- What avails it, cried he, that fortune
has raised me to an equality with her, if, by other means, I am
deprived of her!
He was beginning to give way to a despair little befitting a soldier,
when another courier arriving from Versailles with dispatches to the
king, he also received a packet, in which were three letters. The first
he cast his eye upon had on it the characters of Charlotta: amazed and
transported he hastily broke the seal, and found it contained
these lines:
To Colonel HORATIO.
SIR,
"I have the permission of my father to pursue
my inclinations, in giving you this testimony
how sincerely I congratulate your good fortune;
tho' I ought not to call it by that name, since I
find every-body allows your rewards have not
exceeded your merits; but as neither has been
found deficient either for your ambition or the
satisfaction of your friends, all who are truly such
think you ought to be content, and run no future
hazards. - Be assured you have many well-wishers
here, among the number of whom you
will be guilty of great injustice not to place
CHARLOTTA DE PALFOY."
How well were all the late anxieties he had endured attoned for by this
billet; it was short indeed, and wrote with a more distant air than he
might have expected, had the dear authoress been at liberty to pursue
the dictates of her heart; but as it informed him it was permitted by
her father, and was doubtless under his inspection, the knowledge that
he had authorized her to write at all, was more flattering to his hopes
of happiness than all she could have said without that Sanction. After
having indulged the raptures this condescention excited, he proceeded to
the rest, and found the next he opened was from the baron de Palfoy, who
expressed himself to him in these terms:
To Colonel HORATIO.
"I think myself obliged to you for so much
exceeding the character I gave you; but I
value myself on knowing mankind, and am glad
to find I was not deceived in you, when I expected
you to do more than I durst venture on
my own opinion to assure the count. He tells me,
in a letter I received from him the last courier,
that the victorious Charles XII. himself cannot
behave with greater bravery in the time of action,
nor more moderation after it is over. - This
is a great praise, indeed, from such a man
as he; and I acquaint you with it not to make
you vain, for that would blemish the lustre of
your other good qualities, but that you may
know how to make proper acknowledgments to
that minister."
"Our court, I know, makes pressing influences
to the king of Sweden not to carry on the way
any farther:
