MADAME--Having prepared myself for death, according to what it pleased you to signify to me, thus ridding my enemies of their charge, and that my life may be disposed of according to their designs, I have so willingly made up my mind to leave this false world, that I protest to God and to you, that since I have not aspired to, nor do I desire, any worldly satisfaction save those which, for the discharge of my conscience, I requested through my Lord Buckhurst and Beale, and those that I have asked of you in the last memorandum by my own hand, which depend entirely on your benevolence, and which can offend no one. As regards the petitions and requests I have been in part gratified, namely, the arrival of my chaplain and receiving a portion of my money--but of my papers I have only received certain extracts[81]--and as I do not think you intend that things belonging to me, or the affairs of my domain, should fall into other hands, as they cannot be of service to you, as they are necessary for the making of my will, I implore you that all my statements, books of accounts, and other papers, which only relate to my private affairs, be returned to me and the rest of the money restored, so that I can put them in order, and leave the examination of them to those in my confidence and the executors of my will, to whom they may be of use after my death, as they will be to me now; that I may be sure of what I have to spend, what I can dispose of, or what I justly owe; not being able, without them, to make use of Nau's extracts alone, he being a prisoner, unless I had liberty to communicate with him, or, at the least, by writing to receive information from him concerning several special (points) on which I require to be enlightened. I let Messrs. Paulet and Drue Drury know regarding certain points; and as they promised me to write, I have been expecting an answer since the 22nd of December, on which day they sent me some papers, with a line from my secretary Nau. (They), perhaps, not thinking it reasonable to trouble you with my last requests, I fear either that my letter has never been given to you, or that you did not wish to take the trouble to (read) it. The way in which I have been treated has perhaps led (them) to imagine that I meant to beg from you some great grace, and it may even have made them fear that, in the goodness of your heart, this remonstrance would cause you some regrets at consigning one of your own blood, and quality united, to such straits. But, Madame, they need not fear such pusillanimity on the one side, and on the other you can remove from them all their dread of your too great sorrow, by telling them of my request; and as it is your intention only to gratify it