TO FRANÇOIS JEAN, CHEVALIER DE CHASTELLUX

Ampthill, Nov. 26, 1782

.... It [your letter] found me a little emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the world as she whose loss occasioned it. Your letter recalled to my memory that there were persons still living of much value to me. If you should have thought me remiss in not testifying to you sooner how deeply I had been impressed with your worth in the little time I had the happiness of being with you, you will I am sure ascribe it to it's true cause, the state of the dreadful suspense in which I had been kept all the summer & the catastrophe which closed it. Before that event my scheme of life had been determined. I had folded myself in the arms of retirement, , and rested all prospects of future happiness on domestic & literary objects. A single event wiped away all my plans and left me a blank which I had not the spirits to fill up. In this state of mind an appointment from Congress found me, requiring me to cross the Atlantic....