“I learned the unfortunate result of the trial about two o’clock on Friday, and immediately hastened to the hotel, Covent Garden, to see if Mr. Cobbett would require any bail, but I found he had left town. I need not tell you how much I am concerned at the verdict.…” WM. C. to J. W. “I found Mrs. Cobbett very well, and quite prepared for what had happened. She bears the thing with her usual fortitude; and takes hourly occasion to assure me that she thinks I have done what I ought to do. In this she is excellent. She is the only wife that I ever saw, who, in such circumstances, did not express _sorrow_, at least, for what the husband had done; and, in such cases, sorrow is only another word for _blame_. Nancy was a good deal affected, but she soon got over it. If I had but about three weeks for preparation I should like it better; but I must settle things here as well as I can. Dr. Mitford will tell you _what has been suggested to me_, and what (if anything) will be done in consequence of it. “Send me by the coach to-morrow … Mother Clarke’s book, for I must notice the contents of it this week. You will have, in my writing, twenty-four columns, the greater part of it by to-morrow’s and next day’s posts. The rest of the double-number I should like to have made up of proceedings about reform, such as have appeared in the _Times_ and other daily papers; but, at present, the more harmless the things are the better. I shall write as boldly as ever, but I will take care of my subjects. The proofs of approaching scarcity can be no longer disguised. It will be very great and complete indeed. I shall be disappointed if the quartern loaf be not half-a-crown before Christmas. I wonder whether it be true that Buonaparte has stopped the exportation of corn from his dominions? If it be, you will soon see the effect of it. You see, that no rascal of a newspaper has touched upon the subject. It will come upon us by-and-bye with a vengeance.” _What had been suggested?_ The reader will recollect [_ante_, p. 96] that the notion of any intercession on his behalf was warmly deprecated by Mr. Cobbett from the very first; and no sign of a craven spirit had appeared during all these twelve tantalizing months. His mind was made up. The long-deferred prospect of a term in prison had been getting still more remote, and its accompanying terrors would be unheeded. But, back again among his beloved fields and woods, and surrounded by a little family which could but dimly appreciate the situation; struck with anxious cares that must result from his predicament, he listens to a _suggestion_.