I have received yours of the 27th of last month, with the capitulation of Genoa, and the kind conduct of the Austrians to us their allies, so extremely like their behaviour whenever they are fortunate.  Pray, by the way, has there been any talk of my cousin,(1300) the Commodore, in letting slip some Spanish ships’!-don’t mention it as from me, but there are whispers of court-martial on him.  They are all the fashion now; if you miss a post to me, I will have you tried by a court-martial.  Cope is come off most gloriously, his courage ascertained, and even his conduct, which every body had given up, justified.  Folkes and Lascelles, two of his generals, are come off too; but not so happily in the opinion of the world.  Oglethorpe’s sentence is not yet public, but it is believed not to be favourable.  He was always a bully, and is now tried for cowardice.  Some little dash of the same sort is likely to mingle withe the judgment on il furibondo Matthews; though his party rises again a little, and Lestock’s acquittal begins to pass for a party affair.  In short, we are a wretched people, and have seen our best days.

I must have lost a letter, if you really told me of the sale of the Duke of Modena’s pictures,(1301) as you think you did; for when Mr. Chute told it me, it struck me as quite new.  They are out of town, good souls; and I shall not see them this fortnight; for I am here only for two or three days, to inquire after the battle, in which not one of my friends were.  Adieu!

(1298) The battle of Rocoux; lost by the allies on the 11th of October.-E.

(1299) About the 18th of September, Prince Charles received intelligence that two French frigates had arrived at Lochnannagh, to carry him and other fugitives of his party to France:  accordingly, after numerous wanderings in various disguises he embarked, on the 20th of September, attended by Lochiel, Colonel Roy Stuart, and about a hundred others of the relics of his party; and safely landed at the little port of Roscoff, near Morlaix, in Brittany, on the 29th. " During these wanderings,” says Sir Walter Scott, in Tales of a Grandfather, “the secret of the Adventurer’s concealment was intrusted to hundreds, of every sex, age, and condition; but no individual was found, in a high or low situation, or robbers even , who procured their food at the risk of their lives, who thought for an instant of obtaining opulence at the expense of treachery to the proscribed and miserable fugitive.  Such disinterested conduct will reflect honour on the Highlands of Scotland while their mountains shall continue to exist.”  Prose Works, vol. xxvi. p. 374.-E.

(1300) George Townshend, eldest son of Charles, Lord Viscount Townshend, by Dorothy, his second wife, sister of Sir Robert Walpole. (He was subsequently tried by a court-martial for his conduct upon this occasion, and honourably acquitted.-D.)

(1301) To the King of Poland.

509 Letter 222
To The Hon. H. S. Conway. 
Windsor, Oct. 24, 1746.