We are united, you and I, to two kinds of very detestable people [Mary means Miss Huntly, Bothwell's wife, whom he repudiated, at the king's death, to marry the queen.]: that hell may sever these knots then, and that heaven may form better ones, that nothing can break, that it may make of us the most tender and faithful couple that ever was; there is the profession of faith in which I would die.
"Excuse my scrawl: you must guess more than the half of it, but I know no help for this.

I am obliged to write to you hastily while everyone is asleep here: but be easy, I take infinite pleasure in my watch; for I cannot sleep like the others, not being able to sleep as I would like--that is to say, in your arms.
"I am going to get into bed; I shall finish my letter tomorrow: I have too many things to tell to you, the night is too far advanced: imagine my despair.

It is to you I am writing, it is of myself that I converse with you, and I am obliged to make an end.
"I cannot prevent myself, however, from filling up hastily the rest of my paper.

Cursed be the crazy creature who torments me so much! Were it not for him, I could talk to you of more agreeable things: he is not greatly changed; and yet he has taken a great deal o f %t.

But he has nearly killed me with the fetid smell of his breath; for now his is still worse than your cousin's: you guess that this is a fresh reason for my not approaching him; on the contrary, I go away as far as I can, and sit on a chair at the foot of his bed.
"Let us see if I forget anything.
"His father's messenger on the road; The question about Joachim; The-state of my house; The people of my suite; Subject of my arrival; Joseph; Conversation between him and me; His desire to please me and his repentance; The explanation of his letter; Mr.Livingston.
"Ah! I was forgetting that.