I cannot now go into all I think about this, for I have so
many other things to talk about. Since I began this letter I have
heard a report that John is a prisoner, that he has been arrested
and sent to Madrid. Luckily I do not believe a word of this; if he
has rendered himself obnoxious to the British authorities in
Gibraltar they may have locked him up for a week or two there, and
I see no great harm in that; but that he should have been delivered
to the Spaniards and sent to Madrid I do not believe, because I
know that the whole revolutionary party is going to pieces, and
that they have neither the power nor the means to render themselves
liable to such a disagreeable distinction. We expect him home every
day. Only conceive, dear H----, the ill-fortune that attends us: my
father, or rather the theater, is involved in six lawsuits I He and
my mother are neither of them quite well; anxiety naturally has
much share in their indisposition.
I learned Beatrice this morning and the whole of it, in an hour,
which I tell you because I consider it a feat. I am delighted at
the thoughts of acting it; it will be the second part which I shall
have acted with real pleasure; Portia is the other, but Beatrice is
not nearly so nice.
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