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Eartham Sept 11
1781

I am in your debt, my dear Sister for two enchanting Letters, which continue to delight & distress me – you plead so pathetically for the Lives of your four condemned Stanzas; that I know not what to say - I am in a petrifying State of Suspense & utterly unable to enforce or to revoke my Sentence — I have indeed condemned these your poetical children, tho a thousand degrees more dear to me than any of my own; but I want the Firmness of the Roman Consul to behold their destruction, & I know not how to resist the Entreaties of their supplicating Parent - Let me, like other Sovereigns in similar distress, issue a Reprieve. But not an absolute promise of Life - we will