become an angel, he cry'd, What fay you, Madam; fhall we take a hackney-coach, and all of us together pay a vifit to your friend? I promife you it is not the firft vifit I have made in a prifon.'

Every reader, I believe, will be able to answer for the worthy woman; but they must have a great deal of good-nature, and be well acquainted with friendship, who can feel what fhe felt on this occafion. Few, I hope, are capable of feeling what now paft in the mind of Blifil; but thofe who are, will acknowledge, that it was impoffible for him to raise any objection to this vifit. Fortune, however, or the gentleman lately mentioned above, ftood his friend, and prevented his undergoing fo great a fhock; for at the very inftant when the coach was fent for, Partridge arrived, and having called Mrs. Miller from the company, acquainted her with the dreadful accident lately come to light; and hearing Mr. Allworthy's intention, begged her to find fome means of stopping him; For,' fays he, the matter muft at all hazards be kept a fecret from him; and if he should now go, he will find Mr. Jones and his mother, who arrived juft as I left him, lamenting over one another the horrid crime they have ignorantly com'mitted.'

The poor woman, who was almoft deprived of her fenfes at this dreadful news, was never lefs capable of invention than at prefent. However, as women are much readier at this than men, fhe bethought herfelf of an excufe, and returning to Allworthy, faid, I am fure, Sir, you will be furprized at hearing any objection from me to the kind propofal you just now made; and yet I am afraid of the confequence of it, if carried immediately into execution. You muft imagine, Sir, that all the calamities which have lately befallen this poor young fellow, must have thrown him into the lowest dejection of fpirits: and now, Sir, fhould we all on a fudden fling him into fuch a violent fit of joy, as I know your prefence will occafion, it may, I am afraid, produce 'fome fatal mischief, efpecially as his fervant, who is without, tells me he is very far from being well.'

pray

Is his fervant without?' cries Allworthy; call him hither. I will ask him fome questions concerning his mafter.'

Partridge was at firft afraid to appear before Mr. Allworthy; ut was at length perfuaded, after Mrs. Miller, who had often heard his whole story from his own mouth, had promised to introduce him.

Allworthy recollected Partridge the moment he came into the room, though many years had paffed fince he had feen him. Mrs. Miller therefore might have fpared here a formal oration, in which indeed fhe was fomething prolix: for the reader, I believe, may have obferved already that the good woman, among other things, had a tongue always ready for the fervice of her friends.

And are you,' faid Allworthy to Partridge, the fervant of Mr. Jones?' I can't fay, Sir,' anfwered he, that I am regularly a fervant, but I live with him, an't pleafe your honour, at prefent. Non fum qualis eram, as your honour very well knows.'

Mr. Allworthy then afked him many queftions concerning Jones, as to his health, and other matters; to all which Partridge anfwered, without having the leaft regard to what was, but confidered only what he would have things appear; for a ftrict adherence to truth was not among the articles of this honest fellow's morality, or his religion.

During this dialogue Mr. Nightingale took his leave, and presently after Mrs. Miller left the room, when Allworthy likewife difpatched Blifil; for he imagined that Partridge, when alone with him, would be more explicit than before company. They were no fooner left in private together, than Allworthy began as in the following chapter.

CHAP. VI.

In which the hiftory is farther continued.
URE, friend,' faid the good man,

SUR

you are

the strangest of all human beings. Not only to have fuffered as you have formerly, for obftinately perfifting in a falfhood; but to perfift in it thus to

the laft, and to pass thus upon the world for the fervant of your own fon? What intereft can you have in all this? What can be your motive?

I fee Sir,' faid Partridge, falling down upon his knees, ་ that your honour is prepoffeffed against me, and refolved not to believe any thing I fay, and therefore what fignifies my proteftations? but yet there is one above who knows that I am not the father of this young man.' How!' faid Allworthy, will you yet deny what you was formerly convicted of upon fuch unanfwerable, fuch manifeft evidence? Nay, what a "confirmation is your being now found with this very man, of all which twenty years ago appeared againit you. I thought you had left the country; nay, I thought you had long fince been dead.

-In what

manner did you know any thing of this young man? Where did you meet with him, unless you had kept fome correfpondence together? Do not deny this; for I promise you it will greatly raife your fon in my opinion, to find that he hath fuch a fenfe of filial duty, as privately to fupport his father for fo many years.'

If your honour will have patience to hear me," faid Partridge, I will tell you all.'-Being bid go on, he proceeded thus: When your honour con"ceived that difpleafure against me, it ended in my 'ruin foon after; for I loft my little school; and the minifter, thinking I fuppofe it would be agreeable to your honour, turned me out from the office of clerk; fo that I had nothing to truft to but the barber's fhop, which in a country place like that, is a poor livelihood; and when my wife died (for 'till that time I received a penfion of 121. a year 'from an unknown hand, which indeed I believe was your honour's own, for no body that ever I heard of doth thefe things befides); but as I was faying, when fhe died, this penfion forfook me; fo that now as I owed two or three fmall debts, which began to be troublesome to me, particularly one * which

*This is a fact which I knew happened to a poor clergyman in Dorfetfhire, by the villainy of an attorney, who not contented

which an attorney brought up by law-charges from 15s. to near 301. and as I found all my ufual means of living had forfook me, I packed up my little all as well as I could, and went off. *

The first place I came to was Salisbury, where I got into the fervice of a gentleman belonging to the law, and one of the belt gentlemen that ever I knew; for he was not only good to me, but I know a thousand good and charitable acts which he did while I ftaid with him; and I have known him often refuse business because it was paultry and op-. preffive. You need not be fo particular, faid Allworthy; I know this gentleman, and a very worthy man he is, and an honour to his profeffion.' Well, Sir,' continued Partridge, from ⚫ hence I removed to Lymington, where I was above three years in the fervice of another lawyer, who was likewise a very good fort of a man, and to be fure one of the merriest gentlemen in England. Well, Sir, at the end of the three years I fet upoa little school, and was likely to do well again, had it not been for a most unlucky accident. Here I kept a pig; and one day, as ill fortune would have it, this pig broke out, and did a trespass I think they call it, in a garden belonging to one of my neighbours, who was a proud, revengeful man, and employed a lawyer, one-one-I can't think of his name; but he fent for a writ against me, and had me to Size. When I came there, Lord have mercy upon me-to hear what the counfellors faid. There was one that told my lord a parcel of the ⚫ confoundedst lies about me; he faid, that I used to drive my hogs into other folks gardens, and a great • deal more and at last he said, He hoped I had at

laft brought my hogs to a fair market. To be fure, ⚫ one would have thought, that inftead of being

with the exorbitant cofts to which the poor man was put by a fingle action, brought afterwards another action on the judgment, as it was called. A method frequently used to opprefs the poor, and bring money into the pockets of attorneys, to the great fcandal of the law, of the nation, of christianity, and even of human nature itself.

• owner

owner only of one poor little pig, I had been the greatest hog-merchant in England. Well' Pray," faid Allworthy, do not be fo particular. 1 have heard nothing of your fon yet. O it was a great many years, anfwered Partridge, before I faw my fon, as you are pleafed to call him.-I went over to Ireland after this, and taught fchool at Cork, (for that one fuit ruined me again, and I lay feven years in Winchester gaol.') Well,' faid Allworthy, pafs that over till you return to England. Then, Sir,' faid he, it was about half a year ago that I landed at Briftol, where I ftaid fome time, and not finding it do there, and hearing of a place between that and Gloucefter, where the barber was juft dead, I went thither, and there I had been about two months, when Mr. Jones came thither He then gave Allworthy a very particular account of their first meeting, and of every thing, as well as he could remember, which had happened from that day. tothis; frequently interlarding his story with panegyrics on Jones, and not forgetting to infinuate the great love and refpect which he had for Allworthy. He concluded with faying, Now, Sir, I have told your honour the whole truth.' And then repeated a moft folemn protestation, That he was no more the father of Jones than of the pope of Rome;' and imprecated the moft bitter curfes on his head, if he did not fpeak truth.

What am I to think of this matter?', cries All

worthy. For what purpofe fhould you so strongly deny a fact, which I think it would be rather your intereft to own? Nay, Sir, anfwered Partridge, (for he could hold no longer) if your honour will not believe me, you are like foon to have fatisfaction enough. I wish you had mistaken the mother of this young man, as well as you have his father.' And now being afked what he meant, with all the fymptoms of horror, both in his voice and countenance, he told Allworthy the whole ory, which he had a little before expreffed fuch defire to Mrs. Miller to conceal from him.

VOL..IX.