a custom, not yet wholly obsolete, of causing a letter from one
town to another, perhaps within the distance of thirty miles,
perform a circuit of two hundred miles before delivery; which had
the combined advantage of airing the epistle thoroughly, of adding
some pence to the revenue of the post-office, and of exercising
the patience of the correspondents. Owing to these circumstances
Brown remained several days in Allonby without any answers
whatever, and his stock of money, though husbanded with the utmost
economy, began to wear very low, when he received by the hands of
a young fisherman the following letter:--

'You have acted with the most cruel indiscretion; you have shown
how little I can trust to your declarations that my peace and
happiness are dear to you; and your rashness has nearly occasioned
the death of a young man of the highest worth and honour. Must I
say more? must I add that I have been myself very ill in
consequence of your violence and its effects? And, alas! need I
say still farther, that I have thought anxiously upon them as they
are likely to affect you, although you have given me such slight
cause to do so? The C. is gone from home for several days, Mr. H.
is almost quite recovered, and I have reason to think that the
blame is laid in a quarter different from that where it is
deserved. Yet do not think of venturing here. Our fate has been
crossed by accidents of a nature too violent and terrible to
permit me to think of renewing a correspondence which has so often
threatened the most dreadful catastrophe. Farewell, therefore, and
believe that no one can wish your happiness more sincerely than

'J. M.'