dan. It will not
be sent to you, unless I die there. I hope that, long ere this, you may
have felt, as I have done, that we were both somewhat in the wrong, in
the quarrel that separated us. You, I think, were hard. I, no doubt,
was hasty. You, I think, assumed more than was your right, in demanding
that I should break a promise that I had given, to a lady against whom
nothing could be said, save that she was undowered. Had I, like
Geoffrey, been drawing large sums of money from you, you would
necessarily have felt yourself in a position to have a very strong
voice in so important a matter. But the very moderate allowance I
received, while at the University, was never increased. I do not think
it is too much to say that, for every penny I have got from you,
Geoffrey has received a guinea.

"However, that is past and gone. I have been fighting my own battle,
and was on my way to obtaining a good position. Until I did so, I
dropped our surname. I did not wish that it should be known that one of
our family was working, in an almost menial position, in Egypt. I have
now obtained the post of interpreter, on the staff of General Hicks;
and, if he is successful in crushing the rebellion, I shall be certain
of good, permanent employment, when I can resume my name. The fact that
you receive this letter will be a proof that I have fallen in battle,
or by disease.

"I now, as a dying prayer, beg you to receive my wife and boy; or, if
that cannot be, to grant her some small annuity, to assist her in her
struggle with the world. Except for her sake, I do not regret my
marriage. She has borne the hardships, through which we have passed,
nobly and without a murmur. She has been the best of wives to me, and
has proved herself a noble woman, in every respect.

"I leave the matter in your hands, Father, feeling assured that, from
your sense of justice alone, if not for the affection you once bore me,
you will befriend my wife. As I know that the Earl was in feeble
health, when I left England; you may, by this time, have come into the
title, in which case you will be able, without in any way
inconveniencing yourself, to settle an annuity upon my wife, sufficient
to keep her in comfort. I can promise, in her name, that in that case
you will never be troubled in any way by her; and she will probably
take up her residence, permanently, in Egypt, as she is not strong, and
the warm climate is essential to her."

The letter to his brother