change; I followed till it ftopped at a grand house, into which fhe went without a mask, and had a full view of her fine face. I enquired next day who lived in the houfe I faw her go into, and was told it was Mr. *****, a merchant of the greatest repute. Often did I fee this lady after this, was feveral times in her company, and if I had not known what I did, should have thought her a woman of as great virtue as ever lived. There was not the leaft appearance of levity or indecency in her. To all outward appearance, fhe was chastity and discretion in flesh and blood. · But as to Carola Bennet.

The hiftory of

Mifs Bennet continued.

$. 6. Soon after her aunt and fhe arrived at Mrs. Bedewell's, in came Cantalupe as a vifitor, and after tea, they went to cards. Then followed a fupper, and when that was over, they gave the innocent Mifs Bennet a dose, which deprived her of her fenfes, put her to bed, and in the morning she found herself ruined in the arms of that villain Cantalupe. Diftraction almoft feized her, but he would not let her ftir. She called, but no one came to her relief. He fwore a million of oaths, that it was pure love made him buy her of her aunt, as he heard the was H 2 going

going to marry another man, and if the would but fhare with him in his great fortune, fince the thing was done, he would, (by every facred power he vowed) marry her that evening or the next, the first time they went out, and be the truest and most tender husband that ever yet appeared in the world. This, and the fituation fhe was in, naked and clasped in his ftrong arms, without a friend to aid her, within doors or without, made her fenfible her refentments were in vain, and that he had better acquiefce, and make the man her husband, if fhe could, fince it was her hard fate, and that in all probability fhe might conceive from the tranfactions of the night. This made her have done. She lay as he requested till noon, and hoped he would prove as faithful as he had folemnly swore to be.

But when the night came, an indifpofition he feigned, made him unable to ftir out that evening, and he requested the idol of his heart, whom he loved more than life, to give him leave to defer it till the next. For fix days he put it off in the fame manter, during which time, they never ftirred out of the bagnio, and the seventh day he left her faft afleep in bed. A billet doux on the dreffing-table informed

her,

her, that he was obliged to fet out that morning for France, and as he intended to. be back in a few months, he hoped fhe would not think him faithlefs at once. He left her a hundred pound bank note, which was all he had then to fpare, as he had paid to her aunt 500l. a few days before.

Thus fell the beautiful Mifs Bennet by the treachery of her ever-cursed aunt, and was made a whore very much against her will. The aunt, in the mean time, had fhut up her house, and was gone no one knew where. She took feveral jewels with her, and a large fum of money, both the property of her niece. She left her but little of her fortune, and reported every where that Carola was gone into keeping. with a great man, and had before been debauched by her footman. In short, all that could be done this woman did, to impoverish and defame her niece, and as the had paffed upon the world for a praying virtuous old piece, her reports were thought fo true, that all the female acquaintance Mifs Bennet had, laughed at the story she told, and shunned her as a foul fiend. She was banifhed from all modeft company.. They confidered her as the most detestable prostitute, for excufing herself (they said) by blackning the character of fo pious and H 3

up

upright a woman as Mrs. Hunfleet, her

aunt, was.

A reflexion on bypocrites.

.

§. 7. Thus did iniquity ruin and triumph over innocence in the mafk of religion, and a thousand times, to my own knowledge, it has done the fame thing. I have often known wretches pretend to seek the kingdom of God, and his righteoufnefs, in the first place, and by believing all the monks have invented, by constantly attending public worship, and an unnatural kind of fobriety, pafs for people that were ready and willing to fuffer every thing the caufe of God and truth can require from rationals yet thefe holy mortals could make the fervice of God not only stand with unwilling infirmities, (the common cafe of the best humanity,) but confift with wilful and prefumptuous finning, and a malevolence as great as the devil had against our first parents. A minifter of the gospel, who paffed for an admirable man, did his beft to ruin my character for ever with my father. One of the holieft men in the world, cheated me of a thousand pounds, left in his hands for my use, for fear I should spend it myself. And a rich man, commonly called piety and goodness, from the feeming fimplicity of his manners, the foft

nefs

nefs of his temper, and the holy goggle of his eyes in his public devotion, arreited me on a note of hand, one third of which was intereft thrown into the principal, and made me pay interest upon intereft, without mercy, or waiting as I intreated, till it was more convenient. Many more fuch praying, fanctified villains I could mention, in refpect of whom Edmund Curl was a cherubim, fond as he was of a girl and a flafk. Curl owned he was a finner, and that he was led by thirft and repletion to indulge but the hypocrites with profeffions of esteem for the pearl of great price, and that they have parted with their Herodias, for the fake of eternal life; yet wilfully difobey from a paffion for fubitance; and the fhrine of bright Mammon in this world, has a greater influence on their fouls than all the joys of an everlasting heaven to come. What they do is a farce. Upon what they have, they reft their all.

But as to Miss Bennet: In this fad condition, fhe fecreted herself for fome months from the world, and notwithstanding her conftitution and tafte, intended to retire among the mountains of Wales, and live upon the little fhe had left: but unfortunately for fo good a defign, the matchlefs Sir Frederic Dancer came in her way, and