'He had been almost a month from me, and I believed him to be at his quarters in Yorkshire. Guess what were my sensations, when I beheld him sitting by that base

During many months he behaved to me' box,- - (she was once below me in every with all the apparent tenderness, and even place,) that widow whom I mentioned to fondness, imaginable; but, alas! how poor you before--I had scarce cast my eyes was my enjoyment of this, compared to what on this woman, before I was so shocked with it would have been in another situation? the sight, that it almost deprived me of my When he was present, life was barely tole- senses; for the villain Hebbers came prerable; but when he was absent, nothing sently in, and seated himself behind her. could equal the misery I endured. I passed my hours almost entirely alone; for no company, but what I despised, would consort with me. Abroad, I scarce ever went, lest I should meet any of my former acquaint-woman, and talking to her with the utmost ance; for their sight would have plunged a familiarity. I could not long endure this thousand daggers in my soul. My only di- sight; and having acquainted my compaversion was going very seldom to a play, nion that I was taken suddenly ill, I forced where I hid myself in the gallery, with a her to go home with me at the end of the daughter of the woman of the house. A second act. girl, indeed, of good sense, and many good qualities; but how much beneath me was it to be the companion of a creature so low! O heavens! when I have seen my equals glittering in a side-box, how have the thoughts of my lost honour torn my soul!

‘Pardon me, dear madam,' cries Booth, for interrupting you; but I am under the utmost anxiety to know what became of your poor father, for whom I have so great a respect, and who I am convinced, must so bitterly feel your loss.'

After a restless and sleepless night, when I rose the next morning, I had the comfort to receive a visit from the woman of the house, who after a very short introduction, asked me when I had heard from the captain, and when I expected to see him? I had not strength or spirits to make her any answer; and she proceeded thus: Indeed I did not think the captain would have used me so. My husband was an officer of the army, as well as himself; and if a body is a little low in the world, I am 'O, Mr. Booth,' answered she, he was sure that is no reason for folks to trample on scarce ever out of my thoughts. His dear a body. I defy the world to say I ever was image still obtruded itself in my mind, and I guilty of an ill thing. For Heaven's sake, believe would have broken my heart, had I madam, says I, what do you mean? Mean! not taken a very preposterous way to ease cries she, I am sure if I had not thought myself. I am, indeed, almost ashamed to you had been Captain Hebbers' lady, his tell you; but necessity put it in my head.-lawful lady too, you should never have set You will think the matter too trifling to have been remembered, and so it surely was; nor should I have remembered it on any other occasion. You must know then, sir, that my brother was always my inveterate enemy, and altogether as fond of my sister. He once prevailed with my father to let him take my sister with him in the chariot, and by that means I was disappointed of going to a ball which I had set my heart 'She had not been long gone before her on. The disappointment, I assure you, was daughter came to me, and after many exgreat at the time; but I had long since for-pressions of tenderness and pity, acquainted gotten it. I must have been a very bad me, that her mother had just found out, by woman, if I had not; for it was the only means of the captain's servant, that the thing in which I can remember that my fa- captain was married to another lady; which, ther ever disobliged me. However, I now if you did not know before, madam, said revived this in my mind, which I artificially she, I am sorry to be the messenger of such worked up into so high an injury, that I as-ill news. sure you it afforded me no little comfort. Think, Mr. Booth, what I must have enWhen any tender idea intruded into my bosom, I immediately raised this phantom of an injury in my imagination, and it considerably lessened the fury of that sorrow which I should have otherwise felt for the loss of so good a father; who died within a few months of my departure from him.

'And now, sir, to draw to a conclusion. One night, as I was in the gallery at Drury Lane playhouse, I saw below me, in a side

footing in my house. I would have Captain Hebbers know, that though I am reduced to let lodgings, I never have entertained any but persons of character.-In this manner, sir, she ran on, saying many shocking things not worth repeating, till my anger at last got the better of my patience as well as my sorrow, and I pushed her out of the room.

dured to see myself humbled before such a creature as this, the daughter of a woman who lets lodgings! However, having recollected myself a little, I thought it would be in vain to deny any thing; and so knowing thus to be one of the best natured and most sensible girls in the world, I resolved to tell her my whole story, and for the future to make her my confidante. I answered her, therefore, with a good deal of assurance, that

her house.

she need not regret telling me this piece of ill | satisfy my curiosity, at the expense of your news, for I had known it before I came to breath. I may say, it is not altogether a vain curiosity; for perhaps I have had inclination enough to interest myself in whatever concerns you; but no matter for that -those days,' (added she, with a sigh.) are now over.'

Pardon me, madam,' replied the girl, 'you cannot possibly have known it so long; for he hath not been married above a week: last night was the first time of his appearing in public with his wife at the play. Indeed, I knew very well the cause of your uneasiness there; but would not

mention

Booth, who was extremely good-natured and well-bred, told her, that she should not command him twice whatever was in his power; and then, after the usual apology, His wife at the play!' answered I, ea- was going to begin his history, when the gerly, what wife! whom do you mean?' keeper arrived, and acquainted the lady that mean the widow Carey, madam,' re- dinner was ready, at the same time saying, plied she, to whom the captain was mar-I suppose, madam, as the gentleman is an ried a few days since. His servant was acquaintance of yours, he must dine with here last night to pay for your lodgings; and he told it my mother.'

'I know not what answer I made, or whether I made any; I presently fell dead on the floor, and it was with great difficulty I was brought back to life by the poor girl; for neither the mother nor the maid of the house would lend me any assistance, both seeming to regard me rather as a monster than a

woman.

'Scarce had I recovered the use of my senses, when I received a letter from the villain, declaring he had not the assurance to see my face, and very kindly advising me to endeavour to reconcile myself to my family; concluding with an offer, in case I did not succeed, to allow me twenty pounds a-year, to support me in some remote part of the kingdom.

'I need not mention my indignation at these proposals. In the highest agony of rage, I went in a chair to the detested house, where I easily got access to the wretch I had devoted to destruction, whom I no sooner found within my reach, than I plunged a drawn penknife, which I had prepared in my pocket for that purpose, into his accursed heart. For this fact, I was immediately seized, and soon after committed hither; and for this fact I am ready to die, and shall, with pleasure, receive the

sentence of the law.

Thus, sir,' said she, I have related to you my unhappy story; and if I have tired your patience, by dwelling too long on those parts which affected me the most, I ask your pardon.'

Booth made a proper speech on this occasion, and having expressed much concern at her present situation, concluded, that he hoped her sentence would be milder than she seemed to expect.

us too.'

Miss Matthews told the keeper, that she had only one word to mention in private to the gentleman, and that then they would both attend him.-She then pulled her purse from her pocket, in which were upwards of twenty guineas, being the remainder of the money for which she had sold a gold repeating watch, her father's present, with some other trinkets, and desired Mr. Booth to take what he should have occasion for; say-. ing, 'You know, I believe, dear Will, I never valued money; and now I am sure I shall have very little use for it.' Booth, with much difficulty, accepted of two guineas; and then they both together attended the keeper

CHAPTER X.

Table-talk, consisting of a facetious discourse that passed in the prison.

THERE were assembled at the table, the governor of these (not improperly called infernal) regions; the lieutenant-governor, vulgarly named first turnkey; Miss Matthews, Mr. Booth, Mr. Robinson, the gambler; several other prisoners, of both sexes; and one Murphy, an attorney.

The governor took the first opportunity to bring the affair of Miss Matthews upon the carpet, and then turning to Murphy, he said, 'It is very lucky this gentleman happens to be present; I do assure you, madam, your cause cannot be in abler hands. He is, I believe, the best man in England at a defence; I have known him often succeed against the most positive evidence.'

'Fy, sir,' answered Murphy, you know I hate all this; but if the lady will trust me with her cause, I will do the best in my power. Come, madam, do not be discouHer reply to this was full of so much bit-raged; a bit of manslaughter and cold iron, terness and indignation, that we do not think I hope, will be the worst: or, perhaps we proper to record the speech at length; in may come off better, with a slice of chancewhich having vented her passion, she all at medley, or se de fendendo.' once put on a serene countenance, and, with an air of great complacency, said, 'Well, Mr. Booth, I think I have now a right to

'I am very ignorant of the law, sir,' cries the lady. 'Yes, madam,' answered Murphy it W

cannot be expected you should understand Murphy, whom she admitted to be her soit. There are very few of us who profess licitor, though she still declared she was init, that understand the whole: nor is it ne- different as to the event of the trial. cessary we should. There is a great deal of rubbish of little use, about indictments, and abatements, and bars, and ejectments, and trovers, and such stuff, with which people cram their heads to little purpose. The chapter of evidence is the main business; that is the sheet anchor; that is the rudder, which brings the vessel safe into portum. Evidence is, indeed, the whole, the summa totidis, for de non apparentibus et non insislentibus eadem est ratio.'

Toce, madam,' answered Murphy, 'is Latin for a candle: I commend your prudence. I shall know the particulars of your case when we are alone."

'I hope the lady,' said Robinson, hath no suspicion of any person here, I hope we are all persons of honour at this table.'

Mr. Murphy having heard all the particulars, with which the reader is already acquainted, (as far as related to the murder,) shook his head, and said, "There is but one circumstance, madam, which I wish was out of the case; and that we must put out of it; I mean the carrying the penknife drawn into the room with you; for that seems to imply malice prepensive, as we call it in the law: this circumstance, therefore, must not appear against you; and if the servant who was in the room observed this, he must be bought off at all hazards. All here, you say, are friends; therefore, I tell you openly, you must furnish me with money sufficient for this purpose. Malice is all we have to guard against.'

'I would not presume, sir,' cries Booth, to inform you in the law; but I have heard in case of stabbing, a man may be indicted upon the statute; and it is capital, though no malice appears.'

'D-n my eyes!' answered a well-dressed woman, I can answer for myself and the 'You say true, sir,' answered Murphy; other ladies; though I never saw the lady'a man may be indicted contra forman stain my life, she need not be shy of us, d-n tutis; and that method, I allow you, remy eyes! I scorn to rap* against any lady.' quires no malice. I presume you are a lawD-n me, madam !' cries another female, yer, sir?' 'I honour what you have done. I once put a knife into a cull myself-so my service to you madam, and I wish you may come off with se diffidendo with all my heart.'

'I beg, good woman,' said Miss Matthews, you would talk on some other subject, and give yourself no concern about my affairs."

You see, ladies,' cried Murphy, 'the gentlewoman doth not care to talk on this matter before company; so do not press her.'

'No, indeed, sir,' answered Booth, 'I know nothing of the law.'

Then, sir, I will tell you-If a man be indicted contra forman statutis, as we say, no malice is necessary: because the form of the statute makes malice; and then what we have to guard against, is having struck the first blow-Pox on't, it is unlucky this was done in a room-If it had been in the street, we could have had five or six witnesses to have proved the first blow, cheaper 'Nay, I value the lady's acquaintance no than I am afraid we shall get this one; for more than she doth mine,' cries the first wo-when a man knows, from the unhappy cirman who spoke I have kept as good company as the lady, I believe, every day in the week. Good woman! I do not use to be so treated-If the lady says such another word to me, d-n me, I will darken her daylights. Marry, come up, good woman!-the lady's a whore as well as myself; and though I am sent hither to mill-doll, d-n my eyes, I have money enough to buy it off as well as the lady herself.'

cumstances of the case, that you can procure no other witness but himself, he is always dear. It is so in all other ways of business-I am very implicit, you see; but we are all among friends. The safest way is to furnish me with money enough to offer him a good round sum at once; and, I think, (it is for your good I speak,) fifty pounds s the least that can be offered him.—I do assure you, I would offer him no less, was it my own case.'

And do you think, sir,' said she, 'that I would save my life at the expense of hiring another to perjure himself?'

'Ay, surely do I,' cries Murphy; 'for where is the fault, admitting there is some fault in perjury as you call it; and to be sure, it is such a matter as every man should rather wish to avoid than not: and yet, as it may be managed, there is not so much as some people are apt to imagine in it; for he need not kiss the book, and then pray where

is the perjury? but if the crier is sharper | like a gentlewoman till she comes to her trial. than ordinary, what is it he kisses? is it any And to be sure, as sweet as life is, people thing but a bit of calf-skin? I am sure a ought to take care to be able to live sweetly man must be a very bad Christian himself, while they do live; besides, I cannot help who would not do so much as that to save saying, the lady shows herself to be the life of any Christian whatever, much what she is, by her abhorrence of perjury. more of so pretty a lady-Indeed, madam, which is certainly a very dreadful crime. if we can make out but a tolerable case, so And, though the not kissing the book doth, much beauty will go a great way with the as you say, make a great deal of difference: judge and the jury too.' and if a man had a great while to live and The latter part of this speech, notwith-repent, perhaps he might swallow it well standing the mouth it came from, caused enough; yet, when people comes to be so Miss Matthews to suppress much of the in-near their end, (as who can venture to foretell dignation which began to arise at the former: what will be the lady's case!) they ought to and she answered with a smile, 'Sir, you take care not to overburden their conscience. are a great casuist in these matters; but we I hope the lady's case will not be found murneed argue no longer concerning them; for der; for I am sure I always wish well to all if fifty pounds would save my life, I assure my prisoners, who show themselves to be you, I could not command that sum. The gentlemen, or gentlewomen; yet one should little money I have in my pocket is all I can always fear the worst. call my own; and, I apprehend, in the situation I am in, I shall have very little of that to spare.'

Come, come, madam,' cries Murphy, life is sweet, let me tell you, and never sweeter than when we are near losing it. I have known many a man very brave and undaunted at his first commitment, who, when business began to thicken a little upon him, hath changed his note-It is no time to be saving, in your condition.'

The keeper, who, after the liberality of Miss Matthews, and on seeing a purse of guineas in her hand, had conceived a great opinion of her wealth, no sooner heard that the sum which he had in intention entirely confiscated for his own use, was attempted to be broke in upon, than he thought it high time to be upon his guard.

To be sure,' cries he, Mr. Murphy, life is sweet, as you say, that must be acknowledged; to be sure life is sweet; but sweet as it is, no person can advance more than they are worth to save it. And, indeed, if the lady can command no more money than that little she mentions, she is to be commended for her unwillingness to part with any of it; for, to be sure, as she says, she will want every farthing of that, to live

Indeed, sir, you speak like an oracle,' answered the lady, and one subornation of perjury would sit heavier on my conscience, than twenty such murders as I am guilty of?'

'Nay, to be sure, madam,' answered the keeper, nobody can pretend to tell what provocation you must have had; and certainly it can never be imagined, that a lady who behaves herself so handsomely as you have done ever since you have been under my keys, should be guilty of killing a man without being very highly provoked to do it.'

Mr. Murphy was, I believe, going to answer, when he was called out of the room; after which nothing passed between the remaining persons worth relating, till Booth and the lady retired back again into the lady's apartment.

Here they fell immediately to commenting on the foregoing discourse; but as their comments were, I believe, the same with what most readers have made on the same occasion, we shall omit them. At last Miss Matthews reminding her companion of his promise of relating to her what had befallen him since the interruption of their former acquaintance, he began as is written in the next book of this history.

172

AMELIA.

CHAPTER I.

BOOK II.

In which Captain Booth begins to relate his history.
THE tea-table being removed, and Mr.
Booth and the lady left alone, he proceeded
as follows:

in a moment, and by an unfortunate trifling and rejoice in! what must be the mind which can bear to be deprived of all these accident; which could support all this, together with the most exquisite torments of Since you desire, madam, to know the without complaining, almost without a tear, body, and with dignity, with resignation, particulars of my courtship to that best and undergo the most painful and dreadful opedearest of women, whom I afterwards mar-rations of surgery in such a situation!' ried; I will endeavour to recollect them as well as I can, at least all those incidents which are most worth relating to you.

'If the vulgar opinion of the fatality in marriage had ever any foundation, it surely appeared in my marriage with my Amelia. I knew her in the first dawn of her beauty; and, I believe, madam, she had as much as ever fell to the share of a woman; but though I always admired her, it was long without any spark of love. Perhaps the general admiration which at that time pursued her, the respect paid her by persons of the highest rank, and the numberless addresses which were made her by men of great fortune, prevented my aspiring at the possession of those charms which seemed so absolutely out of my reach. However it was, I assure you, the accident which deprived her of the admiration of others, made the first great impression on my heart in her favour. The injury done to her beauty by the overturning of a chaise, by which, as you may well remember, her lovely nose was beat all to pieces, gave me an assurance that the woman who had been so much adored for the charms of her person, deserved a much higher adoration to be paid to her mind; for that she was in the latter respect infinitely more superior to the rest of her sex, than she had ever been in the former.'

'I admire your taste extremely,' cried the lady; I remember perfectly well, the great heroism with which your Amelia bore that misfortune.'

'Good Heavens! madam,' answered he, 'what a magnanimity of mind did her behaviour demonstrate! if the world would have extolled the firmness of soul in a man who can support the loss of fortune; of a general, who can be composed after the loss of a victory; or of a king, who can be contented with the loss of a crown; with what astonishment ought we to behold, with what praises to honour, a young lady, who can, with patience and resignation, submit to the loss of exquisite beauty; in other words, to the loss of fortune, power, glory, every thing which human nature is apt to court

Here he stopt, and a torrent of tears gushed from his eyes; such tears as are apt to flow any thing surprisingly great and glorious. from a truly noble heart, at the hearing of As soon as he was able, he again proceeded thus:

the misfortune of my Amelia was capable 'Would you think, Miss Matthews, that of any aggravation! I assure you, she hath often told me it was aggravated with a circumstance which outweighed all the other ingredients. This was the cruel insults she had received from some of her most intimate acquaintance, several of whom, after many distortions and grimaces, have turned their heads aside, unable to support their secret triumph, and burst into a loud laugh in her hearing.'

what detestable actions will this contempGood Heaven!' cried Miss Matthews, tible passion of envy prevail on our sex to commit?'

since told me, made the first impression on 'An occasion of this kind, as she hath her gentle heart in my favour. I was one day in company with several or rather young devils, where poor Amelia's accident was the subject of much mirth and young ladies, pleasantry. One of these said, she hoped Miss would not hold her head so high for the future. Another answered, I do not head, but I am convinced she will never know, Madam, what she may do with her more turn up her nose at her betters. Another cried, what a very proper match might captain, who had unfortunately received an now be made between Amelia and a certain injury in the same part, though from no shameful cause. Many other sarcasms were thrown out, very unworthy to be repeated. I was hurt with perceiving so much malice in human shape, and cried out very bluntly, Indeed, ladies, you need not express such satisfaction at poor Emily's accident; for she will still be the handsomest woman in England. This speech of mine was afterwards variously repeated, by some to my honour, and by others represented in a contrary light; indeed, it was often reported to be much ruder than it was. However,