So it was the Lord wot done it. Yahweh apparently brought together a wonderful, wonderful couple, and made them happy. It is the love story of our time, a sweeping, Gone with the Wind epic, crossing continents and time zones. It features a square-jawed, handsome hero and a swooning lady with a handbag. Ronnie and Maggie. Maggie and Ronnie. Fighting evil. Together forever. It is a torrid tale which has made millions weep. We'll come back to it in a minute.

When President George Bush sen, was fighting a war or something, and was too busy to attend a state funeral, he dispatched three former US presidents - Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon - to represent him. When the image of the three men, standing

on the stairway up to the

aircraft, appeared in the American media, Gore Vidal memorably described the scene as ''Hear no evil'', ''See no evil'', and ''Evil''.

For some reason, American presidents are perpetually entangled with evil. Apocalyptic language seems to go with the office. The enemy is always unequivocally satanic. There are white hats and black hats. There are sheriffs whose job is to kick evil ass all over town. And when the American sheriffs have equally messianic British deputy-dawgs, the crusading mentality goes into overdrive. To ask questions about a precipitate rush to sort out the ''axis of evil'', for instance, is to be guilty of betrayal of goodness, of

God even. Self-doubt must be allowed no entry point. A bending of the truth is not a crime when it's the Lord's business.

Ronald Reagan had his ''evil empire''. In the western which played out perpetually in his filmy mind, this amiable, lazy, sheriff represented righteousness, pure and simple. The laziness - which caused the same Gore Vidal to dub the former movie performer ''The Acting President'' - was a mercy. It was once said of Reagan that a particular crisis had given the president ''many a sleepless afternoon''. Most people only felt secure when the chief of staff was unconscious.

The partnership between the comatose sheriff and the messianic harridan with the overactive political thyroid was a truly remarkable one. While Ronnie dozed in the afternoons, Maggie stalked the earth, swinging her handbag. At night, when Gipper was even more deeply in the land of Nod, Boadicea was prowling about on our behalf. She maniacally exulted in this unnatural capacity. Like the God with whom she increasingly confused herself, she neither slumbered nor slept.

This week, we were given a revealing glimpse into the Adoration of the Maggie, with the publication of Reagan: A Life in Letters, consisting of newly-found draft letters to fellow world statesmen and family Americans.

''Throughout my life,'' Ronnie wrote breathlessly to Maggie in 1994, ''I've always believed that life's path is determined by a Force more powerful than fate. I feel the Lord has brought us together for a profound purpose, and that I have been richly blessed for having known you.''

Michty me! I hear the scraping of violins. Did the fragrant Maggie blush when she read it? One feels proud to have lived on earth at the same time as this star-crossed duo. Has there ever been such a relationship since Antony and Cleopatra, or Abelard and Heloise? Or John and Edwina?

The epistle goes on: ''I am proud to call you one of my dearest friends, Margaret; proud to have shared many of life's significant moments with you, and thankful that God brought you into my life.

Sincerely, Ron''

Please, please, no more!

This is unbearably beautiful. Unbearable, anyway. You could hardly make this stuff up. Well, you could, actually. Grateful hacks get paid bawbees for churning this stuff out for

B-movies. In fact, Big Ron may have been repeating a line from the movie he shared with Bonzo the monkey before he auditioned successfully for

the role of a bumbling ''Aw, shucks'' president.

I know that you cannot cope with any more emotional intensity, but I must close with a couple of quotes from a letters cache I found in a listless barrel on the Pentland Firth. The first is from a man called Tony. It's addressed to someone he clearly looks up to.

''Dear George, you have always been a shining hero to me, a colossus bestriding the earth. I feel that the Lord has brought us together for the benefit of all humankind. I believe that the sun and moon and stars shine out of your arsenal. Look, I am proud to be your devoted servant, to follow wherever thou dost lead. PS, If you need any double-glazing done at the White House, just give me five minutes with your people and I'll persuade them! Yours in Christ, Tone.''

The second is actually an

e-mail. It seems to be addressed to the same Tony. Because it's marked ''strictly confidential'' I will conceal the writer's identity writer, simply calling him A******r C******l. It simply says:

''Hi mate. I think we're f****d.''

Compared to Ronnie and Tony's effusions, it lacks a certain charm, don't you think? Its only strength is that it tells it like it is.