I have seen the vases at Holland-house, and am perfectly content with them:  the forms are charming.  I assure you Mr. Fox and Lady Caroline do not like them less than I do.  Good night! am not I a very humane conqueror to condescend to write so long a letter?

(895) Richard, after the death of his elder brother, Viscount Howe.

426 Letter 265 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.  June 16, 1758, 2 o’clock noon.

Well, my dear Harry! you are not the only man in England who have not conquered France!(896) Even Dukes of Marlborough have been there without doing the business.  I don’t doubt but your good heart has even been hoping, in spite of your understanding, that our heroes have not only taken St. Maloes, but taken a trip cross the country to burn Rochefort, only to show how easy it was.  We have waited with astonishment at not hearing that the French court was removed in a panic to Lyons, and that the Mesdames had gone off in their shifts with only a provision of rouge for a week.  Nay, for my part, I expected to be deafened with encomiums on my Lord Anson’s continence, who, after being allotted Madame Pompadour as his share of the spoils, had again imitated Scipio, and, in spite of the violence of his temperament, had restored her unsullied to the King of France.  Alack! we have restored nothing but a quarter of a mile of coast to the right owners.  A messenger arrived in the middle of the night with an account that we have burned two frigates and an hundred and twenty small fry; that it was found impossible to bring up the cannon against the town; and that, the French army approaching the coast, Commodore Howe, with the expedition of Harlequin as well as the taciturnity, re-embarked our whole force in seven hours, volunteers and all, with the loss only of one man, and they are all gone to seek their fortune somewhere else.  Well! in half a dozen more wars we shall know something of the coast of France.  Last war we discovered a fine bay near Port l’Orient:  we have now found out that we know nothing of St. Maloes.  As they are popular persons, I hope the city of London will send some more gold boxes to these discoverers.  If they send a patch-box to Lord George Sackville, it will hold all his laurels.  As our young nobility cannot at present travel through France, I suppose that is a method for finishing their studies.  George Selwyn says he supposes the French ladies will have scaffolds erected on the shore to see the English go by.  But I won’t detain the messenger any longer; I am impatient to make the Duchess(897) happy, who I hope will soon see the Duke returned from his coasting voyage.

The Churchills will be with you next Wednesday, and I believe I too; but I can take my own word so little, that I will not give it you.  I know I must be back at Strawberry on Friday night; for Lady Hervey and Lady Stafford are to be there with me for a few days from to-morrow se’nnight.  Adieu!