Volume Ii Part 40 (1/2)
”My best regards to Mrs Blackwood. Tell her she'll have her meals in peace this time in London, but it isn't my fault after all.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Trieste, _April_ 12, 1870.
”You gratify me much by what you say of these O'Ds. Failing health, broken spirits, a very sad home, and many uncertainties are hard to bear, but I believe I could face them all better than the thought of 'Brain bankruptcy.' To draw on my intellect and get for answer 'no a.s.sets' would, I feel, overwhelm me utterly. Your hearty words have, therefore, done me good service, and in my extra gla.s.s of claret--and I will take one to-day--I'll drink your health.
”I am distressed at not getting the _April No. of 'Maga'_ yet; by some accident it has been forgotten or miscarried, and it is a great comfort to me to 'cuddle over.'
”My poor wife is still suffering intensely, and too weak to undergo the operation, which is eminently necessary. She has at last, too, lost all courage, and, I might almost say, wish to live. Much of this depression is from actual pain, and all our efforts are now directed to allay that.
I never leave the house, or, if I do, go beyond the garden. Of course, I admit no visitors, and scarcely remember the days of the week.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Trieste, _April_ 15,1870.
”I think the t.i.tle had better be 'Personal and Peculiar.' I have added and changed the conclusion, whether for the better or not you shall decide. There was some danger in saying more, and I might have found, if I went on, that, as Curran says, I had argued myself _out_ of my brief.
”I have a half suspicion the Bill may break down after all,--not that it signifies much, since the Tories could not take office with any chance of holding it, but the mere failure would offend Gladstone, and even that would be a comfort.
”I have no better news to send for this, and am low, low!
”Don't forget to send me 'Maga' for this month--April.
”Have you read d.i.c.kens' new serial, and what do you say to it? I am curious to hear.
”We have a report here from Greece that the English Sec. of Legation and a whole picnic party have been captured by the brigands, and an immense ransom demanded.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Trieste, _April_ 23, 1870.
”The blow has fallen at last, and I am desolate. My poor darling was taken from me at two this morning, without suffering. It seems to me as if years had gone over since she smiled her last good-bye to me. All the happiness of my life has gone, and all the support. G.o.d's greatest mercy would be to take me from a life of daily looking back, which is all that remains to me now.
”You are, I feel, a true friend who will feel for my great sorrow, and I write this as to one who will pity me.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Trieste, _May_ 28, 1870.
”Though I cannot read your note by any other light than an affectionate desire to be of service to _me_, veiled under the notion that I could be of any use to _you_; and though I say I see all this, and see besides how little capable I now am of even a weak effort, I accept your offer and write at once for leave of absence, which, between ourselves, I do not think would be accorded me if it was guessed that I intended to visit Greece. Indeed I _know_ that Mr Gladstone's h.e.l.lenism is calculated on at Athens to sustain the Greek government through anything that the public opinion of Europe would be likely to submit to.*
* Mr Blackwood proposed that Lever should pay a visit to Greece, for the purpose of making investigations about an act of brigandage which had shocked the civilised world. A party of English tourists, which included Lord and Lady Muncaster, had been seized by brigands at Oropos, near Marathon. During the course of the negotiations for the ransom of the tourists, some members of the British Legation at Athens had been murdered. Many influential Greeks were conniving at the act of brigandage, and matters were at this time in a very disturbed condition in high quarters.--E. D.