University of Virginia Library

LETTER LXXVII.

I have been much indisposed, but am now better. I
have neither health, spirits, nor leisure to write. At this moment,
I have at least fifty unanswered letters; some of them
on business of consequence. Recollect, my son, that I have
some twenty or thirty correspondents: you, perhaps, not more
than three or four. I say nothing of my other avocations.

My spirits are crushed by the late calamitous event at
Richmond.[1] Mrs. Brockenbrough, I fear, will lose her
senses, irretrievably! Would to God, my son, that circumstances
permitted you to be with me, at this moment. I
have need of comfort.