No 2. San Josef, February 16th, 1801.
MY DEAREST FRIEND,
Your letters have made me happy, to-day;
and never again will I scold, unless you begin.
Therefore, pray, never do; My confidence in you is
firm as a rock.
I cannot imagine, who can have stopped
my Sunday’s letter! That it has been, is
clear: and the seal of the other has been clearly
opened; but this might have happened from letters
sticking together.
Your’s all came safe; but the
numbering of them will point out, directly, if one
is missing. I do not think, that any thing very
particular was in that letter which is lost.
Believe me, my dear friend, that Lady
A. is as damned a w as ever lived,
and Mrs. W is a bawd! Mrs.
U a foolish pimp; eat up with
pride, that a P will condescend
to put her to expence. Only do as I do; and all
will be well, and you will be every thing I wish.
I thank you for your kindness to poor
dear Mrs. Thomson. I send her a note; as desired
by her dear good friend, who doats on her.
I send you a few Lines, wrote in the
late gale; which, I think, you will not disapprove.
How interesting your letters are!
You cannot write too much, or be too particular.
Though ’s polish’d
verse superior shine,
Though sensibility grace every line;
Though her soft Muse be far above all praise.
And female tenderness inspire her lays:
Deign to receive, though unadorn’d
By the poetic art,
The rude expressions which bespeak
A Sailor’s untaught heart!
A heart susceptible, sincere, and
true;
A heart, by fate, and nature, torn in two:
One half, to duty and his country due;
The other, better half, to love and you!
Sooner shall Britain’s sons
resign
The empire of the sea;
Than Henry shall renounce his faith,
AND PLIGHTED VOWS, TO THEE!
And waves on wares shall cease
to roll,
And tides forget to flow;
Ere thy true Henry’s constant love,
Or ebb, or change, shall know.
The weather, thank God, is moderating.
I have just got a letter from the
new Earl at the Admiralty, full of compliments.
But nothing shall stop my law-suit, and I hope to cast
him.
I trust, when I get to Spithead, there
will be no difficulty in getting leave of absence.
The letters on service are so numerous,
from three days interruption of the post, that I must
conclude with assuring you, that I am, for ever, your
attached, and unalterably your’s,
NELSON & BRONTE.
I shall begin a letter at night.