Two days after the duel he received a letter from his grandfather.
It was only the second he had received. In the previous letter
Colonel Holliday alluded to something which he had said in a prior
communication, and Rupert had written back to say that no such
letter had come to hand. The answer ran as follows:
"My dear Grandson--Your letter has duly come to hand. I regret to
find that my first to you miscarried, and by comparing dates I
think that it must have been lost in the wreck of the brig Flora,
which was lost in a tempest on her way to Holland a few days after
I wrote. This being so, you are ignorant of the changes which have
taken place here, and which affect yourself in no slight degree.
"The match between your lady mother and Sir William Brownlow is broken
off. This took place just after you sailed for the wars. It was brought
about by our friend, Monsieur Dessin. This gentleman--who is, although
I know not his name, a French nobleman of title and distinction--received,
about the time you left, the news that he might shortly expect to hear
that the decree which had sent him into exile was reversed. Some little
time later a compatriot of his came down to stay with him. Monsieur
Dessin, who I know cherished ill feeling against Sir William for the
insult which his son had passed upon his daughter, and for various
belittling words respecting that young lady which Sir William had
in his anger permitted himself to use in public, took occasion when
he was riding through the streets of Derby, accompanied by his
friends, Lord Pomeroy and Sir John Hawkes, gentlemen of fashion and
repute, to accost him.
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