"P.S.-I entirely acquit Liston of the least coolness or change of sentiment.

"H. ELLIOT, 8th July 1783."

The reflection on Mr. Liston probably rested on some misconception, or emanated from that mood of mind in which "all the world appears unkind." Its almost simultaneous retractation was doubtless due to a sudden consciousness that it might cause pain when explanation would have ceased to be possible.

During Mr. Elliot's stay in Berlin the necessary steps were taken for his divorce, and, when his health was reestablished, he returned to Denmark on the best footing with his mother-in-law, with Prince Henry, and all his old Berlin connections. His wife subsequently married her cousin, and both lived in strict retirement until her death, which took place in a few years after these events.

Thus again Hugh Elliot stood alone in life; his household gods lay shattered round him; the mother who would have mourned over him was gone; and though his family sorrowed for his sorrows, it was with a feeling not unmixed with congratulation at the severance of so deplorable a connection. "Thank God,"

says Isabella, after his return from Berlin, "you have got safely away from all those strange people."

What was thought at home of the first act of this uncommon romance in diplomatic life, may be gathered from a letter written by Mr. Liston from London, shortly before he went to Spain :

"London, 23d May 1783.

"The day before yesterday I had an audience of

T

leave of the King (as they mean to despatch me immediately). He kept me (I believe) pretty long, and went through many subjects, among others your journey, with which I was amazed to find him so well acquainted. The first accounts he had had of it were from a German gazette; then from the Leyden paper; then from your two private letters to Mr. Fox,1 both of which were shown to him; and he must also have heard of it from other quarters, from the particulars I found he knew. I told him that it was a measure of absolute necessity, and that you could not possibly do otherwise; which he seemed to assent to, and I was very happy to find him speak with so little rigidity on the subject. Both the courts concerned have used friendly language. The opportunity I had of talking so long with the King has had the same effect with me as the successive conversations you have had used to have on you; that is, to convince me of his extensive knowledge of many things one would not expect him to be master of, and of his sound good sense in many others. I know not from what circumstance it was, but I felt myself inspired with more courage to speak to him than I usually have to people that are placed even one step above me.”

1 The Coalition Government came in in March 1783.

This refers to Mr. Elliot's hasty journey, without leave, from Copenhagen to Berlin.

CHAPTER THE TENTH.

1782 to 1785.

COPENHAGEN.

THE first letters which my grandfather wrote from Copenhagen in the winter of 1782 and 1783 give an agreeable account of his impressions of the place. Even through the clouds and mist of winter he gazed with pleasure on a fertile and undulating country, a sea alive with shipping, and a handsome capital surrounded by country residences standing in wooded and picturesque parks. The contrast offered by such scenes to those he had lately left was sensibly grateful to him; and when in July 1783 he returned from the painful agitations of Berlin to his beautiful villa at Christiansholm, it seemed to him like "a haven of peace to a shipwrecked mariner."

He appears to have been at once cordially received into the society of the Schimmelmanns and Reventlows,1 families allied by ties of blood and by congenial tastes and pursuits, and frequent mention is made by him of their delicate kindness to himself, and of the resources he found in their attractive society.

1 The readers of the Memoirs of Perthes will be familiar with several accomplished members of the above-named families.

Other friendships he owed to his intimacy with Countess Bentinck-a very remarkable old lady-who resided at Hamburg, and whose unblemished life and strong mental powers had made her the respected centre of a distinguished circle. My grandfather had made her acquaintance during the many visits to Hamburg which in the early years of his residence at Berlin had afforded him rest and relaxation. She had been the confidant of his love-story; in her later letters she confesses that often, while sitting with him in her garden at Elmsbüttel, listening to the delicious pictures of an ideal happiness of which he, "le cœur rempli d'un espoir bien doux," anticipated the realisation in his future home, she had asked herself, with fear and trembling, if it were indeed possible that a female character such as that described to her could "come out of Nazareth?" and had prayed that even such a miracle might be worked in favour of her friend-"un être composé d'esprit et de cœur."

When Mr. Elliot first learned the circumstances which made the immediate removal of his child from his wife's care a matter of urgent necessity, it was to Countess Bentinck that he turned for help and assistance, and, throwing himself on her generosity, he implored her to give his child temporary protection should anything happen to him, or should obstacles be raised to his removal of her from the country. This appeal was received by his venerable friend as a most gratifying proof of the confidence with which her character had inspired him; for not only did he know

her to be a near relation of the man who had so sorely injured him, but to be connected with him by other ties-Baron Kniphausen's mother having, on her deathbed, left him, with others of his family, to the tender care of the Countess Bentinck, whose sister, I believe, she was. Mr. Elliot's trust was amply justified by the tenderness with which Madame de Bentinck responded to his request; and not only did she promise his child such love and care as she would have given to her own, but she placed her château of Doorwerth, in Guelderland, at his disposal, should he think it a safer refuge than Hamburg for his infant daughter.

As we have seen, however, Mr. Elliot succeeded in carrying her out of Prussia without coming into collision with the Prussian Government, and Countess Bentinck tells him in one of her letters, immediately after his return to Copenhagen, that the King not only did not blame his conduct, but that, on the contrary, he had said: "Qu' Elliot étant père, était louable d'en avoir les entrailles," and that all the royal indignation was directed against the officer in charge of the gates who had been taken by surprise by Mr. Elliot's sudden revelation of himself. Hence a very severe ordonnance had been published, to the vexation of all subsequent travellers, who were to be submitted to "une inquisition de Goa" before passing the gates of Berlin.

To Countess Bentinck's good offices, Mr. Elliot was indebted for the friendship of her nieces, Countess de Wedel and Countess de Holstein-Letraborg. Of the first of these ladies she says, "Elle a des qualités rares dans