Had I required to learn the uncertainty of all human
projects being fulfilled, my now sad tale had taught it me. After a
consultation here, a warm climate was held to be good for Lord Charleville, and I had no doubt of quitting
England forthwith, but my son’s illness forbids our emigration; thus
sinks, for the second time, to the ground, my hope of selfish relief for
myself, and advantage to my children by foreign travel, and observation of man
in other climes. Upon receipt of your kind letter, I went
to Colburn, whose
| LETTERS AND GOSSIP. | 105 |
Lord and Lady
Westmeath’s separation for temper, and the overthrow of
Lord Belfast’s marriage and
fortunes, by Lord Shaftesbury having
discovered that the Marquis and Marchioness of Donegal were married under age by
licence, and not by banns, which renders it illegal, and bastardizes their
children irreparably, is the greatest news of the upper circles at present. The
young lady had said she married only for money; therefore, for her, no pity is
shown; but poor Lord Belfast, to lose rank, fortune, and
wife at once, at twenty years of age, is a strong and painful catastrophe to
bear properly. I hear Mr. Chichester (rightful heir now)
behaves well; but he cannot prevent the
| 106 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
There have been half a dozen marriages, and another dozen are about to take place. Lady J. Moore to Mr. William Peele; Lord Temple, Lady M. Campbell; Mr. Neville, Lady Jane Cornwallis; Mr. Packenham, Miss Ponsonby, and so on, &c.
This letter is a true account of a most agitating, frightful state of mind, that required all the effort that I was capable of to enable me to seem like other people before my dear child, for he judged his state by my impressions of it as they appeared to him, and I did act a difficult and a cruel part, laughing and telling tales to him when I thought all lost!!
Farewell; and to your better pencil I consign all the glories of Italian scenery; may you, in Sir Charles’s health, find a recompence and a joy such as I wish you, to sweeten life and reward your real merits.
PS. I have just finished Don Juan—it is beautifully written, not immoral, not personal. Farewell; I am always your Ladyship’s sincere friend.
