thought," faid fhe," that your indignation could have been raifed by the choice which the young man has made; it does honour to his judgment; and if I could ceafe from confidering him as the feducer of my daughter, the preference he has given her to your's would interest me in his favour, and make me pass over many things.' Mifs D'Erlac on this took her mother's hand, and kissed it feveral times. This circumftance, and the difcourfe from which it originated, raised the Baron's anger to the highest pitch. "Follow me," faid he to his daughver," and do not let us stay a moment longer in a house, where you are both contemned and betrayed." "You will do me honour by leave ing it," replied Mad. D'Erlac, and that you may be at liberty to do fo to-morrow, I take my leave of you." She immediately left the room, taking her daughter along with her. nephew with refpect to the feduction. with which he was charged. The Baron feemed to be biaffed in his favour; and cafting a look towards his daughter, whofe fuppliant air feemed to beg for a criminal that was fo dear to her, "You love him, dear Eliza," faid he: I know from those looks which plead his cause with so much ́eloquence. But is he worthy of your compaffion, after giving the preference to a creature, who is fo much inferior to you?" and while he was uttering thefe words, he furveyed her with a complaifance which gave me a moment's fatisfaction. Eliza's careffes, who loaded his hands with kisses, and bathed them with her tears, made him entirely composed. "Rife, my girl, worthy of a better fate," faid he: "a fpeedy repentance may make me forget Northon's fault: the poor youth might have entangled himfelf in a net which was spread for him with fo much art. Befides, I fee by his letter that he feels his weaknefs, and that he values you an hun After fhe was gone, the Baron walked fome time across the parlour with an agitation that would not give us leave to fpeak a word to him. At last, be-dred times more than his termagant. ing fomewhat compofed, he fat down But he must not hesitate longer; and near me, and taking his daughter's if he should continue to do injuftice to hand and mine, "My dear Madam your charms by that unworthy prediNorthon," faid he, " cannot be an ac-lection, he mult expect to feel all the complice in a perfidy of fo black a na- resentment of a father injured in fo ture-to contemu my daughter, feduce tender a point.--Forgive me, dear my niece, and embroil me irreconcile-friends," addreffing us, and ftretching ably with my fifter! Who could have fufpected fo many horrid crimes in a young man, whom I thought virtuous? And as for you, my friend," addreffing himself to my brother, "could this intrigue efcape your notice? But if had difcovered it, why did you not exert your paternal authority to put a stop to its progrefs?" you Inftead of giving him a direct anfwer, my brother prefented him with the letter which young Northon had written to him in the morning, while I went to fetch the anfwer his father wrote him, which laid on his table, and which the unhappy youth would have found there had it not been for this fatal accident. You fhall have copies of both, and you will find that they were well adapted to justify my out a hand to each of us," I know how much you are interested in behalf of the delinquent; I fee that his offence affects you as much as myself; that you have fpared no pains to reclaim him; I flatter myself that I may depend on the fuccefs of your endeavours, and this perfuafion fhould in. duce me to fpare my reproaches; but a father, in my fituation, deferves fome indulgence; I hope for it from your friendship." It was three o'clock in the morning when we were engaged in this converfation, and our fervant, who was well acquainted with Paris, fet out at daybreak to feek for a lodging for us. He foon found us a very convenient one. My brother went out under pretext of examining whether it would fuit us, but The true Point of Honour. to give him his letter, and to fee how far he might depend on his compunction and amendment. 353 but in reality in fearch after his fon, he has entered into with my cousin ; he thinks that honour obliges him to fulfil his vows. He has not read the letter in which his father has obviated, has removed his fcruples on that head; it is from the meer motives of honefty that he has difappeared, for fear he fhould be tempted to break them.How much does he defire my happinefs, how much does he wish for my repofe !-Notwithstanding he is ignorant of the attachment I have for him, I have ftudioufly avoided giving him the leaft intimation of it. I believe that he only fufpects it, and that muft make him miferable. Besides, he has not impofed upon me by feigned protestations of a paffion which he never felt : he has made ample confeffion." Alas! he has left me in a kind of defpair; he cannot discover what is become of his fon, and is going to make fresh enquiries: heaven grant that they may prove more fuccefsful. I fhould be tempted to cenfure this as a fatal voyage with all my heart, if religion did not teach me that trouble and difappointments are the paths to happinefs; they become fupportable under this point of view; but how far am I from that state of perfection which renders them an object of love? Eliza charged me, when the laid down, to give you the detail of her misfortunes. She certainly had not trength enough to inform you of them. herself, and befides could not find time to do it. LETTER XLI From ELIZA to the Countess de SOLMES. THEY think that I am buried in a profound fleep, and I take advantage of that of my aunt, to inform you of a misfortune which fhe is as yet ignorant of. Every thing is defperate, my lady during the three days that we have been here, we have not fet eyes on Northon, which has exafperated my father to the utmost: but how much more would he be irritated, were he to know what I do?-He asks me twenty times a day whether I would not facrifice my unworthy lover to his tenderness?--Thefe expreffions pierce my heart. I reply with tears that I am at his difpofal; that he never fhall find me undutiful; that I will do iny utmost endeavour to forget Northou; but I cannot fay, without deceiving him, that I have the leaft hopes of fuccefs. "Poor thing," replied my father, I perceive the violence of your love by the eloquence you make use of to exculpate him. But to fay no more, ought you to be defpifed, and refufe to take ample revenge?--I can make Indeed I fhould be glad to fee him oyou one of the greateft ladies in France. verwhelmed with grief for the lofs of you." "Dear Sir," I faid to him, "I am going to make a confeffion to you, which may probably make me as culpable in your eyes as he is. When I beheld him the day of his arrival, I loved him almost as much as I do now. It is true I did not give way to the emotion, and with the confent of my dear friend I was going to leave Paris to detach myself from an object which was not of your choofing: but at laft I was overcome. This proof of my own weakness makes me indulgent to him. I should have triumphed over mine, and he would have triumphed over his, had heaven deftined us for each other. After I understood that this pretended marquis was the husband of your choice, I put no farther conftraint on my heart you had commanded me to give it him, I obeyed you, and I would obey you farther. I aufwer-"Dear Sir, he is neither. were it at my option; but I am ftrongDo not you difcover from his letterly convinced that it is out of my powhow fenfible he is of your goodness, er. Be fatisfied with my good intenhow much he regrets the engagement tions in this refpect, however weak Vol. X. "What! my dear child," fays he, embracing me," can you ftill love an ungrateful, a perjured" they they be I feel that we cannot difpofe of ourselves but once, and I have done it for life." This converfation was put an end to by my falling at my father's feet, and giving him hopes of a return, which I defpaired of my felf, because the unhappy Northon was on the point of fealing and confirming both his ruin and mine. You may judge fo from the letter which I have juft received: it has no fignature, and it has no need of one to inform me that it comes from my coufin's woman, who is her confidant. On this occafion fhe renders a real fervice to her miflrefs. (To be continued.) dom, and by grofs adulation gains her good opinion. The father, Sir James, is a blunt, downright citizen, and favours the addreffes made to his daughter by Captain Surat, an old Eaft India commander. The daughter has a lover of her own, Melville, a young gentleman, the rigour of whofe father's treatment had driven him to the neceffity of turning frolling player, in which character Mifs Juniper first faw him. In this state of things the opera opens. Shuffle, on his arrival at Margate, meets his friend Spruce, who had formerly trusted to the road for his fupport, but finding that fail, had lately taken up the more profitable profeffion of frizeur, and had come to Margate to follow that employment. They fettle a plan of operations, and fe Account of the new Comic Opera, called SUMMER AMUSEMENT, or an AD-parate to put them in execution. AfVENTURE at MARGATE, performed at the Hay-Market Theatre, for the first Time, on Thursday July 1. HE fable of this opera is fub ter various laughable quarrels between Sir James Juniper and his wife, a meeting takes place between Shuffle and Surat, in confequence of a letter couched in a very extraordinary ftile by the former, and addreffed to the Captain. Sir James and his lady are, by Surat's advice, concealed auditors of what paffes at this meeting, and hear Shuffle propofe to buy off Surat's price of ten thousand pounds, and apretenfions to Mifs Juniper at the buse them both as ignorant and obfti. nate old fools. Lady Juniper, irritated at having her knowledge queftioned, comes from her concealment, and charges the fuppofed Lord Random with grofs ill-treatment of her. Shuffle parries what fhe fays by mere dint of impudence, and perfuades her Tfantially as follows: Shuffle, a that all that had paffed was only a fharper, has ingratiated himself into frolic, very common among men of the family of Sir James Juniper, (al-fafhion. The old fellow, however, is derman and diftiller of Portfoken ward) not to be duped; he fees the matter at Tunbridge, and has accompanied in its true light, and is from that mothem to Margate, having a defign up- ment a more determined foe to his on the daughter's fortune. The better to get into the good graces of. Lady Juniper, a lump of ignorance and affectation, eternally boafting of her knowledge of the French language, which the pronounces moft illiterately, Shuffle affumes the title of Lord Ran daughter's marrying Shuffle than ever. In the last act Melville lands from the hoy, and is met by Cathartic, a loquacious apothecary of the place, who happens to know him, and is defired to conceal his having feen him. Cathartic, however, at a tavern meeting, where Account of Summer Amusement. 355 turn. This affords a hearty laugh at Cathartic's expence, and at length the opera concludes with Sir James and his lady's confenting to the nuptials of Melville and their daughter. Etiquette is a maiter of the ceremonies, fo whimfically drawn, that he affords more laugh than any other character in the piece, but has no neceffary, though a natural connection with the fable. The following are the moft admired airs. Mr. EDWIN. What could a lady do? No walk in life would c'er fucceed, No ftep would e'er be true: And comfort all the fex. We ne'er, like fome folks in the land, where, Sir James and Surat are prefent, tells who he has juft met: Surat declares that Melville is the fon of a baronet, and his nephew, and being defirous of feeing him, fends Cathartic to find him out. Melville, in the mean time, in the disguise of an old female fmuggler, obtains an interview with Mifs Juniper, informs her who he really is, and perfuades her to accompany him that night to his father's, promifing to have a chaife and four ready to convey her and her maid from Margate at an appointed hour. Mifs Juniper, to avoid her father's preffing Without a man to take the lead, intreaties that fhe would marry Surat, and her mother's earnest recommendations of Shuffle, as well as to follow her own inclinations to marry Melvelle, confents. Spruce, however, who had introduced himself into the Juniper family as their hair-dreffer, and in that capacity had all along acted as the engineer of Shuffle, overhears this plan, and gives the alarm to the old folks. In confequence of which, juft as the young couple are preparing to decamp, they are ftopped and furrounded by the knight, his lady, Shuffle, and their affiftants: at this crifis Surat appears, and recognizes his nephew; he alfo informs the fa-And fill keep up the ball. mily that their hair-dreffer was apprehended for a highway robbery, and that he had declared Lord Random to be an impoftor. The young couple avow their paffion, Surat inftantly foregoes his pretenfions in favour of his nephew, and promifes if Sir James will confent to their union, that he will throw in the profit of two China voyages to enable Melville and Emily to begin the world. Shuffle quits the scene on hearing that Spruce had accused him, pretending to go and clear up the whole affair. Cathartic prefently enters and informs the groupe, that Lord Random had just set off in great hafte for Canterbury, to meet fome foreign ambaffador, and having Ambition hath feduc'd the heart no loose cash in his pocket, and no fmaller note than a bank-note for five, hundred pounds, which he could not get changed, had borrowed his purfe, with twenty guineas in it, till his re Now there, -Y where, Mifs HARPER, To eafe my heart I own'd my flame, The figu that wild not be fuppreft, And yet if honour guides the youth, Mr. WOOD. Thou'ft play'd a falfe, a faithlefs part, Which honour ow'd to me, my love. The trueft, tend'reft flame was mine, The fafteft, fondest vows were thine, Tho' When a lady of ton is furpris'd in a snare, When the fine men of fashion mistake in their score, And are fore'd for a time to withdraw, Why are they receiv'd and carefs'd as before? Sans doute for the je ne feai quoi. When we meet at affemblies high frizzled and curl'd, When our nods and our winks give the law. What makes us despife all the forms of the world? 'Tis nought but the je ne cai quoi. Wholly engroffed by the former, they take a partner for life not by the value of her own merit, but the fource from whence fprings almoft every evil, gold, which is given as her dowry. Afpiring, foolish man! is it on this ye build your future profpects of happiness?-If so, blafted are your hopes, for know that woman, though formed by her affiduities to leffen the cares of a worthy counterpart, will not tamely fubject herfelf to the capricioufnefs of a being, who deferves to be ranked with the brutes. If ye need the protection of any one, feck it not particularly in a black ́coat, nor repulse the scarlet: the difference lies alone in the colour. 'Tis in vain ye call the latter rake and libertine, they only act publickly confiftent with the private character of the former but I recommend neither: a man of feeling is fo feldom to be met with, that the poet fays well, “Be cautious whom ye truft," for when profeft to us honour is a mere chi mera. Man, as lord of the creation, let. him direct the helm, but with fo gentle a fway, that his chains may feem as filken fetters, made only to unite one of either fex in the ftricteft bond of friendship, love, and happiness. Cuitivate the former as a bleffing, without which neither of the latter can be retained. Of all the human paffions it the founder of love, and the fource is the nobleft. It exalts our ideas, is from whence fprings compaffion for thofe in adverfity. Dr. Akenfide interrogates DETACHED THOUGHTS. EXAMPLES of PATERNAL AFFECTION. THEN ambition fires the mind W love is entirely excluded, and TO affection of the mind dignifies N human nature like tenderness the heart admitting not of that tender to children: fomething there is that paffion, is not formed for fociety.-touches the heart in the affection of a parent |