baving been heard to declare a partiality for him. She could not, indeed, boast of her charmis. Her perfon, however, was genteel, and what was infinitely more to be prized, she was endowed with as engaging a difpofition as ever woman was bleft with.. Alas! how hard must be her lot, to be united to a man, whose attachment to another would render him infenfible of her merit!

Whilft the courtship was carrying on, the father of the lady, naturally anxious for his daughter's happinefs, examined minutely into whatever concerned his intended fon-in-law; and having heard much of his connection with my mother, his lordship wroteher a polite letter, requesting to know from her the nature of it; giving her at the fame time his reasons. for fuch an enquiry.

When my mother, or Lady Tyrawley, as she was then called, received Lord Blessington's letter, she was not quite recovered from the weaknefs attendant on a lying-in; so that she was the less able to cope: with the heart-rending information it conveyed; and fhe refigned herself totally to the impulse of her rage.. The violence of her paffion got the better of her affection, and without listening to the dictates of prudence,. she enclosed Lord Bleffington every letter she had received from her lover. Among these was one fhe had just received by the fame poft, and which, as she

had

had not broken it open, she sent unopened. In this letter Lord Tyrawley had informed her of the distressed fituation of his affairs, and confequently of the sad neceffity there was for his marrying fome lady of fortune, to extricate him from his difficulties. He added, that he should stay no longer with his intended wife than was necessary to receive her fortune, when he would immediately fly on the wings of love to fhare it with her. That, though another had his hand, fhe alone possessed his heart, and was his real wife in the fight of heaven. That, in order to testify the truth of what he advanced, he had made choice of the Hon. Mifs Stewart, who was both ugly and foolish, in preference to one with an equal fortune, who was both beautiful and fenfible; left an union with a more agreeable perfen might be the means of decreasing his affection for her.

With what indignation must the Earl of Bleffington receive fuch incontrovertible proofs of Lord Tyrawley's perfidy! He was fo exasperated against him, that he immediately forbade his daughter, on pain of his severest displeasure, ever to see or write to her perfidious lover again. But his injunctions came too late; for they had been already united in connubial bonds, without the earl's knowledge or consent.

Lord

Lord Tyrawley now found himself the victim of his own unwarrantable duplicity. Disappointed of receiving the fortune which had been the fole inducement for his marrying, and united to a woman he hated, he was truly miferable. Being, however, determined to get rid of his lady at all events, he infifted on a feparation and immediately folicited the Minister to be fent to the court of Lisbon in a public character. This was readily granted him; as no one was better qualified for such an important employment than his lordship, not only on account of his being a perfect mafter of the Portuguese language, but from the brilliancy of his parts, and political knowledge, which were fcarcely equalled by any of his competitors.

At the time of his separation from his lady, Lord Tyrawley fettled eight hundred pounds a year upon her, and she went to refide in the very apartments in Somerset-House my mother had lately occupied. That poor dear woman no fooner heard of the mar riage of her beloved lord, than distracted at the thought, she immediately haftened from a place which must continually remind her of her lost happiness, and disappointed expectations; leaving behind her all the plate, and other prefents, the fondness of the most generous of men had bestowed upon her; as fhe was. determined to take nothing with her that should bring

to

to her memory her faithless perjured paramour. Having brought my mother to this reversed period of her fortune, left I tire you with too long an epistle, I will here put an end to it.

Believe me to be,

Madam, &c. &c.

G. A. B.

LETTER III.

Sept. 17, 17

I Concluded my laft letter with an account of my mother's leaving her apartments at Somerset-House, in all the agonies of despair and refentment. It happened fortunately for her, that a relation, in confideration of my grandmother's contracted circumstances, had fome time before left her as a legacy a House fituated in Great Queen-Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. In this house my grandmother now refided, and by letting out part of it, together with fome affiftance fhe received from her good friend Mrs. Godfrey, procured for herself a decent subsistence. Though she had not seen her daughter fince her elopement, and was much displeased with her for her impruden conduct, yet in such a trying moment fhe could not refuse her admittance beneath her roof. My mother accordingly now made this her abode.

Whilft fhe had refided at Somerset-House and lived in fplendour, one of the principle actresses belonging to Drury-Lane Theatre, whose name was Butler, had applied to her to folicit her interest on her benefit-Night. An intimacy thereupon commenced between them; and during Lord Tyrawley's abfence in Ireland, Mrs. Butler had frequently spent many days with my mother at her apartments. As my mother had made this lady her confidant during her more profperous state, she now imparted to her the fituation of her finances, and expectations, and confulted her on the measures she should pursue for her future maintenance.

Mrs. Butler finding there was but little probability from her friend's prefent irritated ftate of mind, that her connection with Lord Tyrawley would ever be renewed, advised her to take to the profeffion she herself followed. Though my mother's person was tall, her figure ftriking, and fhe poffeffed no fmall fhare of beauty, yet from an unanimated formality which appeared about her, probably from her affociating in the early part of her life with the Quakers, no very fanguine hopes were to be entertained of her fucceeding on the stage. However, overcome by the earnest folicitations and flattering reprefentations, of Mrs. Butler, fhe fixed on that track to obtain a future provifion,

The