Lady Holland was thought to be dying yesterday, for Lord Beauchamp
was to have dined there, and at three o'clock a note came from
Ste(104) to desire him not to come. The late Lord Holland's
servants, preserving their friendship for my thief whom I dismissed,
were so good, when their Lord died, to send for him to sit up with
the corpse, as the only piece of preferment which was then vacant in
the family. But they afterwards promoted him to be outrider to the
hearse. Alice told me of it, and said that it was a comfort and
little relief to the poor man for the present; and Mr. More, the
attorney, to whom I mentioned it, said that they intended to throw
him into the same thing--that was the phrase--when Lady Holland
died. I beg you to reflect on these circumstances; they are dignes
de Moliere et Le Sage. How my poor old friend would have laughed, if
he could have known to what hands he was committed before his
interment!

The night before last Meynell lost between 2 and 3,000; what the
rest did I don't know. They abuse both you and me about the
tie,(105) and Hare says, it was the damned[e]st thing to do at this
time in the world. I told them, as Lord Cowper said in his speech to
the Condemned Lords in the year 16--, "Happy had it been for all
your Lordships had you lain under so indulgent a restraint." It is
difficult for me to say which was the kindest thing you ever did by
me, but I am sure that this was one of the wisest which I ever did
by myself; and so remember that I do by this renew the lease for one
month more, and it shall be as if it had been originally for two
months instead of one. To this I subscribe, and to the same forfeit
on my side. I received a consideration ample enough if the lease had
been for a year.