nature
sacred and secret, and not to be spoken of, though the heart be ever so
full of thankfulness, save to Heaven and the One Ear alone--to one fond
being, the truest and tenderest and purest wife ever man was blessed
with. As I think of the immense happiness which was in store for me, and
of the depth and intensity of that love which, for so many years, hath
blessed me, I own to a transport of wonder and gratitude for such a
boon--nay, am thankful to have been endowed with a heart capable of
feeling and knowing the immense beauty and value of the gift which God
hath bestowed upon me. Sure, love vincit omnia; is immeasurably above
all ambition, more precious than wealth, more noble than name. He knows
not life who knows not that: he hath not felt the highest faculty of
the soul who hath not enjoyed it. In the name of my wife I write the
completion of hope, and the summit of happiness. To have such a love is
the one blessing, in comparison of which all earthly joy is of no value;
and to think of her, is to praise God.

It was at Bruxelles, whither we retreated after the failure of our
plot--our Whig friends advising us to keep out of the way--that the
great joy of my life was bestowed upon me, and that my dear mistress
became my wife. We had been so accustomed to an extreme intimacy and
confidence, and had lived so long and tenderly together, that we
might have gone on to the end without thinking of a closer tie; but
circumstances brought about that event which so prodigiously multiplied
my happiness and hers (for which I humbly thank Heaven), although a
calamity befell us, which, I blush to think, hath occurred more than
once in our house. I know not what infatuation of ambition urged the
beautiful and wayward woman, whose name hath occupied so many of these
pages, and who was served by me with ten years of such constant fidelity
and passion; but ever after that day at Castlewood, when we rescued her,
she persisted in holding all her family as her enemies, and left us, and
escaped to France, to what a fate I disdain to tell. Nor was her son's
house a home for my dear mistress; my poor Frank was weak, as perhaps
all our race hath been, and led by women. Those around him were
imperious, and in a terror of his mother's influence over him, lest
he should recant, and deny the creed which he had adopted by their
persuasion. The difference of their religion separated the son and the
mother: my dearest mistress felt that she