prefumption were not yet quelled in the young foldier; and he received orders to attend King William, when he went to the fiege of Namur, with exultation and transport, believing his elevation to independence and diftinction as certain as if he had been going to take poffeffion of a title and estate.-His wife, who had been fome months pregnant, as she had no means of subsistence in his abfence, procured a paffage with him.When fhe came on fhore and mingled with the crowd that followed the camp, (wretches who, without compunction, wade in human blood to ftrip the dying and the dead, to whom horror is become familiar and compaffion impoffible) fhe was terrified; the discourse of the women, rude and unpolished as he was, covered her with confufion; and the brutal familiarity of the men filled her with indignation and difguft; her maid Betty, who had also attended her husband, was the only perfon with whom fhe could converfe, and from whom the could hope the affistance of which she was so foon to ftand in need.

In the mean time the found it difficult to subsist; but accidentally hearing the name of an officer, whom fhe remembered to have vifited her mother foon after her marriage, the applied to him, told him her name, and requested that he would afford her his protection, and permit her to take care of his linen. With this request the captain complied; her circumftances became less distreffed, and her mind more easy: but new calamity fuddenly overtook her; fhe faw her husband march to an engagement in the morning, and faw him brought back defperately wounded at night.—The next day he was removed in a waggon with many others who were in the fame condition, to a place of greater fafety, where proper care might be taken of their wounds. She intreated the captain to let her go in the waggon with him; but to this he could not consent, because the waggon would be filled with those who neither were able to walk, nor could be left behind. He promised, however, that if fhe would stay till the

next day, he would endeavour to procure her a paffage; but she chose rather to follow the waggon on foot, than to be absent from her husband. She could not, however, keep pace with it, and the reached the hospital but just time enough to kneel down by him upon some clean ftraw, to fee him fink under the laft agony, and hear the groan that is repeated no more. The fatigue of the journey, and the perturbation of her mind, immediately threw her into labour, and fhe lived but to be delivered of Meliffa, who was thus, in the most helpless state, left without father, mother, or friend, in a foreign country, in circumstances which could afford no hope of reward to the tenderness that fhould attempt the prefervation of her life, and among persons who were become obdurate and insensible, by having been long used to fee every fpecies of diftrefs.

It happened that, among those whom accident or distress had brought together at the birth of Meliffa, there was a young woman, whose husband had fallen in the late engagement, and who a few days before had loft a little boy that the fuckled. This perfon, rather perhaps to relieve herself from an inconveniency, than in compaffion to the orphan, put it to her breaft: but whatever was her motive, the believed that the affording fuftenance to the living conferred a right to the apparel of the dead, of which the therefore took poffeffion; but in fearching her pocket fhe found only a thimble, the remains of a pocket looking-glafs, about the value of a penny in Dutch money, and the certificate of her marriage. The paper, which fhe could not read, the afterwards gave to the captain, who was touched with pity at the relation which an inquiry after his laundrefs produced. He commended the woman who had preferved the infant, and put her into the place of its mother. This encouraged her to continue her care of it till the captain returned to England, with whom she also returned, and became his fervant.

This gentlemán, as foon as he had fettled his immediate concerns, fent Meliffa, under the care of her

R 3

nurse,

nurse, to her grandfather; and inclofed the certificate of her mother's marriage in a letter containing an account of her death, and the means by which the infant had been preserved. He knew that those who had been once dear to us, by whatever offence they may have alienated our affection when living, are generally remembered with tenderness when dead; and that after the grave has fheltered them from our refentment, and rendered reconciliation impoffible, we often regret as fevere that conduct which before we approved as juft; he, therefore, hoped, that the parental fondness which an old man had once felt for his daughter, would revive at the fight of her offspring; that the memory of her fault would be loft in the fenfe of her misfortunes; and that he would endeavour to atone for that inexorable refentment which produced them, by cherishing a life to which the had, as it were, transferred her own. But in these expectations, however reasonable, he was miftaken. The old man, when he was informed by the meffenger that the child she held in her arms was his grand-daughter, whom the was come to put under his protection, refused to examine the contents of the letter, and difmiffed her with menaces and infult. The knowledge of every uncommon event foon becomes general in a country town. An uncle of Meliffa's, who had been rejected by his father for having married his maid, heard this fresh inftance of his brutality with grief and indignation; he fent immediately for the child and the letter, and affured the fervant that his niece fhould want nothing which he could beftow: to bestow much, indeed, was not in his power, for his father having obftinately perfifted in his refentment, his whole fupport was a little farm which he rented of the fquire; but as he was a good economist, and had no children of his own, he lived decently; nor did he throw away content, because his father had denied him affluence.

Meliffa, who was compaffionated for her mother's misfortunes, of which her uncle had been particularly informed by her maid Betty, who had returned a wi

dow

dow to her friends in the country, was not lefs beloved for her own good qualities; fhe was taught to read and write, and work at her needle, as foon as she was able to learn; and fhe was taken notice of by all the gentry as the prettieft girl in the place: but her aunt died when the was about eleven years old, and before fhe was thirteen fhe loft her uncle.

She was now again thrown back upon the world, ftill helpless, though her wants were increased, and wretched in proportion as fhe had known happiness: fhe looked back with anguish, and forward with diftraction; a fit of crying had just afforded her a momentary relief, when the 'fquire, who had been informed of the death of his tenant, fent for her to his house. This gentleman had heard her story from her uncle, and was unwilling that a life which had been preferved almoft by miracle, should at last be abandoned to misery; he therefore determined to receive her into his family, not as a fervant, but as a companion to his daughter, a young lady finely accomplished, and now about fifteen. The old gentleman was touched with her diftrefs, and Miss received her with great tenderness and complacency: fhe wiped away her tears, and of the intolerable anguish of her mind, nothing remained but a tender remembrance of her uncle, whom she loved and reverenced as a parent. She had now courage to examine the contents of a little box which he had put into her hand juft before he expired; fhe found in it only the certificate of her mother's marriage, enclosed in the captain's letter, and an account of the events that have been before related, which her uncle had put down as they came to his knowledge: the train of mournful ideas that now rushed upon her mind, raised emotions which, if they could not be fuppreffed by reason, were foon destroyed by their own violence.

The

The Story of Melissa continued.

IN this family, which in a few weeks after returned

to London, Meliffa foon became a favourite: the good 'fquire feemed to confider her as his child, and Mifs as her fifter: fhe was taught dancing and music, introduced to the best company, elegantly dreffed, and allowed fuch fums as were neceffary for trivial expenses. Youth feldom fuffers the dread of to-morrow to intrude upon the enjoyment of to-day, but rather regards prefent felicity as the pledge of future: Meliffa was probably as happy as if the had been in the actual poffeffion of a fortune, that, to the ease and splendour which fhe enjoyed already, would have added stability and independence.

She was now in her eighteenth year, and the only fon of her benefactor was just come from the university to spend the winter with his father in town. He was charmed with her perfon, behaviour, and discourse; and what he could not but admire, he took every opportunity to commend. She foon perceived that he fhewed particular marks of refpect to her, when he thought they would not be perceived by others; and that he endeavoured to recommend himself by an officious affiduity, and a diligent attention to the most minute circumstances that might contribute to her pleasure. But this behaviour of the young gentleman, however it might gratify her vanity, could not fail to alarm her fear the forefaw, that if what she had remarked in his conduct fhould be perceived by his father or fifter, the peace of the family would be deftroyed; and that the muft either be fhipwrecked in the ftorm, or thrown overboard to appease it. She therefore affected not to perceive that more than a general complaifance was intended by her lover; and hoped that he would thus be difcouraged from making an explicit declaration: but though he was mortified at her disregard of that which he knew the could not but fee, yet he determined to addrefs