Oh! my best beloved Peter, how I anticipate the rapture of that moment!--for alas! I have no joy, no happiness, but in your beloved society, and no hopes, no fears, no wishes, but for you.' Mr.Heywood's sisters all address their unfortunate brother in the same affectionate, but less impassioned strain; and a little trait of good feeling is mentioned, on the part of an old female servant, that shows what a happy and attached family the Heywoods were, previous to the melancholy affair in which their boy became entangled.

Mrs.Heywood says, 'my good honest Birket is very well, and says your safe return has made her more happy than she has been for these two and forty years she has been in our family.' And Miss Nessy tells him, 'Poor Birket, the most faithful and worthiest of servants, desires me to tell you that she almost dies with joy at the thought of your safe arrival in England.

What agony, my dear boy, has she felt on your account! her affection for you knows no bounds, and her misery has indeed been extreme; but she still lives to bless your virtues.' The poor prisoner thus replies, from his Majesty's ship _Hector_, to his 'beloved sisters all':-- 'This day I had the supreme happiness of your long-expected letters, and I am not able to express the pleasure and joy they afforded me; at the sight of them my spirits, low and dejected, were at once exhilarated; my heart had long and greatly suffered from my impatience to hear of those most dear to me, and was tossed and tormented by the storms of fearful conjecture--but they are now subsided, and my bosom has at length attained that long-lost serenity and calmness it once enjoyed: for you may believe me when I say it never yet has suffered any disquiet from my own misfortunes, but from a truly anxious solicitude for, and desire to hear of, your welfare.

God be thanked, you still entertain such an opinion of me as I will flatter myself I have deserved; but why do I say so?
can I make myself too worthy the affectionate praises of such amiable sisters?
Oh! my Nessy, it grieves me to think I must be under the necessity, however heart-breaking to myself, of desiring you will relinquish your most affectionate design of coming to see me; it is too long and tedious a journey, and even on your arrival, you would not be allowed the wished-for happiness, both to you and myself, of seeing, much less conversing with, your unfortunate brother: the rules of the service are so strict, that prisoners are not permitted to have any communication with female relations; thus even the sight of, and conversation with, so truly affectionate a sister is for the present denied me! The happiness of such an interview let us defer till a time (which, please God, will arrive) when it can be enjoyed with more freedom, and unobserved by the gazing eyes of an inquisitive world, which in my present place of confinement would of course not be the case.
'I am very happy to hear that poor old Birket is still alive; remember me to her, and tell her not to _heave aback_, until God grants me the pleasure of seeing her.
'And now, my dear Nessy, cease to anticipate the happiness of personal communication with your poor, but resigned brother, until wished-for freedom removes the indignant shackles I now bear, from the feet of your fond and most affectionate brother, P.H.' In a subsequent letter to his sister, he says, 'Let us at present be resigned to our fate, contented with this sort of communication, and be thankful to God for having even allowed us that happiness--for be assured the present confinement is _liberty_, compared with what it has been for the fifteen months last past.' On the 15th July, Commodore Pasley addresses the following business-like letter to Miss Heywood.
'I received your letter, my dearest Nessy, with the enclosure [her brother's narrative], but did not choose to answer it until I had made a thorough investigation; that is, seen personally all the principal evidences, which has ever since occupied my whole thoughts and time.

I have also had some letters from himself; and notwithstanding he must still continue in confinement, every attention and indulgence possible is granted him by Captain Montague of the _Hector_, who is my particular friend.