“After having been more than a year in the command of the Speedy, and during that period having had the happiness to obtain, in several instances, the approbation of my Commander in chief, my prospects in the navy seemed so flattering, that although I had not been successful in a pecuniary point of view, I felt myself justified in endeavouring to excite an interest in the affections of her, who had so long possessed mine; and wrote to her accordingly. But after writing the letter, in order firmly to establish in my own mind, that I was acting from the deliberate conviction that I was in search of real happiness; that I was not carried away by such visionary schemes of felicity, as too often haunt the imagination of those, who from the nature of their profession, are debarred from general society; I kept the letter by me. I had given my father a promise that I would never marry until I had attained the rank of Post Captain, when I knew I should have his perfect consent and approbation with regard to the object I had in view. I was therefore resolved not to take so important a step, until I should feel perfectly justified in doing so. I frequently read over the letter, and found that my sentiments, instead of experiencing the slightest or the most momentary change, were daily strengthened; that no alteration was made either by increase of rank, which I soon after met with; by professional success, which was the cause of it; or by my more intimate acquaintance with the higher classes of society, to which, through the friendship and kindness of my excellent friend and patron, Lord St. Vincent, I was soon after introduced. On the contrary, the rank and honours acquired an additional value from the hope that they would be acceptable to my beloved Isabella; whilst her sweetness of disposition, and consistency of character, constantly rose in my estimation, by contrasting them with what I met with; however superior many of her sex might have been in beauty of person, and in the advantages of rank and fortune. “Upon my arrival in England, in September, 1800, having been made Post in the preceding month of February; I dispatched the letter; and remained in anxious expectation of the result for some weeks. At length the answer arrived; and delightful as the contents were to me, in assuring me that I had long been the object of her affections, the ideas of happiness which it excited in my mind, were not to be compared to the real felicity which I subsequently enjoyed, during the whole course of our union. At length, after a separation of fourteen years, I met your beloved mother, and found her all that my most sanguine imagination had painted.”