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thing upon earth I And will not my

py. Me! d-n me if there is a would not do to fee the happy.' dear papa allow me to have the leaft knowledge of what will make me fo? If it be true that happiness confifts in opinion, what must be my condition, when I fhall think myself the most miferable of all the wretches 6 upon earth? Better think yourself so,' faid he, than know it, by being married to a poor baftardly vagabond.' If it will content you, Sir,' said Sophia, I will give you the moft folemn promise never to marry him, nor any other, while my papa' lives, without his confent. Let me dedicate my whole life to your fervice; let me be again your poor Sophy, and my whole bufinefs and pleafure be, as it hath been, to please and divert you.' 'Lookee, Sophy,' answered the squire, I am not to be choufed in this manner. Your aunt

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• Western would then have reafon to think me the fool fhe doth. No, no, Sophy, I'd have you to know I have a got more wisdom, and know more of the world than to take the word of a woman in a matter where a man is concerned. How, Sir, have I deferved this want of confidence?' faid fhe; have I ever broke a finglepromife to you? or have I ever been found guilty of a falfehood from my cradle?' Lookee, Sophy,' cries he, that's neither here nor there. I am determined upon this match, and have him you fhall, d-n me, if that D-n me if fhat unt, though doft hang thyfelf the next morning.' At repeating which words he clenched his fift, knit his brows, bit his lips, and thun-dered fo loud, that the poor afflicted, terrified Sophia funk trembling into her chair, and had not a flood of tears come immediately to her relief, perhaps worse had followed.

• not.

Western beheld the deplorable condition of his daugh ter with no more contrition or remorse than the turnkey ́ of Newgate feels at viewing the agonies, of a tender wife, when taking her laft farewell of her condemned husband: or rather he looked down on her with the fame emotions which arife in an honeft fair tradefman, who fees his debtor dragged to prifon for 10l. which, thought a juft debt, the wretch is wickedly unable to pay. MÕr,s to hit the cafe ftill more nearly, he felt the fame com

punction with a bawd, when fome poor innocent, whom fhe hath infnared into her hands, falis into fits at the first propofal of what is called feeing company. Indeed this

reiemblance would be exact, was it not that the bawd hath an intereft in what he doth, and the father, though perhaps he may blindly think otherwise, can in reality have none in urging his daughter to almost an equat prostitution.

In this condition he left his poor Sophia, and departing with a very vulgar obfervation on the effect of tears, he locked the room, and returned to the parfon, who faid every thing he durft in behalf of the young lady, which though, perhaps, it was not quite fo much as his duty required, yet was it fufficient to throw the fquire into a violent rage, and into many indecent reflections on the whole body of the clergy, which we have too great an honour for that facred function to commit to paper.

CHA P. III.

What happened to Sophia during her confinement.

T HE landlady of the houfe where the fquire lodged had begun very early to entertain a ftrange opinion of her guests. However, as he was informed that the fquire was a man of a vaft fortune, and as he had taken care to exact a very extraordinary price for her rooms, fhe did not think proper to give any offence: for though he was not without fome concern for the confinenent of paor Sophia, of whofe great fweetness of temper and affability, the maid of the houfe had made fo favourable a report, which was confirmed by all the fquire's fervants; yet fhe had much more concern for her own intereft, than to provoke one, whom, as the faid, fhe perceived to be a very haftish kind of a gentleman.

Though Sophia eat but little, yet fhe was regularly ferved with her meals. Indeed, I believe, if he had liked any one rarity, that the fquire, however angry, would have fpared neither pains nor coft to have procused it for her; fince, however ftrange it may appear to fome of my readers, he really doated on his daughter,

and to give her any kind of pleasure was the highest fatisfaction of his life.

The dinner hour being arrived, Black George carried her up a pullet, the fquire himself (for he had fworn not to part with the key) attending the door. As George depofited the difh, fome compliments paffed between him and Sophia, (for he had not seen her fince fhe left the country, and he treated every fervant with more refpect than fome perfons fhew to those who are in a very flight degree their inferiors.) Sophia would have had him take the pullet back, faying, She could not eat; but George begged her to try, and particularly recommended to her the eggs, of which he said it was full.

All this time the fquire was waiting at the door; but George was a grear favourite with his mafter, as he was employed in concerns of the highest nature, namely, about the game, and was accustomed to take many liberties. He had officioufly carried up the dinner, being, as he faid, very defirous to fee his young lady; he made therefore no fcruple of keeping his matter ftanding above ten minutes, while civilities were paffing between him and Sophia; for which he received only a good-humour ed rebuke at the door when he returned.

The eggs of pullets, partridges, pheasants, &c. were, as George well knew, the moft favourite dainties of So phia. It was therefore no wonder that he, who was a very good-natured fellow, fhould take care to fupply her with this kind of delicacy, at a time when all the fervants in the house were afraid fhe would be ftarved; for fhe had fcarce swallowed a fingle morfel in the last forty hours.

Though vexation hath not the fame effect on all per fons, as it usually hath on a widow, whofe appetite it often renders fharper than it can be rendered by the air on Banfted Downs, or Salisbury Plain; yet the fublimest grief, notwithstanding what fome people may fay to the contrary, will eat at laft. And Sophia herself, after some little confideration, began to diffect the fowl, which the found to be as full of eggs as George had reported.

But if he was pleafed with thefe, it contained fome. thing which would have delighted the Royal Society much more; for if a fowl with three legs be fo invas

luable a curiofity, when, perhaps, time hath produced a thoufand fuch, at what price fhall we esteem a bird which fo totally contradicts all the laws of animal economy, as to contain a letter in its belly? Ovid tells us of a flower into which Hyacinthus was metamorphofed, that bears letters on its leaves, which Virgil recommended as a miracle to the Royal Society of his day, but no age nor nation hath ever recorded a bird with a letter in its maw.

But though a miracle of this kind might have engaged all the Academies des Sciences in Europe, and perhaps in a fruitless, inquiry; yet the reader, by barely recollecting the laft dialogue which paffed between Meffieurs Jones and Partridge, will be very easily fatisfied from whence this letter came, and how it found its paffage into the fowl.

Sophia, notwithstanding her long faft, and notwithstanding her favourite dish was there before her, no fooner faw the letter, than fhe immediately fnatched it up, tore it open,, and read as follows:

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MADAM,

W

AS I not fenfible to whom I have the honour of writing, I fhould endeavour, however difficult, to paint the horrors of my mind, at the account brought me by Mrs Honour: but as tendernefs alone can have any true idea of the pangs which tenderness is capable of feeling; fo can this moft amiable quality, which my Sophia poffeffes in the moft eminent degree, fufficiently inform her what her Jones muft have fuffered on this melancholy occafion. Is there a circumftance in the world which can heighten my agonies, when I hear of any misfortune which hath befallen you? Surely there is one only, and with that I am accurfed: it is, my Sophia, the dreadful confideration that I am myfelf the • wretched caufe. Perhaps I here do myself too much honour, but none will envy me an honour which cofts me fo extremely dear. Pardon me this prefumption, and pardon me a greater ftill, if I afk you whether my advice, my affiftance, my prefence, my abfence, my death, or my tortures can bring you any relief? Can the most perfect admiration, the moft watchful obfer16 vance, the most ardent love, the moft melting tenders

nefs, the most refigned fubmiffion to your will, make you amends for what you are to facrifice to my happinefs? if they can, fly, my lovely angel, to thofe arms which are ever open to receive and protect you; and to which, whether you bring yourfelf alone, or the riches of the world with you, is, in my opinion, an al'ternative not worth regarding. If, on the contrary, 'wisdom fhall predominate, and, on the moft mature reflection, inform you, that the facrifice is too great, and if there be no way left to reconcile you to your father, and restore the peace of your dear mind, but by abandoning me, I conjure you drive me for ever from your thoughts, exert your refolution, and let no compaffion for my fufferings bear the least weight in that tender bofom. Believe me, Madam, I fo fincerely love you better than myself, that my great and principal end is your happinefs. My firft with (why would not Fortune indulge me in it?) was, and pardon me if 'I fay ftill is, to fee you every moment the happiest of women; and my fecond with is, to hear you are fo; but no mifery on earth can equal mine, while I think you owe an uneafy moment to him who is,

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• Madam,

In every fenfe, and to every purpose,

Your devoted
THOMAS JONES."

What Sophia faid, or did, or thought upon this letter, how often the read it, or whether more than once, shall all be left to our reader's imagination. The anfwer to it he may perhaps fee hereafter, but not at prefent; for this reafon, among others, that he did not now write any, and that for feveral good caufes, one of which was this, fhe had no paper, pen, nor ink.

In the evening, while Sophia was meditating on the letter fhe had received, or on fomething else, a violent

noife from below difturbed her meditation. This noife was no other than a round bout at altercation between

two perfons. One of the combatants, by his voice, fhe immediately diftinguifhed to be her father; but he did not fo foon discover the fhriller pipes to belong to the organ of her aunt Weitern, who was juft arrived in

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