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poffeffion of what my foul held moft dear, I wished for death, and was vifited by distraction.-I have been abandoned by my reafon-my youth is for ever blafted-"

The tender heart of Aurelia could bear no more-her knees began to totter: the luftre vanished from her eyes, and fhe fainted in the arms of her attendant. Sir Launcelot, aroufed by this circumftance, affifted Dolly in feating her mistress on a couch, where the foon recovered, and faw the knight on his knees before her. "I am still happy (faid he) in being able to move your compaffion, though I have been held unworthy of your esteem." "Do me justice, (fhe replied :) my best efteem has been always infeparably connected with the character of Sir Launcelot Greaves-" "Is it poffible? (cried our hero) then furely I have no reafon to complain. If I have moved your compassion, and poffefs your esteem, I am but one degree short of fupreme happiness-that, however, is a gigantic ftep.-O mifs Darnel! when I remember that dear, that melancholy moment-" So faying, he gently touched her hand, in order to prefs it to his lips, and perceived on her finger the very individual ring which he had presented in her mother's prefence, as an interchanged teftimony of plighted faith. Starting at the well-known object, the fight of which conjured up a ftrange confufion of ideas, "This (faid he) was once the pledge of fomething ftill more cordial than efteem." Aurelia, blushing at this remark, while her eyes lightened with unusual vivacity, relied, in a feverer tone, "Sir, you b.ft know how it loft its original

fignification."

66 By heaven! I do not, madam, (exclaimed our adventurer.) With me it was ever held a facred idea throned within my heart, cherished with fuch fervency of regard, with fuch reverence of affection, as the devout anchorite more unreasonably pays to thofe fainted reliques that conftitute the object of his adoration-" "And, like thofe reliques, (anfwered mifs Darnel) I have been infenfible of my votary's devotion.-- A faint I must have been, or fomething more, to know the fentiments of your heart by infpiration." "Did I forbear (faid he) to exprefs, to repeat, to enforce the dictates of the pureft paffion that ever warmed the human breaft, until I was denied accefs, and formally difcarded by that cruel difmiffion---" "I muft beg your pardon, Sir, (cried Aurelia, interrupting him hastily) I know not what you mean." "That fatal fentence, (faid he) if not pronounced by your own lips, at least written by your own fair hand, which drove me out an exile for ever from the paradife of your affection." "I would not (the replied) do Sir Launcelot Greaves the injury to fuppofe him capable of impofition: but you talk of things to which I am an utter ftranger.-I have a right, Sir, to demand of your honour, that you will not impute to me your breaking off a connection, which-I would-rather wifh-had never- ENTRE THEATRE "Heaven and earth! what do I hear? (cried our impatient knight) have I not the baleful letter to produce? What else but mifs Darnel's explicit and exprefs declaration could have deftroyed the fweereft hope that ever cheared my foul; could have obliged me to refign all claim to that felicity for H 2 which

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which alone I wished to live; could have filled my bofom with unutterable forrow and despair; could have even divefted me of reafon, and driven me from the fociety of men, a poor, forlorn, wandering lunatic, fuch as you see me now proftrate at your feet; all the bloffoms of my youth withered, all the honours of my family decayed?"

Aurelia looking wiftfully at her lover," Sir, (faid fhe) you overwhelm me with amazement and anxiety! you are impofed upon, if you have received any fuch letter: you are deceived, if you thought Aurelia Darnel could be fo infenfible, ungrateful, and-inconftant."

This laft word the pronounced with fome hesitation, and a downcaft look, while her face underwent a total fuffufion, and the knight's heart began to palpitate with all the violence of emotion. He eagerly imprinted a kifs upon her hand, exclaiming, in interrupted phrafe, "Can it be poffible?—Heaven, grant-Sure this is no illufion.-O, madam !---shall I call you my Aurelia? My heart is bursting with a thousand fond thoughts and prefages. You fhall fee that dire paper which hath been the fource of all my woes it is the constant companion of my travels.-Laft night I nourished my chagrin with the perufal of its horrid contents."

Aurelia expreffed great impatience to view the cruel forgery; for fuch the affured him it mutt be: but he could not gratify her defire till the arrival of his fervant with the portmantean. In the mean time, tea was called. The lovers were feated: he looked and languished; The flushed and faultered: all was doubt and delirium, fondness and

flutter. Their mutual disorder communicated itself to the kind-hearted fympathizing Dolly, who had been witness to the interview, and deeply affected with the disclosure of the fcene. Unfpeakable was her furprize when the found her mistress mifs Meadows was no other than the celebrated Aurelia Darnel, whose eulogium fhe had heard fo eloquently pronounced by her fweet-heart Mr. Thomas Clarke; a difcovery which fill more endeared her lady to her affection. She had wept plentifully at the progress of their mutual explanation; and was now fo difconcerted, that the scarce knew the meaning of the orders fhe had received. She fet the kettle on the table, and placed the tea-board on the fire. Her confufion, by attracting the notice of her mistress, helped to relieve her from her own embarraffing fituation. She, with her own delicate hands, rectified the mistake of Dolly; who ftill continued to fob, and faid, "Yaw may think, my leady Darnel, as haw I 'aive yeaten hool-cheefe; but it y'an't foa.-I'fe think, vor aai peart, as how l'aive bean bewitched." Sir Launcelot could not help fmiling at the fimplicity of Dolly, whofe goodness of heart, and attachment, Aurelia did not fail to extol, as foon as her back was turned. It was in confequence of this commendation, that, the next time he entered the room, our adventurer, for the first time, confidered her face, and feemed to be truck with her features. He asked her fome queftions, which fhe could not anfwer to his fatisfaction, applauded her regard for her lady, and affured her of his friendship and protection. He now begged to know the caufe

that

that obliged his Aurelia to travel at fuch a rate, and in fuch an equipage; and the informed him of those particulars which we have already communicated to the reader.

Sir Launcelot glowed with refentment, when he understood how his dear Aurelia had been oppreffed by her perfidious and cruel guardian. He bit his nether lip, rolled his eyes around, ftarted from his feat, and ftriding across the room, "I remember (faid he) the dying words of her who is now a faint in heaven"That violent man, my brother-inlaw, who is Aurelia's fole guardian, will thwart her wifes with every obftacle that brutal refentment and implacable malice can contrive."What followed, it would ill become me to repeat but the concluded with thefe words-" The reft we must leave to the difpenfations of Providence."-Was it not Providence that fent me hither, to guard and protect the injured Aurelia?" Then turning to mils Darnel, whofe eyes ftreamed with tears, he added, "Yes, divine creature! heaven, care'ul of your fafety, and in compaffion to my fufferings, hath guided me hither, in this myfterious manner, that I might defend you from violence, and enjoy this tranfition from madness to deliberation, from defpair to felicity." So faying, he approached this amiable mourner, this fragrant flower of beauty, glittering with the dew-drops of the morning; this fweeteft, gen:left, lovelieft ornament of human nature: he gazed upon her with looks of love ineffable; he fat down by her; he preffed her foft hand in his; he began to fear that all he faw was the flattering vifion of a diftempered b.ain. He lecked, and fighed, and

turning up his eyes to heaven, breathed, in broken murmurs, the chafte raptures of his foul. The tenderness of this communication was too painful to be long endured. Aurelia induftriously interpofed other fubjects of discourse, that his attention might not be dangerously overcharged, and the afternoon passed infenfibly away.

Though he had determined, in his own mind, never more to quit this idol of his foul, they had not yet concerted any plan of conduct, when their happiness was all at once interrupted by a repetition of cries, denoting horror; and a fervant, coming in, faid he believed fome rogues were murdering a traveller on the highway. The fuppofition of fuch diftrefs operated like gunpowder on the difpofition of our adventurer, who, without confidering the fituation of Aurelia, and indeed without feeing, or being capable to think on her, or any other fubject, for the time being, ran directly to the ftable, and mounting the first horfe which he found faddled, iffued out in the twilight, having no other weapon but his fword. He rode full speed to the pot whence the cries feemed to proceed; but they founded more remote as he advanced. Nevertheless he followed them to a confiderable diftance from the road, over fields, ditches, and hedges; and at laft came fo near, that he could plainly diftinguish the voice of his own fquire, Timothy Crabfhaw, bellowing for mercy, with hideous vociferation. Stimulated by this recognition, he redoubled his career in the dark, till at length his horfe plunged into a hole, the nature of which he could not comprehend; but he found it

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impracticable to difengage him. It was with fome difficulty that he himself clambered over a ruined wall, and regained the open ground. Here he groped about, in the utmost impatience of anxiety, ignorant of the place, mad with vexation for the fate of his unfortunate fquire, and between whiles invaded with a pang of concern for Aurelia, left among ftrangers, unguarded, and alarmed. In the midst of this emotion, he bethought himself of hollowing aloud, that, in cafe he should be in the neighbourhood of any inhabited place, he might be heard and affifted. He accordingly practifed this expedient, which was not altogether without effect; for he was immediately answered by an old friend, no other than his own fteed Bronzomarte, who, hearing his master's voice, neighed strenuously at a small distance. The knight, being well acquainted with the found, heard with astonishment; and, advancing in the right direction, found his noble charger faftened to a tree. He forthwith untied and mounted him; then, laying the reins upon his neck, allowed him to chufe his own path, in which he began to travel with equal steadiness and expedition. They had not proceeded far when the knight's ears were again faluted by the cries of Crabfhaw; which Bronzomarte no fooner heard than he pricked up his ears, neighed, and quickened his pace, as if he had been fenfible of the fquire's distress, and haftened to his relief. Sir Launcelot, notwithstanding his own difquiet, could not help obferving and admiring this generous fenfibility of his horfe: he began to think himself fome hero of romance mounted upon a winged fteed, in

fpired with reason, directed by fome humane inchanter, who pitied virtue in distress. All circumitances confidered, it is no wonder that the commotion in the mind of our adventurer produced fome fuch delirium. All night he continued the chace; the voice, which was repeated at intervals, ftill retreating before him, till the morning began to appear in the Eaft, when, by divers piteous groans, he was directed to the corner of a wood, where he beheld his miferable fquire ftretched upon the grafs, and Gilbert feeding by him altogether unconcerned, the helmet and the launce fufpended at the faddle bow, and the portmanteau fafely fixed upon the crupper.

The knight, riding up to Crabfhaw, with equal furprize and concern, asked what had brought him there; and Timothy, after fome paufe, during which he furveyed his mafter with a rueful aspect, answered, "The devil." "One would imagine, indeed, you had fome fuch conveyance, (faid Sir Launcelot.) I have followed your cries fince laft evening I know not how, nor whither, and never could come up with you till this moment. But, fay, what damage have you fuftained, that you lie in that wretched pofture, and groan fo difmally?' "I can't guefs, (replied the fquire) if it bean't that mai hoole carcafe is drilled into oilet hools, and my flesh pinched into a jelly."—" How! wherefore? (cried the knight)-who were the mifcreants that treated you in fuch a barbarous manner? Do you know the ruffians?" "I know nothing at all, (anfwered the peevish fquire) but that I was tormented by vive hoondred and vifty thousand legions of devils, and there's an end

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oan't." "Well, you must have a highway; but pricked him with
little patience, Crabfhaw-there's a goads, and pinched him, from time
falve for every fore."- "Yaw to time, till he fcreamed with the
mought as well tell ma, for every torture: that he was led through
zow there's a zirreverence." "For unfrequented places across the coun-
a man in your condition, methinks try, fometimes at an eafy trot,
you talk very much at your eafe. fometimes at full gallop, and tor-
Try if you can get up and mount mented all night by thofe hideous
Gilbert, that you may be conveyed dæmons, who vanifhed at day-break,
to fome place where you can have and left him lying on the spot where
proper affiftance.So--well done-- he was found by his mafter. This
chearly---"
was a mystery which our hero could
by no means unriddle: it was the
more unaccountable, as the squire
had not been robbed of his money,
horfes, and baggage. He was even
disposed to believe, that Crabshaw's
brain was difordered, and the whole
account he had given, no more than
a chimera. This opinion, however,
he could no longer retain, when he
arrived at an inn on the post-road,
and found, upon examination, that
Timothy's lower extremities were
covered with blood, and all the rest
of his body fpeckled with livid
marks of contufion. But he was
ftill more chagrined when the land-
lord informed him, that he was
thirty miles diftant from the place
where he had left Aurelia, and that
his way lay through cross-roads,
which were almost impaffable at that
season of the year. Alarmed at this
intelligence, he gave directions that
his fquire fhould be immediately
conveyed to bed in a comfortable
chamber, as he complained more
and more; and indeed was feized
with a fever, occafioned by the fa-
tigue, the pain, and terror. he had
undergone. A neighbouring apo-
thecary being called, and giving it
as his opinion that he could not for
fome days be in a condition to tra-
vel, his mafter depofited a fum of
money in his hands, defiring he

Timothy actually made an effort to rife; but fell down again, and uttered a dismal yell. Then his mafter exhorted him to take advantage of a park-wall, by which he lay, and raise himself gradually upon it. Crabfhaw, eying him askance, faid, by way of reproach, for his not alighting and affifting him in perfon, "Thatch your houfe with t-d, and you'll have more teachers than reachers."Having pronounced this inelegant adage, he made fhift to ftand upon his legs; and now, the knight lending a hand, was mounted upon Gilbert, though not without a world of oh's! and ah's! and other ejaculations of pain and impatience. As they jogged on together, our adventurer endeavoured to learn the particulars of the difafter which had befallen the fquire; but all the information he could obtain, amounted to a very imperfect sketch of the adventure. By dint of a thousand interrogations he understood, that Crabfhaw had been, in the preceding evening, encountered by three perfons on horfeback with Venetian mafques on their faces, which he miltook for their natural features, and was terrified accordingly: that they not only prefented piftols to his breaft, and led his horfe out of the

might

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