighting at the head of his true subjects against these Atheists, than receive them into his confidence who are unworthy to stand in his sight. He alone, except the King of Naples, refused to be an Illuminé. You shall see they will last longest....

SOPHIA LEE

By Ridley after Sir Thos. Lawrence, 1809

From the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

The correspondence with Anna Seward had ceased in 1791 or 1792, when the "Swan" felt it her duty to write to Mrs. Pennington, as she tells Mrs. Powys, "with an ingenuousness on my part which I thought necessary to her welfare, but which her spirit was too high to brook." The breach in their friendship was not healed till 1804.

William Godwin, author of An Inquiry concerning Political Justice, made the acquaintance of Mary Wollstonecraft, after she had been deserted by Imlay, in 1796, and in March 1797 they were married, though the ceremony was incompatible with the opinions they both professed. She died in September the same year, shortly after the birth of their only child Mary, the second wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Memoirs of the Author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman were published by her husband in 1798, as were also her own posthumous works. He afterwards proposed to Harriet Lee, but was rejected.

Emanuel Joseph, Comte Sieyes, Canon of Treguier, having adopted the principles of the Revolution, became Deputy for Paris, assisted to form the National Assembly, and was one of those who voted for the King's death. He declined a seat on the Directory in 1797, but accepted it two years later, and along with Bonaparte plotted the Revolution of Brumaire.