 had scarce swallowed a single Morsel in the last forty Hours.
    Though Vexation hath not the same Effect on all Persons, as it usually hath
on a Widow, whose Appetite it often renders sharper than it can be rendered by
the Air on Bansted Downs, or Salisbury Plain, yet the sublimest Grief,
notwithstanding what some People may say to the contrary, will eat at last. And
Sophia herself, after some little Consideration, began to dissect the Fowl,
which she found to be as full of Eggs as George had reported it.
    But if she was pleased with these, it contained something which would have
delighted the Royal Society much more; for if a Fowl with three Legs be so
invaluable a Curiosity, when perhaps Time hath produced a Thousand such, at what
Price shall we esteem a Bird which so totally contradicts all the Laws of Animal
OEconomy, as to contain a Letter in its Belly? Ovid tells us of a Flower into
which Hyacinthus was metamorphosed, that bears Letters on its Leaves, which
Virgil recommended as a Miracle to the Royal Society of his Day; but no Age nor
Nation hath ever recorded a Bird with a Letter in its Maw.
    But though a Miracle of this Kind might have engaged all the Academies des
Sciences in Europe, and perhaps in a fruitless Enquiry, yet the Reader by barely
recollecting the last Dialogue which passed between Messieurs Jones and
Partridge, will be very easily satisfied from whence this Letter came, and how
it found its Passage into the Fowl.
    Sophia, notwithstanding her long Fast, and notwithstanding her favourite
Dish was there before her, no sooner saw the Letter than she immediately
snatched it up, tore it open, and read as follows.
 
        »Madam,
            Was I not sensible to whom I have the Honour of writing, I should
        endeavour, however difficult, to paint the Horrors of my Mind, at the
        Account brought me by Mrs. Honour: but as Tenderness alone can have any
        true Idea of the Pangs which Tenderness is capable of feeling; so can
        this most amiable Quality which my Sophia possesses in the most eminent
        Degree, sufficiently inform her what her Jones must have suffered on
        this melancholy Occasion. Is there a Circumstance in the World which can
        heighten my Agonies, when I hear of any Misfortune which hath befallen
        you? Surely there is one only, and with that I am accursed. It is, my
        Sophia, the dreadful Consideration that I am myself the wretched Cause.
        Perhaps I here do myself too much Honour, but none will envy me an
        Honour which costs me so extremely dear. Pardon me this Presumption, and
        pardon me
