Leave me, sir. You bring me back again to earth -God preserve you, watch over you, heal you, support you. Your hand, Sir Thomas Grandison, the name that was ever so pleasant in my ears! your hand, sir, your heart was my treasure: I have now, and only now, a better treasure, a diviner love, in view. Adieu! and in this world for ever adieu, my husband, my friend, my Grandison!"

She turned her head from him, sunk upon her pillow, and fainted; and so saw not, had not the grief to see, the stronger heart of my father overcome; for he fainted away, and was carried out in his chair by the servants who brought him in. He was in a strong convulsion fit, between his not half-cured wounds and his grief; and recovered not till all was over with my blessed mother.

After my father was carried out, she came to herself. Her chaplain was once more admitted. The fatal moment approached. She was asked, if she would see her children again. No," she said; but bid her last blessing be repeated to them, and her charge of loving one another, in the 'words of our Saviour, as she had loved us: and when the chaplain came to read a text which she had imperfectly pointed to, but so as to be understood, she repeated, in faltering accents, but with more strength of voice than she had had for an hour before, "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course, I have kept the faith-There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness" and then, her voice failing, she gave signs of satisfaction, in the hope of being entitled to that crown; and expired in an ejaculation that her ebbing life could not support.'

O my Lucy! may my latter end, and the latter end of all I love, be like hers! the two ladies were in speechless tears; so was Miss Jervois, so was I,

for some minutes. And for an hour or two, all the joys of life were as nothing to me. Even the regard I had entertained for the excellent son of a lady so excellent, my protector, my deliverer, had, for some hours, subsided, and was as nothing to me. Even now that I have concluded this moving recapitulation, it seems as nothing; and the world, my dear, is as a bit of dirt under my feet.

LETTER XIII.

MISS BYRON. IN CONTINUATION.

THE Son was inconsolable upon his mother's death. He loved his father, but next to adored his mother. His father, though he had given so little attention to his education, was excessively fond of him: and, no doubt, but he the more easily satisfied himself on this head, as he knew his remissness was so well supplied by his lady's care, which mingled with the cares of the masters of the several sciences, who came home to him, at her desire.

A deep melancholy having seized the young gentleman on a loss so irreparable, his father, who himself was greatly grieved, and the more, as he could not but reproach himself as having at least hastened that loss, was alarmed for his son; and yielded to the entreaties of General W. brother of Lord W. to permit him to travel. The General recommended for a governor to the young gentleman, an officer under him, who had been wounded, and obliged to quit the military service. Sir Thomas allowed his son 8001. a year, from the day. of his setting out on his travels, which he aug

mented afterwards to 1000l. Sir Charles was about seventeen when his mother died.

The two daughters were taken by Lady W. But she dying in about twelve months after Lady Grandison, they returned to their father; who, by that time, had pretty well got over his grief for the loss of his lady, and was quite recovered of the words which he received in the duel that cost her her life.

He placed over his daughters, as governess, (though they both took exceptions at that title, supposing themselves of age to manage for themselves) the widow of one of his gay friends, Oldham by name, whose fortune had not held out as Sir Thomas's had done. Men of strong health, I have heard my grandfather say, and of a riotous turn, should not, in mere compassion, keep company with men of feebler constitutions, and make them the companions of their riots. So may one say, I believe, that extravagant men, of great and small fortunes, are equally ill-suited; since the expenses which will but shake the one, will quite demolish the other.

Mrs. Oldham had fine qualities, and was an economist. She deserved a better husband than had fallen to her lot; and the young ladies having had a foundation laid by a still more excellent manager, received no small advantage from her skill in family affairs. But it was related to me with reluctance, and as what I must know on a further acquaintance with their family, if they did not tell it to me, that Sir Thomas was grateful to this lady in a way that cost her her reputation. She was obliged, in short, in little more than a twelvemonth, to quit the country, and to come up to town. She had an indisposition, which kept her from going abroad for a month or two.

Lady L. being then about nineteen, and Miss. Grandison about sixteen, they had spirit enough to oppose the return of this lady to her charge. They undertook themselves to manage every thing at the capital seat in Hampshire.

Sir Thomas had another seat in Essex. Thither, on the reluctance of the young ladies to receive. again Mrs. Oldham, he carried her; and they, as well as every body else, for some time, apprehended they were actually married. She was handsome; well descended; and though she became so unhappily sensible of the favours and presents by which Sir Thomas made way to her heart, she had an untainted character when he took her as a governess to the young ladies.

Was not Sir Thomas very, very faulty, with regard to this poor woman? She had already suffered enough from a bad husband, to whom she remarkably well performed her duty-Poor woman! -The example to his own daughters was an abominable one. She was the relict of his friend; she was under his protection: thrown into it by her unhappy circumstances.-Were not these great aggravations to his crime?-Happy for those parents who live not to see such catastrophes as attended this child! This darling, it seems; not undeservedly so: and whom they thought they had not unhappily married to Mr. Oldham-and he, poor man! thought himself not unhappy in Sir Thomas Grandison's acquaintance; though it ended in his emulating him in his expenses, with a much less estate; in the ruin of his fortune, which, indeed, was his own fault; and in the ruin of his wife's virtue, which was more Sir Thomas's than hers. May I say so?-If I may not, (since women, whose glory is their chastity, must not yield to temptation) had not the husband, however,

something to answer for, who, with his eyes open, lived at such a rate, against his wife's dutiful remonstrances, and better example, as reduced her (after his death) to the necessity of dependence on another's favour, and such another!

Sir Thomas was greatly displeased with his daughters, for resisting him in the return of their governess. He had thought the reason of her withdrawing a secret, because he wished it to be one: And yet her disgrace was, at the time, every where talked of but in his presence.

This woman is still living. She has two children by Sir Thomas, who are also living; and one by Mr. Oldham. I shall be told more of her history, when the ladies come to give me some account of their brother's.

Sir Thomas went on in the same gay fluttering way that he had done all his life. The love of pleasure, as it is called, was wrought into his habit. He was a slave to it, and to what he called freedom. He was deemed one of the best companions among men, and one of the gallantest nien among women. His advantages of person and mind were snares to him. Mrs. Oldham was not the only one of her sex with whom he was inti mate he had another mistress in town, who had a taste for all its gaieties, and who even assumed his

name.

He would now and then, by way of excursion, and to surprise the young ladies, visit Grandison Hall; but though it was once the seat he most delighted in, neither gave, nor seemed to receive, much pleasure there; hurrying away on a sudden, as if he had escaped from it; though never father had more reason to be pleased with the conduct and duty of daughters: and this he often declared, boasting of them in their absence; but