her, it had left my image on her fancy, and ever manner she pleased, on Amelia. These that the last use she made of it was to think proposals the old lady had, without any deof me.-Send for my dear Billy imme- liberation, accepted, and had insisted, in the diately, she cried, I know he will come most violent manner, on her daughter's to me in a moment. Will nobody fetch him compliance, which Amelia had as perempto me? pray don't kill me before I see him torily refused to give; insisting on her part, once more-You durst not use me so if he on the consent which her mother had before was here. Every accent still rings in given to our marriage, in which she was my ears. Oh, heavens! to hear this, and heartily seconded by the doctor, who deat the same time to see the poor delirious clared to her, as he now did to me, that we creature deriving the greatest horrors from ought as much to be esteemed man and wife my sight, and mistaking me for a highway- as if the ceremony had already passed beman who had a little before robbed her. But tween us. I ask your pardon, the sensations I felt are to be known only from experience, and to you must appear dull and insipid. At last she seemed for a moment to know me, and cried, O heavens! my dearest brother! upon which she fell into immediate convulsions, and died away in my arms.'

Here Booth stopped a moment, and wiped his eyes; and Miss Matthews, perhaps out of complaisance, wiped hers.

CHAPTER V.

Containing strange revolutions of Fortune.
BOOTH proceeded thus:

This loss, perhaps, madam, you will think had made me miserable enough: but Fortune did not think so; for on the day when my Nancy was to be buried, a courier arrived from Dr. Harrison with a letter, in which the doctor acquainted me, that he was just come from Mrs. Harris, when he despatched the express; and earnestly desired me to return the very instant I received his letter, as I valued my Amelia. Though if the daughter, added he, should take after her mother, (as most of them do,) it will be, perhaps, wiser in you to stay

away.

'I presently sent for the messenger into my room, and with much difficulty extorted from him, that a great 'squire in his coach and six was come to Mrs. Harris's, and that the whole town said he was shortly to be married to Amelia.

'I now soon perceived how much superior my love for Amelia was to every other passion; poor Nancy's idea disappeared in a moment: I quitted the dear lifeless corpse, over which I had shed a thousand tears, left the care of her funeral to others, and posted, I may almost say flew, back to Amelia, and alighted at the doctor's house, as he had desired me in his letter.

"These remonstrances, the doctor told me, had worked no effect on Mrs. Harris, who still persisted in her avowed resolution of marrying her daughter to Winckworth, whom the doctor had likewise attacked, telling him that he was paying his addresses to another man's wife; but all to no purpose: the young gentleman was too much in love to hearken to any dissuasives.

'We now entered into a consultation what means to employ. The doctor earnestly protested against any violence to be offered to the person of Winckworth, which, I believe, I had rashly threatened, declaring, that if I made any attempt of that kind, he would forever abandon my cause. I made him a solemn promise of forbearance. At last he determined to pay another visit to Mrs. Harris, and if he found her obdurate, he said he thought himself at liberty to join us together without any further consent of her mother; which every parent, he said, had a right to refuse, but not to retract when given, unless the party himself, by some conduct of his, gave a reason.

"The doctor having made his visit, with no better success than before, the matter now debated was how to get possession of Amelia by stratagem; for she was now a closer prisoner than ever, was her mother's bedfellow by night, and never out of her sight by day.

While we were deliberating on this point, a wine-merchant of the town came to visit the doctor, to inform him that he had just bottled off a hogshead of excellent old port, of which he offered to spare him a hamper, saying, that he was that day to send in twelve dozen to Mrs. Harris,

The doctor now smiled at a conceit which came into his head; and, taking me aside, asked me if I had love enough for the young lady to venture into the house in a hamper. I joyfully leaped at the proposal, to which the merchant, at the doctor's intercession, consented; for I believe, madam, you know the great authority which that worthy man had over the whole town. The doctor, moreover, promised to procure a license, and to perform the office for us at his house, if I could find any means of con

The good man presently acquainted me with what had happened in my absence. Mr. Winekworth had, it seems, arrived the very day of my departure, with a grand equipage, and, without delay, had made formal proposals to Mrs. Harris, offering to settle any part of his vast estate, in what-veying Amelia thither.

'In this hamper then I was carried to the house, and deposited in the entry, where I had not lain long before I was again removed and packed up in a cart in order to be sent five miles into the country; for I heard the orders given as I lay in the entry; and there I likewise heard that Amelia and her mother were to follow me the next morning.

'I was unloaded from my cart, and set down with the rest of the lumber, in a great hall. Here I remained above three hours, impatiently waiting for the evening, when I determined to quit a posture which was become very uneasy, and break my prison; but Fortune contrived to release me sooner, by the following means: The house where I now was, had been left in the care of one maid servant. This faithful creature came into the hall, with the footman who had driven the cart. A scene of the highest fondness having passed between them, the fellow proposed, and the maid consented, to open the hamper and drink a bottle together, which they agreed their mistress would hardly miss in such a quantity. They presently began to execute their purpose. They opened the hamper, and to their great surprise discovered the contents.

I took immediate advantage of the consternation which appeared in the countenances of both the servants, and had sufficient presence of mind to improve the knowledge of those secrets to which I was privy. I told them that it entirely depended on their behaviour to me whether their mistress should ever be acquainted, either with what they had done, or with what they had intended to do; for that if they would keep my secret, I would reciprocally keep theirs. I then acquainted them with my purpose of lying concealed in the house, in order to watch an opportunity of obtaining a private interview with Amelia.

thing himself, and then continued his story as in the next chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

Containing many surprising adventures. 'HERE,' continued he, I remained the whole day, in hopes of a happiness, the expected approach of which gave me such a delight that I would not have exchanged my poor lodgings for the finest palace in the universe. A little after it was dark, Mrs. Harris arrived, together with Amelia and her sister. I cannot express how much my heart now began to flutter; for as my hopes every moment increased, strange fears, which I had not felt before, began now to intermingle with them.

"When I had continued full two hours in these circumstances, I heard a woman's step tripping up stairs, which I fondly hoped was my Amelia; but all on a sudden the door flew open, and Mrs. Harris herself appeared at it, with a countenance pale as death, her whole body trembling, I suppose with anger; she fell upon me in the most bitter language. It is not necessary to repeat what she said, nor indeed can I, I was so shocked and confounded on this occasion.-In a word, the scene ended with my departing without seeing Amelia.'

Ay pray,' cries Miss Matthews, 'how happened this unfortunate discovery?'

Booth answered, "That the lady at supper ordered a bottle of wine, which neither myself,' said he, 'nor the servants, had presence of mind to provide. Being told there was none in the house, though she had been before informed that the things came all safe, she had sent for the maid, who being unable to devise any excuse, had fallen on her knees, and after confessing her design of opening a bottle, which she imIn the situation in which these two de-puted to the fellow, betrayed poor me to her linquents stood, you may be assured it was mistress. not difficult for me to seal up their lips. In short, they agreed to whatever I proposed. I lay that evening in my dear Amelia's bedchamber, and was in the morning conveyed into an old lumber garret, where I was to wait till Amelia, (whom the maid promised on her arrival, to inform of my place of concealment,) could find some opportunity of seeing me.'

'Well, madam, after a lecture of about a quarter of an hour's duration from Mrs. Harris, I suffered her to conduct me to the outward gate of her courtyard, whence I set forward in a disconsolate condition of mind, towards my lodgings. I had five miles to walk in a dark and rainy night: But how can I mention these trifling circumstances, as any aggravation of my disappointment?

'How was it possible,' cried Miss Matthews, that you could be got out of the house without seeing Miss Harris?"

'I ask pardon for interrupting you,' cries Miss Matthews, but you bring to my remembrance a foolish story which I heard at that time, though at a great distance from you; that an officer had, in confederacy 'I assure you, madam,' answered Booth, with Miss Harris, broke open her mother's 'I have often wondered at it myself; but cellar and stole away a great quantity of her my spirits were so much sunk at the sight wine. I mention it only to show you what of her mother, that no man was ever a sort of foundations most stories have.' greater coward than I was at that instant. Booth told her he had heard some such | Indeed, I believe my tender concern for the

Here Booth made a full stop, smiled, and

hoped her nurse would not betray her,—| the good woman answered, with much then said, he was going to mention so ridiwarmth, Betray you, my dear young culous a distress, that he could scarce think madam! no, that I would not, if the king of it without laughing.-What this was, the would give me all that he is worth: No, not reader shall know in the next chapter if madam herself would give me the great house, and the whole farm belonging to it.

The good woman then went out, and fetched a chicken from the roost, which she killed, and began to pick, without asking any questions. Then summoning her son, who was in bed, to her assistance, she began to prepare this chicken for our supper. This she afterwards set before us, in so neat, I may almost say, elegant a manner, that whoever would have disdained it, either doth not know the sensation of hunger, or doth not deserve to have it gratified. Our food was attended with some ale, which our kind hostess said she intended not to have tapped till Christmas; but, added she, I little thought ever to have the honour of seeing my dear honoured lady in this poor place.

CHAPTER VII.

The story of Booth continued. More surprising

adventures.

'FROM what trifles, dear Miss Matthews,' cried Booth, may some of our greatest distresses arise! Do not you perceive I am going to tell you we had neither pen, ink, nor paper in our present exigency?

A verbal message was now our only resource; however, we contrived to deliver it in such terms, that neither nurse nor her son could possibly conceive any suspicion from it, of the present situation of our affairs. Indeed, Amelia whispered me, I might safely place any degree of confidence in the lad; for he had been her foster brother, and she had a great opinion of his integrity. He was in truth a boy of very good natural parts; and Dr. Harrison, who had received him into his family, at Amelia's

For my own part, no human being was then an object of envy to me; and even Amelia seemed to be in pretty good spirits; she softly whispered to me, that she perceived there might be happiness in a cot- recommendation, had bred him up to write tage.' and read very well, and had taken some A cottage!' cries Miss Matthews, sigh-pains to infuse into him the principles of ing, a cottage, with the man one loves, is a palace.'

·

When supper was ended,' continued Booth, the good woman began to think of our further wants, and very earnestly recommended her bed to us, saying, it was a very neat, though homely one, and that she could furnish us with a pair of clean sheets. She added some persuasives which painted my angel all over with vermillion. As for myself, I behaved so awkwardly and foolishly, and so readily agreed to Amelia's resolution of sitting up all night, that, if it did not give the nurse any suspicion of our marriage, it ought to have inspired her with the utmost contempt for me.

honesty and religion. He was not indeed, even now, discharged from the doctor's service; but had been at home with his mother for some time, on account of the small-pox, from which he was lately recovered.

'I have said so much,' continued Booth, of the boy's character, that you may not be surprised at some stories which I shall tell you of him hereafter.

'I am going, now, madam, to relate to you one of those strange accidents, which are produced by such a train of circumstances, that mere chance hath been thought incapable of bringing them together; and which have therefore given birth in superstitious minds, to Fortune, and to several other imaginary beings.

'We both endeavoured to prevail with nurse to retire to her own bed, but found it utterly impossible to succeed; she thanked "We were now impatiently expecting the Heaven she understood breeding better than arrival of the doctor; our messenger had that. And so well bred was the good wo- been gone much more than a sufficient time, man, that we could scarce get her out of which to us, you may be assured, appeared the room the whole night. Luckily for us, not at all shorter than it was, when nurse, we both understood French, by means of who had gone out of doors on some errand, which we consulted together, even in her came running hastily to us, crying out, O presence, upon the measures we were to my dear young madam, her ladyship's coach take in our present exigency. At length, is just at the door! Amelia turned pale it was resolved, that I should send a letter, as death at these words; indeed, I feared by this young lad, whom I have just before she would have fainted, if I could be said mentioned, to our worthy friend the doctor, to fear, who had scarce any of my senses desiring his company at our hut, since we left, and was in a condition little better than thought it utterly unsafe to venture to the my angel's. town, which we knew would be in an uproar, on our account, before the morning.'

While we were both in this dreadful situation Amelia fallen back in her chair