"If there be any probability of succeeding, an advertisement, like that which is on the following page, may be put into any of the public papers—that is, if you think que le jeu vaut la chandelle.
"My compliments to Mrs. Abercromby. I hope some day to regain her good opinion. It shall be the great object of my ambition.
"Tell the Doctor I shall answer him sooner than he did me. He will assist you very well in any cheat or roguery: but do not attempt it, unless you think you can all be masters of your countenance. This is a note, not a letter. Yours sincerely.
"P.S. Read Fraser the letter, but do not put it into his hands; he will tear it. Show him first my other letter to you."
"Advertisement.—Speedily will be published, price 1s. A letter to a certain turbulent Patriot in Westminster, from a friend in the country.
——Et spargere voces
In vulgum ambiguas, et quærere conscius arma.—Virgil."
The following is the letter which, in pursuance of the arrangements for completing this complicated joke, Colonel Abercromby was to read to Fraser. Its tone of mock heroic will at once be detected, and indeed, when the spilling of the last drop of blood, "or of ink," is with so much simplicity made an alternative, it may be presumed that James Fraser
was a very obtuse being, if he believed these protestations to be serious.