not praise it enough, particularly the fair sex. I would not go to Brussels at all if I were not obliged to have a certain bracelet made for me, of which you know, and a copy in miniature of a portrait I shall wear for ever next my heart. My Lord Portland[145] showed me much friendliness, and assured me that the King held me in esteem. All that does not make we wish to better my fortune. No, Beloved, so long as I can count you mine, I wish nothing more; all the favours of kings are useless to me. The King’s interview with our Prince was very dull, for both are men of few words. Yesterday the Prince went to see His Majesty in his camp. I did not go in his suite; but to-morrow I attend him to the Elector’s, and I will give you an account of that. Prince Frederick Augustus of Saxony is the dupe of all; he is cheated in his horses, and money is won from him at cards; he has already lost one thousand pistoles. He has no one to advise him, and is being ruined. I heard to day that Prince Christian is to marry the widow of the Duke d’Arenburg.” ----- Footnote 144: Probably the Elector of Bavaria. Footnote 145: Hans William Bentinck, first Earl of Portland and ancestor of the present Duke, accompanied William of Orange to England as confidential adviser, who created him Earl of Portland in 1689. He was in command of a regiment of Dutch Guards at the battle of the Boyne, and probably held the same commission in Flanders. Colt mentions in his despatches that Lord Portland was with King William at Brussels and during the campaign. ----- “[_On the 16th._] “What joy, what rapture, what delight to be loved by you! I have just received two more of your letters. No, my divinity, I will not exact any oaths from you; I know you well, and will trust you and believe everything you tell me. Your devotion shows me that I am the happiest man in the world. I feel so happy; my only sorrow is that we are separated. The days seem weeks to me, the weeks like months, and the months centuries; and when I think that I have still two months of campaigning to go through before I see you, I despair, and pray a thousand times a day that I may be wounded in the fight, and so have a pretext for returning to Hanover—and to you. I am so despondent that I am wasting away; and what grieves me most is the thought that when you see me again you will find me as ugly as sin. The Elector told me so only to-day, and all my friends find me so pale and careworn they scarcely recognise me. Every day they ask me if I am ill; but my complaint only comes from loving you. Cruel little one! You think I am so hasty that I would commit some folly on the strength of a mere suspicion; but, dearest, when a man loves as I love, he can never abandon the woman he adores. I loved you through it all, so think no more about it.”