"Your entering into my project for the Memoir is pleasant to me. But I doubt (contrary to my dear Made Mac F * *, whom I always loved, and always shall--not only because I really _did_ feel attached to her _personally_, but because she and about a dozen others of that sex were all who stuck by me in the grand conflict of 1815)--but I doubt, I say, whether the Memoir could appear in my lifetime;--and, indeed, I had rather it did not; for a man always _looks dead_ after his Life has appeared, and I should certes not survive the appearance of mine. The first part I cannot consent to alter, even although Made. de S.'s opinion of B.C. and my remarks upon Lady C.'s beauty (which is surely great, and I suppose that I have said so--at least, I ought) should go down to our grandchildren in unsophisticated nakedness. "As to Madame de S * *, I am by no means bound to be her beadsman--she was always more civil to me in person than during my absence. Our dear defunct friend, M * * L * *[26], who was too great a bore ever to lie, assured me upon his tiresome word of honour, that, at Florence, the said Madame de S * * was open-_mouthed_ against me; and when asked, in _Switzerland_, _why_ she had changed her opinion, replied, with laudable sincerity, that I had named her in a sonnet with Voltaire, Rousseau, &c. &c. and that she could not help it through decency. Now, I have not forgotten this, but I have been generous,--as mine acquaintance, the late Captain Whitby, of the navy, used to say to his seamen (when 'married to the gunner's daughter')--'two dozen, and let you off easy.' The 'two dozen' were with the cat-o'-nine tails;--the 'let you off easy' was rather his own opinion than that of the patient. "My acquaintance with these terms and practices arises from my having been much conversant with ships of war and naval heroes in the year of my voyages in the Mediterranean. Whitby was in the gallant action off Lissa in 1811. He was brave, but a disciplinarian. When he left his frigate, he left a _parrot_, which was taught by the crew the following sounds--(it must be remarked that Captain Whitby was the image of Fawcett the actor, in voice, face, and figure, and that he squinted). "The Parrot _loquitur_. "'Whitby! Whitby! funny eye! funny eye! two dozen, and let you off easy. Oh you ----!' "Now, if Madame de B. has a parrot, it had better be taught a French parody of the same sounds. "With regard to our purposed Journal, I will call it what you please, but it should be a newspaper, to make it _pay_. We can call it 'The Harp,' if you like--or any thing.