Here Mr. Fitzpatrick offered to lend him his affiftance; informing the company that he had been himself bred to the law. And indeed he had served three years as clerk to an attorney in the North of Ireland, when chufing a genteeler walk in life, he quitted his Mafter, came over to England, and fet up that business which requires no apprenticeship, namely, that of a gentleman, in which he had fucceeded as has been already mentioned. Mr. Fitzpatrick declared that the law concerning daughters was out of the prefent cafe; that stealing a muff was undoubtedly felony, and the goods being found upon the perfon, the person, were fufficient evidence of the fact. The magiftrate, upon the encouragement of fo learned a coadjutor, and upon the violent interceffion of the Squire, was at length prevailed upon to feat himself in the chair of Justice, where being placed, upon viewing the muff which Jones ftill held in his hand, and upon the parfon's fwearing it to be the property of Mr. Western, he defired Mr. Fitzpatrick to draw up a commitment, which he faid he would fign. Jones now defired to be heard, which was at last, with difficulty, granted him. He then produced the evidence of Mr. Partridge, as to the finding it; but what was ftill more, Sufan depofed that Sophia herself had delivered the muff to her, and had ordered her to convey it into the chamber where Mr. Jones had found it. Whether a natural love of Juftice, or the extraordinary comeliness of Jones, had wrought on Sufan to make the discovery, I will not determine; but fuch were the effects of her evidence, that the magiftrate, throwing himself back in his chair, declared that the matter was now altogether as clear on the fide of the prifoner, as it had before been against him; with which the parfon concurred faying, the Lord forbid he should be inftrumental in committing an innocent perfon to durance. The Juftice then arofe, acquitted the prifoner, and broke up the court. Mr. Western now gave every one present a hearty curfe, and immediately ordering his horses, departed in pursuit of his daughter, without taking the leaft notice of his nephew Fitzpatrick, or returning any answer to his claim of kindred, notwithstanding all the obligations he had just received from that gentleman. In the violence, moreover, of his hurry, and of his paffion, he luckily forgot to demand the muff of Jones: I fay luckily, for he would have died on the fpot rather than have parted with it. Jones likewife, with his friend Partridge, fet forward the moment he had paid his reckoning, in queft of his lovely Sophia, whom he now resolved never more to abandon the purfuit of. Nor could he bring himself even to take leave of Mrs. Waters; of whom he detested the very thoughts, as fhe had been, tho' not defignedly, the occafion of his miffing the happiest interview with Sophia, to whom he now vowed eternal conftancy. As for Mrs. Waters, fhe took the opportunity of the coach which was going to Bath; for which place fhe fet out in company with the two Irish gentlemen, the landlady kindly lending her her clothes; in return for which fhe was contented only to receive about double their value, as a recompenfe for the loan. Upon the road she was perfectly reconciled to Mr. Fitzpatrick, who was a very handsome fellow, and indeed did all she could to confole him in the abfence of his wife. Thus ended the many odd adventures which Mr. Jones encountered at his inn at Upton, where they talk, to this day, of the beauty and lovely behaviour of the charming Sophia, by the name of the Somersetshire angel. CHAP. VIII. CHAP. VIII. In which the Hiftory goes backward. BEFORE EFORE we proceed any farther in our History, it may be proper to look a little back, in order to account for the extraordinary appearance of Sophia and her father at the inn at Upton. The Reader may be pleased to remember, that in the Ninth Chapter of the Seventh Book of our History, we left Sophia, after a long debate between love and duty, deciding the cause, as it ufually, I believe, happens, in favor of the former. This debate had arisen, as we have there shown from a vifit which her father had just before made her, in order to force her confent to a marriage with Blifil; and which he had understood to be fully implied in her acknowledgment, that fhe neither muft, nor could refuse any abfolute command of his. Now from this vifit the Squire retired to his evening potation, overjoyed at the fuccefs he had had with his daughter; and as he was, of a focial difpofition, and willing to have partakers in his happiness, the beer was ordered to flow very liberally into the kitchen; fo that before eleven in VOL. III. D the evening, there was not a fingle perfon fober in the house, except only Mrs. Western herself, and the charming Sophia. Early in the morning a messenger was dispatched to fummon Mr. Blifil: for though the Squire imagined that young gentleman had been much less acquainted than he really was, with the former averfion of his daughter; as he had not, however, yet received her confent he longed impatiently to communicate it to him, not doubting but that the intended bride herself would confirm it with her lips. As to the wedding, it had the evening before been fixed, by the male parties, to be celebrated on the next morning fave one. Breakfast was now set forth in the parlour, where Mr. Blifil attended, and where the Squire and his fifter likewife were affembled; and now Sophia was ordered to be called. O, Shakespeare, had I thy pen! O, Hogarth, had I thy pencil! then would I draw the picture of the poor ferving man, who, with pale countenance, ftaring eyes, chattering teeth, faultering tongue, and trembling limbs, E'en fuch a man, fo faint, so spiritless, So dull, fo dead in look, fo woe begone, |