of grief, which generally succeeds to the violent anguish
with which a gentle nature is accustomed to be torn upon the first
communication of the unexpected loss of a dear friend. I gave her
therefore the thirty guineas bequeathed to her and to her son for
mourning; the only mourning which the testatrix has mentioned; and
desired her to lose no time in preparing her own, as I doubted not, that
she would accompany the corpse, if it were permitted to be carried down.

The Colonel proposes to attend the hearse, if his kindred give him not
fresh cause of displeasure; and will take with him a copy of the will.
And being intent to give the family some favourable impressions of me, he
desired me to permit him to take with him the copy of the posthumous
letter to me; which I readily granted. He is so kind as to promise me a
minute account of all that should pass on the melancholy occasion. And
we have begun a friendship and settled a correspondence, which but one
incident can possibly happen to interrupt to the end of our lives. And
that I hope will not happen.

But what must be the grief, the remorse, that will seize upon the hearts
of this hitherto-inexorable family, on the receiving of the posthumous
letters, and that of the Colonel apprizing them of what has happened? I
have given requisite orders to an undertaker, on the supposition that the
body will be permitted to be carried down; and the women intend to fill
the coffin with aromatic herbs.

The Colonel has obliged me to take the bills and draughts which he
brought up with him, for the considerable sums which accrued since the
grandfather's death from the lady's estate.

I could have shown to Mrs. Norton the copies of the two letters which she
missed by coming up. But her grief wants not the heightenings which the
reading of them would have given her.

***

I have been dipping into the copies of the posthumous letters to the
family, which Harry has carried down. Well may I call this lady divine.
They are all calculated to give comfort rather than reproach, though
their cruelty to her merited nothing but reproach. But were I in any of
their places, how much rather had I, that she had quitted scores with me
by the most severe recrimination, than that she should thus nobly triumph
over me by a generosity that has no example? I will enclose some of
them, which I desire you to return as soon as you can.

LETTER XIV

TO THE EVER-HONOURED JAS. HARLOWE