Dear Madam--I have just recd ye favour of your letter of ye 7th august, with the answer to a bill of complaint of my Ld Grandison and your self: I cou'd wish you had pleased to have let me know in general that that bill is, for at present I have no Idea of it. You assure me, Madam the answer you wou'd have me make is a form, and can lead me into no farther consequences, by engageing me In Law, or disobligeing My Brother; neither of which I am persuaded you wou'd upon any consideration involve me in: upon these grounds I readily send you my consent to the answer proposed By Mr Martyn in your letter. I am sorry it did not come to my hands sooner, least my answer shou'd not be time enough; and that I shou'd, by that means, be any involuntary obstacle to your affairs which wou'd be a sensible concern to Dear Madam Yr most Dutyfull affece Son WM. PITT. I leave this Place shortly not knowing yet where I shall pass ye winter. In 1734 he was back in England, doing duty with his regiment at Newbury. It is unnecessary to speculate on the measure of success that William would have achieved in the army had he remained a soldier. That he had an early disposition to the career of arms seems probable, as his uncle, Lord Stanhope, a soldier himself, who died when William was twelve, used to call him 'the young Marshal.' It is useless to surmise; but had he not been so great an orator, one would be apt to imagine that his bent and talent lay in the direction of a military career. This at least is certain, that he sedulously employed his time, preserved from mess debauches and idle activity by his guardian demon the gout. He told Shelburne that during the time he was a cornet of horse, there was not a military book that he had not read through. This is a large statement, but denotes at least unstinted application. So his career as a subaltern, though abruptly cut short, was probably fruitful, and these studies must have been useful to the future war minister. To paraphrase Gibbon's pompous and comical phrase, the cornet of dragoons may not have been useless to the history-maker of the British Empire. For his destiny was to plan and not to conduct campaigns, and he was now to be caught in the jealous embrace of parliamentary politics. CHAPTER III.