oin
or resolve upon must, he says, be right, not only with respect to my
present but future reputation; with regard to which, he hopes so to
behave himself, as to be allowed to be, next to myself, more properly
solicitous than any body. He will only assure me, that his whole family
are extremely desirous to take advantage of the persecutions I labour
under to make their court, and endear themselves to me, by their best
and most cheerful services: happy if they can in any measure contribute
to my present freedom and future happiness.

'He will this afternoon, he says, write to Lord M. and to Lady Betty and
Lady Sarah, that he is now within view of being the happiest man in the
world, if it be not his own fault; since the only woman upon earth that
can make him so will be soon out of danger of being another man's; and
cannot possibly prescribe any terms to him that he shall not think it
his duty to comply with.

'He flatters himself now (my last letter confirming my resolution) that
he can be in no apprehension of my changing my mind, unless my friends
change their manner of acting by me; which he is too sure they will
not.* And now will all his relations, who take such a kind and generous
share in his interests, glory and pride themselves in the prospects he
has before him.'

* Well might he be so sure, when he had the art to play them
off, by his corrupted agent, and to make them all join to
promote his views unknown to themselves; as is shewn in some
of his preceding letters.

Thus does he hold me to it.

'As to fortune, he begs me not to be solicitous on that score: that his
own estate is sufficient for us both; not a nominal, but a real, two
thousand pounds per annum, equivalent to some estates reputed a third
more: that it never was encumbered; that he is clear of the world, both
as to book and bond debts; thanks, perhaps, to his pride, more than to
his virtue: that Lord M. moreover resolves to settle upon him a thousand
pounds per annum on his nuptials. And to this, he will have it, his
lordship is instigated more by motives of justice than of generosity; as
he must consider it was but an equivalent for an estate which he had
got possession of, to which his (Mr. Lovelace's) mother had better
pretensions. That his lordship also proposed to give him up either
his seat in Hertfordshire, or that in Lancashire, at his own or at his
wife's option, especially if I am the person. All which it