590 Life of Count Rumford. 



So thoughtful was Sir Charles for her proper protec- 

 tion, that, as he writes, on seeing with regret the report 

 of her capture and arrival in the newspaper,* he at once 

 wrote to the husband of a New York lady then in Lon- 

 don, whose address, with advice to call on her, he gives 

 to the Countess, naming other persons on whose care 

 she could rely as safe friends. 



This friendly anxiety of Sir Charles exhibits itself in 

 a rather more serious way in other replies of his to the 

 Countess, dated from Cheltenham, September 19 and 

 22. He writes : 



u By the false step of quitting Plymouth before you knew 

 whether there was any one in London on whose protection 

 you could properly rely, you have certainly brought yourself 

 into a disagreeable situation. Perhaps the best thing for you to 

 do would be to return thither and place yourself under the 

 protection of the American Consul, Mr. Hawker, who is a 

 most respectable gentleman, with a wife and family, well known 

 to me. But if you think it best to remain in London, by all 

 means quit your hotel [the Bedford] and go to your father's 

 house at Bromptbn Row, which is now empty, and taken care 

 of by the Mason family, as when he left it. Possibly you may 

 find little or no furniture in it ; but enough for your use can 

 easily be hired, and in this you would be much assisted by the 

 mistress of my lodgings, at No. 5 High Row, Knightsbridge, 

 to whom I will give you a note on the last page of this letter." 



He also advises her in reference to some acquaint- 

 ances which she had formed, which he would have her 

 civilly discontinue, and to depend chiefly upon "the 



* Sir Charles doubtless read the following letter from Plymouth, dated September 

 7, in the London Morning Chronicle of September 10, 1811: "The American 

 ship Drummond, Captain Woodbury Langdon, which has been detained and sent in 

 here for breach of blockade by the Cadmus, brig of war, was fallen in with off Bor- 

 deaux, on her passage from New York. She has on board seventeen passengers, 

 among whom are Sir James Joy and Countess Sara"h Rumford." 



