ildren do.

Ma patience et ma perseverance sont inepuisables sur ce qui regarde
Mie Mie. Je me croyois tranquillement etabli ici. J'aurai des
entretiens avec la mere, qui ne sont pas toujours composes avec du
miel. "Helas! Rende mi figlia mia." Voila ou j'en reviens. Adieu.
Ayez un peu de pitie de tous mes embarras, qui ne finissent pas.

(143) See Chapter 1: "In the spring it was arranged that the
Marchesa Fragniani should bring Mie Mie to Paris . . ."

(1780,) Sept. 11, Monday morning, 7 o'clock, Matson.--You will
receive a long letter from me to-day; and this will come to you on
Wednesday; so by these repeated courtesies you will see that I have
no repugnance to writing, although you have, and that I am very well
pleased to go on in my old way of scribbling, as long as I am
convinced that it is agreeable to you. But a line now and then is
comfortable, for, as Lady Macbeth says, "the feast grows cold that
is not often cheered," or something of that sort; so a
correspondence is awkwardly maintained, and is a contradiction in
terms when it is on one side only.

At present I am afraid that I shall be particularly tiresome,
because, much against my will, they have filled my head with
Election matters, and will not allow me a moment's time for anything
else. I have no comfort, but that it will be concluded on Thursday,
or Friday, but till then, what I shall suffer from folly and
impertinence, and from everything that is disagreeable, cannot be
described.

There is a party here called the True Blues, who lead Sir A. H. and
I (me) about, as if they had purchased us, to show in a fair. They
cost me, some years ago, twice two thousand pounds, by opposing me,
and now are doing all they can to make me pay four for befriending
me; and these people have given Administration such an idea of their
own omnipotence that I should have never been forgiven, if I had not
yielded to this importunity. I am assured that it will succeed, and
that both Sir A. and myself shall be returned, but my credulity does
not extend to that point. It is very probable, indeed, that by this
effort I may retain my own seat, which I did not care for, but to
attempt the other does as yet appear to me a great piece of
extravagance, considering the party which we have to contend with,
who have had their secrets well kept, and been very industrious for
two years in bringing about this opposition, whereas this scheme of
the Tories has not been taken up wi