< horse, and I shall carry the bruises I got in your ladyship's service to the grave; but what signified that, as long as I saved your ladyship? To be sure some people this morning would have 6 thought of getting a reward; but no such 6 thought ever entered into my head. I would 6 sooner starve than take any reward for betray. 'ing your ladyship.'

I promise you, sir,' says Sophia, if it be ever in my power to reward you, you shall not lose by your generosity.'

Alack-a-day, madam!' answered the landlord, ' in your ladyship's power! Heaven put it as much into your will. I am only afraid your honour will forget such a poor man as an innkeeper; but if your ladyship should not, I hope you will remember what reward I refused-refused! that is, I would have refused, and to be sure it may be called refusing; for I might have had it certainly; and to be sure you might have been ' in some houses;-but, for my part, I would not 'methinks for the world have your ladyship wrong me so much, as to imagine I ever thought of betraying you, even before I heard the good

news.'

What news, pray?' says Sophia, somewhat eagerly.

દે

"Hath not your ladyship heard it, then?' cries the landlord; nay, like enough: for I heard it only a few minutes ago; and if I had never heard it, may the devil fly away with me this instant, if I would have betrayed your honour; 'no, if I would, may I Here he subjoined several dreadful imprecations, which Sophia at last interrupted, and begged to know what he meant by the news. He was going to answer, when Mrs. Honour came running into the room,

all pale and breathless, and cried out, Madam, we are all undone, all ruined! they are come, they are come!' These words almost froze up the blood of Sophia; but Mrs. Fitzpatrick asked Honour, who were come? Who?' answered she, why the French; several hundred thousands of them are landed, and we shall be all 'murdered and ravished.'

6

As a miser, who hath, in some well-built city, a cottage, value twenty shillings, when at a distance he is alarmed with the news of a fire, turns pale and trembles at his loss; but when he finds the beautiful palaces only are burnt, and his own cottage remains safe, he comes instantly to himself, and smiles at his good fortunes: or as (for we dislike something in the former simile) the tender mother, when terrified with the apprehension that her darling boy is drowned, is struck senseless and almost dead with consternation; but when she is told that little master is safe, and the Victory only, with twelve hundred brave men, gone to the bottom, life and sense again return, maternal fondness enjoys the sudden relief from all its fears, and the general benevolence, which at another time would have deeply felt the dreadful catastrophe, lies fast asleep in her mind.

So Sophia, than whom none was more capable of tenderly feeling the general calamity of her country, found such immediate satisfaction from the relief of those terrors she had of being over taken by her father, that the arrival of the French scarce made any impression on her. She gently chid her maid for the fright into which she had thrown her; and said, she was glad it was no worse; for that she had feared somebody else ' was come.'

6

'Ay, ay,' quoth the landlord, smiling, her

ladyship knows better things; she knows the French are our very best friends, and come over hither only for our good. They are the people who are to make Old England flourish again. I warrant her honour thought the duke was coming; and that was enough to put her into a " fright. I was going to tell your ladyship the < news. His honour's majesty, Heaven bless him, hath given the duke the slip, and is marching ar 'fast as he can to London, and ten thousand 'French are landed to join him on the road.'

Sophia was not greatly pleased with this news, nor with the gentleman who related it; but as she still imagined, he knew her (for she could not pos sibly have any suspicion of the real truth), she durst not show any dislike. And now the landlord, having removed the cloth from the table, withdrew; but at his departure frequently repeated his hopes of being remembered hereafter.

The mind of Sophia was not at all easy under the supposition of being known at this house; for she still applied to herself many things which the landlord had addressed to Jenny Cameron; she therefore ordered her maid to pump out of him by what means he had become acquainted with her person, and who had offered him the reward for betraying her; she likewise ordered the horses to be in readiness by four in the morning, at which hour Mrs. Fitzpatrick promised to bear her company; and then composing herself as well as she could, she desired that lady to continue her story.

CHAP. VII.

In which Mrs. Fitzpatrick concludes her history. WHILE Mrs. Honour, in pursuance of the commands of her mistress, ordered a bowl of punch, and invited my landlord and landlady to partake of it, Mrs. Fitzpatrick thus went on with her relation :

Most of the officers, who were quartered at a town in our neighbourhood, were of my husband's acquaintance. Among these was a lieutenant, a very pretty sort of a man, and who was married to a woman so agreeable both in her < temper and conversation, that from our first knowing each other, which was soon after my lying-in, we were almost inseparable companions; for I had the good fortune to make myself equally agreeable to her.

The lieutenant, who was neither a sot nor a sportsman, was frequently of our parties; indeed he was very little with my husband, and no more than good-breeding constrained him to < be, as he lived almost constantly at our house. My husband often expressed much dissatisfaction at the lieutenant's preferring my company to his he was very angry with me on that acC count, and gave me many a hearty curse for drawing away his companions; saying, "I "ought to be d-ned for having spoiled one of the "prettiest fellows in the world, by making a 66 milksop of him.”

:

You will be mistaken, my dear Sophia, if you imagine that the anger of my husband arose

'from my depriving him of a companion; for the lieutenant was not a person with whose society a 'fool could be pleased; and if I should admit the possibility of this, so little right had my hus. band to place the loss of his companion to me, that I am convinced it was my conversation alone which induced him ever to come to the 'house. No, child, it was envy, the worst and most rancorous kind of envy, the envy of su'periority of understanding. The wretch could 'not bear to see my conversation preferred to his, by a man of whom he could not entertain the least jealousy. O, my dear Sophy, you are a ( woman of sense; if you marry a man, as is 'most probable you will, of less capacity than 'yourself, make frequent trials of his temper 'before marriage, and see whether he can bear to submit to such a superiority.-Promise me, ( Sophy, you will take this advice; for you will hereafter find its importance.' It is very likely I shall never marry at all,' answered Sophia; I think, at least, I shall never marry a man in whose understanding I see any defects before marriage; and I promise you I would rather 'give up my own, than see any such afterwards,'

6

Give up your understanding!" replied Mrs. Fitzpatrick; oh fie, child, I will not believe so meanly of you. Every thing else I might myself be brought to give up; but never this. Nature would not have allotted this superiority to the wife in so many instances, if she had in'tended we should all of us have surrendered it to 'the husband. This, indeed, men of sense never expect of us; of which the lieutenant I have just mentioned was one notable example; for though he had a very good understanding, he always