of some of our sex of a virtue so exalted, that it is proof against every temptation, yet the generality, I am afraid, are too much in the power of a man to whom they have owned an affection. What is called being upon a good footing, is, perhaps, being upon a very dangerous one; and a woman who hath given her consent to marry, can hardly be said to be safe till she is married. "And now, sir, I hasten to the period of my ruin. We had a wedding in our family; my musical sister was married to a young fellow as musical as herself. Such a match, you may be sure, amongst other festivities, must have a ball. Oh! Mr Booth, shall modesty forbid me to remark to you what past on that occasion? But why do I mention modesty, who have no pretension to it? Every thing was said and practised on that occasion, as if the purpose had been to inflame the mind of every woman present. That effect, I freely own to you, it had with me. Music, dancing, wine, and the most luscious conversation, in which my poor dear father innocently joined, raised ideas in me of which I shall for ever repent; and I wished (why should I deny it?) that it had been my wedding, instead of my sister's.

"The villain Hebbers danced with me that night, and he lost no opportunity of improving the occasion. In short, the dreadful evening came. My father, though it was a very unusual thing with him, grew intoxicated with liquor; most of the men were in the same condition; nay, I myself drank more than I was accustomed to, enough to inflame, though not to disorder. I lost my former bed-fellow, my sister, and, you may, I think, guess the rest,-the villain found means to steal to my chamber, and I was undone.

"Two months I passed in this detested commerce, buying, even then, my guilty, half-tasted pleasures at too dear a rate, with continual horror and apprehension. But what have I paid since, what do I pay now, Mr Booth? O may my fate be a warning to every woman to keep her innocence, to resist every temptation, since she is certain to repent of the foolish bargain. May it be a warning to her to deal with mankind with care and caution; to shun the least approaches of dishonour, and never to confide too much in the honesty of a man, nor in her own strength, where she has so much at stake; let her remember she walks on a precipice, and the bottomless pit is to receive her, if she slips; nay, if she makes but one false step.

"I ask your pardon, Mr Booth, I might have spared these exhortations, since no woman hears me; but you will not wonder at seeing me affected on this occasion."

Booth declared, he was much more surprised at her being able so well to preserve her temper in recounting her story.

"O sir," answered she, "I am at length re

VOL. I.

conciled to my fate; and I can now die with pleasure, since I die revenged. I am not one of those mean wretches, who can sit down and lament their misfortunes. If I ever shed tears, they are the tears of indignation; but I will proceed.

"It was my fate now to solicit marriage, and I failed not to do it in the most earnest manner. He answered me at first with procrastinations, declaring, from time to time, he would mention it to my father, and still excusing himself for not doing it. At last he thought on an expedient to obtain a longer reprieve. This was by pretending that he should, in a very few weeks, be preferred to the command of a troop; and then, he said, he could, with some confidence, propose the match.

"In this delay I was persuaded to acquiesce ; and was indeed pretty easy; for I had not yet the least mistrust of his honour: but what words can paint my sensations! when one morning he came into my room, with all the marks of dejection in his countenance, and throwing an open letter on the table, said, There is news, madam, in that letter, which I am unable to tell you; nor can it give you more concern than it hath given me.'

"This letter was from his captain, to acquaint him, that the rout, as they call it, was arrived, and that they were to march within two days. And this, I am since convinced, was what he expected, instead of the preferment which had been made the pretence of delaying our marriage.

"The shock which I felt at reading this was inexpressible, occasioned indeed principally by the departure of a villain whom I loved. However, I soon acquired sufficient presence of mind to remember the main point; and I now insisted peremptorily on his making me immediately his wife, whatever might be the consequence.

"He seemed thunderstruck at this proposal, being, I suppose, destitute of any excuse; but I was too impatient to wait for an answer, and cried out with much eagerness, Sure you cannot hesitate a moment upon this matter?'Hesitate! madam!' replied he; what you

ask is impossible. Is this a time for me to mention a thing of this kind to your father?'-My eyes were now opened all at once; I fell into a rage little short of madness. Tell me not,' I cried,' of impossibilities, nor times, nor of my father; my honour, my reputation, my all are at stake. I will have no excuse, no delay-make me your wife this instant, or I will proclaim you over the face of the whole earth for the greatest of villains.'-He answered, with a kind of sneer,

What will you proclaim, madam? whose honour will you injure?'-My tongue faultered when I offered to reply, and I fell into a violent agony, which ended in a fit; nor do I remember any thing more that past, till I found myself in the arms of my poor affrighted father. 2 K

"O, Mr Booth! what was then my situation! I tremble even now from the reflection. I must stop a moment. I can go no farther."-Booth attempted all in his power to sooth her, and she soon recovered her powers, and proceeded in her story.

CHAP. IX.

In which Miss Matthews concludes her relation.

"BEFORE I had recovered my senses, I had sufficiently betrayed myself to the best of men, who, instead of upbraiding me, or exerting any anger, endeavoured to comfort me all he could, with assurances that all should yet be well. This goodness of his affected me with inexpressible sensations; I prostrated myself before him, embraced and kissed his knees, and almost dissolved in tears, and a degree of tenderness hardly to be conceived. But I am running into too minute descriptions.

"Hebbers seeing me in a fit, had left me, and sent one of the servants to take care of me. He then ran away like a thief from the house, with out taking his leave of my father, or once thanking him for all his civilities. He did not stop at his quarters, but made directly for London, apprehensive, I believe, either of my father or brother's resentment; for I am convinced he is a coward. Indeed his fear of my brother was utterly groundless; for I believe he would rather have thanked any man who had destroyed me; and I am sure I am not in the least behind hand with him in good wishes.

"All his inveteracy to me had, however, no effect on my father, at least at that time; for though the good man took sufficient occasions to reprimand me for my past offence, he could not be brought to abandon me. A treaty of marriage was now set on foot, in which my father himself offered me to Hebbers, with a fortune superior to that which had been given with my sister; nor could all my brother's remonstrances against it, as an act of the highest injustice, avail.

"Hebbers entered into the treaty, though not with much warmth. He had even the assurance to make additional demands on my father, which being complied with, every thing was concluded, and the villain once more received into the house. He soon found means to obtain my forgiveness of his former behaviour; indeed he convinced me, so foolishly blind is female love, that he had never been to blame.

"When every thing was ready for our nuptials, and the day of the ceremony was to be appointed, in the midst of my happiness, I received a letter from an unknown hand, acquainting me (guess, Mr Booth, how I was shocked at receiving it) that Mr Hebbers was already married to a woman in a distant part of the king dom.

"I will not tire you with all that passed at our next interview. I communicated the letter to Hebbers, who, after some little hesitation, owned the fact; and not only owned it, but had the address to improve it to his own advantage, to make it the means of satisfying me concerning all his former delays, which, to say the truth, I was not so much displeased at imputing to any degree of villainy, as I should have been to impute it to the want of a sufficient warmth of affection; and though the disappointment of all my hopes, at the very instant of their expected fruition, threw me into the most violent disorders, yet when I came a little to myself, he had no great difficulty to persuade me that in every instance, with regard to me, Hebbers had acted from no other motive than from the most ardent and ungovernable love. And there is, I believe, no crime which a woman will not forgive, when she can derive it from that fountain. In short, I forgave him all, and am willing to persuade myself I am not weaker than the rest of my sex. Indeed, Mr Booth, he hath a bewitching tongue, and is master of an address that no woman could resist. I do assure you the charms of his person are his least perfection, at least in my eye."

Here Booth smiled, but happily without her perceiving it.

"A fresh difficulty," she continued, "now arose. This was to excuse the delay of the ceremony to my father, who every day very earnestly urged it. This made me so very uneasy, that I at last listened to a proposal, which if any one, in the days of my innocence, or even a few days before, had assured me I could have submitted to have thought of, I should have treated the supposition with the highest contempt and indignation; nay, I scarce reflect on it now with more horror than astonishment. In short, I agreed to run away with him; to leave my father, my reputation, every thing which was or ought to have been dear to me, and to live with this villain as a mistress, since I could not be his wife.

"Was not this an obligation of the highest and tenderest kind, and had I not reason to expect every return in the man's power on whom I had conferred it?

"I will make short of the remainder of my story; for what is there of a woman worth relating, after what I have told you?

"Above a year I lived with this man in an obscure court in London, during which time I had a child by him, whom Heaven, I thank it, hath been pleased to take to itself.

"During many months he behaved to me with all the apparent tenderness, and even fondness, imaginable; but alas! how poor was my enjoyment of this, compared to what it would have been in another situation? when he was present, life was barely tolerable; but when he was absent, nothing could equal the misery I endured. I passed my hours almost entirely alone;

for no company, but what I despised, would consort with me. Abroad I scarce ever went, lest I should meet any of my former acquaintance; for their sight would have plunged a thousand daggers in my soul. My only diversion was going very seldom to a play, where I hid myself in the gallery, with a daughter of the woman of the house: a girl indeed of good sense, and many good qualities; but how much beneath me was it to be the companion of a creature so low! O Heavens! when I have seen my equals glittering in a side-box, how have the thoughts of my lost honour torn my soul!" "Pardon me, dear madam," cries Booth, "for interrupting you; but I am under the utmost anxiety to know what became of your poor father, for whom I have so great a respect, and who, I am convinced, must so bitterly feel your

loss."

"O Mr Booth," answered she, "he was scarce ever out of my thoughts. His dear image still obtruded itself in my mind, and I believe would have broken my heart, had I not taken a very preposterous way to ease myself. I am indeed almost ashamed to tell you; but necessity put it in my head. You will think the matter too trifling to have been remembered, and so it surely was; nor should I have remembered it on any other occasion. You must know then, sir, that my brother was always my inveterate enemy, and altogether as fond of my sister. He once prevailed with my father to let him take my sister with him in the chariot, and by that means I was disappointed of going to a ball which I had set my heart on. The disappointment, I assure you, was great at the time; but I had long since forgotten it. I must have been a very bad woman, if I had not; for it was the only thing in which I can remember that my father ever disobliged me. However, I now revived this in my mind, which I artificially worked up into so high an injury, that I assure you it afforded me no little comfort. When any tender idea intruded into my bosom, I immediate ly raised this phantom of an injury in my imagination, and it considerably lessened the fury of that sorrow which I should have otherwise felt for the loss of so good a father, who died within a few months of my departure from him. "And now, sir, to draw to a conclusion. One night as I was in the gallery at Drury-Lane play-house, I saw below me, in a side-box,(she was once below me in every place,) that widow whom I mentioned to you before. I had scarce cast my eyes on this woman, before I was so shocked with the sight, that it almost deprived me of my senses; for the villain Hebbers came presently in, and seated himself behind her.

"He had been almost a month from me, and I believed him to be at his quarters in Yorkshire. Guess what were my sensations, when I beheld him sitting by that base woman, and talk

ing to her with the utmost familiarity. I could not long endure this sight; and having acquainted my companion that I was taken suddenly ill, I forced her to go home with me at the end of the second act.

“After a restless and sleepless night, when I rose the next morning I had the comfort to receive a visit from the woman of the house, who, after a very short introduction, asked me when I had heard from the captain, and when I expected to see him? I had not strength or spirits to make her any answer; and she proceeded thus: "Indeed I did not think the captain would have used me so. My husband was an officer of the army, as well as himself; and if a body is a little low in the world, I am sure that is no reason for folks to trample on a body. I defy the world to say as I ever was guilty of an ill thing.'6 For Heaven's sake, madam,' says I, 'what do you mean!- Mean!' cries she, I am sure if I had not thought you had been Captain Hebber's lady, his lawful lady too, you should never have set footing in my house. I would have Captain Hebbers know, that though I am reduced to let lodgings, I never have entertained any but persons of character.-In this manner, sir, she ran on, saying many shocking things, not worth repeating; till my anger at last got the better of my patience, as well as my sorrow, and I pushed her out of the room.

She had not been long gone before her daugh ter came to me, and, after many expressions of tenderness and pity, acquainted me, that her mother had just found out, by means of the captain's servant, that the captain was married to another lady; which, if you did not know before, madam," said she, I am sorry to be the messenger of such ill news.'

"Think, Mr Booth, what I must have endured, to see myself humbled before such a creature as this, the daughter of a woman who lets lodgings! However, having recollected myself a little, I thought it would be in vain to deny any thing; so, knowing this to be one of the bestnatured and most sensible girls in the world, I resolved to tell her my whole story, and, for the future, to make her my confidante. I answered her, therefore, with a good deal of assurance, that she need not regret telling me this piece of ill news, for I had known it before I came to her house.

""Pardon me, madam,' replied the girl, you cannot possibly have known it so long; for he hath not been married above a week: last night was the first time of his appearing in public with his wife at the play. Indeed I knew very well the cause of your uneasiness there, but would not mention'

"His wife at the play!' answered I eagerly: what wife! whom do you mean?'

"I mean the widow Carey, madam,' replied she, to whom the captain was married a few days since. His servant was here last night to

pay for your lodging, and he told it my mother.'

"I know not what answer I made, or whether I made any; I presently fell dead on the floor, and it was with great difficulty I was brought back to life by the poor girl: for neither the mother, nor the maid of the house, would lend me any assistance, both seeming to regard me rather as a monster than a woman.

"Scarce had I recovered the use of my senses, when I received a letter from the villain, declaring he had not assurance to see my face, and very kindly advising me to endeavour to reconcile myself to my family; concluding with an offer, in case I did not succeed, to allow me twenty pounds a-year to support me in some remote part of the kingdom.

"I need not mention my indignation at these proposals. In the highest agony of rage, I went in a chair to the detested house, where I easily got access to the wretch I had devoted to destruction, whom I no sooner found within my reach, than I plunged a drawn penknife, which I had prepared in my pocket for the purpose, into his accursed heart. For this fact I was immediately seized, and soon after committed hither; and for this fact I am ready to die, and shall, with pleasure, receive the sentence of the law.

"Thus, sir," said she, “ I have related to you my unhappy story; and if I have tired your patience, by dwelling too long on those parts which affected me the most, I ask your pardon."

Booth made a proper speech on this occasion, and having expressed much concern at her present situation, concluded, that he hoped her sentence would be milder than she seemed to expect.

pro

Her reply to this was full of so much bitterness and indignation, that we do not think per to record the speech at length; in which, having vented her passion, she all at once put on a serene countenance, and, with an air of great complacency, said, "Well, Mr Booth, I think I have now a right to satisfy my curiosity, at the expence of your breath. I may say it is not altogether a vain curiosity; for perhaps I have had inclination enough to interest myself in whatever concerns you.-But no matter for that-those days," added she, with a sigh, "are now over."

Booth, who was extremely good-natured and well bred, told her that she should not command him twice whatever was in his power; and then, after the usual apology, was going to begin his history, when the keeper arrived, and acquainted the lady that dinner was ready; at the same time saying, "I suppose, madam, as the gentleman is an acquaintance of yours, he must dine with us too.

Miss Matthews told the keeper that she had only one word to mention in private to the gentleman, and that then they would both attend him. She then pulled her purse from her pocket, in which were upwards of twenty gui

neas, being the remainder of the money for which she had sold a gold repeating watch, her father's present, with some other trinkets, and desired Mr Booth to take what he should have occasion for;-saying, "You know, I believe, dear Will, I never valued money; and now I am sure I shall have very little use for it." Booth, with much difficulty, accepted of two guineas; and then they both together attended the keeper.

CHAP. X.

Table talk, consisting of a facetious discourse that passed in the prison.

THERE were assembled at the table the governor of these (not improperly called infernal) regions, the lieutenant governor, vulgarly named the first turnkey, Miss Matthews, Mr Booth, Mr Robinson the gambler, several other prisoners of both sexes, and one Murphy an attorney.

The governor took the first opportunity to bring the affair of Miss Matthews upon the carpet; and then turning to Murphy, he said, "It is very lucky this gentleman happens to be present; I do assure you, madam, your cause cannot be in abler hands. He is, I believe, the best man in England at a defence: I have known him often succeed against the most positive evidence."

"Fy, sir," answered Murphy, "you know I hate all this; but if the lady will trust me with her cause, I will do the best in my power. Come, madam, do not be discouraged; a bit of manslaughter and cold iron, I hope, will be the worst: or perhaps we may come off better, with a slice of chance-medley, or se defendendo."

"I am very ignorant of the law, sir," cries the lady.

"Yes, madam," answered Murphy, "it cannot be expected you should understand it. There the whole ;-nor is it necessary we should. are very few of us who profess it, that understand There is a great deal of rubbish of little use, about indictments and abatements, and bars, and ejectments, and trovers, and such stuff, with which people cram their heads to little purpose. The chapter of evidence is the main business; that is the sheet-anchor, that is the rudder which brings the vessel safe in portum. Evidence is indeed the whole, the summa totidis, for de non apparentibus et non insistentibus eandem est ratio."

"If you address yourself to me, sir," said the lady, "you are much too learned, I assure you, for my understanding."

"Tace, madam," answered Murphy, "is Latin for a candle: I commend your prudence. I shall know the particulars of your case when we are alone."

"I hope the lady," said Robinson, “hath no suspicion of any person here. I hope we are all persons of honour at this table."

"Dn my eyes!" answered a well-dressed woman, "I can answer for myself and the other ladies; though I never saw the lady in my life, she need not be shy of us, d-n my eyes! I scorn to rap against any lady."

"D-n me, madam!" cried another female, "I honour what you have done. I once put a knife into a cull myself;-so my service to you, madam; and I wish you may come off with se diffidendo, with all my heart."

"I beg, good woman," said Miss Matthews, you would talk on some other subject, and give yourself no concern about my affairs." "You see, ladies," cried Murphy, "the gentlewoman doth not care to talk on this matter before company; so pray do not press her." "Nay, I value the lady's acquaintance no more than she values mine," cries the first woman who spoke. "I have kept as good company as the lady, I believe, every day in the week. Good woman! I do not use to be so treated-If the lady says such another word to me, d-n me, I will darken her daylights. Marry come up, good woman!-the lady's a whore as well as myself; and though I am sent hither to mill doll, d-n my eyes, I have money enough to buy it off as well as the lady herself." Action might perhaps soon have ensued this speech, had not the keeper interposed his authority, and put an end to any further dispute. Soon after which, the company broke up; and none but himself, Mr Murphy, Captain Booth, and Miss Matthews, remained together.

Miss Matthews then, at the entreaty of the keeper, began to open her case to Mr Murphy, whom she admitted to be her solicitor, though she still declared she was indifferent as to the

event of the trial.

Mr Murphy having heard all the particulars with which the reader is already acquainted (as far as related to the murder,) shook his head, and said, "There is but one circumstance, madam, which I wish was out of the case; and that we must put out of it: I mean the carrying the penknife drawn into the room with you; for that seems to imply malice prepensive, as we call it in the law: this circumstance, therefore, must not appear against you; and if the servant who was in the room observed this, he must be bought off at all hazards. All here, you say, are friends; therefore I tell you openly, you must furnish me with money sufficient for this purpose. Malice is all we have to guard against."

I would not presume, sir," cries Booth, "to inform you in the law; but I have heard, in case of stabbing, a man may be indicted upon the statute; and it is capital, though no malice appears."

"You say true, sir," answered Murphy, "a

man may be indicted contra formam statutis ; and that method, I allow you, requires no malice. I presume you are a lawyer, sir?" "No, indeed, sir," answered Booth, "I know nothing of the law.”

"Then, sir, I will tell you-If a man be indicted contra formam statutis, as we say, no malice is necessary; because the form of the statute makes malice; and then what we have to guard against is having struck the first blow.-Pox on't, it is unlucky this was done in a room-If it had been in the street, we could have had five or six witnesses to have proved the first blow, cheaper than, I am afraid, we shall get this one; for when a man knows, from the unhappy circumstances of the case, that you can procure no other witness but himself, he is always dear. It is so in all other ways of business.-I am very implicit, you see; but we are all among friends. The safest way is to furnish me with money enough to offer him a good round sum at once; and, I think, (it is for your good I speak,) fifty pounds is the least that can be offered him. I do assure you, I would offer him no less, was it my own case.'

"And do you think, sir," said she, "that I would save my life at the expence of hiring another to perjure himself?" "for

"Ay, surely do I," cries Murphy; where is the fault, admitting there is some fault in perjury, as you call it? and to be sure, it is such a matter, as every man would rather wish to avoid than not; and yet, as it may be managed, there is not so much as some people are apt to imagine in it; for he need not kiss the book, and then pray where is the perjury? But if the crier is sharper than ordinary, what is it he kisses? is it any thing but a bit of calvesskin? I am sure a man must be a very bad Christian himself, who would not do so much as that to save the life of any Christian whatever, much more of so pretty a lady.—Indeed, madam, if we can make out but a tolerable case, so much beauty will go a great way with the judge and the jury too.'

The latter part of this speech, notwithstanding the mouth it came from, caused Miss Matthews to suppress much of the indignation which began to arise at the former, and she answered with a smile, "Sir, you are a great casuist in these matters; but we need argue no longer concerning them; for if fifty pounds would save my life, I assure you I could not command that sum. The little money I have in my pocket is all I can call my own; and, I apprehend, in the situation I am in, I shall have very little of that to spare."

66

Come, come, madam," cries Murphy, "life is sweet, let me tell you, and never sweeter than