“My brother thinks, as well as myself, that you may conclude upon the terms you mention. ‘Better a dinner of herbs with peace, than a stalled ox and noise therewith.’
“I hope to go to Lausanne, directly after vintage, to offer a manuscript to the censors, to see if they will allow its being published; so I do not invite you to share my damp bed. My sister was so kind as to look for another house, but we find none to let under a year. We are here travellers, so we must expect some difficulties and a good many inconveniences.
“If Mr. Ireland goes to Marseilles, you might go and see your cousin there. Lift up your heart, and see by faith our Lord and Saviour, our heavenly Kinsman and Brother; and when you rise there, take by the hand of prayer your affectionate friend,
“John Fletcher.”[[481]]
Soon after this, William Perronet was seized with mortal illness. In a letter to the Vicar of Shoreham, Fletcher wrote:—
“December 5, 1780. Our wise and good God sees fit to try my dear friend, your son, with a want of appetite and uneasiness in his bowels. He also often returns the little food he takes. Some time ago, he came to Nyon, from Lausanne, and we went together to Geneva, where we settled your affair with three of the Geneva co-heirs, upon the same footing as he had settled with those of Chateau d’Oex. He bears his weakness with much patience and resignation.”[[482]]
Fletcher was now employed in finishing the poem, which he wished to publish before he left Switzerland; but he delighted in spending as much time with his dying friend as possible.
“Every night,” says William Perronet, in a letter dated January 22, 1781, “after praying with me, he sings this verse at parting:—
“‘Then let our humble faith address
His mercy and His power;