now; but promise me to be more composed for the future. I will see you again early to-morrow; nor will I let a moment escape, that can be improved to your service."-" I must think," said Annesly," and therefore I must feel; but I will often remember your friendship, and my gratitude shall be some little merit left in me to look upon without blushing.”

Sindall bade him farewell, and retired; and at that instant he was less a villain than he used to be. The state of horror to which he saw this young man reduced, was beyond the limits of his scheme; and he began to look upon the victim of his designs, with that pity which depravity can feel, and that remorse which it can

not overcome.

CHAP. XVII.

His Father is acquainted with Annesly's situation. His behaviour in consequence of it.

THAT letter to old Annesly, which Sindall had undertaken to write, he found a more difficult task than at first he imagined. The solicitude of his friendship might have been easily expressed on more common occasions, and hypocrisy to him was usually no unpleasing garb; but at this crisis of Annesly's fate, there were feelings he could not suppress; and he blushed to himself, amidst the protestations of concern and regard, with which this account of his misfortune (as he termed it) was accompanied.

Palliated, as it was, with all the art of Sir Thomas, it may be easily conceived what effect it must have on the mind of a father; a father at this time labouring under the pressure of disease, and confined to a sick-bed, whose intervals of thought were now to be pointed to the misery, the disgrace, perhaps the disgraceful death, of a darling child. His Harriet, after the first shock which the dreadful tidings had given her, sat by him, stifling the terrors of her gentle soul, and speaking comfort when her tears would let her.

His grief was aggravated, from the consideration of being at present unable to attend a son, whose calamities, though of his own procuring, called so loudly for support and assistance.

"Unworthy as your brother is, my Harriet," said he, "he is my son and your brother still; and must he languish amid the horrors of a prison, without a parent or a sister to lessen them? The prayers which I can put up from this sickbed are all the aid I can minister to him; but your presence might sooth his anguish, and alleviate his sufferings. With regard to this life, perhaps-Do not weep, my love-But you might lead him to a reconciliation with that Being, whose sentence governs eternity! Would it frighten my Harriet to visit a dungeon?" "Could I leave my dearest father," said she,

no place could frighten me where my poor Bill is' "Then you shall go, my child, and I shall be the better for thinking that you are with him: tell him, though he has wrung my heart, it has not forgotten him. That he should have forgotten me, is little; let him but now remember, that there is another Father, whose pardon is more momentous."

Harriet having therefore intrusted her father to the friendship of Mrs Wistanly, set out, accompanied by a niece of that gentlewoman's, who had been on a visit to her aunt, for the metropolis, where she arrived a few days before that which was appointed for the trial of her unhappy brother."

Though it was late in the evening when they reached London, yet Harriet's impatience would not suffer her to sleep till she had seen the poor prisoner; and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of her companion, to whom her aunt had recommended the tenderest concern about her young friend, she called a hackney-coach immediately, to convey her to the place in which Annesly was confined; and her fellow-traveller, when her dissuasions to going had failed, very obligingly offered to accompany her.

They were conducted, by the turnkey, through a gloomy passage, to the wretched apartment which Annesly occupied: they found him sitting at a little table, on which he leaned, with his hands covering his face. When they entered, he did not change his posture; but on the turnkey's speaking, (for his sister was unable to speak,) he started up, and exhibited a countenance pale and haggard, his eyes blood-shot, and his hair dishevelled. On discovering his sister, a blush crossed his cheek, and the horror of his aspect was lost in something milder and more piteous-"Oh! my Billy!" she cried, and sprung forward to embrace him. "This is too much," said he; "leave, and forget a wretch unworthy the name of thy brother."- "Would my Billy kill me quite? this frightful place has almost killed me already! Alas! Billy, my dearest father!"-"Oh! Harriet, that name, that name! speak not of my father !"-"Ah!" said she, "if you knew his goodness; he sent me to comfort and support my brother; he sent me from himself, stretched on a sick-bed, where his Harriet should have tended him."-" Oh! cursed, cursed!"-"Nay, do not curse, my Billy, he sends you none; his prayers, his blessings rise for you to heaven; his forgiveness he bade me convey you, and tell you to seek that of the Father of all goodness!"-His sister's hands were clasped in his; he lifted both together. "If thou canst hear me," said he,-" I dare not pray for myself; but spare a father, whom my crimes have made miserable; let me abide the wrath I have deserved, but weigh not down his age for my offences; punish it not with the remembrance of me!" He fell on his sister's neck, and they mingled their tears; nor could the young lady

who attended Harriet, or the jailor himself, for bear accompanying them: this last, however, recovered himself rather sooner than the other, and reminded them, that it was late, and that he must lock up for the night." Good-night then, my Harriet," said Annesly. "And must we separate?" answered his sister; "could I not sit and support that distracted head, and close those haggard eyes?"—" Let me entreat you," returned her brother, " to leave me, and compose yourself after the fatigues of your journey, and the perturbation of your mind. I feel myself comforted and refreshed by the sight of my Harriet. I will try to sleep myself, which I have not done these four gloomy nights, unless perhaps for a few moments, when the torture of my dreams made waking a deliverance. Good-night, my dearest Harriet." She could not say, good-night; but she wept it.

CHAP. XVIII.

His Sister pays him another visit. A description of what passed in the Prison.

IT was late before Harriet could think even of going to bed, and later before her mind could be quieted enough to allow her any sleep. But nature was at last worn out; and the fatigue of her journey, together with the conflict of her soul in the visit she had just made, had so exhausted her, that it was towards noon next day before she awaked. After having chid herself for her neglect, she hurried away to her muchloved brother, whom she found attended by that baronet, to whose good offices I have had so frequent occasion to shew him indebted in the course of my story.

At sight of him, her cheek was flushed with the mingled glow of shame for her brother, and gratitude towards his benefactor. He advanced to salute her; when, with the tears starting into her eyes, she fell on her knees before him, and poured forth a prayer of blessings on his head. There could not perhaps be a figure more lovely, or more striking, than that which she then exhibited. The lustre of her eyes, heightened by those tears with which the overflowing of her heart supplied them; the glow of her complexion, animated with the suffusion of tenderness and gratitude; these, joined to the easy negligence of her dark-brown locks, that waved in ringlets on her panting bosom, made altoge ther such an assemblage as beauty is a word too weak for. So forcibly indeed was Sindall struck with it, that some little time passed before he thought of lifting her from the ground: he looked his very soul at every glance; but it was a soul unworthy of the object on which he gazed, brutal, unfeeling, and inhuman; he considered her, at that moment, as already within the reach of his machinations, and feasted the

grossness of his fancy with the anticipation of her undoing.

And here let me pause a little, to consider that account of pleasure which the votaries of voluptuousness have frequently stated. I allow for all the delight which Sindall could experience for the present, or hope to experience in the future. I consider it abstracted from its consequences, and I will venture to affirm, that there is a truer, a more exquisite voluptuary than he

Had virtue been now looking on the figure of beauty, and of innocence, I have attempted to draw-I see the purpose of benevolence beaming in his eye!-Its throb is swelling in his heart! He clasps her to his bosom ;-he kisses the falling drops from her cheek-he weeps with her ;-and the luxury of his tears—I cannot describe it.

But whatever were Sir Thomas's sensations at the sight of Harriet, they were interrupted by the jailor, who now entered the room, and informed him, that a gentleman without was earnest to speak with him. "Who can it be?" said Sir Thomas, somewhat peevishly." If I am not mistaken," replied the jailor, “it is a gentleman of the name of Camplin, a lawyer, whom I have seen here with some of the prisoners before."-" This is he of whom I talked to you, my dear Annesly," said the Baronet; "let me introduce him to you."-" I have taken my resolution," returned Annesly, "and shall have no need of lawyers for my defence."

"It must not be," rejoined the other; and going out of the room, he presently returned with Mr Camplin. All this while Harriet's looks betrayed the strongest symptoms of terror and perplexity; and when the stranger appeared, she drew nearer and nearer to her brother, with an involuntary sort of motion, till she had twined his arm into hers, and placed herself between him and Camplin. This last observed her fears; for indeed she bent her eyes most fixedly upon him; and making her a bow, " Be not afraid, Miss," said he, "here are none but friends.-I learn, sir, that your day is now very near, and that it is time to be thinking of the business of it."-" Good Heavens!" cried Harriet, "what day?"-" Make yourself easy, madam," continued Camplin ; “ being the first trip, I hope he may fall soft for this time. I believe nobody doubts my abilities; I have saved many a brave man from the gallows, whose case was more desperate than I take this young gentleman's to be."

The colour, which had been varying on her cheek during this speech, now left it for a dead pale; and turning her languid eyes upon her brother, she fell motionless into his arms. He supported her to a chair that stood near him, and darting an indignant look at the lawyer, begged of the jailor to procure her some immediate assistance. Sindall, who was kneeling on the other side of her, ordered Camplin, who was

ed, in the customary manner, to plead, he stood up, and addressing himself to the judge:

"I am now, my lord," said he, " in a situation of all others the most solemn. I stand in the presence of God and my country, and I am called to confess or deny that crime for which I have incurred the judgment of both. If I have offended, my lord, I am not yet an obdurate offender: I fly not to the subterfuge of villainy, though I have fallen from the dignity of innocence; and I will not screen a life which my crimes have disgraced, by a coward lie to prevent their detection. I plead guilty, my lord, and await the judgment of that law, which, though I have violated, I have not forgotten to revere." When he ended, a confused murmur ran through the court, and for some time stopped the judge in his reply. Silence obtained, that upright magistrate, worthy the tribunal of England, spoke to this effect :

"I am sincerely sorry, young gentleman, to see one of your figure at this bar, charged with a crime for which the public safety has been obliged to award an exemplary punishment. Much as I admire the heroism of your confession, I will not suffer advantage to be taken of it to your prejudice: reflect on the consequences of a plea of guilt, which takes from you all opportunity of a legal defence, and speak again, as your own discretion, or your friends, may best advise you."-" I humbly thank your lordship," said Annesly," for the candour and indulgence which you shew me; but I have spoken the truth, and will not allow myself to think of retracting it."-" I am here," returned his lordship, as the dispenser of justice, and I have nothing but justice to give; the province of mercy is in other hands: if, upon inquiry, the case is circumstanced as I wish it to be, my recommendation shall not be wanting to enforce an application there." Annesly was then convicted of the robbery, and the sentence of the law passed upon him.

But the judge, before whom he was tried, was not unmindful of his promise; and having satisfied himself, that, though guilty in this instance, he was not habitually flagitious, he assisted so warmly the applications which, through the interest of Sindall, (for Sindall was in this sincere,) were made in his behalf, that a pardon was obtained for him, on the condition of his suffering transportation for the term of fourteen years.

This alleviation of his punishment was procured, before his sister was suffered to know that his trial had ever come on, or what had been its event. When his fate was by this means determined, Sindall undertook to instruct the lady in whose house he had placed her, that Miss Annesly should be acquainted with the circumstances of it in such a manner, as might least discompose that delicacy and tenderness of which

her mind was so susceptible. The event answered his expectation; that good woman seemed possessed of as much address as humanity; and Harriet, by the intervention of both, was led to the knowledge of her brother's situation with so much prudence, that she bore it at first with resignation, and afterwards looked upon it with thankfulness.

After that acknowledgment to Providence which she had been early instructed never to forget, there was an inferior agent in this affair, to whom her warmest gratitude was devoted. Besides that herself had the highest opinion of Sindall's good offices, her obliging landlady had taken every opportunity, since their acquaintance began, to sound forth his praises in the most extravagant strain; and, on the present occasion, her encomiums were loud, in proportion as Harriet's happiness was concerned in the

event.

Sir Thomas therefore began to be considered by the young lady as the worthiest of friends; his own language bore the strongest expressions of friendship of friendship, and no more; but the widow would often insinuate, that he felt more than he expressed; and when Harriet's spirits could bear a little raillery, her landlady did not want for jokes on the subject.

These suggestions of another have a greater effect than is often imagined; they are heard with an ease which does not alarm, and the mind habituates itself to take up such a credit on their truth, as it would be sorry to lose, though it is not at the trouble of examining. Harriet did not seriously think of Sindall as of one that was her lover; but she began to make such arrangements, as not to be surprised if he should.

One morning, when Sir Thomas had called to conduct her on a visit to her brother, Mrs Eldridge rallied him at breakfast on his being still a bachelor. "What is your opinion, Miss Annesly?" said she; " is it not a shame for one of Sir Thomas's fortune not to make some worthy woman happy in the participation of it?" Sindall submitted to be judged by so fair an arbitress: he said, "The manners of the court ladies, whose example had stretched unhappily too far, were such as made it a sort of venture to be married." He then paused for a moment, sighed, and, fixing his eyes upon Harriet, drew such a picture of the woman whom he would choose for a wife, that she must have had some sillier qualities than mere modesty about her, not to have made some guess at his meaning.

In short, though she was as little wanting in delicacy as most women, she began to feel a certain interest in the good opinion of Sindall, and to draw some conclusions from his deportment, which, for the sake of my fair readers, I would have them remember, are better to be slowly understood than hastily indulged.

CHAP. XX.

An Accident, which may possibly be imagined somewhat more than accidental.

THOUGH the thoughts of Annesly's future situation could not but be distressful to his sister and him, yet the deliverance from greater evils which they had experienced, served to enlighten the prospect of those they feared. His father, whose consolation always attended the calamity he could neither prevent nor cure, exhorted his son, (in an answer to the account his sister and he had transmitted him of the events contained in the preceding chapter,) to have a proper sense of the mercy of his God and his king, and to bear what was a mitigation of his punishment, with a fortitude and resignation becoming the subject of both. The same letter informed his children, that though he was not well enough recovered to be able to travel, yet he was gaining ground on his distemper, and hoped, as the season advanced, to get the better of it altogether. He sent that blessing to his son, which he was prevented from bestowing personally, with a credit for any sum which he might have occasion for against his approaching departure. His children received additional comfort from the good accounts of their father, which this letter contained; and even in Annesly's prison there were some intervals in which they forgot the fears of parting, and indulged themselves in temporary happiness.

It was during one of these that Sindall observed to Harriet how little she possessed the curiosity her sex was charged with, who had never once thought of seeing any thing in London, that strangers were most solicitous to see; and proposed that very night to conduct her to the play-house, where the royal family were to be present, at the representation of a new comedy.

Harriet turned a melancholy look towards her brother, and made answer, "that she could not think of any amusement that should subject him to hours of solitude in a prison."

Upon this, Annesly was earnest in pressing her to accept Sir Thomas's invitation; he said, "she knew how often he chose to be alone, at times when he could most command society; and that he should find an additional pleasure in theirs, when they returned to him fraught with the intelligence of the play."

"But there is something unbecoming in it," said Harriet, "in the eyes of others."

"That objection," replied Sindall," will be easily removed; we shall go, accompanied by Mrs Eldridge, to the gallery, where even those who have many acquaintances in town, are dressed so much in the incognito way, as never to be discovered."

Annesly repeated his entreaties, Mrs Eldridge seconded, Sindall enforced them; and all three urged so many arguments, that Harriet was at last overcome, and to the play they accordingly went.

Though this was the first entertainment of the sort at which Harriet had ever been present, yet the thoughts of her absent brother, in whose company all her former amusements had been enjoyed, so much damped the pleasure she should have felt from this, that as soon as the play was over, she begged of her conductor to return, much against the desire of Mrs Eldridge, who entreated them to indulge her by staying the farce. But Harriet seemed so uneasy at the thoughts of a longer absence from her brother, that the other's solicitations were at last overruled; and making shift to get through the crowd, they left the house, and set cut in a hackney coach in their return.

They had got the length of two or three streets on their way, when the coachman, who indeed had the appearance of being exceedingly drunk, drove them against a post, by which accident one of the wheels was broken to pieces, and the carriage itself immediately overturned. Sindall had luckily put down the glass on that side but a moment before, to look at some object in the street, so that they escaped any mischief which might have ensued from the breaking of it; and, except the ladies being extremely frightened, no bad consequences followed. This disaster happened just at the door of a tavern; the mistress of which, seeing the discomposure of the ladies, very politely begged them to step into her own room, till they could readjust themselves, and procure another coach from a neighbouring stand, for which she promised immediately to despatch one of her servants. All this while Sir Thomas was venting his wrath against the coachman, continuing to cane him most unmercifully, till stopped by the intercession of Harriet and Mrs Eldridge, and prevailed upon to accompany them into the house at the obliging request of its mistress. He asked pardon for giving way to his passion, which apprehension for their safety, he said, had occasioned; and taking Harriet's hand with a look of the utmost tenderness, inquired if she felt no hurt from the fall; upon her answering, that, except the fright, she was perfectly well, "Then all is well," said he, pressing her hand to his bosom, which rose to meet it with a sigh.

He then called for a bottle of Madeira, of which his companions drank each a glass; but upon his presenting another, Mrs Eldridge declared she never tasted any thing between meals; and Harriet said, that her head was already affected by the glass she had taken this, however, he attributed to the effects of the overturn, for which another bumper was an infallible remedy; and, on Mrs Eldridge setting the

: