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 unexceptionable house-keeper 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 thou'sand 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 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, 6 as well as one of the handsomest women in the

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kingdom; and if she had been fairly dealt by, 'would have had a very great fortune 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.'

Lookee, serjeant,' said the colonel, you know very well that I am the lieutenant's friend. I 'think I have shewn 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 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 sweetest-tempered, 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.'

What 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 imprudence, 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 little more considerative; but, I hope, this will be a warning to him.'

• How am I sure of that,' answered the colonel; or what reason is there to expect it? extrava

gance is a vice of which men are not so easily cured. I have thought a great deal of this matter, Mr. serjeant; and upon the most mature de⚫ liberation, I am of opinion that it will be better both for him and his poor lady, that he should smart a little more.'

• Your honour, sir, to be sure, is in the right,' replied the serjeant; but yet, sir, if you will pardon me for speaking, I hope you will be pleased to consider my poor lady's case. She suffers, all *this while, as much or more than the lieutenant; for I know her so well, that I am certain she will · never have a moment's ease till her husband is out of confinement.'

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"I know women better than you, serjeant,' cries the colonel; they sometimes place their affections 'on a husband as children do on their nurse; but they are both to be weaned. I know you, serjeant, 'to be a fellow of sense as well as spirit, or I should not speak so freely to you; but I took a fancy to you a long time ago, and I intend to serve you; 'but first, I ask you this question,-Is your attachment to Mr. Booth, or his lady?

Certainly, sir,' said the serjeant, I must love my lady best. Not but I have a great affection for the lieutenant too, because I know my lady hath the same; and, indeed, he hath been always very good to me, as far as was in his power. A lieutenant, your honour knows, can't do a great deal; but I have always found him my friend upon all occasions.'

You say true,' cries the colonel; a lieutenant. can do but little; but I can do much to serve you, and will too-But let me ask you one question Who was the lady whom I saw last night with * Mrs. Booth at her lodgings ??

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Here the serjeant blushed, and repeated, The. lady, sir!'

Ay, a lady, a woman,' cries the colonel, who supped with us last night. She looked rather too much like a gentlewoman for the mistress of a lodging-house.'

The serjeant's cheeks glowed at this compliment to his wife; and he was just going to own her, when the colonel proceeded: I think I never saw in my life so ill-looking, sly, demure a b; I would give something, methinks, to know who she

was.'

'I don't know, indeed,' cries the serjeant, in great confusion; I know nothing about her.'

I wish you would inquire,' said the colonel, and let me know her name, and likewise what she is; I have a strange curiosity to know ; and let me see you again this evening exactly at seven.'

And will not your honour then go to the lieutenant this morning?' said Atkinson.

It is not in my power,' answered the colonel; I am engaged another way. Besides, there is no haste in this affair. If men will be imprudent, they must suffer the consequences. Come to me at seven, and bring me all the particulars you can concerning that ill-looking jade I mentioned to you; for I am resolved to know who she is. And so good-morrow to you, serjeant; be assured I will take an opportunity to do something for you.?

Though some readers may, perhaps, think the serjeant not unworthy of the freedom with which the colonel treated him; yet that haughty officer would have been very backward to have condescended to such familiarity with one of his rank, had he not proposed some design from it. In truth, he began to conceive hopes of making the serjeant instrumental to his design on Amelia; in other words, to convert him into a pimp; an office in which the colonel had been served by Atkinson's'

betters; and which, as he knew it was in his power very well to reward him, he had no apprehension that the serjeant would decline; an opinion which the serjeant might have pardoned, though he had never given the least grounds for it, since the colonel borrowed it from the knowledge of his own heart. This dictated to him, that he, from a bad motive, was capable of desiring to debauch his friend's wife; and the same heart inspired him to hope that another, from another bad motive, might be guilty of the same breach of friendship in assisting him. Few men, I believe, think better of others than of themselves; nor do they easily allow the existence of any virtue of which they perceive no traces in their own minds; for which reason I have observed, that it is extremely difficult to persuade a rogue that you are an honest man; nor would you ever succeed in the attempt by the strongest evidence, was it not for the comfortable conclusion which the rogue draws, that he who proves himself to be honest, proves himself to be a fool at the same time.

CHAP. IX.

A curious Chapter, from which a curious Reader may draw sundry Observations.

THE serjeant retired from the colonel in a very dejected state of mind; in which, however, we must leave him awhile, and return to Amelia; who, as soon as she was up, had dispatched Mrs. Atkinson to pay off her former lodgings, and to bring off all cloaths and other moveables,