has my trembling hand refused to obey the dictates
of my heart--a heart which, though calm and serene amidst the
clashing of arms and all the din and horrors of war, trembles
with diffidence and the fear of giving offence when it attempts
to address you on a subject so important to his happiness. Dear
Madam, your charms have lighted up a flame in my bosom which can
never be extinguished; your heavenly image is too deeply
impressed ever to be effaced....

"On you alone my happiness depends, and will you doom me to
languish in despair? Shall I expect no return to the most
sincere, ardent, and disinterested passion? Do you feel no pity
in your gentle bosom for the man who would die to make you
happy?...

"Consider before you doom me to misery, which I have not deserved
but by loving you too extravgantly. Consult your own happiness,
and if incompatible, forget there is so unhappy a wretch; for may
I perish if I would give you one moment's inquietude to purchase
the greatest possible felicity to myself. Whatever my fate is, my
most ardent wish is for your happiness, and my latest breath will
be to implore the blessing of heaven on the idol and only wish of
my soul...."

And Alexander Hamilton wrote this of his "Betty": "I suspect ... that if
others knew the charm of my sweetheart as I do, I would have a great
number of competitors. I wish I could give you an idea of her. You have
no conception of how sweet a girl she is. It is only in my heart that
her image is truly drawn. She has a lovely form, and still more lovely
mind. She is all Goodness, the gentlest, the dearest, the tenderest of
her sex--Ah, Betsey, How I love her...."[276]

And let those who doubt that there was romance in the wooing of the old
days read the story of Agnes Surrage, the humble kitchen maid, who,
while scrubbing the tavern floor, attracted the attention of handsome
Harry Frankland, custom officer of Boston, scion of a noble English
family. With a suspiciously sudden interest in her, he obtained
permission from her parents to have her educated, and for a number of
years she was given the best training and culture that money could
purchase. Then, when she was twenty-four, Frankland wished to marry her;
but his proud family would not consent, and even threatened to
disinherit him. The couple, in despair, defied all conventionalities,
and Frankland to