80 LETTERS. 
be so cruel ; and ere long, let me hope, I shall 
have an equitable tribunal to plead at ; before 
which (through God's assistance), I shall have 
it in my power to proclaim my innocence, and 
clear up my long-injured character before the 
world. 
" I hear he has gone out again ; if so, may he 
have all the success he can wish! Alas, Madam, 
I yesterday heard of the melancholy news of 
the death of your best of parents. I heartily 
condole with you for his loss. In him I lost the 
most kind friend and advocate, whose memory I 
shall for ever revere with the highest veneration. 
" I have one request to ask of you, Madam, 
which is, that you will be so obliging as to in- 
quire whether Mrs. Duncan, in Little Hermitage 
Street, has in her possession the clothes which, 
if you remember, I left with her in 1787 ; and 
gave you an order, by which you might at any 
time get them from her ; so that if they are still 
there, you will be so good as to send them down 
here directing them for me, ' On board his Ma- 
jesty's ship Hector, to the care of Sergeant 
William Clayfield, Marines, Portsmouth, or 
elsewhere.' But if you can hear no tidings of 
them or her, you will honour with a few lines your 
much obliged, obedient, and humble servant, 
" Peter Heywood." 
He soon afterwards received from his three 
sisters replies to his letter of July 12th. These 
were on one sheet : the first was from his eldest 
sister : — 
