“P.S.  You have not answered me about Schlegel—­why not?  Address to me at Pisa, whither I am going, to join the exiles—­a pretty numerous body at present.  Let me hear how you are, and what you mean to do.  Is there no chance of your recrossing the Alps?  If the G. Rex marries again, let him not want an Epithalamium—­suppose a joint concern of you and me, like Sternhold and Hopkins!”

[Footnote 55:  The lines “Oh Wellington,” which I had missed in their original place at the opening of the third Canto, and took for granted that they had been suppressed by his publisher.]

* * * * *

LETTER 458.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “September 28. 1821.

“I add another cover to request you to ask Moore to obtain (if possible) my letters to the late Lady Melbourne from Lady Cowper.  They are very numerous, and ought to have been restored long ago, as I was ready to give back Lady Melbourne’s in exchange.  These latter are in Mr. Hobhouse’s custody with my other papers, and shall be punctually restored if required.  I did not choose before to apply to Lady Cowper, as her mother’s death naturally kept me from intruding upon her feelings at the time of its occurrence.  Some years have now elapsed, and it is essential that I should have my own epistles.  They are essential as confirming that part of the ‘Memoranda’ which refers to the two periods (1812 and 1814) when my marriage with her niece was in contemplation, and will tend to show what my real views and feelings were upon that subject.

“You need not be alarmed; the ‘fourteen years[56]’ will hardly elapse without some mortality amongst us; it is a long lease of life to speculate upon.  So your calculation will not be in so much peril, as the ‘argosie’ will sink before that time, and ’the pound of flesh’ be withered previously to your being so long out of a return.

“I also wish to give you a hint or two (as you have really behaved very handsomely to Moore in the business, and are a fine fellow in your line) for your advantage. If by your own management you can extract any of my epistles from Lady ——­, (* * * * * * *), they might be of use in your collection (sinking of course the names and all such circumstances as might hurt living feelings, or those of survivors); they treat of more topics than love occasionally.

“I will tell you who may happen to have some letters of mine in their possession:  Lord Powerscourt, some to his late brother; Mr. Long of—­(I forget his place)—­but the father of Edward Long of the Guards, who was drowned in going to Lisbon early in 1809; Miss Elizabeth Pigot, of Southwell, Notts (she may be Mistress by this time, for she had a year or two more than I):  they were not love-letters, so that you might have them without scruple.  There