CHAPTER XIX.
A LETTER.
"Has he so long held out with me untired, And stops he now for breath ?--Well--Be it so." _Richard III._ Mowbray had no sooner left the Earl's apartment, than the latter commenced an epistle to a friend and associate, which we lay before the reader, as best calculated to illustrate the views and motives of the writer.

It was addressed to Captain Jekyl, of the -- -- regiment of Guards, at the Green Dragon, Harrowgate, and was of the following tenor:-- "Dear Harry, "I have expected you here these ten days past, anxiously as ever man was looked for; and have now to charge your absence as high treason to your sworn allegiance.

Surely you do not presume, like one of Napoleon's new-made monarchs, to grumble for independence, as if your greatness were of your own making, or as if I had picked you out of the whole of St.James's coffee-house to hold my back-hand, for your sake, forsooth, not for my own?
Wherefore, lay aside all your own proper business, be it the pursuit of dowagers, or the plucking of pigeons, and instantly repair to this place, where I may speedily want your assistance .-- _May_ want it, said I?
Why, most negligent of friends and allies, I _have_ wanted it already, and that when it might have done me yeoman's service.

Know that I have had an affair since I came hither--have got hurt myself, and have nearly shot my friend; and if I had, I might have been hanged for it, for want of Harry Jekyl to bear witness in my favour.

I was so far on my road to this place, when, not choosing, for certain reasons, to pass through the old village, I struck by a footpath into the woods which separate it from the new Spa, leaving my carriage and people to go the carriage-way.