time, for I am all at sea, and in action,--and a wife, and a
mistress, &c.

"Thomas, thou art a happy fellow; but if you wish us to be so, you
must come up to town, as you did last year: and we shall have a
world to say, and to see, and to hear. Let me hear from you.

"P.S. Of course you will keep my secret, and don't even talk in
your sleep of it. Happen what may, your dedication is ensured,
being already written; and I shall copy it out fair to-night, in
case business or amusement--_Amant alterna Camænæ_."

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Jan. 7. 1814.

"You don't like the dedication--very well; there is another: but
you will send the other to Mr. Moore, that he may know I _had_
written it. I send also mottoes for the cantos. I think you will
allow that an elephant may be more sagacious, but cannot be more
docile.

"Yours, BN.

"The _name_ is again altered to _Medora_"[7]

[Footnote 7: It had been at first Genevra,--not Francesca, as Mr. Dallas
asserts.]