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Upon my word, my dear, you are mistaken,' cries Amelia. If you had known the friendship which hath always subsisted between the colonel and my husband, you would not imagine it possible for any description to 'exceed it. Nay, I think his behaviour this very day is 'sufficient to convince you.'

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I own what he hath done to-day hath great merit,' said Mrs. Atkinson; and yet from what he hath said tonight-You will pardon me, dear Madam: perhaps I 'am too quick-sighted in my observations, nay, I am ‘afraid I am even impertinent.'

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Fie! upon it,' cries Amelia, 'how can you talk in 'that strain? Do you imagine I expect ceremony?—Pray speak what you think with the utmost freedom.'

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Did he not then,' said Mrs. Atkinson, 'repeat the words, the finest woman in the world, more than once? did he not make use of an expression which might have 'become the mouth of Oroöndates himself?-If I remember, the words were these, "that, had he been "Alexander the Great, he should have thought it more "glory to have wiped off a tear from the bright eyes of "Statira than to have conquered fifty worlds."'

'Did he say so?' cries Amelia-'I think he did say something like it; but my thoughts were so full of my ' husband that I took little notice. But what would you 'infer from what he said? I hope you don't think he is in love with me!'

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'I hope he doth not think so himself,' answered Mrs. Atkinson; though when he mentioned the bright eyes ' of Statira, he fixed his own eyes on yours with the most languishing air I ever beheld.'

Amelia was going to answer, when the serjeant arrived, and then she immediately fell to inquiring after her husband; and received such satisfactory answers to all her many questions concerning him, that she expressed great

pleasure. These ideas so possessed her mind, that without once casting her thoughts on any other matters, she took her leave of the serjeant and his lady, and repaired to bed to her children, in a room which Mrs. Atkinson had provided her in the same house; where we will at present wish her a good night.

CHAPTER VIII.

Consisting of grave matters.

WHILE innocence and cheerful hope, in spite of the malice of fortune, closed the eyes of the gentle Amelia, on her homely bed, and she enjoyed a sweet and profound sleep, the colonel lay restless all night on his down; his mind was affected with a kind of ague fit; sometimes scorched up with flaming desires, and again chilled with the coldest despair.

There is a time, I think, according to one of our poets, When lust and envy sleep. This, I suppose, is when they are well gorged with the food they most delight in; but while either of these are hungry,

Nor poppy, nor Mandragora,

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the East

Will ever medicine them to slumber.

The colonel was at present unhappily tormented by both these fiends. His last evening's conversation with Amelia had done his business effectually. The many kind words she had spoken to him, the many kind looks she had given him, as being, she conceived, the friend and preserver of her husband, had made an entire conquest of his heart. Thus, the very love which she bore him, as the person to whom her little family

were to owe their preservation and happiness, inspired him with thoughts of sinking them all in the lowest abyss of ruin and misery; and while she smiled with all her sweetness on the supposed friend of her husband, she was converting that friend into his most bitter enemy.

Friendship, take heed; if woman interfere,

Be sure the hour of thy destruction's near.

These are the lines of Vanbrugh; and the sentiment is better than the poetry. To say the truth, as a handsome wife is the cause and cement of many false friendships, she is often too liable to destroy the real ones.

Thus the object of the colonel's lust very plainly appears; but the object of his envy may be more difficult to discover. Nature and Fortune had seemed to strive with a kind of rivalship which should bestow most on the colonel. The former had given him person, parts, and constitution, in all which he was superior almost to every other man. The latter had given him rank in life, and riches, both in a very eminent degree. Whom then should this happy man envy? Here, lest ambition should mislead the reader to search the palaces of the great, we will direct him at once to Gray's-inn-lane; where in a miserable bed, in a miserable room, he will see a miserable broken lieutenant, in a miserable condition, with several heavy debts on his back, and without a penny in his pocket. This, and no other, was the object of the colonel's envy. And why? because this wretch was possessed of the affections of a poor little lamb; which all the vast flocks that were within the power and reach of the colonel could not prevent that glutton's longing for. And sure this image of the lamb is not improperly adduced on this occasion; for what was the colonel's desire but to lead this poor lamb, as it were, to the slaughter, in order to purchase a feast of a few days by

her final destruction, and to tear her away from the arms of one where she was sure of being fondled and caressed all the days of her life.

While the colonel was agitated with these thoughts, his greatest comfort was that Amelia and Booth were now separated; and his greatest terror was of their coming again together. From wishes, therefore, he began to meditate designs; and, so far was he from any intention. of procuring the liberty of his friend, that he began to form schemes of prolonging his confinement, till he could procure some means of sending him away far from her; in which case he doubted not but of succeeding in all he desired.

He was forming this plan in his mind when a servant informed him that one serjeant Atkinson desired to speak with his honour. The serjeant was immediately admitted, and acquainted the colonel that, if he pleased to go and become bail for Mr. Booth, another unexceptional housekeeper would be there to join with him. This person the serjeant had procured that morning, and had, by leave of his wife, given him a bond of indemnification for the

purpose.

The colonel did not seem so elated with this news as Atkinson expected. On the contrary, instead of making a direct answer to what Atkinson said, the colonel began thus: 'I think, serjeant, Mr. Booth hath told me that you was foster-brother to his lady. She is really a charming woman, and it is a thousand pities she should ever have been placed in the dreadful situation she is now in. There is nothing so silly as for subaltern 'officers of the army to marry, unless where they meet 'with women of very great fortunes indeed. What can 'be the event of their marrying otherwise, but entailing misery and beggary on their wives and their posterity?' Ah! Sir,' cries the serjeant, it is too late to think of

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'those matters now. To be sure my lady might have 'married one of the top gentlemen in the country; for she 'is certainly one of the best, as well as one of the handsomest women in the kingdom; and, if she had been fairly dealt by, would have had a very great fortune เ into the bargain. Indeed, she is worthy of the greatest prince in the world; and, if I had been the greatest prince in the world, I should have thought myself happy with such a wife; but she was pleased to like the lieutenant, and certainly there can be no happiness in 'marriage without liking.'

Lookye, serjeant,' said the colonel, 'you know very 'well that I am the lieutenant's friend. I think I have 'shown myself so.'

'Indeed, your honour hath,' quoth the serjeant, 'more 'than once to my knowledge.'

'But I am angry with him for his imprudence, greatly เ angry with him for his imprudence; and the more so ' as it affects a lady of so much worth.'

'She is, indeed, a lady of the highest worth,' cries the serjeant. 'Poor dear lady, I knew her, an't please your honour, from her infancy; and the sweetesttempered, best-natured lady she is that ever trod on English ground. I have always loved her as if she was my own sister. Nay, she hath very often called me 'brother; and I have taken it to be a greater honour than if I was to be called a general officer.'

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'What a pity it is,' said the colonel, 'that this worthy 'creature should be exposed to so much misery by the 'thoughtless behaviour of a man, who, though I am his friend, I cannot help saying, hath been guilty of im'prudence at least. Why could he not live upon his 'half-pay? What had he to do to run himself into debt in this outrageous manner?'

'I wish indeed,' cries the serjeant, he had been a