"I wonder if my 'Cain' has got safe to England. I have written since about sixty stanzas of a poem, in octave stanzas, (in the Pulci style, which the fools in England think was invented by Whistlecraft--it is as old as the hills in Italy,) called 'The Vision of of Judgment, by Quevedo Redivivus,' with this motto-- "'A Daniel come to _judgment_, yea, a Daniel: I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.' "In this it is my intent to put the said George's Apotheosis in a Whig point of view, not forgetting the Poet Laureate for his preface and his other demerits. "I am just got to the pass where Saint Peter, hearing that the royal defunct had opposed Catholic Emancipation, rises up, and, interrupting Satan's oration, declares _he_ will change places with Cerberus sooner than let him into heaven, while _he_ has the keys thereof. "I must go and ride, though rather feverish and chilly. It is the ague season; but the agues do me rather good than harm. The feel after the _fit_ is as if one had got rid of one's body for good and all. "The gods go with you!--Address to Pisa. "Ever yours. "P.S. Since I came back I feel better, though I stayed out too late for this malaria season, under the thin crescent of a very young moon, and got off my horse to walk in an avenue with a Signora for an hour. I thought of you and 'When at eve thou rovest By the star thou lovest.' But it was not in a romantic mood, as I should have been once; and yet it was a _new_ woman, (that is, new to me,) and, of course, expected to be made love to. But I merely made a few common-place speeches. I feel, as your poor friend Curran said, before his death, 'a mountain of lead upon my heart,' which I believe to be constitutional, and that nothing will remove it but the same remedy." * * * * * LETTER 461. TO MR. MOORE. "October 6. 1821. "By this post I have sent my nightmare to balance the incubus of * * *'s impudent anticipation of the Apotheosis of George the Third. I should like you to take a look over it, as I think there are two or three things in it which might please 'our puir hill folk.'