BEF

LETTER XVIII.

To Colonel R***'s, in Spain..
From his Lady in England.

EFORE this can reach the best of Hufbands, and the fondeft Lover, thofe tender Names will be of no more Concern to me; the Indifpofition in which you (to obey the Dictates of your Honour and Duty,) left me, has increafed upon me; and I am acquainted, by. my Phyficians, I cannot live a Week longer. At this Time my Spirits fail me, and it is the ardent Love I have for you that carries me beyond my Strength, and enables me to tell you the most painful Thing in the Profpect of Death is, that I muft part with you; but let it be a Comfort to you I have no Guilt hangs upon me, no unrepented Folly that retards me; but I pafs away my laft Hours in Reflection upon the Happiness we have lived in together, and in Sorrow that it is fo foon to have an End. This is a Frailty which, I hope, is fo far from being criminal, that methinks there is a Kind of Piety in being fo unwilling to be feparated from a State which is the Inftitution of Heaven, and in which we have lived according to its Laws. As we know no more of the next Life, but that it will be an happy one to the Good, and miferable to the Wicked, why may we not please ourfelves, at leaft, to alleviate the Difficulty of refigning this Being, in imagining that we fhall have a Senfe of what paffes below, and may poffibly be employed in guiding the Steps of thofe with whom we walked with Innocence when mortal? Why may not I hope to go on in my ufual Work, and though unknown to you, be affiftant in all the Conflicts of your Mind: Give me Leave to fay to you, O beft of Men! that I cannot figure to myfelf a greater Happiness than in fuch an Employment; to be prefent at all the Adventures to which human Life is expofed; to adminifter Slumber to the Eye-lids in the Agonies of a Fever; to cover thy beloved Face in the Day of Battle; to g go with thee a Guardian Angel, incapable of Wound or Pain, where I have longed to attend thee, when a weak, a fearful Woman. Thefe, my Dear, are the Thoughts with

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which I warm my poor languid Heart; but indeed I am not capable, under my present Weaknets, of bearing the ftrong Agonies of Mind I fall into, when I form to myself the Grief you must be in, upon your first hearing of my Departure. I will not dwell upon this, becaufe your kind and generous Heart will be but the more afflicted, the more the Perfon for whom you lament offers you Confolation. My laft Breath will, if I am myself, expire in a Prayer for you. I fhall never fee your Face again. Farewell for ever.

LETTER XIX.

LAURA to AURELIA.

NOULD your Importunity have prevailed with my Brother to have left me in London, you had been free from the Vexation that I fhall certainly give you, by making you the Confident of all my Country Adventures; and I hope you will relieve my Chagrin, by telling me what the dear bewitching, bufy World is doing, while I am idly fauntering away my Time in rural Shades. How happy are you, my dear Aurelia! how I envy you the Enjoyment of Duft, of Crowds and Noife, with all the polite Hurry of the Beau Monde.

My Brother brought me hither to fee a CountrySeat he has lately purchafed; he would fain perfuade me it is finely fituated, but I fhould think it more finely fituated in the Mail, or even in Cheapfide, than here. Indeed I hardly know where we are, only that it is at a dreadful Distance from the Theatre Royal from the Opera, from the Masquerade, and every Thing in this World that is worth living for. I can fcarce tell you whither to direct your Letters; we are certainly at the End of the Earth, on the Borders of the Continent, the Limits of the habitable Globe; under the Polar Star, anong wild People and Savages. I thought we fhould never have come to the End of our Pilgrimage; nor could I forbear asking my Brother, if we were to travel by dry Land

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to the Antipodes; not a Mile but feemed ten, that carried me from London, the Center of all my Joys. The Country is my Averfion; I hate Trees and Hedges, fteep Hills and filent Vallies; The Satyrifts may laugh, but to me

Green Fields, and shady Groves, and cryftal Springs,
And Larks, and Nightingales, are odious Things.

I had rather hear London Cries, with the Rattle of Coaches, than fit liftening to the melancholy Murmur of purling Brooks, or all the wild Mufic of the Woods; the Smell of Violets gives me the Hysterics; fresh Air murders me; my Constitution is not robuft enough to bear it; the cooling Zephyrs will fan me into a Catarrh, if I ftay here much longer. If thefe are the Seats of the Mufes, let them unenvied enjoy their glittering Whimfies, and converfe with the vifionary Beings of their own forming. I have no Fancy for Dryades and Fairies, nor the leaft Prejudice to human Society; a mere earthly Beau, with an embroi dered Coat, fuits my Tafte better than an airy Lover with his fhining Treffes and Rainbow Wings.

The fober Twilight, which has employed fo many foft Defcriptions, is with me a very dull Period; nor does the Moon (on which the Poets doat) with all her ftarry Train, delight me half fo much as an Afmbly-Room illuminated with Wax-Candles: This is what I fhould prefer to the glaring Sun in his meridian Slendor: Day-Light makes me fick, it has fomething in it fo common and vulgar, that it feems fitter for Pealants to make Hay in, or Country Laffes to fpin by, than for the Ufe of People of Diftinction. You pity me, I know, dear Aurelia, in this deplorable State; the whole Creation is a Blank to me, 'tis all joyles and defolate. In whatever gay Images the Mufes have dreffed thefe ruftic Abodes, I have not Penetration enough to difcover them. Not the flowery Field, nor fpangled Sky, the rofy Morn, or balmy Evening, can recreate my Thoughts: I am neither a religious nor poetical Enthufiaft, and without either of these Qualifications, what fhould I do in filent Retreats and penfive Shades? I find myfelf but little at Eafe in this K

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Abfence of the noify Diverfions of the Town; and 'tis hard for me to keep up my Spirits in Leifure and Retirement; it makes me anxioufly inquifitive what will become of me when my Breath flies away: Death, that ghaftly Phantom, perpetually intrudes on my Solitude, and fome doleful Knell from a neighbouring Steeple, often calls upon me to ruminate on Coffins and Funerals, Graves and gloomy Sepulchres. As thefe difmal Subjects put me in the Vapours, and make me ftart at my own Shadow, the fooner I come to Town the better; and I wifh, my dear Aurelia, you would oblige me fo far as to lay a Scheme for my Elcape. Adieu.

From Polydore to Alonzo, giving an Account of his accidentally meeting Aurelia, and of her Falfhood to him, &c. YOU

You have fpent fo many Hours at the Earl of

's fine Seat in the Country, that 'tis unneceffary to defcribe those beautiful Scenes with which you are are fo well acquainted: Here have I paffed a great Part of the Summer Seafon, in a Manner fuitable to my contemplative Humour. Having no Tatte for Country Diverfions, or any Kind of Kural Sports, my Pleafures were confined to the charming Shades in Gardens, with which the Houfe is furrounded

Here I enjoyed an unmolefted Tranquility, till a Fit of Curiofity led me to make an Excurfion into the wide Champagne, that opened before me from the Borders of the Park.

If I begin with the rofy Dawn, you will pardon my romantic Stile, relating to the furprifing Adventure: But without telling a Lie, the Morning was yet dufky; the balmy Dew, and fragrant Gales, perfumed the Air with their untainted Sweets; while with Thoughts free as the airy Songsters that warble on the Branches, I wandered from rifing Hills to winding Vales, through flow'ry Lawns to leafy Woods, till I found myself under the Shares of a venerable Row of Elms, which put me in Mind of Sir Roger de Coverly's Rookery;

the

the aged Trees fhot their Heads fo high, that, to one who paffed under them, the Crows and Rooks, which refted on their Tops, feemed to be cawing in another Region. I was delighted with the Nole, while, with the Spectator, I confidered it as a Kind of natural Prayer to that Being who fupplies the Wants of his whole Creation; my Thoughts were infpired with a pleafing Gratitude to the beneficent Father of the Universe, till the Sequel of my Devotion was interrupted by the Sight of a beautiful Girl, about four or five Years old, fitting on the Grafs, with a Bafket of Flowers in her Lap, which he was sticking in the fnowy Fleece of a little Lamb, that stood by her.

I began to hope it was one of the Fairy Race, or fome pretty Phantom that haunted the Grove; for the adjacent House belonging to this reverend Avenue looked more like a Dormitory for the Dead, than an Habitation for the Living; every Thing about it appeared ruinous and defolate: I could neither hear the Voice, nor trace the Steps of mortal Man in this obfolete Soltude; nor had any Hopes of knowing in what wild Region I was got, unless the pretty Figure fitting on the Grafs could give me fome Intelligence.

I made my Approaches very refpectfully: But what was my Surprize, in drawing near, to find the Air, the Complexion, every Feature in Miniature, of the ungrateful Aurelia, on whom I once fo pafionately doated." A thousand tormenting Ideas rushed into my Mind at the Sight of this lovely Creature, who smiled on me with the most enchanting Innocence. Whilft I ftood eagerly gazing at her, which was not long, Aurelia herfelf entered the Walk, and confirmed the Sufpicion that this Child was a living Proof of her Infamy.

'Tis about fix Years fince the eloped from the public View, regardless of her own illuftrious Family, or the Obligation the was under to the generous Cleone, who treated her with the utmott Confidence, and was the lalt that suspected her Husband's criminal Affair with her: Be my own Wrongs forgot, and all the Con tempt with which the treated whatever Propofals Honour and difinterefted Paffion could make.