I am hurried to death by the time, and therefore must make my relation short I endeavoured to meet the Duke yesterday morning; but failing in this, I enclosed your note to me, saying I owed it to him not to withhold such information for his _private ear_, and desiring him to send me back your note. He sent it back in half an hour, with the enclosed note from himself. This morning he begged to see me; and being on a Committee, and not released till four o'clock, I have only at this moment come from him at his office. He entered into a very full discussion of the whole business; and, first and foremost, declared in most positive and unequivocal terms, that he was perfectly innocent of the charge imputed to him, and that, fortunately, he had been so guarded in his whole proceedings throughout this disagreeable quarrel between Lord W---- and his wife, that he should be enabled most fully and clearly to rebut and destroy any charge ... that might be brought against him. But feeling this, however, very strongly, he had been to Lord C---- this morning; had consulted with him upon it; and, for the sake of the family, he thought it most essential, and most highly desirable, if possible, to prevent Lord W---- from bringing the charge forward. He considered Lord W----'s object to be founded exclusively on a wish to blacken her character, and to enable him to come forward with more effect in his defence (which he must make) in the case in which he is involved with Mr. W----; that however much he might blacken her in the first instance, it would ultimately recoil on himself, and therefore it was a real object to stop the further proceedings, if possible; that he (the Duke) had done everything in his power to reconcile the differences throughout, and that such must appear if Lord W---- persisted. These were the grounds on which, as a gentleman (without adverting to a personal consideration), he thinks he ought to advise that a stop should be put to W----'s further prosecution of this charge against his wife. The _habeas corpus_ has been demanded, and must be discussed to-morrow, at _three_ o'clock, in the Chancellor's private chamber; but in this discussion, if Lord W---- persists, this business must be gone into. The great object, therefore, that the Duke would recommend is, that you should, if you think proper, before that time communicate by a special messenger to W----, or to the individual through whom you gained your information, and endeavour to persuade him (the Duke being so completely armed against such a charge, and so prepared to refute it ultimately), that it could only for a moment serve his purpose, but in the end would damage his case. Indeed, I am persuaded, from what he said, that if W---- abandoned this attack on his wife, there would be little doubt that Mr.