pale, and his lips quivered: but he fo far reftrained his paffion as to ask her, without invective," Where, and "how she had paffed the night." the replied, "At "Captain Freemans, that the Captain was upon guard, "that the fat up with his lady till he came in, and "that then infifting to see her home she would fuffer "the coach to go no further than her father's, where

he left her early in the morning:" She had not fortitude to relate the fequel, but ftopped with fome appearance of irrefolution and terror. Sir James then afked," If the came directly from her father's home." This question, and the manner in which it was asked, increafed her confufion: to appear to have ftopped fhort in her narrative, the thought would be an impli cation of guilt, as it would betray a defire of concealment but the past could not be recalled, and she was impelled by equivocation to falsehood, from which, however, fhe would have been kept back by fear, if Sir James had not deceived her into a belief that he had been no further than the neighbourhood. After these tumultuous reflections which passed in a moment fhe ventured to affirm, that " fhe ftaid with Mifs Mea"dows till eight, and then came home:" but she uttered this falfehood with fuch marks of guilt and shame, which she had indeed no otherwife than by this falfehood incurred or deferved, that Sir James no more doubted her infidelity than her existence. As her story was the fame with that of the Captain's, and as one had concealed the truth and the other denied it, he coneluded there was a confederacy between them; and determined first to bring the Captain to account, he turned from her abruptly, and immediately left the boufe.

At

At the door he met the chairman who had been difpatched by Mrs. Freeman to his lady; and fiercely interrogating him what was his bufinefs, the man produced the letter, and faying, as he had been ordered, that he brought it from Mrs. Fashion, Sir James fnatched it from him, and muttering fome expreffions of contempt and refentment thrust it into his pocket.

It happened that Sir James did not find the Captain at home; he, therefore, left a billet in which he requested to see him at a neighbouring tavern, and added that he had put on his fword.

In the mean time, his lady, dreading a difcovery of the falfehood which she had afferted dispatched a billet to Captain Freeman; in which the conjured him, as a man of honour, for particular reafons not to own to Sir James, or any other person, that he had feen her after he had left her at her father's: fhe alfo wrote to her coufin Meadows, intreating, that if she was queftioned by Sir James, he might be told that the ftaid with her till eight o'clock, an hour at which only herfelf and the fervants were up..

The billet to Mifs Meadows came foon after the ehairman had returned with an account of what had happened to the letter; and Mrs. Freeman was just gone in great hafte to relate the accident to the Captain, as it was of great importance that he should know it before his next interview with Sir James: but the Captain had been at home before her and had received both Sir James's billet and that of his lady. He went immediately to the tavern, and, inquiring for SirJames Forrest, was shewn into a back-room one pair of ftairs Sir James received his falutation without reply, and infantly bolted the door. His jealoufy was

:

complicated

complicated with that indignation and contempt, which a fenfe of injnry from a perfon of inferior rank never fails to produce; he, therefore, demanded of the Captain in a haughty tone, "Whether he had not that morn"ing been in company with his wife, after he had left "her at her fathers?" The Captain, who was incensed at Sir James's manner, and deemed himself engaged in honour to keep the lady's fecret, answered, that " after "what he had faid in the morning, no man had a right "to fuppofe he had feen the lady afterwards; that to "infinuate the contrary, was obliquely to charge him "with a falfehood: that he was bound to answer no "fuch queftions, till they were properly explained ; and "that as a gentleman he was prepared to vindicate his "honour." Sir James juftly deemed this reply an equivocation and an infult; and being no longer able to restrain his rage, he curfed the Captain as a liar and a fcoundrel, and at the same time striking him a violent blow with his fift, drew his fword and put himself in a pofture of defence. Whatever defign the Captain might have had to bring his friend to temper, and reconcile him to his wife, when he first entered the room, he was now equally enraged, and indeed had fuffered equal indignity; he. therefore, drew at the fame inftant, and after a few defperate paffes on both fides, he received a wound in his breast, and reeling backward a few paces fell down.

The noise had brought many people to the door of the room, and it was forced open just as the Captain received his wound: Sir James was fecured, and a meffenger was dispatched for a furgeon. In the mean time, the Captaiu perceived himself to be dying: and whatever might before have been his opinion of right

and

and wrong, and honour and fhame, he now thought all diffimulation criminal, and that his murderer had a right to that truth which he thought it meritorious to deny him when he was his friend: he, therefore, earnestly defired to speak a few words to him in private. This request was immediately granted; the perfons who had rushed in withdrew, contenting themselves to keep guard at the door; and the Captain beckoning Sir James to kneel down by him, then told him, "that "however his lady might have been furprized or be"trayed by pride or fear into diffimulation or falfeέσ hood, she was innocent of the crime which he fup"posed her folicitous to conceal :" he then briefly related all the events as they had happened; and at last, grafping his hand, urged him to escape from the window, that he might be a friend to his widow and to his child, if its birth should not be prevented by the death of its father. Sir James yielded to the force of this motive, and escaped as the Captain had directed. In way to Dover he read the letter which he had taken from the chairman, and the next poft inclosed it in the following to his lady;

his

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"My dear CHARLOTTE,

"I AM the most wretched of all men; but I do not upbraid you as the cause: would to God that I were

1

not more guilty than you! We are the martyrs of "diffimulation. By diffimulation dear Captain Freeman was induced to waste thofe hours with you, "which he would otherwife have enjoyed with the (6 poor unhappy diffembler his wife. Trusting in the "fuccefs of diffimulation, you was tempted to venture "into the Park, where you met him whom you wished "to fhun. By detecting diffimulation in the Captain, 66 my

I

66 my fufpicions were increased; and by diffimulation "and falfehood you confirmed them. But your dif"fimulation and falfehood were the effects of mine;

yours were ineffectual, mine fucceeded: for I left "word that I was gone no further than the Coffee"houfe, that you might not fufpect I had learned too "much to be deceived. By the fuccefs of a lie put "into the mouth of a chairman, I was prevented from "reading a letter which at last would have undeceived " me; and by perfifting in diffimulation, the Captain " has made his friend a fugitive, and his wife a widow. "Thus does infincerity terminate in mifery and confufion, whether in its immediate purpose it fucceeds "or is disappointed. O my dear Charlotte! if ever 66 we meet again, to meet again in peace is impof

fible but if ever we meet again, let us resolve to "be fincere: to be fincere is to be wife, innocent and "fafe. We venture to commit faults which fhame of "fear would prevent, if we did not hope to conceal "them by a lie. But in the labyrinth of falfehood, 46 men meet thofe evils which they feek to avoid; and as in the strait path of truth alone they can see be"fore them, in the ftrait path of truth alone they can "purfue felicity with fuccefs. Adieu! I am* dreadful! - I can subscribe nothing that does not reproach and torment me Adieu !"

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Within a few weeks after the receipt of this letter,

the unhappy lady heard that her husband was caft away in his paffage to France.

No.