Whither can she go? or how not stay with her husband? The Prince Masserano* is set out, so ill, that

I question if he will reach Calais.

LETTER CCLXXIV.

Arlington Street, Oct. 26, 1777.

It is past my usual period of writing to you; which would not have happened but from an uncommon, and indeed, considering the moment, an extraordinary dearth of matter. I could have done nothing but describe suspense, and every newspaper told you that. Still we know nothing certain of the state of affairs in America; the very existence where, of the Howes, is a mystery. The General is said to have beaten Washington, Clinton to have repulsed three attacks, and Burgoyne to be beaten. The second alone is credited. Impatience is very high, and uneasiness increases with every day. There is no sanguine face anywhere, but many alarmed ones. The pains taken, by circulating false reports, to keep up some confidence, only increase the dissatisfaction by disappointing. Some advantage gained may put off cla

on the King to obtain their pardon of the King of Sardinia in 1783; about which time she died suddenly. She was one of the heroines of Mr. Gray's "Long Story," and had a great deal of wit.

* The Spanish Ambassador had obtained leave to return home, on account of the ill state of his health. He died on his way thither, on the 1st of December. He was succeeded at the British Court by the Marquis de Almodovar.-ED.

mour for some months: but I think, the longer it is suspended, the more terrible it will be; and how the war should end but in ruin, I am not wise enough to conjecture. France suspends the blow, to make it more inevitable. She has suffered us to undo ourselves will she allow us time to recover? We have

begged her indulgence in the first: will she grant the second prayer?

The Duke of Gloucester is arrived. That is miraculous. He is almost well, and that is less surprising. Mr. James finds his face plumper than at Rome he is certainly not leaner, nor yellow, though very pale; and his voice shows that his lungs are good. In short, the remainder of his illness is in his right leg; which is still swelled, and very lame when he stands too much, as he is too apt to do.

has more symptoms of what she has

The Duchess suffered than

his Royal Highness; and as she is much fallen away, and even shrunk, her face looks much older, which must necessarily happen till her skin fills up again. The Princess Sophia is a fine child, though less pretty than she was. The Prince a pretty boy. If there is anything more to tell you, it is yet to come.

You have heard of the inundation at Petersburgh.*

* A violent hurricane, which began on the morning of September the 14th, raised the waters, in the space of four hours, to the height of fourteen feet above the ordinary level of the Neva. The city and adjoining flat country were rapidly overflowed; by which many hundreds of the inhabitants were drowned, and thousands ruined. The finest trees in the palace gardens were torn up by the roots; the bridges destroyed; ships thrown into gardens, fields, and woods; and country-houses swept away or destroyed.-ED.

That ill wind produced luck to somebody. As the Empress had not distressed objects enough amongst her own people to gratify her humanity, she turned the torrent of her bounty towards that unhappy relict the Duchess of Kingston, and ordered her Admiralty to take particular care of the marvellous yacht that bore Messalina and her fortune.* Pray mind that I bestow the latter Empress's name on the Duchess, only because she married a second husband in the lifetime of the first. Amongst other benevolences, the Czarina lent her grace a courier to despatch to England-I suppose to acquaint Lord Bristol that he is not a widower. That courier brought a letter from a friend to Dr. Hunter, with the following anecdote. Her Imperial Majesty proposed to her brother of China to lay waste a large district that separates their two empires, lest it should, as it has been on the point of doing, produce war between them; the two empires being at the two extremities of the world, not being distance enough to keep the peace. The ill-bred Tartar sent no answer to so humane a pro

* Elizabeth Chudleigh, Countess of Bristol, married, during the Earl's life-time, to the Duke of Kingston, had, in the preceding year, been tried in Westminster Hall for bigamy, and found guilty. After the trial she left England, and went to reside at St. Petersburgh. The following is an extract from a letter written by her Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Forster, to a friend in England:-" At our arrival, the Vice-Admiral came on board to compliment the Duchess, and to offer to place her yacht in the basin where the men-of-war lie. As soon as the Empress was informed of the arrival of the Duchess, she sent her an invitation. She was presented by the Count de Czernechoff. Her Majesty paid her the highest mark of distinction, by placing her on her right. The famous General Romanzoff was present, and also the Grand-Duke. Indeed, so many honours were never paid in this Court to any person whatsoever."-ED.

ject. On the contrary, he dispersed a letter to the Russian people, in which he tells them that a woman

-he might have said the Minerva of the French litterati --had proposed to him to extirpate all the inhabitants of a certain region belonging to him, but that he knew better what to do with his own country: however, he could but wonder that the people of all the Russias should still submit to be governed by a creature that had assassinated her husband.-Oh! if she had pulled the Ottoman by the nose in the midst of Constantinople, as she intended to do, this savage would have been more civilized. I doubt the same rude Monarch is still on the throne, who would not suffer Prince Czernichew to enter his territories, when sent to notify her Majesty's hereditary succession to her husband; but bade him be told, he would not receive an ambassador from a murderess. Is it not shocking that the law of nations, and the law of politeness, should not yet have abrogated the laws of justice and good-sense in a nation reckoned so civilized as the Chinese? What an age do we live in, if there is still a country where the Crown does not take away all defects! Good night!

LETTER CCLXXV.

Arlington Street, Nov. 7, 1777.

You will have seen in the papers, before you can receive this, such accounts of a total defeat of Washington, that you might wonder at my silence if I did not

say a word that word must be, that I very much doubt the fact; and, if it was known at New York so long ago as the supposed Gazette thence says, it would be wonderful, indeed, that General Howe should keep it a profound secret from the Government here, whom he might suppose a little interested to hear some good news or other after a long dearth.

The first breath of this report was said to come from France yesterday sevennight. On Sunday morning early it was asserted as a fact by a New York Gazette arrived at Liverpool. On Tuesday I came to town, intending to write to you; but, finding no confirmation come, I thought it prudent not to assert what I knew no better. From Tuesday to Friday night is a long interval on such an occasion; and, though some still say that they believe Washington beaten, they do not use, I observe, much stronger terms than received a check. One has heard of towns burnt to the ground, that have turned out to be a chimney on fire. In the mean time I tell you all I know, and I am not apt to believe more of things at such a distance.

Of what there is no doubt is, the check Burgoyne has received, and the distress of his army, that the last accounts left in danger of being starved. There have been accounts of his recovering the blow, but I cannot find one person who believes that. In one word, it is a very serious moment; and, without greater views, the misery of so many who have relations and friends both in Howe's and Burgoyne's armies is terrible. It is known that the latter had twenty-six officers wounded.;