Page:English laws for women in the nineteenth century.djvu/74

62 ''steps which it will be prudent to take, it will he impossible to determine until we know more certainly the course that is intended to be pursued. If any svervantservant [sic] of mine, or any one that has left within the last six years had been interrogated, I think I should have heard of it. But, whoever my be interrogated, no one can depose anything which can affect you or me.'' "Yours, Melbourne"

"South street, June 9, 1836. "''I have received your letter, and have given such instructions as I trust will be for the best. I do not wonder at the impression made upon you. I knew it would be so; and therefore I was almost unwilling to have the interview take place. All the attorneys that I have ever seen, have all the same manner; hard, cold, incredulous, distrustful, sarcastic, and sneering. They are accustomed to be conversant with the worst part of human nature, and with the most discreditable transactions. They have so many falsehoods told them, that they place confidence in none''.

"I have sent your note, having read it. T dare say you think me unfeeling; but I declare that since I first heard I was to be proceeded against, I have suffered more intensely than lever did in my life. I had neither sleep nor appetite, and I attribute the whole of my illness (at least of the severity of if) to the uneasiness of my mind. Now what is this uneasiness for? Not for my own character, because, as you justly say, the imputation upon me is as nothing. It is not for the political consequences to myself, although I deeply feel the consequences which my indiscretion may bring upon those who are attached to me and follow my fortunes. The real and principal object of my anxiety and