(780) The numbers on the division were, for the abolition 88, against it 163.-E.
(781) In a letter written on this day, Miss More says,—"My time has been literally passed with thief takers, officers of justice, and such pretty kind of people." The young lady, who was an heiress and only fourteen years of age, had been trepanned away from school. All the efforts to discover the victim proved fruitless; the poor girl having been betrayed into a marriage and carried to the Continent.-E.
(782) The Earl of Bristol; for an account of whom, see ante, p. 236, letter 182.-E.
(783) A natural daughter of Lord Cholmondeley.
(784) Armand-Emanuel du Plessis, Duc do Richelieu. He had just succeeded to the title, by the death of his father. In the preceding year, he had entered a volunteer into the service of Catherine the Second, and distinguished himself at the siege of Ismael, not more by his bravery than his humanity; as appears by the following anecdote recorded in the "Histoire de la Nouvelle Russie," tom. iii. p. 217:—"Je sauvai la vie `a une fille de dix ans, dont l'innocence et la candeur formaient un contraste bien frappant avec la rage de tout ce qui mlenvironnait. En arrivant sur le bastion o`u commen`ca le carnage, j'apperus un groupe de quatre femmes `egorg`ees, entre lesquelles cet enfant, d'une figure charmante, cherchait un asile contre la fureur de deux Kosaks qui `etaient sur le point de la massacrer: ce spectacle m'attira bient`ot, et je n'h`esitai pas, comme on peut le croire, prendre entre mes bras cette infortun`ee, que les barbares voulaient y poursuivre encore." Lord Byron has paraphrased the affecting incident in the eighth canto of Don Juan:—
"Upon a taken bastion, where there lay
Thousands of slaughter'd men, a yet warm group
Of murder'd women, who had found their way
To this vain refuge, made the good heart droop
And shudder;—while, as beautiful as May,
A female child of ten years tried to stoop
And hide her little palpitating breast
Amidst the bodies lull'd in bloody rest.
Two villainous Cossacques pursued the child
With flashing eyes, and weapons. * * *
Don Juan raised his little captive from
The heap, a moment more had made her tomb."
In 1803, the Duke returned to Russia, and was nominated civil and military governor of Odessa; -and to his administration," says Bishop Heber, 44 and not to any natural advantages, the town owes its prosperity." On the restoration of Louis the Eighteenth, he was appointed first gentleman of the bedchamber; and in 1815, president of the council and minister for foreign affairs. He finally retired from office in 1820, and died in 1822.-E.
Letter 378 To Miss Berry.
Berkeley Square, May 12, 1791. (page 495)
A letter from Florence (that of April 20th) does satisfy me about your nose-till I can see it with my own eyes; but I will own to you now, that my alarm at first went much farther. I dreaded lest so violent a fall upon rubbish might not have hurt your head; though all your letters since have proved how totally that escaped any danger. Yet your great kindness in writing to me yourself so immediately did not tranquillize me, and only proved your good-nature-but I will not detail my departed fears, nor need I prove my attachment to you two. If you were really my wives, I could not be more generally applied to for accounts of you; of which I am proud. I should be ashamed, if, at my age, it were a ridiculous attachment; but don't be sorry for having been circumstantial. My fears did not spring thence; nor did I suspect your not having told the whole-no; but I apprehended the accident might be worse than you knew yourself.
Poor Hugh Conway,(785) though his life has long been safe, still suffers at times from his dreadful blow, and has not yet been able to come to town: nor would Lord Chatham's humanity put his ship into commission; which made him so unhappy, that poor Horatia,(786) doating on him as she does, wrote to beg he might be employed; preferring her own misery in parting with him to what she saw him suffer. Amiable conduct! but, happily, her suit did not prevail.