"their Birth; and that all the Fortune which muft "have devolved on her, had the been Heirefs of "de Carte, muft now defcend to the other Branches "of that Family: I am confcious, fays fhe, that I "must be acknowledged guiltless of all Concern in "this Imposture, yet the Malice of the World will treat me as criminal; and even thofe little Qualifications of Perfon and Understanding, which you so partially admire in me, will now add to my "Misfortunes, and create Envy and Contempt in the "Breasts of my own Sex, whilft I continue united to

you, which Paffions will be converted into Ten"derness and Compaffion, perhaps, when I am divided "from your Arms, and no longer in any Senfe their "Rival.

"In vain he urged to her that Virtue alone was

true Nobility; that all our Actions and our Merit "must spring from that Source to be esteemed; and "that the Regard paid to Blood was an Idolatry the "worft founded of all others whatsoever; and lastly, "that the Reflections of a malicious and fatyric "World should never influence his Heart or Behavi

our.

"BUT he urged in vain, no Reafon could make the "leaft Impreffion on her Refolutions; fhe plainly "forefaw how different her Reception must be hereafter, wherever the appeared; and tho' her Soul "had as much Philofophy in it as any of her Sex,

yet the dreaded the continual Pangs of Calumny "and Mortification, who had been fo cherished all "the former Part of her Life. She thanked him with "all imaginable Tenderness for his firm Love and "Refolutions of continuing the fame Paffion for her, "but the refolved never to be a Witness to that Shame "the muft bring upon him, from the Meannefs of her "Birth; the urged to him how unreasonable it was, "that his Family fhould fuffer in the Disappointment "of her fuppofed Fortune, and in her Difgrace; and "then fhewing to him that the frigid Eye of Indif"ference was all the could expect from his Relations, "and with that she must be ever unhappy, he was at "laft prevailed upon by her Entreaties, joined with

"thofe

"thofe of his Father and Family, to fue for a Divorce "before the Parliament of Rennes. She determined "to feparate from him immediately; but who can

express that Affliction which each of them felt at the "Inftant, when prefenting him the only Fruit of "their Marriage-bed, the faid go to thy Father's Arins, and prove a Life of greater Happiness than "mine! Then choak'd with Tears, each parted speechless from the other.

66

"WHAT frantic Actions did not this poor unhappy "Man exprefs? He kiffed the dear little Girl ten "thousand Times, and preft her to his Bofom; vowed 44 to live for her alone, fince her Mother was denied "him, and then determined to reclaim the dear Partner of his Soul, in fpite of all the Representations "of Friends and Parents.

66

"THE Lady retired to the House of her Mother, "whom he never once upbraided for the first Deceit

nor laft Discovery; but manifefting great Affliction "for the Lofs of Mademoiselle de Carte to her unhappy "Parents; fhe determined to pass the Remains of Life "within the calm and folitary Cloister; to find that

66

Tranquillity and Joy in the Arms of Religion, which 66 were denied her in those of her Husband; and to "fly that World, which after having promised the greatest Appearance of Happiness, had deferted her "Expectations fo fuddenly and unmerited.

"DURING this Time Monfieur and Madame de "Carte recovering a little from the first Transports of "their Paffions, expreffed great Inclination to fee their "real Child, which had taken the Veil upon her : "This fingle Incident produced what all the Perfua"fion and Wifdom of Mankind would never have "effected without it.

"Ir feems the Fracture had been but badly treated, "and the young Lady being lame, that Lameness "had created a Distortion in her Shape, nor was "her Phyfiognomy of the moft captivating kind; her "Parents, like all other Parents, had never conceived "the could be lefs amiable than the Lady they had "abandoned; they had imagined to themselves, all "the Charms that Poets ever fung, or Painters ever "expreffed,

E 3

"expreffed, united in the Perfon of this Daughter; "external Grace and Beauty, internally adorned with fuperior Understanding, fweet Difpofition and ex"quifite Senfibility; in fact all that Exaggeration of Charms, which is natural to the Mind of Man to "bestow on that which is loft or denied them.

"BUT how fudden was the Change which this Man "and Woman proved in their Breafts, at the first Sight of this Female fo imperfect, compared to their "former imagined Daughter.

"PRIDE got the better of all parental Prejudice "and Paffion; they difdained to be the Authors of "fuch a mishapen Offspring, and their Minds, repulfed by this Deformity of their own Child, improved by the Return of their former Affections for "Madame de Chateau Charon, revibrated towards the "firft Object of their Love, with a Force proportioned to that with which they had been driven the contrary Way.

46

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"THEY infifted that the Nurfe was a Deceiver only in the last Confeffion; that Madame de Chateau "Charon was their Child; that they would defend "her Marriage against every intended Divorce, her "Birth against all Attacks of Infamy, and that their whole Fortune should devolve to her, their only "Heirefs.

"DURING this Time, the poor unhappy Hufband, "who had been prevailed on by Arguments of the

46

Preference of Blood to that of Virtue, which fo "totally intoxicates the Minds of the People of France, "and affects fo little thofe of a Briton, was truly "difconfolate; he frequented no Place nor Walks "but thofe, which he had frequently trod with his

lovely Partner, and often spoke to her as if the was

prefent, fo much was his Imagination filled with "her Idea; he faw no Company but the little Girl, "which fhe had given him, over which he wept in "filent Sorrow, and talking to her as if he could "understand his Expreffions; Mayeft thou (fays he) "refemble in Soul and Form the lovely Woman, "from whom you sprang, and whom thofe Eyes muft

never more behold: Then fighing, he would prefs

her

"her to his Lips, and giving her to her Servant, part from that Being which he loved to fuch a "Degree, that it was become infupportable by its "Excefs.

"In this State Things were when he was informed, "that Monfieur and Madame de Carte had reclaimed his Wife, owned her as their Daughter, and were preparing to restore her to his Arms.

"STRUCK with Aftonishment at this Intelligence, "it was happy for him that he did not abfolutely "believe it, the Blifs appeared fo exceffive that he "could not give Credit to the Account, it was too "much to be conceived true, a State which Minds "often experience in Situations of exceffive good "News; this withheld his Soul in part from that Agitation, which it would otherwife have under"gone, and prepared him in a great Degree for the Reception of the promised Bleffing, which without "this Circumftance might have been fatal. But "when the returned, how inexpreffible was their "mutual Transport.

"He preft her to his Bofom, and the mutually ex"erted her Arms to the fame Purpofe; their Lips "clung together; they gazed on each other for a "Moment, then ran with Tears of Joy into each "other's Arms again; that very Senfibility of Soul, "which had made their former Mifery, was now the "Cause which exalted every Joy into Rapture. My "Wife! he cried; my Hufband fhe replied; mutu"ally embracing; Names at that Moment, after all Thoughts of that Nature had been given over, more tender and emphatic than the whole Lift of "fond love-fick Phrafes of Arcadian Nymphs and "Swains.

"He then fetched his little Girl, which feemed "confcious of returning Happiness by the Smiles the 66 wore upon her Face at this Moment, when placing "it again into the Arms of that dear Woman which "bore her, he faid, his Eyes fhining with Tears of Joy, return again to that Bofqm from which I have long feared thou must have been for ever divided; "learn of the beft of Parents to become the best of "Women:

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"Women: Then kiffing the weeping Mother, their "Hearts felt a Serenity and Joy which they had long "defpaired of ever tafting."

THIS, Ladies, is the Story which I then heard; "I wrote it whilft a Prifoner at St. Malos to amuse my Mind in that Situation; particularly as the Event was a Confolation to me, by fhewing that the "cloudy Skies of Diftrefs are frequently blown away "by the rifing Gales of Profperity."

MISS Lydia fpoke much in Favour of this Sory, fo did the Captain, and even Mrs. Rachael approved of it; the faid there was a moral in it, and compared it with that in the Scriptures of Susanna and the two Elders, and which we dare to affert, it resembles as much as the Royal Exchange does the old Roman Temple of Virtue, tho' not quite fo like as the is to a Den of Thieves, and yet Weftminfter-Bridge is not more like a Nutmeg-Grater, nor the Duke of * * * * * lefs refembling the Cherubims and flaming Sword which turned every Way to guard the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden; and here with these Similies, and no Similies, we conclude this Chapter.

CHA P. XIII.

Mifs Fairchild feels a fort of fomething about her Heart, like the firft Shiverings of an Ague-fit. A melancholy Accident befals a China Bowl, and the Captain's Macpherson's great Sagacity makes it's first Appearance in this Chapter. A general Laugh.

Breeches.

D

URING the Relation of this History, the attentive Ear of Mifs Fairchild had given Entrance to fomething more than what it contained; the Breath of Love mixt with the Narration, had reached her Heart; the Strings of which, being in Unifon with Mr. Probit's, re-echoed with reciprocal Sound and Senfation, and all this without knowing the Caufe.

SHE