Who

grown up under a man of decision of character at the head of the State, or the Department a man possessing the spirit of command; that truest of all tests of a chief, whether military or civil. rescued Braddock when he was fighting, secundem artem, and his men were dropping around him on every side? It was a Virginia militia major. He asserted in that crisis, the place which properly belonged to him, and which he afterwards filled in a manner we all know.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

LETTERS FROM ROANOKE.

WE again leave the reader to follow Mr. Randolph into his accustomed summer quarters, there to commune with him alone, and to commiserate his unhappy lot. With a heart most exquisitely attuned, as the reader has learned to know, to love and friendship, he had no wife nor children to share his home and fortune, and to fill that aching void, that none but domestic affection can fill. Wholly dependent on outward friendship, he found the world all too busy for that, and was desolate. The reader will not be at a loss to perceive that the following letters were addressed to Dr. Brockenbrough.

ROANOKE, Tuesday evening. May 27, 1828. My dear friend, I hope to hear from you by Sam on Saturday night, and to receive Lord Byron in a coffin, where I shall very soon be. I daily grow worse; if that can be called "growth" which is diminution and not increase. My food passes from me unchanged. Liver, lungs, stomach (which I take to be the original seat of disease), bowels, and the whole carnal man are diseased to the last extent. Diarrhoea incessant-nerves broken-cramps-spasms-vertigo. Shall I go on ?-no, I will not.

I have horses that I cannot ride-wine that I cannot drink-and friends too much occupied with their own affairs to throw away a day (not to say a week) upon me. Of these, except Mr. Macon, yourself and Barksdale, who has entangled himself with Mrs. Tabb's estates, are all that I care to see here. Meanwhile, my dear friend, I am not without my comforts, such as they be. I have a new passion arising within me, which occupies me incessantly-the improvement of my estate. But for three men-A. B. V. (your old master), Creed Taylor, and Patrick Henry, I should have commenced thirty years ago, what now I can hardly begin-finish, never. Don't you smile at my array of names? "Le vrai n'est pas toujours le vraisem

blable." Perhaps I might say, without hazarding more than public speakers (of whom I have been one) often do, "jamais" for "toujours

My cough is tremendous. The expectoration from mucus has become purulent. My dear friend, you and I know that the cough and diarrhoea, and pain in the side and shoulder, are the last stage of my disorder, whether of lungs in the first instance, or of liver.

I send you the measure of my thigh at the thickest part. Calves I have none, except those that suck their dams; but then I have ankles that will out-measure yours or any other man's as far as you beat me in thighs.

I am super-saturated with politics; care nothing about convention or no convention, or any thing but the P. election, and no great deal about that. The country is ruined, thanks to Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Ritchie, who, I suppose, is ashamed of sending me the Enquirer, for I never get it. It is a temporizing, time-serving print, which I heartily despise, and should not care to have it, except that it is the Moniteur of the poor old, ruined and degraded Dominion. Nevertheless, ask somebody (for Ritchie is too much of a Godwinian to attend to facts) to send it to me.

ROANOKE, Friday, May 30, 1828.

Although I wrote to you so short a time ago by Sam, as well as by the post, yet as my frank has not expired (at one time indeed I expected not to live out my 60 days' leave), I write again to tell you that extremity of suffering has driven me to the use of what I have had a horror of all my life-I mean opium; and I have derived more relief from it than I could have anticipated. I took it to mitigate severe pain, and to check the diarrhoea. It has done both; but to my surprise it has had an equally good effect upon my cough, which now does not disturb me in the night, and the diarrhoea seldom, until towards daybreak, and then not over two or three times before breakfast, instead of two or three and thirty times. Yet I can't ride-but I hobble with a stick, and scold and threaten my lazy negroes who are building a house between my well and kitchen, and two (a stable boy and under gardener) mending the road against you come or Barksdale. I want to see nobody else, that will come, except Leigh and Mr. Wickham, and they won't. Yes, let me except W. M. Watkins, who has been twice to see me; once spent the day from early breakfast, until after dinner-and seemed to feel a degree of interest in my life, that I thought no one took, except my "woman kind," and my friend Wm. Leigh.

Disgusted to loathing with politics, I have acquired a sudden taste for improving my estate, and my overseers are already aghast at my inspection of their doings. My servants here had been corrupted, by dealing with a very bad woman, that keeps an ordinary near me.

Twenty odd years ago, I saw her, then about 16, come into Charlotte court to choose a very handsome young fellow of two and twenty, for her guardian, whom she married that night. She was then as beautiful a creature as ever I saw (some remains yet survive). They reminded me of Annette and Lubin, but alas! Lubin became a whisky sot, and Annette a double you. Her daughters are following the same vocation, and her house is a public nuisance. I have been obliged to go there and lecture her at first she was fierce, but I reminded her of the time when she chose her guardian, extolled her beauty-told her that I could not make war upon a woman-and that with a widow-that if she wanted any thing, she might command much more from me as a gentleman, by a request, than she could make by trafficking with my slaves. She burst into tears, promised to do so no more, and that I might, in case of a repetition of her of fence," do with her as I pleased." Her tears disarmed me, and I withdrew my threat of depriving her of her license, &c., &c.: Voila un

roman.

ROANOKE, Aug. 10, 1828.

Your brother Tom, who dined here and lay here last Tuesday, tells me that you say "you believe that I have forgot you." I told the colonel to reply in jockey phrase, that "the boot was on the other leg." Until I saw him, I took it for granted that you had gone on from Charlottesville to the Springs, and I should as soon think of addressing a letter to Tombuctoo, as to our watering places. Moreover, he tells me that "he does not think that you will go at all." Now all the circumstances of the case taken together, I think I have some right to complain; but as that is a right which I had much rather waive than exercise, I shall content myself with laughing at you most heartily, for the part you had in the accouchment of Carter's mountain, which, after violent throes, has not produced even a mouse. My good friend, you and your compeers, Ex-P-s, Ch. J-s, and learned counsellors (to say nothing of the little tumbler), remind me of my childhood, when we used to play at "ladies and gentlemen," and make visits from the different corners of the room, and cut our bread or cake into dishes of beef, mutton, &c. What is all this for?-a menace? Then it must be treated with contempt; a persuasive, or argument? then I should treat it likewise. Against all self-created associations, taking upon themselves the functions of government, I set my face; and I should disregard the propositions of the convention, however reasonable or just, because of the manner in which they had been got up. Richardson and Gaines and Joe Wyatt are my political attorneys; in fact, and by them only, I mean to be bound-one set is enough, and I am vain enough to believe that my opinion and wishes are entitled to as much respect from the assembly (ceteris paribus) as that of any member of the Charlottesville convention. In truth

we are a fussical and fudgical people. We do stand in need of "Internal Improvement"-beginning in our own bosoms, extending to our families and plantations, or whatever our occupation may be; and the man that stays at home and minds his business, is the one that is doing all that can be done (rebus existentibus) to mitigate the evils of the times.

"Well, after all this expectoration, how is your cough?" Steadily getting worse; d'allieurs, I am better-I mean as to the alimentary canal. Why can't you and madam come and see me? We are burnt to a cinder; although I had beautiful verdure this summer, until late in July. But if you could but see my colt Topaz, out of Ebony; my filly Sylph, out of Witch; or my puppy Ebony, you would admit that the wonders of the world were ten, and these three of them. Adieu! J. R. OF R.

P. S. My frank being out, I subject you to double postage, to tell you that I clearly see in the C. C. a sort of tariffical log rolling between Ja. R. and the "mounting men," to tax the rest of the State and spend the money among themselves. I expect to live to see the upper end of Charlotte combine to oppress and plunder the lower end; or vice versa. The cui bono Mr. Mercer can tell, so can such contractors as his friend J. G. G. &c.

Did you read Mr. J.'s letter? I could not get through with it. Who does these things? It is exhumation.

ROANOKE, Tuesday, September 30, 1828. MY DEAR FRIEND-Your letter, which I received last night, was a complete surprise upon me. I had begun to think that I was never to hear from you again. I have been here five cheerless months. Two letters from you, and one from Barksdale, written early in May! Did you get one from me in reply to your penultimate, addressed to Philadelphia? Since my return home from W. I have not once slept out of my own bed; neither have I eaten from any other man's board, except when carried to Charlotte C. H. by business. With the exception of a few visitors, I have been solitary, or worse-being occasionally bored with company that I would have been glad to dispense with. There is a disease prevailing on Dan river, which they call the cold plague. It is very fatal and speedy; the patient dying on the second or third day. In Virginia we have a moral cold plague, that has extinguished every social and kindly feeling. I do not believe that there ever existed a state of society-no, not even in Paris-so selfish and heartless as ours; and then the pecuniary distress that stares you in the face, whichsoever way you turn! The like has never been seen and felt in this country before. If I had the means of insuring a mutton cutlet and a bottle of wine in a foreign land, I would take shipping in the next packet.

My good friend, my health is very bad. My disease is eating me away, and for the last month I have been sensible of a dejection of mind that I can't shake off. Perhaps some interchange of the courtesies and civilities of life might alleviate it; but these are unknown in this region.

ROANOKE, Tuesday, October 28, 1828. You are very good, but I cannot accept your kind invitation. I have lived here six solitary months in sickness and sorrow, until I find myself unfit for general converse with mankind. Mr. Barksdale presses me to go to How Branch, but I cannot. Sometimes, in a fit of sullen indignation, I almost resolve to abjure all intercourse with mankind; but the yearnings of my heart after those whom I have loved, but who, in the eagerness of their own pursuits, seem to have cast me aside, tell me better.

My good friend, I am sick, body and mind. I am without a single resource, except the workings of my own fancy. Fine as the weather is and has been all this month, I have not drawn a trigger. I often think of the visit you and madame made me three years ago just at this time. Although I never get a word from her, give her my best love. God bless you, may you never feel as I do. J. R. or R. CHARLOTTE C. H., November 4, 1828.

I got here to-day with some difficulty, and attempted to return home, but have been compelled to put back into port. Yesterday I was unable to attend. Indeed I have been much worse for the last five or six days.

Vote of the county at 4 P. M., Tuesday-Jackson 270; Adams 57. The sun is more than an hour high, but I am obliged to go to bed. No letters from you for a long time. J. R. OF R.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION-RETIREMENT FROM CONGRESS.

GENERAL JACKSON was elected, by a large majority, President of the United States. No man contributed more than Mr. Randolph to this result-none expected to profit less from the triumph of his cause. His sole object was to turn out men from office who had climbed up the wrong way, and whose principles were ruinous to the Constitution, and to the Union as a union of co-equal and independent States. Having accomplished this end, he had nothing more to desire. Whether the new men in office would fulfil his expectations