The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
“Dine at Mr. Haynes’s [July 10th], where I meet Lord Wycombe. He comes home
with me after dinner, and, chemin faisant, expresses himself with much warmth
against his quondam friend, Madame de Flahaut. She had a design upon him, viz., to
marry him; and he thinks she did much mischief to effectuate it. He is of those men
who go far in the way which they once travel, and believes more than is just. At the
time when I suspected their connection to be what I now find it was, and on his arrival
in Paris, she sent her servant to him, with a letter full of all sorts of tenderness and
dying sensibility. I find she had nearly catched him in the matrimonial noose, and he
seems to be very angry at it, though, in fact, he has nothing to complain of. He
seemed a proper subject to work upon, and therefore she exerted herself to get hold of
him. We have a pretty long conversation on matters of a public nature, and his
lordship begins to doubt some things which appeared to him to be certain.”
From Altona, July 11th, Morris despatched another letter to Lady Sutherland,
acknowledging her letters, and, just touching on the all-absorbing political subject, he
announced to her his intended departure for home.
“It has for some time been my opinion,” he wrote, “that you would have peace this
year, and the negotiators being now met, I presume you will soon know the happy
issues of their labors. As to the conditions, I think them of little consequence, for the
state of Europe seems to me similar to what it was previous to the Grand Alliance,
and, if so, you will have only an armed truce whose duration must depend on
contingencies; unless, indeed, the internal commotions of France should give to
neighboring nations a security they could not derive from their arms. Quand on se
trouve au parterre il faut attendre le déno?ment de la pièce, quelque mauvaise qu’elle
soit. Ainsi, quoiqu’en route pour mon foyer, je reste ici encore quelques jours. But for
trifles not worth mentioning, I should have been by this time in America; and I think
it wisest to go without visiting England, because I shall leave this hemisphere with
less reluctance than if I saw you at the moment of my departure. Still, there is
something which tells me I shall see you again, and the idea is so pleasant that I can’t
find it in my heart to drive it away. Wouldn’t it be whimsical if, in the shufflings of
time and chance, we should meet under the auspices of a bonnet rouge at Paris? You
ask my plan of operations. I float, dear lady, like all light substances, on the stream of
time, too indolent to row, too ignorant to steer, and trusting fate for a future haven.
You, more provident, are buying and repairing a house, on which I felicitate you,
because it will (till finished) give you the pleasure of employment, and then you must
seek some other object. Whatever may be your pursuit and with whatever success, my
warmest wishes will still attend you—still like
Thy guardian sylph shall hover near,
With cheerful smile and blooming joy to greet;
Or, in life’s weariness, thy spirit cheer,
And scatter roses underneath thy feet.
Adieu. My best remembrances await his lordship. Tell him so, and believe me ever
and truly yours.”
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