The Colonel proposes to attend the hearse, if his kindred give him not
fresh cause of displeasure; and will take with him a copy of the will.
And being intent to give the family some favourable impressions of me, he
desired me to permit him to take with him the copy of the posthumous
letter to me; which I readily granted. He is so kind as to promise me a
minute account of all that should pass on the melancholy occasion. And
we have begun a friendship and settled a correspondence, which but one
incident can possibly happen to interrupt to the end of our lives. And
that I hope will not happen.

But what must be the grief, the remorse, that will seize upon the hearts
of this hitherto-inexorable family, on the receiving of the posthumous
letters, and that of the Colonel apprizing them of what has happened? I
have given requisite orders to an undertaker, on the supposition that the
body will be permitted to be carried down; and the women intend to fill
the coffin with aromatic herbs.

The Colonel has obliged me to take the bills and draughts which he
brought up with him, for the considerable sums which accrued since the
grandfather's death from the lady's estate.

I could have shown to Mrs. Norton the copies of the two letters which she
missed by coming up. But her grief wants not the heightenings which the
reading of them would have given her.


***


I have been dipping into the copies of the posthumous letters to the