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. 7 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 : 
