(558) Nicholas Harding, Esq. clerk of the House of Commons.-E.

245 Letter 128 To Richard Bentley, Esq.  Strawberry Hill, April 13, 1755.

If I did not think that you would expect to hear often from me at so critical a season, I should certainly not write to you to-night:  I am here alone, out of spirits, and not well.  In short, I have depended too much upon my constitution being like

“Grass, that escapes the scythe by being low”

and having nothing of the oak in the sturdiness of my stature, I imagined that my mortality would remain pliant as long as I pleased.  But I have taken so little care of myself this winter, and kept such bad hours, that I have brought a slow fever upon my nights, and am worn to a skeleton:  Bethel has plump cheeks to mine.  However, as it would be unpleasant to die just at the beginning of a war, I am taking exercise and air, and much sleep, and intend to see Troy taken.  The prospect thickens; there are certainly above twelve thousand men at the Isle of Rh`e; some say twenty thousand.  An express was yesterday despatched to Ireland, where it is supposed the storm will burst; but unless our fleet can disappoint the embarkation, I don’t see what service the notification can do:  we have quite disgarnished that kingdom of troops; and if they once land, ten thousand men may walk from one end of the island to the other.  It begins to be thought that the King will not go abroad; that he cannot, every body has long thought.  You will be entertained with a prophecy which my Lord Chesterfield has found in the 35th chapter of Ezekiel, which clearly promises us victory over the French, and expressly relates to this war, as it mentions the two countries (Nova Scotia and Acadia) which are the point in dispute.  You will have no difficulty in allowing that mounseer, is typical enough of France:  except Cyrus, who is the only heathen prince mentioned by his right name, and that before he had any name, I know no power so expressly described.

“2.  Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophecy against it. 3.  And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God:  O Mount Seir, I am against thee; and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. 4.  I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, etc. 10.  Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it.”

I am disposed to put great trust in this prediction; for I know few things more in our favour.  You will ask me naturally, what is to become of you?  Are you to be left to all the chance of war, the uncertainty of packets, the difficulty of remittance, the increase of prices?—­My dear sir, do you take me for a prime minister, who acquaints the states that they are in damned danger, when it is about a day too late?  Or shall I order my chancellor to assure you, that this is numerically the very day on which