“There are rumours of an outbreak at Bologna; probably, my dear friend, you have already sighed forth a wish that I was in the midst of it rather than [that I should] inflict upon you this tiresome piece of prolixity. But remember what the old woman said to the sentinel, who threatened to put the bayonet into her hinder part--‘Divil thank you--sure it’s yer thrade!’
“Fore God! I think a Bull from the Pope must be easy to obtain in comparison with the formality of this unlucky document. I now enclose it _en règle_.”
“Villa Lima, Lago de Como, _Oct_. 6, 1847.
“You say you are puzzled by what Chapman says as to my being charged with the production (at least one-half cost) of unsold copies. Yet the fact is precisely so. There were of ‘Hinton’ something above 16,000 sold and somewhere like 20,000 printed, and with the interval between the two amounts you will find that I am charged with a moiety of the cost of producing. It was this fact, coupled with the trickery of a depreciatory sale, that made Chapman pronounce the whole [? transaction] a cheat.
* What Edward Chapman had actually written (some time previously) was: “You have been in the hands of the Philistines. It is these things which bring discredit on our craft, and make authors look upon us as a set of ghouls ready to eat them, body and bones--with a tendency to get fat upon their brains. No doubt it was thought that you would make a nice dish _curried._”--E. D.
“It was Chapman’s accountant who discovered M’Glashan’s status, [which] is indeed the greatest mystery of all. How he could leave the concern so deeply indebted I cannot conceive. Great sacrifices, I am sure, he made to retain the Magazine, but the sum of £3000 must be six times more than would purchase the D. U. M.
“Is it not possible that some day or other that same Magazine may be in the market? If it were mine--solely--I would make £1000 out of it per annum.
“I am sincerely gratified that you have read, and, better still, are pleased with, my Tyrolean story. Had I not too just grounds to fear how the very aspect of my hand-o’-write must weary you, I would have asked you to read the MS. Now that you have done so, I may say that I wrote it in the fulness of my heartfelt admiration for the land and the people,--one in which and with whom I would feel delighted to linger out whatever may remain to me of life.