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 "when I shew you this letter which I received just before we sat down. My servant told me it was delivered by a man he had never seen before, who went off at the gallop after charging him to put it into my own hand."

Ellieslaw impatiently opened the letter, and read aloud.—

Edinburgh,

Having obligations to your family, which shall be nameless, and learning that you are one of the company of adventurers doing business for the house of James and Company, late merchants in London, now at Dunkirk, I think it right to send you this early and private information, that the vessels you expected have been driven off the coast, without having been able to break bulk, or to land any part of their cargo; and that the west-country partners have resolved to withdraw their