. With my brother, however, the case was different. This romantic
expedition canceled all his purposes and prospects of entering the
Church, and Alfred Tennyson's fine sonnet, addressed to him when he
first determined to dedicate himself to the service of the temple, is
all that bears witness to that short-lived consecration: it was poetry,
but not prophecy.

MANCHESTER, September 3, 1830.
MY DEAREST H----,

I received you letter and the pretty Balbriggan stockings, for
which I thank you very much, quite safely. I have not been able to
put pen to paper till now, and even now do not know whether I can
do more than just tell you that we have heard nothing further
whatever from my brother. In his letter to me he said that he would
write home whenever he could do so safely, but that no letter of
ours would reach him; and, indeed, I do not now know where he may
be. From the first moment of hearing this intelligence, which has
amazed us all so much, I have felt less miserable than I could have
thought possible under the circumstances; my mind, I think, has
hardly taken hold of the truth of what has come so unexpectedly
upon me. The very impossibility of relieving one's suspense, I
suppose, compels one not to give way to its worst suggestions,
which may, after all, be unfounded. I cannot communicate with him,
and must wait patiently till he can write again; he is in God's
hand, and I hope and pray that he may be guided and protected. My
great anxiety is to keep all knowledge of his having even gone
abroad, if possible, from my mother. She is not in a state to bear
such a shock, and I fear that the impossibility of ascertaining
anything about him at present, which helps _me_ to remain tolerably
collected, would almost drive her distracted.

The news of the revolt in the Netherlands, together with the fact
that one of our dear ones is away from us in scenes of peril and
disturbance, has, I think, shaken my father's purpose of sending
Henry to Heidelberg. It is a bad thing to leave a boy of eighteen
so far from home control and influences; and he is of a sweet,
affectionate, gentle disposition, that makes him liable to be
easily led and persuaded by the examples and counsels of others.
Moreover, he is at the age when boys are always in some