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Gen. Ah, you flattering angel! and yet by the memory of Marlborough, my lovely girl, it was the idea of a prepossession on your part, which encouraged me to hope for a favourable reception.

Miss Wal. Then I must have been very indiscreet, for I laboured to conceal that prepossession as much as possible. Gen. You could not conceal it from me; the female heart is a field I am thoroughly acquainted with.

Miss Wal. I doubt not your knowledge of the female heart General: but as we now understand one another so perfectly, you will give me leave to retire.

Gen. One word, my dear creature, and no more; I shall wait on you some time to day about the necessary settlement, Miss Wal. You must do as you please, General; you are invincible in every thing.

Gen. And if you please we will keep every thing a profound secret till the articles are all settled, and the definitive treaty ready for execution.

Miss Wal. You may be sure that delicacy will not suffer me to be communicative upon the subject, Sir.

Gen. Then you leave every thing to my management. Miss Wal. I can't trust a more noble negociator. [Goes out. Gen. The day is my own, (sings) Britons strike home; strike home.

LXXXI. Scene between GEN. SAVAGE, CAPT. SAVAGE, MISS WALSINGHAM, and TORRINGTON, a lawyer; in which the General discovers his mistake.

Capt. Sav. NA AY, but my dearest Miss Walsingham the

extenuation of my conduct to Belville made it absolutely necessary for me to discover my engagements with you and as happiness is now so fortunately in our reach, I flatter myself that you will be prevailed upon to forgive an error which proceeded only from extravagance of love.

Miss Wal. To think me capable of such an action, Captain Savage! I am terrified at the idea of an union with you; and it is better for a woman at any time, to sacrifice an insolent lover, than to accept of a suspicious husband.

Capt. In the happiest union, my dearest creature, there must always be something to overlook on both sides. Miss Wal. Very civil, truly.

Capt. Pardon me, my life, for this frankness; and recollect, that if the lover has through misconception, been unhappily guil.y, he brings a husband altogether reformed to your hands. Miss Wal. Well, I see I must forgive you at last; so I may as well make a merit of necessity, you provoking creature Capt. And may I indeed hope for the blessing of this hand. Miss Wal. Why you wretch, would you have me to force it upon you? I think after what I have said, a soldier might venture to take it without farther ceremony.

Capt. Angelic creature! thus I seize it as my lawful prize. Miss Wal. Well, but now you have obtained this inestimable prize, Captain, give me leave to ask if you have had a certain explanation with the General?

Capt. How can you

doubt it?

Miss Wal. And is he really impatient for our marriage? Capt. 'Tis incredible how earnest he is.

Miss Wal. What! did he tell you of his interview with me this evening when he brought Mr. Torrington? Capt. He did.

Miss Wal. O, then I can have no doubt.

Capt. If a shadow of doubt remains, here he comes to remove it. Joy, my dear Sir, joy a thousand times!

(Enter GEN. SAVAGE and TORRINGTON.) Gen. What, my dear boy, have you carried the day? Miss Wal. I have been weak enough to indulge him with a victory, indeed, General.

Gen. Fortune favours the brave, Torrington.

Tor. I congratulate you heartily on this decree, General, Gen. This had nearly proved a day of disappointment, but the stars have fortunately turned it in my favour, and now I reap the rich reward of my victory.

Capt. And here I take her from you as the greatest good which heaven can send me.

Miss Wal. O Captain!

Gen. You take her as the greatest good which heaven can send you, Sirrah! I take her as the greatest good which heaven can send me; and now what have you to say to her? Miss Wal. General Savage!

Tor. Here will be a fresh injunction to stop proceedings. Miss Wal. Are we never to have done with mistakes? Gen. What mistakes can have happened now, sweetest, you delivered up your dear hand this moment!

Miss Wal, True, Sir, but I thought you were going to bestow my dear hand upon this dear gentleman.

Gen. How! that dear gentleman!

Capt. I am thunder-struck!

Tor. Fortune favours the brave, General-none but the brave (Laughingly.

Gen. So the covert way is cleared at last; and you have all along imagined that I was negociating for this fellow, when I was gravely soliciting for myself.

Miss Wal. No other idea, Sir, ever entered my imagination. Tor, General, noble minds should never despair(Laughingly.

Gen. Well, my hopes are all blown up to the moon at once, and I shall be the laughing stock of the whole town.

LXXXII. Scene between MRS. BELVILLE, MISS WALSE INGHAM, and LADY RACHEL MILDEW-On Duelling. HERE is the generosity, where is the

Mrs. Bel. W sense, where is the shame of men, to

[alone] find pleasure in pursuits which they cannot remember without the deepest horror; which they cannot follow without the meanest fraud; and which they cannot effect without consequences the most dreadful? The greatest triumph which a libertine can ever experience is too despicable to be envied; 'tis at best nothing but a victory over humnaity; and if he is a husband he must be doubly tortured on the wheel of recollection.

[Enter Miss Walsingham and Lady Rachel Mildew.} Miss Wal. My dear Mrs. Belville, I am extremely unhappy to see you so distressed.

Lady Rach. Now I am extremely glad to see her so; for if she were not greatly distressed, it would be monstrously unnatural.

Mrs. Bel. O Matilda! my husband! my children!

Miss Wal. Don't weep, my dear, don't weep! pray be comforted, all may end happily. Lady Rachel beg of her

not to cry so.

Lady Rach. Why, you are crying yourself, Miss Walsingham. And though I think it out of character to encourage her tears, I cannot help keeping you company.

Mrs. Bel. O, why is not some effectual method contrived to prevent this horrible practice of duelling?

Lady Rach. I'll expose it on the stage, since the law now a days kindly leaves the whole cognizance of it to the theatre. Miss Wal. And yet if the laws against it were as well enforced as the laws against destroying the game, perhaps it would be equally for the benefit of the kingdom.

Mrs. Bel. No law will ever be effectual till the custom is rendered infamous. Wives must shriek! mothers must agonize! orphans must be multiplied! unless some blessed hand strip the fascinating glare from honourable murder, and bravely expose the idol who is worshipped thus in blood. While it is disreputable to obey the laws, we cannot look for reformation. But if the duellist is once banished from the presence of his sovereign; if he is for life excluded the confidence of his country; if a mark of indellible disgrace is stamped upon him, the sword of public justice will be the sole chastiser of wrongs; trifles will not be punished with death, and offences really meriting such punishment, will be reserved for the only proper revenge, the common executioner.

Lady Rach. I could not have expressed myself better on this subject, my dear; but till such a hand as you talk of, is found, the best will fall into the error of the times.

Miss Wal. Yes, and butcher each other like madmen, for fear their courage should be suspected by fools.

LXXXIII. COLONEL RIVERS AND SIR HARRY.

Sir Har. come upon the old busines, for unless I am COLO

OLONEL, your most obedient: I am

allowed to entertain hopes of Miss Rivers, I shall be the most miserable of all human beings.

Riv. Sir Harry, I have already told you by letter, and I now tell you personally, I cannot listen to your proposals. Sir Har. No! Sir.

Riv. No, Sir; I have promised my daughter to Mr. Sidney; do you know that, Sir?

Sir Har. I do: but what then! Engagements of this kind you know.

Riv. So then you know I have promised her to Mr. Sidney?? Sir Har. I do, but I also know that matters are not finally settled between Mr. Sidney and you; and I moreover know, that his fortune is by no means equal to mine, therefore→→

Riv. Sir Harry let me ask you one question before you make your consequence.

Sir Har. A thousand if you please, Sir.

Riv. Why then Sir, let me ask you, what you have ever observed in me, or my conduct, that you desire me so familiarly to break my word; I thought, Sir, you considered me as a man of honour.

Sir Har. And so I do Sir, a man of the nicest honour. Riv. And yet, Sir, you ask me to violate the sanctity of my word; and tell me directly, that it is my interest to be a rascal. Sir Har. I really don't understand you, Colonel: I thought I was talking to a man who knew the world ; and as you have not signed

Riv. Why his is mending matters with a witness. And so you think because I am not legally bound, I am under no necessity of keeping my word! Sir Harry, laws were never made for men of honour; they want no bond but the rectitude of their own sentiments; and laws are of no use but to bind the villians of society.

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Sir Har. Well! But my dear Colonel, if you have no regard for me, show some little regard for your daughter. Riv. I show the greatest regard for my daughter by giving her to a man of honour, and I must not be insulted with any further repetition of your proposals.

Sir Har. Insult you, Colonel! Is the offer of my alli ance an insult? Is my readiness to make what settlements you think proper

Riv. Sir Harry, I should consider the offer of a kingdom an insult, if it was to be purchased by the violation of my word. Besides, though my daughter shall never go a beggar to the arms of her husband, I would rather see her happy than rich; and if she has enough to provide handsomely for a young family, and something to spare for the exigencies of a worthy friend, I shall think her as affluent as if she was mistress of Mexico.

Sir Har. Well, Colonel, I have done, but I believe

Riv. Well, Sir Harry, and as our conference is done, we will, if you please, retire to the ladies. I shall be always glad of your acquaintance, though I cannot receive you as a son-in-law; for a union of interest I look upon as a union of dishonour, and consider marriage for money, at best but a legal prostitution.

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