-and should he be an Irishman so much the better.

Del. I never heard he was deficient in the two first accomplishments: as to the last I am afraid he must plead guilty.

O'Neale. That's his misfortune.

Del. You will be able to conjecture who I mean, when I tell you I am just arrived from the East-Indies,

O'Neale. Ah! then you are going to tell me some news of my old friend Delville.

Del. You are right.

O'Neale. Poor Delville! he never had but one fault-that cursed propensity to blundering was his ruin.

Del. Alas! sir, we must now think of his virtues rather than his errors-let his faults be buried with him, in order that we may be corrected by the example of his merits.

O'Neale. Delville is well.

Del. We will hope so.

O'Neale. What does the man mean? he is

well.

Del. He is indeed beyond the reach of sick

ness.

O'Neale. Dead, would you say? poor fellow! poor Delville! I lov'd him as my brother-never shall we find his equal-poor Delville! If there was a man, sir, to be chosen who might serve you in a difficult situation, that man was Del

ville, and he is dead! always looking about, sir, for opportunities to do you a kindness, and seizing those which were thrown in his way—the most honorable creature in existence, sir-God bless me what will become of Belford? You have not seen the family of the Belfords since you came to Bath-but you said you had a message from Delville to me--let me hear it-poor Delville!

Del. But a short message, Mr. O'Neale-I attended him on his death-bed-he died on his passage home, and as I was the only person on-board whom he knew intimately, he commissioned me with his last farewell to his friends.

O'Neale. This is a most unexpected misfortune! we were all hoping for his arrival at home -poor Delville! that he should have survived so far all the hazards of the climate, and his profession, and have died just in sight, as it were, of his native shore-oh! its lamentable!

Del. I have now to call upon Mr. Belford to give my intelligence there. If I might, on so short an acquaintance, beg a favor from you, which I can only do on the interest you have taken in the information I have given you, I would request you to accompany me to Mr. Belford's-I believe you have been a common friend of Mr. Edward Belford and Mr. Delville.

O'Neale. Yes-all my life-I knew them both at school-You have no notion, Mr. Arundel, what a queer out-of-the-way boy Delville always

was--I protest I can't think of him without a tear -whatever was to be done, if he was concerned in it, it was different from the common method -he had a new way of jumping, a new way of swimming, a new way of playing at cricket. The first never carried him over a ditch, but usually left him half way up to his middle in dirt-his water theory would have drowned him twenty times, if he had not been saved by his companions and how he escaped a broken leg or an arm from the cricket balls, which he never stopped but by the opposition of some part of his body, is certainly most astonishing. Poor fellow! that cursed duel almost brought him down, and now at last he is gone! Well-sir-I'll shew you the way to Belford's, but you must be cautious how you communicate your intelligence -I suspect you will find weaker nerves than you have yet tried.

Del. Really, sir, I must consider myself as extremely obliged to you

O'Neale. Not at all-not at all—

Dup. Have you any orders for me, sir?

O'Neale. Bless me-I forget my intention as to Lady Lovell -but do you go there, Dupont, and see if you can't contrive to get a message to her ladyship, telling her what has happened. Dup. You really are going the other way, sir. O'Neale. Get you gone-get you gone—That, Mr. Arundel, is the house.

Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Belford's House.

MR. and MRS. BELFORD-EDWARD BELFORD→ LOUISA.

Mrs. Bel. You are deceived, Edward-depend upon it-Dr. Aimwell has no purpose but to support the cause of truth, and the cause of truth he has supported.

Bel. What because he has encouraged you to resist all my wishes-this sort of truth is like an independent man's politics-always in opposition-But you, Edward, of course think him still the only man to follow-the only man to hear.

E. Bel. I think so ill of him that I promise you never to see him but once more. Louisawhere are you going? why won't you tell me who Miranda was?

Louisa. Why in such preposterous haste, bro

ther?

Enter SERVANT.

Ser. Mr. O'Neale and Mr. Arundel.

Bel. A friend of Mr. O'Neale's, I imagine,

he wishes to introduce to us.

O'Neale. Belford-Mr. Arundel-I cannot call him a friend, but it will be with you, I believe, as it has been with me; the importance of his information will weigh much against the novelty of our acquaintance with him.

few minutes.

Del. (Aside) Very little changed, I perceive -(Aside) may I request your attention for a E. Belford and Delville converse. O'Neale. Your support was all powerful, Miss Belford; we fairly drove the enemy from the field-if you are so successful when you profess to disclaim reason, what are we to expect when you acknowledge it.

Mrs. Bel. Really, Mr. O'Neale-I wish you would drop this subject-it's well indeed if we are not forced to drop it in a manner we shall find rather awful.

E. BELFORD and DELVILLE come forward.

E. Bel. And you have seen much of him,

you say.

Del. I was continually with him through the whole course of his declining health.

E. Bel. His declining health? all the accounts we have received of him gave us reason to suppose he was never better.

Del. Ah! sir-it is too often the cruel policy of men to flatter each other with better hopes of their friends' health than the truth will warrant; then when the reality comes-you seem alarmed, Mr. Belford, but I will venture to be ex