I had hitherto written but twice to Lady Ellinor during my exile,--once
upon the marriage of Fanny with Lord Castleton, which took place about
six months after I sailed from England, and again when thanking her
husband for some rare animals, equine, pastoral, and bovine, which he
had sent as presents to Bolding and myself. I wrote again after
Trevanion's elevation to the peerage, and received, in due time, a reply
confirming all my impressions; for it was full of bitterness and gall,
accusations of the world, fears for the country,--Richelieu himself
could not have taken a gloomier view of things when his levees were
deserted and his power seemed annihilated before the "Day of Dupes."
Only one gleam of comfort appeared to visit Lady Ulverstone's breast,
and thence to settle prospectively over the future of the world,--a
second son had been born to Lord Castleton; to that son would descend
the estates of Ulverstone and the representation of that line
distinguished by Trevanion and enriched by Trevanion's wife. Never was
there a child of such promise! Not Virgil himself, when he called on
the Sicilian Muses to celebrate the advent of a son to Pollio, ever
sounded a loftier strain. Here was one, now, perchance, engaged on
words of two syllables, called:

"By laboring Nature to sustain
The nodding frame of heaven and earth and main,
See to their base restored, earth, sea, and air,
And joyful ages from behind in crowding ranks appear!"

Happy dream which Heaven sends to grandparents,--rebaptism of Hope in
the font whose drops sprinkle the grandchild!

Time flies on; affairs continue to prosper. I am just leaving the bank