_.

MY DEAR MADAM,

I have very great pleasure in sending to you an autograph letter of
your and our glorious Washington. I obtained it from Mr. Sparks, who
had the gratification of seeing you when he was in England, and who
told me when I applied to him for it, that there is no one in the
world to whom he would be so glad to give it. It is beyond
comparison the best and almost the only remaining one at his
disposal among the "Washington" papers.

I am again in my family and in the field of my ministry.

But very dear to me are my associations with scenes and friends in
England; and most glad should I be if I could renew that intercourse
with yourself, and with the intellect and virtue around you, to
which I have been indebted for great happiness, and which, I hope,
has done something to qualify me for a more efficient service. Will
you please to present my very sincere respects to your husband, and
to recall me to the kind remembrance of your children. With the
highest respect and regard, allow me to call myself.

Your friend,
JOSEPH TUCKERMAN.

* * * * *

I think it must have been on returning from the American station, or may
be later in the career of my father's life, that a circumstance occurred
which distressed him exceedingly. Highway robberies were common on all
the roads in the vicinity of London, but no violence was offered. My
father was travelling alone over Blackheath when the postilion was
ordered to stop, a pistol presented at my father, and his purse
demanded. My father at once recognised the voice as that of a shipmate,
and exclaimed, "Good God! I know that voice! can it be young----? I am
dreadfully shocked; I have a hundred pounds which shall be yours--come
into the carriage, and let me take you to London, where you will be
safe." ... "No, no," the young man said, "I have associates whom I
cannot leave--it is too late." ... It was too late; he was arrested
eventually and suffered. Years afterwards when by some accident my
father mentioned this event, he was deeply affected, and never would
tell the name of the young man who had been his mess-mate.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 12: M. Pellegrino Rossi, afterwards Minister of France at
Rome, then Prime Minister to Pius the Ninth; murdered in 1848 on the
steps of