The countess was sensible of her situation, and, tenderly interested in my happiness, pressed me to allow her to recommend me a wife, and to bless her eyes with a sight of our union before they closed for ever.

I tenderly loved my mother, and was truly conscious of all the duty which I owed her; but I had a heart formed for the sensibility of mutual affection, in that state, which I well knew decided our worldly misery or felicity; and therefore could not consent to sacrifice my opinion in a point so important, even in obedience to the wishes of a beloved and dying parent. The young lady whom her choice pointed out was elegant in person, accomplished in mind, and affluent in fortune; but my heart could not feel that sympathy so necessary to form an indissoluble union. Matilda was prepared to receive my addresses, but I revolted at the idea of premeditated love: sentiments of indifference were all which I could feel for her; and I scorned to obtain the wealth of an heiress with the pretended offer of an untouched heart.

I confessed to my mother the impossibility of complying with her kind wishes, without sacrificing my future happiness; adding, that the woman who could yield her affections by anticipation to a man she had never seen, wounded her own delicacy, and descending from the dignity of her sex, became to me an object of disgust. My mother confessed that she herself had acted wrong in proposing an alliance before apparent chance had introduced us to each other; and kindly assured me that she would press no further a union so discordant to my

inclinations. I impressed upon her hand a kiss of grateful acknowledgment; and this beloved parent named no more her favourite Matilda.

The rapid advance of death soon claimed my hourly attention to the couch of her repose. She saw the affliction which penetrated my bosom, and endeavoured to reconcile me to her inevitable fate. Three months after my return to Eng. land I had the misfortune to lose this excellent mother, who blessed me in her expiring moments, and conjured Heaven to mark my days with happiness!-Vain, alas! were her pious prayers-in her tomb was buried all my earthly felicity. My eldest brother was the offspring of a first marriage; it is the less then to be wondered at that he thought little attention due to the countess. He constantly resided in Ireland, with his lady, whom he had married for alliance, and with whom he had been uniformly miserable for some years! She was of a temper haughty and imperious; her pursuits were those of vanity;-public amusements estranged her from domestic scenes;-and this fashionable pair seldom met but in the circle of amusement, where they were too polite to converse with each other. The endearing claims of paternal love had never awakened their sensibility, as their union was not cemented by the birth of children: their name and title seemed to be the only ties that subsisted be tween them. Though the earl had never appeared to consider me in the light of a brother, he condescended, in his condolence on my mother's death, to invite me to pay him a visit in Dublin. My spirits really required change of scene: I therefore accepted the

I found the earl and countess were at a country seat twenty miles from the capital, whither I immediately followed them, and was received with great civility. The house was full of company, and what the world calls pleasure seemed to occupy the time and ideas of the select circle that composed the gay society.

From this fatal era I date all my future miseries. Here, with my freedom, I lost that indifference which all the brilliancy of foreign charms had never materially touched. An Irish baron, An Irish baron, whose real title I must disguise under the fictitious one of lord Aimwell, with his lady, were of this gay party. His lordship was formed to shine in courts by his fine address, and to figure in assemblies at tables of the highest play. Her ladyship's private hours were evidently spent in repairing the ravages of that barbarian, Time; and in arresting, by all the powers of art, those lingering charms which, during the course of half a century, had bloomed, attracted unrivalled admiration, withered, and now, on their decline, were verging fast toward oblivion.

Had lady Aimwell not been anreasonable in her demands on youth and beauty, of which she had possessed so eminent a share, she might have taken pleasure in seeing all her own personal perfections transferred to her lovely daughter; but, on the contrary, envy supplied in her breast that place which should have been occupied by the delightful emotions of maternal love.

Aurelia was just eighteen, though lady Aimwell only acknowledged her to be in her fifteenth year. A fairer exterior never graced the female form. Symmetry and diguity distinguished her figure, and the most angelic features were animated by sensibility and native innocence. After this description need I confess that I commenced the character of lover?-To see was to love, to love was to adore her! I was at first struck with her beauty, but compassion interested my affections.-As lady Aimwell did not relish the rival powers of her daughter she was not allowed the privilege of remaining in our society beyond the limits of those stated hours which called us to the successive meals:-She always disappeared when the ladies assembled in the drawing-room.

When the company sat down to cards, which they did immediately after breakfast, I usually strolled out into the gardens, where I failed not to join the lovely Aurelia, whose duenna constantly struck down some other walk, and left me at liberty to entertain her young charge with a language more pleasing than that of an Italian grammar which she held in her hand. To shorten my narrative, I offered, and the blushing Aurelia accepted, my proffered vows. Aimwell were propitious to my wishes, the earl and countess approved, and, in a few weeks, I attended my bride to Dublin, where her mother insisted on my taking a house for the winter. It would have been more pleasing to me to have accompanied her to England, but I found the countess opposed my intention strongly, and I reluctantly yielded to

Lord and lady

the earnest entreaties of my wife, that I would not tear her from her native country till that period.

On our removal to Dublin I was obliged to submit to enter into the routine of public life, and to see my wife initiated into every scene of dissipation. In vain I remonstrated-Aurelia was deaf to reason, and awake only to pleasure. Like a bird released from the captivity of a cage, no sooner did she emerge from her nursery, than she broke at once through all restraint, and discovered, too soon for my happiness, and too late for my redress, that I had, by my hasty choice, precipitated myself into an abyss of misery and repentance. I found Aurelia totally uniformed in mind, and ignorant of any accomplishments but of those exterior ones which serve only to decorate beauty, and to delude the senses. Neglected by her vain mother, who, indeed, was herself mcapable of improving the talent committed to her care, she had been resigned to the tuition of a governess, who taught her no science but that of worldly pleasure; and Aurelia, rendered thus perfect in its theory, only wanted the opportunity to practise the easy lessons which she had imbibed. She vied with her mother and the countess in every appendage of fashion, and followed the extravagant example which they daily exhibited, uncontrolled by the least idea of economy. The countess and lady Aimwell had gained a total ascendency over this young and weak mind, which, from the errors of education, was devoid of that rectitude of sentiment which ought to be early implanted in the heart. I sighed in silent regret as I viewed this beauteous

child of folly, whom I could have no chance of retrieving from delusion, till I could remove her from so fatal a situation, ere the noxious weeds of vice should have taken root in her mind. Finding it in vain to contend, I looked forward to the approaching summer as the period when all my remaining hopes of happiness were to be renewed.

The countess had undertaken to bespeak our equipage, and I soon found myself in the possession of a fine coach and chariot, which were to be exhibited on our public appearance at Dublin.

A most elegant chair, likewise, was prepared for my wife, whose dress, upon her introduction at the Castle was brilliant, as the anniversary of the queen's birthday gave her the agreeable privilege of laying aside the mourning which she could not avoid wearing for my mother. The jewels of the late countess having be come, at her death, the property of my brother, I resigned them into his hands, who had them immediately new set for his lady; she at the same time extorted from me an order to the jeweller to make some ear-rings, a necklace, and pins for her new sister, as she declared no woman of quality could dispense with such ornaments on her first appearance. Thus was I loaded with expenses which ill suited my finances, as I had no command of ready money, and had actually received no fortune with miss Aimwell, but had depended on a verbal promise from her father of some thousands at his death. The delirium of love for the first four months of our marriage had obscured my reason, and deluded my senses; but when my eyes were open to my situa

tion, I felt all its sorrows in full force. I endeavoured to make some impression on the mind of Aurelia, by representing my fortune as inadequate to the style of life in which we were engaged, and by entreating her to wean herself from that propensity to extravagance which would involve us in difficulties. She replied, scornfully, that she should never descend from the dignity of her birth, to limit the expenses to which her rank entitled her. It would be useless as well as tedious to enumerate the follies of my wife, and the debts which her unlimited profuseness heaped upon me. Our doors were thrown open to a polite and brilliant mob, many of whom bore the exterior titles of distinction, while the conduct of their lives disclaimed all pretensions to those true sentiments of honour which adorn nobility, and exalt mediocrity to an equality with the highest rank. Faro, and its hideous train, had free access to every assembly; my incorrigible wife became one of its devoted victims, and I found it impossible to stand against the torrent of expense which began to overwhelm me.

I very unwillingly determined to disclose to the earl the danger of my situation, and the derangement my circumstances were now involved in by my present expensive mode of life. He coldly replied, that I had been to blame to enter into it, as my fortune was ipadequate; and he recommended me to return to England, and to sell a sufficient part of my estate to defray my expenses in Ireland. I followed his advice, made immediate preparations to quit a country where all my hopes of happiness had been fatally blasted, VOL. XXXVIII.

and informed Aurelia that it was absolutely necessary to visit my native land. She was thunderstruck at the determined tone in which I addressed her, and deigned not to answer me; but flew to her mother and the countess to implore all their influence to change my purpose; but they no sooner were informed by my brother of the state of my affairs than they united in his wishes for our quitting a spot where they had contributed to reduce me to difficulties from which they had no intention to extricate me. Thus obliged to submit to necessity, the fair and fatal cause of my misfortunes reluctantly consented to accompany me to England, where, on a review of my debts, I found they amounted to ten thousand pounds. This reduced my estate to fifteen hundred a-year, upon which I could have lived in the country with contented economy, had the partner of my fate been of a disposition similar to my own; but, alas! she was incapable of receiving or imparting happiness in the scenes of private life. After having presented me with a son, the retirement of our situation threw her spirits into a state of such constant regret for past pleasures, that a rapid decline threatened to shorten the date of her dull existence. Though her conduct little merited ny affection, I could not but regard her with the eyes of tender pity, still anxious to withdraw her from the path of error, and to reclaim her from the fatal prejudice of education. I accompanied her to Bristol, where she soon began (with the united assistance of the waters, her youth, and natural constitution) to recover the lost bloom of health. She there un

4 B

fortunately met with some of those gay associates with whom she had been intimate in Ireland. They tempted her to follow them for a few days to Bath. I could not resist her entreaties upon her promising, with a complacent gentleness, which she had but lately assumed, to attend me unreluctantly to our country retirement, after passing one week at Bath. That week proved fatal! It introduced Aurelia to a society dangerous to her insatiate love of pleasure. She plunged once more into dissipation, and entered deeply into gaming. While I was confined to any lodging with a dislocated bone, instead of paying me those attentions which I had bestowed on her at Bristol, she took the opportunity to launch out into every species of extravagance, and I found myself again involved in the debts which she not only wantonly contracted' for ornamental dress, but for those immense suns she lost at play. To cut short my sad narrative, she completely ruined me; and what is more dreadful, she not only sacrificed my fortune, but her own honour and character, by a violation of every sacred tie which had bound her to a husband, whose arms she left for those of a seducer, with whom she now leads a life of infamy! while I, reduced by her excesses to take refuge from the public eye within the confines of the Marshalsea, have leisure to reflect with all the bit terness of self-reproach upon the false step I made in marriage; and the irretrievable consequences in which I have not only involved myself but an innocent infant, who must become the victim of his father's weakness, and of his mother's folly,

ANECDOTE of the late QUEEN of FRANCE.

[From Weber's Memoirs of MarieAntoinette.]

THE marquis of Pontecoulant, major of life-guards, had been so unfortunate in the lifetime of Louis XV. as to incur the displeasure of the dauphiness. The cause was not a very serious one; but the princess resenting it with the hasty vivacity of youth, declared she would never forget it. The marquis who had not himself forgot this declaration no sooner beheld Marie-Antoinette seated on the throne, than he conceived himself likely to meet with some disgrace, and resolved to prevent it; for which purpose he directly gave in his resignation to the prince of Beauveau, captain of the guards; at the same time frankly giving him his reasons for so painful a procedure on his part, adding, that he would greatly re gret being under the necessity of quitting the king's service; but if his majesty would please to employ him some other way he should he very happy The captain of the guards perceiving the distress of the major's mind, and well ac quainted with his merits, took upon himself to present his resig nation to the king; but previously waiting upon the queen, he repre sented to her the affliction with which the marquis of Pontecoulant was overwhelmed, recounted the usefuluess and number of his former services, and then concluded by asking what orders she would be pleased to give with respect to what was to be done with the resignation. The sight alone of the prince of Beauveau was suf ficient to excite generosity in the