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مان السقالدى
SILAS WRIGHT DUNNING
BEQUEST
UNIVERSITY MICHIGAN
OF
GENERAL LIBRARY
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THE YOUNG WIDOW;
O R,
THE HISTORY
OF
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
IN FOUR VOLUME S.
VOLUME I.
Page 16 line 3 for greatness read gaiety.
22
9
fet
fat.
23
18
this
his
50
20
remembrances remembrancers,
93
16
own
once.
111
2
gates
grates,
160
I
vel
bel.
5
ven
ben.
204
I
fhouldering
fmouldering.
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douce
doux.
233
15
tears
fears.
Hayley, William
THE YOUNG WIDOW;
O R,
THE HISTORY
O F
CORNELIA SEDLEY,
IN A SERIES OF LETTERS.
Non per elezion, ma per deftino.
Um
PETRARCH,
VOLUME I.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR G. G. J. AND J. ROBINSON,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
MDCCLXXXIX.
H
va Gul
62 42
45567
ཁ་་་
CORNELIA, &c.
LETTER I.
FROM HENRY SEYMOUR TO
EDMUND AUDLEY.
EJOICE with me, dear Ed-
mund, rejoice! for he is gone.
Yes! by all the honeft powers, who
frown on the unfightly union of age
and youth, of decrepitude and beauty,
he is departed.-Aye! my friend,
departed, like a fhadow as he feemed
to be, to the region of fpirits. That
hour, for which you have heard me
pant fo frequently with all the fer-
vency
REJOICE with
VOL. I.
B
2
THE HISTORY OF
vency of an impaffioned foul, that
bleffed hour is at length arrived.-Cor-
nelia, the lovely, the tender, the pa-
tient, the dutiful Cornelia is delivered
from her Ægyptian bondage; Cor-
nelia is a widow: and what a widow!
Oh Heavens! a thoufand times more
able to exerciſe and to gratify the im-
perial paffion of my heart, than all
the boaſted virgins that Circaffia could
exhibit. You have heard me rave on
her graces, her virtues, her enchant-
ment; and with true philofophical
phlegm, or with a friendly defign, per-
haps, to divert me from what you
confidered as a very hopeleſs attach-
ment, you have told me that my heart
is the dupe of my own feverish ima-
gination. Yes! you argumentative
rogue! I perfectly remember how you
employed againſt my paffion the
united
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
3
united powers of logic and of ridi-
cule. I fee you at this moment with
that fingular, variable, and interefting
face of yours, in which the rigid frown
of Zeno is perpetually mingling with
the wanton fmile of Epicurus, I fee
you arranging your tremendous fyl-
logifms, and preparing to tell me once
more, that one of your two pofitions
must be true, that either Cornelia
was never half fo lovely as I have re-
preſented her, or if he was once in-
deed a perfect model of lovelinefs,
that her charms must have withered,
like the leaves of an unfortunate rofe,
barbarouſly ſtationed under the deadly
ſhade of a decaying yew tree.
I have not, you find, either forgot,
or forgiven the abominable metaphor,
by which you tried, like a rough em-
piric as you are, to cure my heart by
B 2
dif
4
THE HISTORY OF
difgufting my fancy; a fort of quac-
kery, that is, I must confeſs, very
frequently fuccefsful, and practifed
with marvellous effect, by the wo-
men, in their attempts to annihilate
the influence of a rival! But let me
tell you, prophane wretch as you
are,
Aurora fpringing from Tithonus' bed,
was never half fo fresh, fo enchant-
ing, fo divine, as my angelical wi-
dow. I call her mine, becauſe I feel,
that I fhall be frantic, if I cannot
make her fo. Yet that pious barba-
rian, your brother Charles, told me
the other day, with a facerdotal affu-
rance, that I had not religion enough
to deſerve, or obtain her; confound
his prefumption! were he of any fa-
mily but yours, I fhould think him
the groffeft of hypocrites. Becauſe he
has
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
5
has married the fair buxom daughter
of a pompous high-prieft, the rogue
affumes all the arrogance of the Ca-
tholic Church, and thinks he has a
right to fend to purgatory all who
preſume to act, or to think, in a ſtyle
that differs from his own. He teaches
us, to be fure, by his example, a moſt
orthodox fyftem of happineſs, for he
kiffes no woman but his wife, reads no
book but the Bible, and labours hard
to reinforce the militia of Heaven with
a new party of cherubins, as his good
woman, after making him a preſent
of twins but a few months ago, looks
already as if ſhe intended to double
that favor. Deuce take the fellow!
while I am laughing at him, I am al-
moſt ready to envy his felicity, and
I ought indeed to tell you, that with
his infolent rebuke to me, which I
B 3
have
6
THE HISTORY OF
have mentioned, he mingled fuch an
air of concern and benevolence, that I
felt a ſtrange fort of momentary doubt
in my mind, whether I ought to
challenge, or to embrace him. As it
generally happens in the diſagreeable
perplexity of a mixed and equivocal
fentiment, I did nothing: yet had I
been hypocritical, or diſcreet enough
to purfue my own intereft, in fpite of
a ruffled fpirit, I certainly ought to
have embraced him as the deareft
friend I have in the world; fince I am
fufficiently aware, that he will have
great influence on the future deftina-
tion of my enchanting widow. You
know, I fuppofe, that as he was the
favourite relation of Mr. Sedley, he
makes a moſt important figure in his
will, as his confidential truſtee for the
young widow, and thoſe two lovely
infants,
CORNELIA SEDLEY..
7
infants, whom the feemed to have
made miraculouſly, without any affift-
ance of her unequal partner. Pious as
he is, I really believe your brother
will manage their ample property with
a faithful diſcharge of his truft. If I
thought him indeed inclined to play
the Jew, or the prieſt, (for with me,
I confefs, they are almoſt fynonymous)
I would willingly give him all the
wealth of the widow, to fecure me the
rapid poffeffion of her heart and hand.
Yet I have fuch a rooted deteftation
of artifice and falfhood, that I could
not play the pious hypocrite with him
for an hour, if I knew it would make
me maſter of the object I adore.—I
muft however contrive to affociate as
much as poffible with your brother,
and the more fo as his wife is the bo-
fom friend of my Cornelia.
B 4
Pray
write
THE HISTORY OF
write me word inftantly, if your
fifter Lucy is now refiding with you.
I hope from the bottom of my foul
that he is, as I know that the and
your fifter Charles never país a week
without writing to each other. It is
from this quarter alone, that I can at
prefent gain a little unfufpected inſight
into the heart and fpirit of my dear
Cornelia. I conjure you by our friend-
ſhip to obtain for me all poffible infor-
mation concerning her plan of life,
her thoughts, her feelings, and every
minute article relating to her. Ob-
ferve this requeft, as you with not
only to promote the happineſs, but to
preſerve the exiſtence of
Your affectionate, &c.
LET.
CORNELIA SED LEY.
9
LETTER II
FROM EDMUND AUDLEY TO
HENRY SEYMOUR.
REJOICE with you indeed, my
dear Seymour; but I confefs it is
with a fearful joy.-You know that
I am naturally fubject to an anxious
timidity concerning thofe I regard;
and if my ſympathy in your prefent
tranſport appears too much chaſtiſed
by apprehenfion, you will, I hope,
impute, what you may at firft confi-
der as a deficiency of fpirit, to an ex-
cefs of affection.-In truth, you are
not only in the very limited number
of my dearest confidential Friends, but
you are the very Friend, whoſe pecu-
liar qualities and fituation have filled
me,
10
THE HISTORY OF
me, for fome time, with the moſt af-
fectionate folicitude.-I own to you,
that I tremble, left the mischievous
power of Chance fhould confpire with
fome of your peculiarities, I fhould ra-
ther fay with your only defect, to
counteract all the noble advantages
you poffefs. What young man ever
entered the world with more abun-
dant means to render it a ſcene of
chearfulneſs and delight! You have
an excellent conftitution, with an en-
gaging figure; you have an ample
fortune, without a fingle incumbrance;
you have a gay and brilliant imagina-
tion; you have a warm, a benevolent
heart; but allow the frowning Stoic
to add, you have a precipitancy of fpi-
rit, which may rapidly convert all
thefe inftruments of Happiness into
fources of Mifery.
But
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
II
But I abuſe the privilege you allow
me of preaching againſt your foibles,
in giving you a dull unfeaſonable ſer-
mon, when a little timely raillery
might not only be more pleaſant, but
more efficacious. Instead therefore of
continuing my dictatorial harangue on
your imperfections, let me only adviſe
you not to write an offer of marriage
to your widow, while fhe is adjuſting
her weeds; nor a challenge to my
brother, in conſequence of that infup-
portable provocation-his feeling a
fincere wiſh to fee you a good Chrif-
tian.
Though you tell me I love to touch
your foibles with the cauftic of far-
caſm, I find that I cannot jeft with
any tolerable grace, or eaſe, on ſub-
jects that may preſs upon my heart
with fuch ferious weight.
There
12
THE HISTORY OF
There is hardly a circumftance in
life which could give me more pain,
than a quarrel between you and my
brother and when I confider your re-
fpective fituations, I fhudder at the
probability of fuch an event. It would
certainly be moſt impolitic in you to
offend him at prefent; yet you have
fuch an exalted idea of never facrific-
ing your fentiments to your intereft,
that my
caution to you on this ground
might be more likely to produce, than
to prevent the miſchief, I would guard
againft. As I have a moft cordial af-
fection both for you and my brother,
and a much more intimate knowledge
of both than you have yet acquired of
each other, allow me to inform you,
that although you differ on one great
fubject, there are many points of agree-
ment and refemblance between you,
that
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
13
that ought to unite us all in a very
firm and inviolable friendship. It was
your lot, as you approached towards
manhood, to be connected with fome
mercenary prieſts, both in humble and
high ftations, whofe ungenerous con-
'duct infpired, or rather inflamed you,
with a vehement prejudice, not only
againſt their whole order, but againſt
all perfons who are very zealously at-
tached to the Religion they profefs.
Youth and pleaſure have not hitherto
allowed your reaſon fufficient time to
examine and correct this early, this un-
fortunate prejudice; and accident per-
haps has repeatedly confpired with
the native ardor of your mind to
ſtrengthen the honeft indignant feel-
ings on which it was founded. My
brother Charles, though he has nei-
ther the habit, nor the occupations of
a divine,
'N
14
THE HISTORY OF
a divine, is indeed a man of as religious
a mind, as the church can exhibit:
but his Religion, if I may uſe ſuch a
diftinction, is rather conflitutional,
than acquired; it arifes more from
tenderneſs of heart, and fenfibility of
mind, than from extenfive ftudy and
profound meditation. His piety is the
child of Gratitude, not of Fear; and
its chief characteriſtics are chearfulneſs
and benevolence: it is his favorite
maxim, that Religion not only takes
from us the bitter fenfe of calamity,
but gives a finer zeft to all the plea-
fures of life. His doctrine is indeed
very forcibly recommended by his ex-
ample; for he is by many degrees the
moſt happy being that I ever knew.-
We all talk you know of God, as our
general Parent; but few of us, I fear,
are able to look up to him with a true
filial
7
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
15
filial fpirit. Of all the men whom I
have had occafion to obferve in this
point of view, Charles, I muft fay, is
the only perſon who ever feemed to
repofe with the happy affectionate con-
fidence of an innocent child on the
bofom of his Creator.
You will begin to ſuſpect that I am
metamorphofed into a Moravian; or
at leaſt that I have caught my bro-
ther's enthuſiaſm without his vivacity:
but to confefs my own weakneſs, they
are equally beyond my reach. Con-
nected as we are by nature and by
affection, I fiud there is fuch an un-
alterable difference in our chara&ers,
that I might as well attempt to acquire
the exact turn of his features, as the
peculiar caft of his mind. When I
am in one of my argumentative me-
taphyfical moods, 1 reafon myſelf into
a con-
16
THE HISTORY OF
a confolatory perfuafion that his great
fuperiority over me, both in goodneſs
and greatneſs, is principally owing
to a mechanical felicity of frame.
But I am rambling very far from
the main object of my letter, which is
to conjure you not to indulge your
wit and imagination in any fatirical
fallies against the church, and her fons,
in the preſence of my brother. I do
not pretend to fay he is right in his
maxim, that piety is an effential in-
gredient in a good huſband (the La-
dies we know are ready enough to
grant a difpenfation on this article);
but of this I am fure, If Charles is
once convinced that you are poffeffed
with the ſpirit of outrageous Irreligion,
he will labour hard to preferve your
lovely widow from a connexion, which
in his idea, muſt be productive of
mifery,
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
19
mifery, both to her and her children.
If I thought you an abſolute'debau-
chee, I ſhould be very fearful of giv-
ing you fuch a hint, becauſe I know,
in that cafe, what your anſwer, or at
leaſt what your conduct would be.
You would engage the amorous wiſhes
of the widow in a conflict with the
pious advice of her guardian, for the
pleaſure of watching the battle, and
diſcovering which would be trium-
phant. But though we have both of us
had more reſemblance to the libertine,
than to the anchorite, in our adven-
tures, I am perfuaded that you have
a true and chafte affection for this di-
vine little widow, and of courſe you
can never feel a wifh to fill her tender
bofom with painful difquietude and
contention, when fortune feems to
offer you the tranquil acquifition of
VOL. I.
her
C
1-8
THE HISTORY OF
her heart and hand. When I
thought that your admiration of her
charms could only involve you in a
hopeleſs or a dangerous attachment,
I endeavoured to laugh away your love;
but the great change in your Corne-
lia's fituation has turned me from an
opponent into an advocate for your
paffion. I have now only to conjure
you, not to throw any ftumbling
block yourſelf into the very inviting
primroſe path, that is juft opened be-
fore you.
I can truly fay, to encou-
rage you, that you have as many ad-
vantages for the chace of a widow, as
a greyhound has for that of a hare:
but remember! the greyhound is fome-
times apt to overrun his game, and to
lofe his prey by the very rapidity
which feemed to enfure it. I forefee
and acquiefce in the juftice of your
retort; that I have the flow foot of a
beagle,
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
19
F
beagle, and frequently fuffer the ob-
ject of my wishes to eſcape me, by the
tardiness of my purfuit. Agreed!
but pray recollect what a very uſeful
affiftant the flow dog often proves to
the ſwift one.
That I am highly anxious for your
fuccefs, you will clearly perceive by my
writing you fo long a letter, without
touching on my own lefs delicate
amours. Indeed, I fhould think it al-
moſt a profanation of your divine
Cornelia, if I prefumed to talk of the
wayward Sylvia in the fame page. I
will only add therefore that having
been wickedly tormented by a miſtreſs,
I am particularly folicitous to fee you
religiouſly happy in a wife, and let
me cloſe that friendly with with a de-
vout Amen!
P. S. You will think I am proving the
truth of an old faying, which tells
C 2
us
20
THE HISTORY OE
us all the pith of a letter is con-
tained in the poſtſcript, when I in-
form you here, that my fifter Lucy
is with me, and that I engage for
her being as much the patroneſs of
your affection, as the duties and
punctilios of female friendſhip will
allow her to be.
LETTER III.
FROM CORNELIA SEDLEY
TO HARRIOT AUDLEY.
LAS! my moſt tender and
A dearest friend, what
what a bitter
misfortune to me is the provoking
little accident, which has confined
you to your chamber at a time when
my
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 21
my
heart and ſoul have fuch preffing
occafions for your fociety!
Surely I am deftined to be for ever
ungrateful; for is there not much in-
gratitude in this complaint, confider-
ing the kind and brotherly attention
that I receive from your excellent
huſband, and the affectionate manner
in which you prefs him to remain at a
diſtance from you fo long as his
pre-
fence here can be any way ferviceable
to me and my dear little orphans?
Your own heart will witnefs for me,
that I do him only fimple juftice in
faying, that no man in the world
could diſcharge the mournful office,
in which he has fo graciouſly engaged,
with more delicate propriety, or with
more foothing friendſhip. Indeed, I
know not how your poor Cornelia
could have fupported her exiſtence
without
C 3
22
THE HISTORY OF
without him; for in the week pres
ceding Mr. Sedley's death, a ſcene
paffed between us, which annihilated
all the little ftrength of body and
mind, with which I had endeavoured
to prepare myſelf for that moſt awe-
ful expected event. You will conceive
the impreffion it made upon me, when
I tell you, that I have fet down four
different days with a firm refolution
to give you a minute account of it,
and that I have been repeatedly pre-
vented by the burſting tears of anguiſh
and felf-reproach.-Ah! my dear Har-
riot, had you been a witnefs of that
diftreffing converſation, you would no
more take the part of your ſelf-
reproaching Cornelia. No, you would
certainly join with my own heart in
telling me, that as I was not happy
in being connected with fo noble, fo
elegant,
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
23
elegant, ſo affectionate a mind as my
departed Sedley's, I can never deſerve
happineſs on earth. Good Heaven!
how ftrangely does the capricious hu-
man fpirit adminifter to its own dif-
quietude! How filly a wretch have I
been, to live fix years with fuch a
man, and not love him with true af-
fection, till the very moment in which
he feemed to hover in a middle ftate
between earth and heaven! In truth,
he was much more of an angel than
a mortal in the heart-piercing conver-
fation I have mentioned, and of which
I will now endeavour to give you the
moſt exact narrative in my power.
I ſhould begin by informing you,
that this gloomy and querulous difpo-
fition, which we found, you know,
fo grievous and oppreffive in the early
periods of his long diforder, changed
C 4
on
24
THE HISTORY OF
on a fudden into a kind of feraphic fe-
renity under pain, which excited in all
his attendants admiration and reve
rence. As foon as he found, by a fair
trial, that the waters at Briſtol had
not the flighteſt effect on that internal
uncertain malady, which had ſo often
deceived his phyficians, and preyed
in fo fingular a manner on his wafting
frame, his mind feemed to pafs from
a turbulent ſtate of fufpenfe to a tran-
quil certainty. He was convinced,
for the first time, that he was very
foon to die; and the conviction, in-
ſtead of weakening, appeared to give
new energy to his fpirits, his facul-
ties, and his affections. Repreſent to
yourſelf, my dear Harriot, his wafted,
yet manly figure, ten times more ema-
ciated than when you laft beheld him,
and his piercing eyes endued, as it
were,
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
25
were, with a fupernatural keennefs,
that ſeemed to fearch the foul of every
perſon on whom he turned them!
Behold him wrapt in his loofe coat of
blue velvet, which you ſportively uſed
to call his imperial robe, and reclining
on a fopha, in a filent conflict with in-
ternal pain. Behold
Behold your Cornelia
preparing for her morning taſk of
reading to the poor fufferer, after the
removal of our breakfaſt, at which he
had endured as ufual extreme torture
on the firſt reception of a little food
into his ſtomach. His pangs had ſub-
fided, and he had made me a fignal to
open the volume of Shakspeare which
I held in my hand, when, inſtead of
obeying it immediately, I ventured to
fay, • If
If you are perfuaded that Brif-
tol does not fuit your complaint, why
you not move from an inconvenient
do
lodging
26
THE HISTORY OF
:
lodging into one of your own comfor-
table houſes?" He fixed upon me
thofe eyes of inexpreffible quickneſs ;
and after a moment's paufe he replied,
"I will tell you, my dear Cornelia,
very frankly I wish to die here, be-
cauſe I wiſh to leave you no veftiges
of a wretched fcene in either of thoſe
habitations, where I hope you are foon
to lead a life of quiet, and in due time
of joy." His expreffion ftruck me in
a manner which it is impoffible for
me to deſcribe: I felt in it a mixture
of the tendereft folicitude, and of half-
difguifed reproach; it diftreffed me to
fuch a degree, that I could not utter a
fyllable; but my face, I believe, was
covered with an half-guilty bluſh ; and
tears ſtarted into my eyes. He ob-
ferved my confufion with pity, and
drew me haftily towards him. While
he
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
27
he was affectionately preffing one of
my hands, the book flipt from the
other, and accidentally fell open. His
quick eye darted on the page before
him, and he inftantly exclaimed:
"Here are words that fuit my prefent
feelings exactly; it is my wish to de-
ferve this character from you, my dear
Cornelia, and to leave it engraven on
your heart:
66
Nothing in his life
"Became him, like the leaving it-He died
"As one that had been ſtudied in his death.”
I have indeed no treafons to con-
fefs; but I have pardon to implore!
Let me now fay to you, my deareft
Cornelia, what pride and ill humour
have hitherto prevented my faying as
I ought-let me fay, that I moſt cor-
dially implore your pardon for many,
many fenfations of pain and depreffion,
with
2
28
THE HISTORY OF
with which the peevish and morofo
ſpirit of my distemper, for I will not
call it mine, has unjustly afflicted
you." This tender unexpected humi-
liation of an imperious, though af
fectionate mind, pierced me to the
foul. I funk to the ground, and bath-
ing his hands with my tears, I re-
plied, very truly, that his malady was
an excufe for every thing; but that a
creature whom Heaven bleft with
conftant health, and who failed in the
duty of patient and chearful tenderneſs
to he fick-He interrupted me with
the kindeft emotion, and raifing me to
his bofom, he exclaimed: " By Hea-
ven, you have never failed-your life,
fince our marriage, has been a per-
fect model of virtue, though not of
happineſs." My tears gushed with a
vehemence that I could not diſguiſe,
at
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
29
I was
at this unmerited encomium.
on the point of confeffing to him,
what I have ſo often lamented to you,
my too tender and indulgent Confef-
for, that although guiltleſs of any ac-
tual offence, I have often been ſuch a
wretch as to murmur in fecret at my
deſtiny; though I formed it myſelf, in
a voluntary and chearful compliance
with the wiſhes of a moſt affectionate
father. A dread of giving unnecef-
fary pain to my generous Sedley pre-
vented my relieving my over-burthen-
ed heart by fo frank an avowal of all
its unworthineſs. I only intimated, in
words which my agitation I believe
rendered hardly intelligible, that if
Heaven would fpare his life to my
prayers, I would fhew myſelf more
thankful for the bleffing than I had
hitherto been. He now feated me by
his
30
THE HISTORY OF
品
​وو
his fide, in a manner that expreffed
the tendereft folicitude to tranquillize
my fpirits. "Be calm, he cried, I
conjure you, my dear Cornelia; for it
is of great importance to the prefent
relief of my mind, and to your future
happineſs, that I ſhould have a long
and unreſerved converfation with
you.
I fat filent, and half-petrified with
awful expectation. "I have wiſhed
(he continued) for fome days to enter
on this difcourfe; and I feel, that I
muft not let flip the prefent hour,
becauſe it is most probable that I fhall
not have another, in which I may pof-
ſeſs eaſe, and ſtrength of body fuffi-
cient to utter all I would fay to you :
No! my dear Cornelia, you must not
think of my recovery. There is not
indeed a ſhadow of foundation for any
hope of that kind-and believe me, I
am
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
31
am willing to die-my affection for
you, ftrange as it may found, has a
tendency to favour a turn of mind fo
defirable in a ftate like mine. I have
wifhed very ineffectually to make you
happy your excellent father had the
fame paffionate defire; and as he had alſo
a ftrong abhorrence for the profligate
manners of our young men, and a fond
anxiety to guard you from the mife-
ries of conjugal infidelity, he gave you
at ſeventeen to the arms of his parti-
cular friend, whofe integrity he con-
fidered as much more than a compen-
fation for the difference of our age-
that difference indeed was not pain-
fully viſible at the period of our union,
but every fucceeding year rendered it
more apparent, and accident conſpired
with time and nature to preclude us
from that felicity which he had fondly
per-
32
THE HISTORY OF
perfuaded himſelf we were deftined to
enjoy; flattered by the alacrity with
which you obeyed the wiſh of a father
whom you idolized, I was vain enough
to ſuppoſe that you loved me, before
I had in truth merited your tender-
nefs. Eager to improve your admira-
ble underſtanding, I began to play the
preceptor too ſoon and too fedulouſly.
I beſtowed that time and care on the
cultivation of your mind, which I
ought to have devoted to the acquifi-
tion of your heart. I did not perceive
my error, and its very natural confe-
quence, till I had been vifited for fome
time by the fevere internal malady
which has long rendered my exiſtence
fo painful to myſelf, and fo burthen-
fome to all around me.-You, my
deareſt Cornelia, have been a very
diligent and a very kind attendant
3
to
CORNELIA SED LEY.
33
to a wretched invalid; but your own
heart will inform you, that I am not
miſtaken in ſaying, you have been ſo
much more from the fenfe of duty,
than from the fentiment of love.-
Do not, I conjure you, fuppofe that
I mean to caft a fhadow of reproach
upon you by what I am faying: on
the contrary, I confider myſelf as
making a juft acknowledgement to the
excellence of your conduct; there is
affuredly more virtue in difcharging
very burthenfome and painful duties
with the ſtricteft fidelity, than in
merely acting from the impulfe of an
ardent affection. Yet when I have ob-
ſerved your lively ſpirit depreſſed, and
at times even the lovelinefs of your
countenance impaired, by being in-
volved fo early in offices ill-fuited to
your youth, I have almoft thought it
D
a crime
VOL. I.
34
THE HISTORY OF
a crime in me to labour for the pre-
fervation of a life whofe continuance
could only lengthen your misfortune.
He uttered thefe words with fuch an
enthufiaftic mixture of tenderneſs and
defpair, that I could remain filent no
longer. I know not however what I
attempted to utter, for he foon re-
ftrained my endeavour to take a part
in the converſation, by requesting me
to hear what he wifhed to fay of our
children; a ſubject, which he has long
been unable to touch upon without a
very painful and diftreffing emotion!
After fome affectionate remarks on
their infantine difpofitions, They have,
he ſaid, and I hope they will long
have, a mother to whom Nature has
given every perfection that belongs to
the maternal character: but as it is
poffible that, when they will ſtand
4
moſt
CORNELIA SEDLE Y.
35
moft in need of paternal admonition,
they may find only a nominal father,
whoſe parental folicitude may be en-
groffed by more fortunate children—
As he was uttering his apprehenfion, I
felt a fort of proud anguifh, and affec-
tionate indignation, that I was unable
to fupprefs; and I interrupted him
with a vehemence of manner fo differ-
ent from my ufual behaviour to him,
that he gazed at me in filent aftoniſh-
ment, while I exclaimed: I fee the
full extent and cruelty of your fears.
O Sedley! if I have hitherto failed in
affection, let me now give you a cod-
vincing proof that you are much dearer
to me than you imagine. If it will
afford any relief to the fond parental
anxiety that afflicts you, I will bind
myſelf by any form of adjuration, or
engagement, you can prefcribe, to live
only
D. 2
36
THE HISTORY OF
only for your children, and never,
whatever offers may tempt me, to
marry a ſecond time.-No words, my
dear Harriot, can give you a complete
idea of the effect which this fudden,
unexpected (and you, I know, will
call it) romantic teſtimony of genuine
attachment, produced on the dear in-
valid.
Starting up in a wild agitation
of delight, and looking indeed like a
being juft tranfported from the grave
into paradife, he exclaimed: No,
thou divineft of women, I am not ſuch
a felfifh wretch, as to form a wifh fo
inhuman. Then drawing me forcibly
in his emaciated arms to a pier-glaſs,
at fome diſtance from his fopha,"Look
there, my angel, he continued, look
there! and let the beautiful image in
the mirror inform you what a deſpi-
cable brute I muft be, if, fenfible as I
2
am
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 37
am that you have never yet expe-
rienced the delicious paffion of love,
I could fuffer you to make ſuch a facri-
fice to generofity, as your angelic foul
has fuggefted. No!-But, my Corne-
lia, I am referring you to a monitor
unfaithful to my purpoſe: however
true that reflexion may be to the beau-
ties of your perfon, your native diffi-
dence will render it a weak interpreter
of my meaning. Turn then to me
alone, and believe the voice of a dying
man, who tells you, in a ftate which
admits not any fpecies of adulation,
that you are at this moment, both in
perfon and in mind, one of the moſt
lovely creatures with which the great
Parent of all lovelinefs has deigned to
embelliſh this world. Why do I tell
this ?—for the kindeft of purpoſes,
to imprefs on your own mind a juſter
you
D 3
eftimate
38
THE HISTORY OF
eſtimate of the perfections you poffefs,
that feeing at once their rare value,
and the various dangers to which they
may expofe their poffeffor, you may
render them no more the fources of
difquietude, but the inftruments of hap-
pineſs. Not marry again! Oh, Hea-
vens! my dearest Cornelia, it is my
ardent prayer that you may; and in
fuch a manner, that your fecond mar-
riage may afford you the fulleft com-
penfation for all the inevitable infeli-
city of the firft.
Here his voice failed him, and a fit
of his fevere agony came on fo fud
denly, that I was terrified with the
idea of his expiring, as he leant, ex-
haufted and ſpeechlefs, against my
bofom. I contrived however to re-
place him on his fopha, and after ſome
dreadful writhing of his poor tortured
frame,
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
39
frame, he reſumed his difcourfe with
an aftoniſhing coherence and compo-
fure. In vain I conjured him not to
deſtroy his reviving ftrength by far-
ther converfation on a fubject at once
fo diftreffing, and fo unneceffary. I
am convinced, my dear Cornelia, he
replied, that, at this moment, you
believe it unneceffary; but the day
perhaps may come, when you will
reflect upon it, as a ufeful caution,
with affectionate gratitude. Having
been an unworthy partner to you in
life, I am the more anxious to have a
friendly and beneficent influence on
your thoughts when I have ceaſed to
live. Do not fhrink from my diſcourſe
with fuch an appearance of diftrefs!—
I have but little more to fay; but that
little may be of great importance to
you hear it therefore, I conjure you;
D 4
and
40
THE HISTORY OF
and as the fubject is indeed too affect-
ing to us both, I will then difmifs it
for ever! You have little experience
of the world; you have naturally an
open, lively, unfufpecting temper :
you are ſtill ſo young, that your beau-
ty, ftriking as it is, has not yet per-
haps attained its perfection. You are
hitherto (forgive me for repeating this
important truth), you are hitherto a
ftranger to the paffion, which your
bofom is naturally formed to feel in
the very height of its purity and its
power-a paffion, my dear Cornelia,
which, even in a heart fo virtuous and
fo gentle as yours, is forcible and im-
perious to a degree that you can hardly
conceive !—No! by Heaven! fo far
from wishing to withhold you from a
future marriage, had I the powers of
an angel, I would exert them to ſelect
for
2
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
41
for
you an object that ſhould render
you the happieſt of wives. I have not
fuch a privilege; but I can at leaſt
caution you againſt the kind of cha-
racter that would have the greateſt
tendency to produce the oppofite ef
fect.-Vice, my dear Cornelia, is a
fill greater enemy to happineſs, than
a lingering distemper.-Heaven forbid
that you ſhould ever be the wife of a
man whoſe profligacy might induce
you to regret your departed invalid!-
You muſt indeed be egregiouſly de-
ceived before this could happen; but
how common is fuch deception in the
world! How many men have I known
extolled by their acquaintance for in-
finite honeſty of heart, and high ſen-
timents of honour, yet practising
every device that could be productive
of miſery to your fex; and careffed by
the
42
THE HISTORY OF
the polite world in proportion as they
merited univerfal deteftation! What
examples have we of hufbands, who
married with every poffible advantage
of rank, fortune, underſtanding, and
perſon united in either party; yet who
have wantonly facrificed every blef
fing to a rage for licentious pleaſure,
and have left a lovely woman to ruin
her health by diffipation, or to pine
in folitude over her declining beauty,
and her deſerted children!-But is
there any kind of caution, which a
woman may confider as her fafeguard
againſt mifery like this?-Yes! my
dear Cornelia, there is one, a very
fimple one, which has chiefly induced
me to trouble you with this long dif
courſe. Let this, I conjure you, be
the leading maxim of your life, that
he can never be a proper partner for a
#
lovely
}
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
43
lovely and innocent woman, who has
no fenfe of his obligations to her Crea-
tor It is my hope, and my ardent
prayer, that you may never beftow
your invaluable felf on any man, how-
ever engaging his accompliſhments,
and however numerous his good qua-
lities may be, if his mind is avowedly
deſtitute of Religion. Perceiving that
his weak frame was exhaufted, to the
moft alarming degree, by the great
exertion of talking fo long on a ſub-
ject that preffed with fo much weight
upon his heart, I feized with great
eagerness the opportunity of replying.
I affured him, that fince the hour of
my birth, no words had ever made
an impreffion at once fo aweful and fo
tender on my mind, as thofe which
he had juſt uttered. I faid this with
the ftri&teft truth; and indeed, my
dear
44
THE HISTORY OF
dear Harriot, I queſtion if the voice
of an angel, giving me counfel from
Heaven, could have filled my retentive
mind with fuch grateful admiration.
Nor can I think it would have de-
ferved to do fo; for though a celeſtial
fpirit, defcending from a ſtate of bea-
titude to caution an endangered mor-
tal, might dazzle us in the extreme,
and excite our reverence and gratitude,
yet I hope it is not profane to ſay, that
in the eyes of affection and of reaſon,
there is fomething ftill more admira-
ble in a Being, who, after his temper
had been ruined by lingering diſeaſe,
and his body wafted by inceffant pain,
inſtead of being oppreffed or engroffed
by any dread of increafing tortures
and impending death, collected and
ftrained all his faculties to beſtow the
pureſt advice, that the lips of friend-
་
fhip
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
45
ſhip could utter, on a woman who
had little merited fuch affectionate,
ſuch generous attention. Oh, Harriot!
if I formerly beheld him with un-
grateful indifference, he is now the
object of my idolatry. Alas! what
tears have I ſhed, in reflecting that the
cauſe of my not loving him as I ought
to have done was my own unwor-
thinefs, and the not poffeffing a fpirit
fo noble as his.-But I am wandering
from my promiſe, which was, to give
you a very full and complete narra-
tion of our conference.-I told him,
that although I fincerely hoped and
believed I ſhould not marry again,
yet I ſhould treaſure up his counſel,
as children do a rich and beautiful
pocket-piece, not for ufe, but for fre-
quent contemplation, as an engaging
and valuable memorial of regard and
affec.
46
THE HISTORY OF
affection. I was on the point of ut-
tering a very folemn promife on the
religious article he mentioned, when
his phyfician entered the room.-
Enough! my dear Cornelia, cried the
generous Sedley; and addreffing him-
felf immediately to his medical friend,
he faid, with an air of calm Chriftian
triumph in his countenance, You find
me, Doctor, as your benevolent fpi-
rit would wiſh to find a patient whom
no art can reftore. You find me with
a bofom greatly relieved, by having
juſt ſaid all that I was anxious to fay
in this world. I thank Heaven, and
this divine attendant (here he pointed
to the unworthy Cornelia, with a tone
and gefture ſo affecting that it made
me fly to hide my face at the window),
I am now fo perfectly prepared to die,
and fo weary of theſe waſting pains,
that
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
47
that I ſhould eſteem it a favour, if you
could announce to me the certain
hour of my releaſe.-I now quitted
the room, as I found myſelf unable to
ſuppreſs my tears, and indeed I had
great occafion to give vent to them in
privacy. During the greater part of
my poor Sedley's difcourfe to me, my
whole frame was agitated with a con-
flict of oppofite fenfations; of reve-
rence and regret; admiration of him,
and abhorrence of myfelf. My heart
indeed made feveral efforts to relieve
itſelf by tears; but they were repeat-
edly checked by the reflection, that it
was ungenerous and cruel to indulge
them in his preſence. With him
therefore I wept but little; as foon as
I had eſcaped to my own chamber, I
began to weep indeed, like a penitent
who wiſhed to efface the offences of
many
48
THE HISTORY OF
many years. Reflecting however that
I had ftill a more painful duty to dif
charge, I prayed moft devoutly for
ftrength and ſpirits to watch over the
poor fufferer, with the moſt tender and
inceffant attention, through every re-
maining hour of a life fo rapidly haf-
tening to its clofe. I felt moſt ſen-
fibly on this occafion,
"That but to ask more goodneſs is to gain;"
for I foon returned to the poor object
of my prayer, with the powers of my
mind amazingly recruited. It is well
for me that they were fo, as on open-
ing the door of his apartment I was
ftruck with a ſcene that at firft led me
to fuppofe he had expired in my ab-
fence: this however was not the cafe;
but the poor exhaufted patient had
funk into a little flumber, which his
humane
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
49
humane phyſician had requefted him
to indulge, with a promiſe to fit watch-
ing by his fide. His late exertion had
very viſibly produced a confiderable
diminution of his ftrength, and the
phyſician enjoined me to keep him as
quiet as poffible. We religiouſly
obeyed this injunction, which was
given on the Thurſday; and I believe
he did not utter ten words on the two
following days; but on the fatal Sun-
day he requeſted me to join him in a
fhort and fervent prayer, which he
had compofed and written for the pur-
poſe.-I could hardly articulate the
words, which he pronounced in a low
voice, yet very diftinctly, though at
that moment the cold fweat of death
was ftanding on his forehead.
taking the paper from him, as he end-
ed his devotion, I kiffed his hand,
VOL. I.
E
In
which
50
THE HISTORY OF
which was indeed like clay; when,
looking at me with inexpreffible kind-
nefs and anxiety, he faid: Remember,
my dear Cornelia, remember that the
caution I have given you is not only
important to yourſelf, but to our chil-
dren!—the laft word he could only
ſpeak in a confufed murmur, and thus
he expired in a fudden fhort agony of
parental tenderneſs.. Oh, my dear
Harriot! if it is poffible that
your Cor-
nelia can ever become fuch a wretch,
as to let the juft impreffion of all I
have now related to you be effaced
from her heart, be you my monitor!
remind me—but no, it is not poffible :
or if it were fo, will not the two dear
little beings, whom the departed angel
has left me, ferve me as perpetual re-
membrances of his divine folicitude.
and affection for us all?-Alas! how
little
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
51
little are they aware of the lofs they
have ſuſtained! How affecting is the
fimplicity and ignorance of deep for-
row which infants diſcover, to thoſe
who are labouring under the preffure
of recent grief! When I flew to the
dear orphans on my return from Brif-
tol, they caught indeed the infection
of my tears, which flowed afreſh at
the fight of the little fatherless crea-
tures but in the few days that have
elapfed fince my arrival here, they
feem to have loft, not only all traces
of forrow, but all memory of the
dead. In fuch a mere infant as Charles
this is perfectly natural; but William
furely is old enough to fhew more
feeling and recollection.-But what a
wretch am I to blame my poor child,
when I ought rather to confider how
often I have failed myfelf in affec-
tionate
E 2
52 THE HISTORY OF
tionate duty to the departed! I wiſh
my children to be gay and happy, and
yet I am fuch a fool as to be wounded
by the fight of the very chearfulneſs
that I wiſh them to enjoy. Oh, Har-
riot! my mind is full of nothing but
confuſed and uneafy fenfations; it is
only your voice, the voice of true
fympathy and friendſhip, that can
calm my ruffled ſpirits, and reconcile
me to myſelf.-Your dear Audley
is all goodnefs to me, and you know
I think him a man who has hardly
his equal in the world; but I believe
the moſt tender and accompliſhed of
men have no comprehenfion of the
thouſand little depreffive and turbulent
feelings, that agitate the heart of a
woman who is diffatisfied with herſelf.
But as Audley knows that no human
being has manners more foothing than
6.
our
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
53
our beloved Harriot, he has kindly
preffed me to relinquish my deſign of
going immediately to Sedley-hall, for
the more comfortable plan of return-
ing with him to you.-As he tells me
there is the greateſt chance that the
accident which happened to your foot
may confine you for fome weeks to a
couch, I pleaſe myſelf with the idea
that I fhall be the partner of your
confinement, and affift in your re-
covery. The feeling Audley inſiſts on
our bringing both my little orphans
with us; and I am confident they will
both be as welcome to my tender and
warm-hearted friend as her defolate
and affectionate
CORNELIA.
As
E 3
?
THE HISTORY OF
54
As we fhall have fettled our difmal
but neceffary bufinefs in a few days,
I fhall not write again-indeed it
would be unconfcionable in me to do
fo, as you will hardly have time to
get through the melancholy volume I
am now diſpatching to you before you
fee us.
I am the lefs diſpoſed to apo-
logize for the enormous length of my
letter, as Audley is fo bufy in the kind
diſcharge of his truft that he will
only be able, as he tells me, to fend
you a fhort billet.
LET-
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 55
LETTER IV.
MR. TO MRS. AUDLEY.
Mr
Y deareſt Harriot has a fpirit to
confider my thorough occupa-
tion in the fervice of her friend as a
pleafing attention to herſelf. Pray
have the goodneſs to accept this, not
only as a fufficient, but as a handſome
apology for a brief epiſtle from him
whoſe heart has always a great deal to
fay to you.
We have in truth much ſerious
buſineſs to get through before we can
return to you: I fay we becauſe you
will find that I have perfuaded your
too feeling Cornelia, for whom you
are fo anxious, to feek preſent ſhelter
for herſelf and her little ones under
your
E 4
56
THE HISTORY OF
your friendly wing. As I know how
full of folicitude you are concerning
her, after I have recommended to
your immediate attention a certain fair
creature with a crippled foot, who is
the only being in the world that you
are too apt to neglect, I muft affure
you, that although your friend has
been much harraffed in mind, and
fatigued in body, I cannot perceive
any material diminution either in her
health or beauty. Nor can I find
more than a fingle fault in her whole
compofition, and that is a great ten-
dency to load her innocent ſelf with
iniquitous reproaches. In another
woman I might perhaps be tempted to
think this affectation; but I know it
is in your Cornelia, as you have truely
told me, an exceſs of real fenfibility.
It is most certain, that all her conduct
to
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
57
to the poor unhappy man juſt releaſed,
has not only been irreproachable, but
highly meritorious; for, to ſpeak freely
of his infirmities, his diftemper had
rendered him peevish to fuch an ex-
cefs, that, had Heaven itſelf furniſhed
him with an attendant, he would have
fcolded the poor feraph for flapping
even cœleftial plumes by the fide of
his couch. I lamented his calamity,
and revered his virtues; but though
common humanity teaches us to for-
give and pity the plaintive afperity of
difeafe, I could not, I own, have at-
tended my unfortunate relation with
the unwearied patience of your Cor-
nelia of all human defects that exift
without a bad heart, a querulous dif-
pofition is to me the moſt unamiable-
in health and in fickneſs, it is furely
inconfiftent with reafon and religion:
it
58
THE HISTORY OF
>
it is, in fhort, my averfion; and if
my lovely Harriot herfelf could ac-
quire a habit of murmuring at the evils
of life, inſtead of ſupporting them with
that gentle and chearful fortitude for
which he is famous, I am apprehen-
five that all her other perfections would
not render her fo inexpreffibly dear as
the now is, to
Her faithful and affectionate, &c.
P. S. I ought in juſtice to add, that
poor Sedley's behaviour, in the three
laft days of his life, might atone for
the peevishness of his three laft years.
He died indeed like a man; but I feel,
that I should love his memory more,
if I could fay, with the fame truth,
that he lived fo. When I obſerve the
fincerity and the depth of Cornelia's
concern for him, I feel angry with
him
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
59
him that he did not render her life
more eaſy, as I am confident he might
have done fo, in ſpite of his perfonal
calamity. I muſt tell you, however,
that in his will he has faid and done
for her every thing that could be ex-
preffive of gratitude, efteem, and con-
fidence. Adieu-depend on ſeeing us
ọn Saturday.
LETTER V.
FROM HENRY
SEYMOUR
TO
I
EDMUND AUDLEY.
Have feen-I have talked with-
I have touched her, and the fire of
that electrical touch is ftill dancing in
my veins, though I am fitting fupper-
lefs in a difmal inn; where, inftead
of haftening either to fupper or to
bed,
60
THE HISTORY OF
bed, as the time of night would in-
duce any lefs amorous or more for-
tunate mortal to do, I feize the ftump
of a pen that has ferved, I fuppofe, a
hundred travellers to write their ad-
ventures, to give you a hiftory of
mine.-Ah! if your inhuman brother
were not as cruel as a prieft, I ſhould
have enjoyed the happineſs of paffing
this night under the roof that protects
my adored Cornelia ;-yet I muſt ſay
the pious Barbarian behaved very
handfomely, all things confidered.--
Let me however grow a little more
methodical, and tell you thefe intereft-
ing occurrences in their due order.
To avail myſelf with the beſt grace
imaginable of your kind hint where I
might catch a fight of my Cornelia, I
ordered poft horfes before I had per-
fely perufed your friendly letter, and
haftened
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
61
haftened to the houſe of a certain ho-
neft dull fquire, who refides about
thirty miles Weft of your brother;
and who, with many preffing invita-
tions, could never tempt me before to
pay him a ſhooting vifit. Here I did
penance for three days: my good
hoft, you know, has a head like his
gun-barrel, full of nothing but powder
and ſhot; but had he poffeffed the wit
of Athens, and the urbanity of Rome,
I ſhould, I believe, have thought him
a woeful companion, while he detain-
ed me from that dear object of my ido-
latry, to whom my fpirit had fled be-
fore my limbs could reach her. At
laft the three days, that appeared to
me three centuries, expired, and I fet
forth for your brother's. Heavens !
what a variety of inexpreffible fenfa-
tions I felt in paffing Sedley-Hall!
The
62
THE HISTORY OF
The fight of the hatchment, the open
windows of Cornelia's chamber, and
every object of the ſpot, ftruck in ſome
forcible manner on my heart, and pro-
duced altogether a ftrange agitation,
in which hope and fear, melancholy
and exultation, were
were whimfically
blended. I felt I know not what fa-
tisfaction in contemplating this defert-
ed abode of the lovely mourner, that I
wiſh to make the fmiling ſcene of our
future felicity; yet, as I paffed the re-
cent grave of poor Sedley, I felt a cold
involuntary pang fhoot athwart my
bofom-Were I inclined to fuperftition,
I ſhould ſay that his fpirit fmote me
as I croffed his tomb, and forbade me
to indulge the ambition of my heart:
but my love is too warm and vigorous
to be repreffed by phantoms; were a
legion of ghofts to rife in her defence,
2
they
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
63.
they ſhould not bar me from my pur-
fuit indeed fuch a legion would not
be half fo formidable as that fingle
watchful dragon-your brother. I
believe it was a fcurvy dread of en-
countering his keen eyes in too long a
tête-à-tête before dinner, which tempt-
ed me to loiter fo in the precincts of
Sedley-Hall; I requeſted permiffion of
the old porter there, to avail myſelf of
the private road which leads through
a little ſtring of farms by which Sed-
ley and your brother have very lately
connected their refpective domains. I
contrived to reach Charles's gate juſt
as the first bell was fummoning the
good folks of his houſehold to a pre-
paration for dinner, and as I entered
the hall I met him juft come in thro'
the garden-door from a long and dirty
walk. I felt, I must confefs, more like
a thief
64
THE HISTORY OF
a thief than a friend; but putting the
beft face I could on my unexpected
intrufion, I told him I had taken the
liberty of ftopping to dine with him,
in my road from the Weft.-He gave
me a very polite welcome: I thought
I diſcovered in it more of civility than
of joy; and this idea did not tend to
diminish my embarraffment; but, to
my inexpreffible relief, in a few mi-
nutes he left me alone in his library,
while he retired to change his dreſs.
My heart now began to palpitate at
the found of a female foot in the room
above. I had not dared to enquire
after the widow; and he, perhaps from
delicacy, had not named her to me.
A fervant luckily entering the library,
1 feized the opportunity of enquiring
if there was any company in the houſe,
and if Mrs. Audley was fufficiently
recovered
CORNELIA SEDLE Y.
65
recovered from her late accident to
dine below. The fellow's answer was
fo exactly what I wiſhed, that I con-
fidered him as my good angel, and
was ready to worship him for his
bleffed intelligence. In croffing the
hall, at the found of the ſecond bell,
I caught the firſt fight of my angelic
Cornelia, employed, angel-like, in
fupporting the uneaſy ſtep of her dif-
abled friend. I had the delight of
gazing on them for a minute unper-
ceived, as they came flowly down
ſtairs. In my first compliment I could
not help remarking the very touching
graces of the pofition in which I fur-
prized them, and I expreffed my won-
der that the painters had not more
frequently feized a fubject fo delight-
ful as that of one lovely woman en-
gaged in fome act of friendly affiftance
F.
VOL. I.
to
66
THE HISTORY OF
to another.
"O, cried your lively
fifter, I am afraid the painters, like
the greater part of your fex, are a fet
of wicked creatures, who have no faith
in female friendship; but you have
luckily hit on a moft feaſonable piece
of flattery; for I was faying to my
kind friend here this morning, that if
we ever fit for our pictures again, it
fhall be in the characters of Celia and
Rofalind for my part (the continued
with that graceful vivacity which the
poffeffes you know in a fingular degree)
I think there is more female heroifm
in confining yourſelf to wait on a
cripple, than in wandering with an
exile through the pleaſant foreſt of
Arden." My heart and tongue were
both eager to exclaim: "How bleft
the man who might become the Oli-
ver to your Celia !" But the fudden
appear-
$
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
67
appearance of your brother annihilated
at once my courage and my compli-
ment. Our dinner, I believe, would
have paffed very heavily, had not your
engaging fifter gradually contrived to
diffipate the general conftraint, and to
impart a portion of her own cafe and
chearfulneſs to the little circle around
her. She deferves in truth to be
painted in the character of Roſalind,
for ſhe can indeed "do ftrange things,"
and feems to have "converfed with a
"magician moft profound in his art,
"and yet not damnable." She read
my heart and foul with that quick in-
tuition with which clever women
comprehend all the feelings of a man
in love, before he can thoroughly de-
cypher them himself. She rallied me
on my vifit to the fhooting fquire, and
did it with that sportive delicacy of
F F
ex
68
THE HISTORY OF
expreffion that the neither diftreffed
me nor my tender widow by her rail-
lery; though I faw that the perfectly
knew what magnet had drawn me to
her table. As I am naturally fanguine,
you know I foon felt myſelf infpirited
by the kindneſs of her reception. I
thought her eyes faid to me, I read
and applaud your paffion for Cornelia ;
it is impoffible for her at preſent to
afford you any thing like encourage-
ment; but I, who am her fecond-felf,
and know all her thoughts, will do all
that I dare to infpire you with hope.
This idea gave me new life: at the
cloſe of dinner a very whimſical little
incident happened, which, trivial as it
may appear, I must relate to you at
full length, becauſe it filled us all
with no unpleafant emotion. While
the fervants were fetting the wine on
the
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
69
the table, the eldest of the little Sed-
leys, the moſt lovely and wonderful
child of five years that I ever faw, came
running furioufly into the room: his
beautiful little countenance was illu-
minated with a brave indignation; I
never beheld fuch an image of an in-
fant hero; and we foon found that he
came on a very heroic errand; for, as
foon as he could colle&t breath enough
to ſpeak, he made a very ſpirited ap-
peal to the alarmed Cornelia againſt
the tyranny of Nurſe, who was going
to inflict a corporal punishment that
he thought very unjuft on his little
brother I fhall never forget the tone
and manner of this marvellous boy-
"My papa, faid the infant hero, told
me, that when he was gone to Hea-
ven I fhould be the protector of little
Charles, and nobody ſhall whip him
F 3
-for
0
THE HISTORY or
for fuch a trifle!" He uttered this
with fuch an enchanting air of infan-
tine magnanimity, that I could not
help catching him up in my arms, and
exclaiming, "Heaven blefs thee, fweet
boy, thou wilt be one of the nobleft-
minded men that God ever created !"
I perceived a tear of maternal tranſport
ruſh to the eye of my Cornelia ; fhe
was greatly affected, and was going to
quit the room to regulate this petty
diſturbance; but your brother ſtopt
her, by infifting on his prerogative, as
lord paramount of the nurſery, and
confined her under the guard of his
wife, while he and the little Sedley
went together to examine and redreſs
the grievance.
I defy you to guefs in a twelve-
month the high crime and miſde-
meanour by which the infant-culprit
had
CORNELIA SED LEY. 71
had excited the anger of his nurſe-
Apropos of nurſe-You, whofe idea
of beauty is always connected with
that of fertility, and who think a
woman never fo tempting as when
The has a child in her arms; you, I
fay, would have been frantic at the
fight of this beautiful nurfe; and
beautiful indeed you will fuppofe her
to be, when I confefs that I could not
help ftaring at her in the prefence of
my adored Cornelia-it was a ftare of
admiration, not of licentioufnefs; and
to prove to you that it was fo, when
I marry the lovely widow I will fend
you this admirable creature for your
houſekeeper. You dread, I know, the
galling yoke of Hymen, and you can
never find a more eligible fubftitute for
a wife; he is completely in your fa-
vourite ftyle of beauty-fo rich, fo
F 4
lux-
72 THE HISTORY OF
luxuriant, fo fmiling-in fhort, a land
flowing with milk and honey.
But to return to the infant culprit,
and his inconceivable offence-Blefs
the gay little urchin! his crime was
nothing more nor lefs than a kind
hint to me to fhorten the mourning
of his mother, whom Nature fashioned
for joy. It feems the lively urchin,
who is fill in petticoats, has taken a
pleaſant averfion to black; as he was
juſt equipped to make his appearance
in the parlour in a clean white frock
and a new broad black fafh, the rogue
contrived to feize a large pair of ſcif-
fars, and made feveral tremendous
gafhes in the gloomy decoration of his
drefs, which he could not reconcile to
his joyous imagination. This had ex-
cited the anger and menaces of nurſe,
and the generous interference of his
elder
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 73
{
elder brother, who exulted not a little
when Audley returned to us, as he
foon did, with the little rebel in his
arms, unwhipt, and beginning to fmile
again, with cheeks like two crimfon
rofes, and with two forgotten tears
ftanding like dew-drops in the middle
of each. My divine Cornelia difplayed
a great deal of maternal tenderneſs,
but with infinite good fenfe, and with-
out a grain of affectation. She thought
herſelf bound to chide the young de-
linquent a little for the fake of vindi-
cating the honour and the authority of
nurfe. Your brother, with much good
humour and pleafantry, played the ad-
vocate for his little namefake, and
made him very happy by a promiſe to
replace his hateful black ribband by a
new one of fky-colour. As there was no
mode in which I could venture to make
imme-
74
THE HISTORY OF
;
immediate love to my tender widow,
except by careffing and trying to in-
gratiate myself with her children, you
will fuppofe I was very affiduous in
that attempt; and I was luckily fo
fuccefsful, that I foon became the
prime favourite of both: never did
favourite obtain the influence he wifh-
ed, with lefs hypocrify and adulation
I was in truth the idolater I profeffed
myfelf. O my divine Cornelia, fuch
is the magic of thy charms, they
communicate an inexpreffible attrac-
tion to all that belongs to thee! I pro-
teft to Heaven, I do not believe it pof-
fible for me to contemplate any off-
fpring of my own either with admira-
tion or with love fuperior to what I
felt in gazing on thy children. You
know, my dear Edmund, that I have
always
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
75
always had a fingular pleaſure in the
fociety of fuch artleſs little folks; it
is one of my favourite amuſements to
obferve the free play of unfophifticated
nature, in their looks, their attitudes,
their expreffions. The heroifm of the
elder Sedley inchanted me, and I was
indebted to the younger urchin for a
tranſport ſtill more delightful. The
fturdy rogue did not relish the mild
rebuke of his mother, but began to
pout like a young Achilles, and turn-
ed his face from her with a fulky
grandeur. I undertook to negotiate a
peace between them, and contrived, as
proxy for the little half-penitent rebel,
to imprint a kifs of fubmiffive homage
on her imperial hand-imperial I may
truly call it, as I felt in touching it
by this fportive manoeuvre, that every
fibre of my frame acknowledged its
fove-
76 THE HISTORY OF
fovereign fway. I trembled at my own
prefumption, though in childiſh ſport;
and if my divine Cornelia had poffeffed
lefs fimplicity of character, or lefs un-
derſtanding, my freedom might have
produced a very fooliſh and very auk-
ward ſcene; but, with a grace and de-
licacy of manner that no words can
defcribe, the accepted my homage as
the act of her child, and feemed not
a little obliged to me in her heart for
having furniſhed her with an early
pretence for admitting the little half-
fullen and half-reconciled rebel to her
lap.
When the ladies withdrew, which
they did not without a kind memento
from your fifter that I muſt drink tea
with them before I proceeded in my
journey, your brother, in a vein of arch
hof-
3
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
77
hofpitality, plied me with fome excel-
lent wine; not forgetting the health of
his lovely gueſt: I drank freely, in the
hope of imbibing courage enough to
open my heart to him on the great ob-
ject of its ambition; but the fanctified
rogue looked at me with ſo piercing an
eye that he disjointed the exordium of
an oration that I was ftudying for this
purpoſe: I believe he comprehended
my defign, and my want of affurance
to accompliſh it; for juſt as we were
fummoned to attend the ladies at their
tea table, he ſurpriſed me by the fol-
lowing fpeech: My young and agree-
able traveller, do not think me an
inhofpitable Barbarian for not afking
you to paſs the night under my roof.
• Come, Seymour, I will be very frank
with you; I truſt you know enough
of me to know that I deteft every
6
6
thing
78
THE HISTORY OF
<
thing like diſguiſe and duplicity. I
am perfectly aware of
your ferious
paffion for the very beautiful and ami-
able woman now under my protec-
• tion; if the vehemence of love does not
• blind your own excellent judgement,
you will perceive on reflection that I
'could not invite you to remain with
·
us in this early period of her widow-
• hood, without failing in the delicate
regard that I owe to the character
and the feelings of my lovely charge;
but give me your hand, and be af-
• fured, that fo far from being an enemy
to your well-placed affection, I only
with to find every poffible reaſon that
may
enable me in due time to affift
• and befriend it.' I caught his ex-
tended hand in a tranfport of gratitude,
and could not help preffing it to my
lips, as the hand of a gracious monarch
4
who
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 79
who had juſt raifed an afpiring and
anxious fubject to the pinnacle of ho-
nour and of joy. Alas! my gratitude,
as you
tell me all my paffious are in-
clined to be, was much too precipitate.
Hear how the Barbarian proceeded: “I
am diſpoſed to regard you, Seymour,
as the bofom friend of a brother who
is very dear to me; you have many of
his beſt qualities, but you have alfo
(fhall I fay) his defect, or his mif-
fortune: 1 fee you underſtand me but
too well, by the angry fire which is
kindling in your countenance; but dive
into your own heart, and aſk it fairly,
if you have any juft caufe of anger
againſt a man who is kindly fhewing
you what he knows to be the only
obſtacle in your road to happiness." I
was abafhed, I own, by the tenderneſs
of this reproof; the hafty and indig-
nant
80 THE HISTORY OF
I
nant ſpeech I had upon my tongue died
away without reaching my lips, and Ì
fate like a finner in filent confufion,
while the triumphant preacher thus
continued his difcourfe: "You will
acquit me of impertinence in hint-
ing thus remotely at this very ferious
fubject, when you know that I have
ſome material information to give you
concerning it. I need not tell you that
my relation, poor Sedley, had, with
all his infirmities, a ſtrong underſtand-
ing, a fincere attachment to religion,
and a perfect ſenſe of the mifery which
a want of that attachment introduces
fooner or later into all the conditions
of human life. In leaving a beautiful,
young, and rich woman, in a world
full of various temptations, he was
too wife to expect or to wish that ſhe
ſhould not marry again; but his know-
ledge
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 81
Hedge and his goodneſs induced him to
exprefs to her a peculiar folicitude that
the fhould never marry an irreligious
man: her reſolution on this point is
fettled; and though a libertine might
laugh at the idea, it has been fettled
by circumſtances of fuch uncommon
folemnity, that I queſtion if any human
temptations could lead her to renounce
or forget it. The vows of a widow,
you may tell me, are proverbially frail.
I have not forgot our common ac-
quaintance, the fair matron of Ephe-
fus; but neither you nor I can look
upon Cornelia as a creature of that clafs.
If, indeed, it were poffible for her to
waver, my own fentiments, and the
duty I owe both to the dead and to the
living, muft oblige me to exert all the
influence I poffefs to confirm her in fo
juſt and fo important a refolution.
VOL. I.
G
You
?
82
THE HISTORY OF
You are very young, Seymour; and it
is your misfortune, as it was your
friend Edmund's before you, to be
acquainted with a fet of lively and too
agreeable infidels, who have led you
both, I fear, very wide of that rock upon
which alone it is poffible to build hu-
man happinefs! You both, I am afraid,
confider Religion either as a maſk that
hypocrites affume for their intereſt, or,
at beſt, as a grave bauble for old age
to play with. I trust the time will
come, when you will both entertain a
much truer idea of it, when you will
both agree with me in thinking, that
the very beautiful encomium which
Tully beftows on Literature, is ftill
more applicable to Religion, that it is
"the friend of every feafon and fitua
tion, the guard and ornament of profpe-
rity, the refuge of affliction." But, I afk
your
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
83
your pardon, the ladies expect you; a
fingle glance from the woman you love
will have a much better chance of cou-
verting you than fifty fermons of mine.
I will only fay, detach yourſelf from
your profane affociates, make yourſelf
religiouſly worthy of the divine Cor-
nelia, and I ſhall have infinite delight
in placing her in the arms of a man ſo
accompliſhed. And now, having ven-
tured to do it thus metaphorically, let
me literally fhew you the way to her,
by conducting you up ftairs. With-
out waiting for a reply, which in truth
I hardly knew how to make, he led me
to the drawing-room. There was cer-
tainly much of the friend in his addrefs
to me, but there was alfo a bitter daſh
of the parfon and the dictator that I
was unable to fwallow: as I followed
him up ſtairs my proud fplenetic fancy
G 2
for
84
THE HISTORY OF
for a moment fubdued even my love.
I confidered Cornelia herfelf, in a far-
caftic point of view, as a new fort of
Penelope, who was to make a trial of
her lovers, not by a ftrong bow, but
by the number of chapters they could
read in the Bible; but the inftant I be-
held her lovely angelical figure at the
tea-table, every particle of my pride
and fpleen evaporated. I flew, all joy
and tenderneſs, to her fide; and while
her fnowy hand was gracefully pre-
fenting a diſh of tea to me, I was ready
to exclaim, from the book I have juſt
mentioned," Intreat me not to leave
❝ thee (or to return from following after
66
66
86
thee) for whither thou goeft I will
go: and where thou lodgeſt I will
lodge; thy people ſhall be my people,
and thy God my God."
But
CORNELIA SEDLE Y. 85
But I repreffed my rapture, or ra-
ther adopted a mode of indulging it,
which, inſtead of being exceptionable,
was fure of exciting fympathy and
approbation. I talked to Cornelia of
her children. 1 dwelt on the engag-
ing prefage of a fine manly character,
which the little incident after dinner
had fhewn us in her elder boy. She
liſtened to me with visible delight. I
am convinced there is no mode of at-
tacking the heart of a truly amiable
widow fo effectual as that of making
her own child ferve you in the cha-
racter of Cupid. It has fome advan-
tages over the ftratagem which Venus
herſelf employed in behalf of Æneas,
when the conveyed the fictitious lulus
to the lap of poor Dido, and the ur-
chin, in feeming only to repofe on her
boſom, fet it fecretly on fire. As I
G 3
think
86
THE HISTORY OF
think myſelf, without vanity, a much
honefter man than the pious Eneas,
who, like the religious rafcals of every
age, played a thouſand dirty tricks in
the name of Heaven, I trust that my
dalliance in its end will be very dif-
ferent from his, and that I fhall turn
my widow into a happy wife, inſtead
of driving the fair creature to hang
herſelf; a fate that the generous Dido
could not furely deferve, even for the
extreme folly of having furrendered
her charms to a fniveling, canting,
treacherous hypocrite, who had the
impudence to call himſelf a hero.
But I find, to my infinite furprize,
that I have been writing half the
night; it is time for me to get to bed,
and no longer perfecute either you or
the poor chamber-maid and waiter;
who, having exhaufted all the little
worn-
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
87
worn-out love that they have for each.
other, are yawning and curfing the
ftrange gentleman for writing at fuch
unfeaſonable hours. The conclufion
of my day's adventure may be told in
few words after a very fhort hour's
converfation, which turned chiefly on
the education of children, and the
force of female friendſhip, I tore my-
ſelf from the prefence of my divine
Cornelia; and the pain that I felt in
doing fo, made me, I apprehend, very
aukward and very ungracious, in tak-
ing leave of my hoft. Every circle of
the wheels that conveyed me from his
houſe feemed to raife a new refervoir
of fpleen in my bofom; and before I
reached your old acquaintance, mine
hoftefs of the Garter, who, by the
way, is half dead with dram-drinking,
I had devoted your pious brother to all
· G 4
the
88
THE HISTORY OF
the devils, for a perverfe provoking
Methodist, who would perfuade a
blooming widow, full of warm defires,
not to admit an honeft man to-her-bed
till ſhe had heard him repeat his Cate-
chifm. Adieu! I am as fick and as
full of ſpight as a monkey half-ftarved
by a mifer who pretends to feed and
carefs it. I am however willing to
perfuade myſelf, that the greater part
of my malady arifes from my horror
of the few enſuing months in which it
will be impoffible for me to catch ano-
ther fight of my dear idol. You may
do much towards my cure,
if you can
fill up this dreadful void in my exif-
tence by employing me in your fer-
vice. I have no reliſh for the remedy
that Ovid and Lucretius (great doc-
tors both!) have prefcribed for my
diforder-1 would rather avoid than go
in
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
89
in queft of licentious pleaſure. I feel
indeed at preſent that friendſhip alone
can be a tolerable fubftitute for love.
Make my chaſtity, if you pleaſe, the
flave of your incontinence, by appoint-
ing me the guardian to fome pregnant
Sultana, whom you may with perhaps
to have conveyed out of the kingdom,
that ſhe may enrich your nurſery with-
out impoverishing her character.
You may truft me with more confi-
dence than the Grand Signor repoſes
in the chief of his black eunuchs. I
would not give a ftraw for the poffef-
fion of any woman in the world except
my unrivaled Cornelia; and her I muft
poffefs, or expire in the attempt. The
feafon for that momentous experiment
is yet very diſtant; and let me repeat,
that if you can contrive for me to fill
up the horrid interim by giving me
any
90
THE HISTORY OF
any friendly commiffion, if you can
render me fupportable to myſelf by
being any ways useful to you, believe
me, you will be the best of phyficians
to the untuned and turbulent fpirits
of,
Your affectionate, &c.
LETTER VI.
FROM EDMUND AUDLEY TO
HENRY SEYMOUR.
A $
S you feem fufficiently difpofed
to condemn the waywardneſs of
your own agitated fpirit, and your
fplenetic injuftice to my brother, I will
fpare you the lecture you deferve on
that copious topic. Matters of a more
grievous nature demand our attention:
you
CORNELIA SED LEY. 91
you with fome
you with me to furnifh
interefting occupation! Alas! my dear
Seymour, I am but too able to com-
ply with your requeft: I can inftantly
employ you, not in my fervice indeed,
but in that of humanity; if you have
leifure, as I know you have ſpirit
enough, to embark in a very mournful
office, that muft coft you a great deal
of time, and may involve you in great
trouble and expence, but, on the other
hand, it will afford you the delight of
atchieving the moſt charitable exploit,
and, of courſe, raife you high in the
eftimation of your divine Cornelia.
But why do I trifle, in fuggefting in-
tereſted motives, to engage a heart
like yours in the fuccour of a lovely
afflicted creature, whom calamity has
viſited in a ſtrange land; it is a beau-
tiful foreigner, quite unknown to you,
2
and
92
THE HISTORY OF
and bowed to the earth by the fevereft
anguiſh that I ever faw a female bofom
endure, whom I with you (as foon as
I can restore her a little more to her-
felf) to convey back to the houfe of
an ill-judging father, which the de-
ferted in a moment of natural anger
and ill-ftarred affection. I will give
you the wretched ftory as briefly as 1
can: I believe you once faw a young
friend of mine, whofe name was Pe-
verell; yes, I recollect you faw him,
by your having remarked that he was
the most perfect model of manly beau-
ty that you ever beheld. Alas! my
dear Seymour, tears drop upon my
paper while I tell you that his fine
form, which was every way inferior to
his foul, has been fuddenly dafhed to
pieces, by an accident too hideous for
defcription! You, who know the
warmth
co
93
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
warmth of my friendſhip, will conceive
what I felt on the firſt horrible ſurpriſe
of this intelligence. The unexpected
death of a being, fo young and fo ac-
compliſhed, muſt be diftreffing in any
ſtate; but there are peculiar circum-
ſtances that render the anguiſh of this
event inexpreffibly fevere. Peverell
loved me as you love me, and made
me the confident, or rather the guide
and ruler of his moft fecret concerns:
in a very neat but fmall cortage, that
belongs to me, and ſtands in a moſt
fequeftered ſpot about a mile from my
houſe, he had depoſited the concealed
treaſure of his own warm and gallant
heart, the lovely foreigner I have men-
tioned. She is the child of an old
and rich merchant in Genoa, in whofe
houſe my loſt friend refided a confider-
able time the young couple were in-
ftructors
:
94
"
THE HISTORY OF
F.
ftructors to each other in their refpec-
tive languages, and foon conceived a
vehement and mutual paffion. Poor
Peverell, whofe mind had a ftrong na-
tural biafs to every thing honourable,
thought ſeriouſly of marriage, and
founded the father. The old man took
care to make both parties comprehend,
that he would fooner put the girl into
a grave, than into the arms of any man
ag
who was not a perfon of rank in his
own republic; and the, in the height
of her infulted love, very naturally
thought, that a father deferved to lofe
his child for a fentiment fo proud and
inhuman: the perfuaded the man ſhe
adored, who was indeed as worthy of
her idolatry as a human being could
be, to decamp fuddenly with appa-
rent indignation, promifing to join him
in fecret at the first fea-port, and em-
bark
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
95
bark with him for England. Her cha-
racter is one of the moft fingular that
I ever met with in her fex: from the
fteady ardour and energy of her mind,
we might ſuppoſe her an antientRoman.
On her landing here, the declined the
immediate offer of a private marriage,
from a generous idea that it might ruin
the man ſhe idolized, as the knew his
dependence on a rich and ambitious
uncle; all I wiſh, fhe faid, at prefent;
is to have the delight of feeling myfelf
indebted to you for innocence and free-
dom: had I remained with my father,
he would have forced me into mar-
riage with a wretch 1 defpife; and mifery
might have led me, as it leads many
others, into all the enormities of guilt.
I confider myſelf as your wife in the
eye of Heaven; and I care not for the
opinions of earth: I have a pride and
delight
96
THE HISTORY OF
delight in continuing an abfolute de-
pendant on your love, becauſe I know
your heart fufficiently to be affured that
you can never abandon a woman for an
excefs of tendernefs and generofity.
With theſe romantic fentiments,
and with a marvellous and moſt en-
gaging fimplicity of life and manners,
the lovely Guliana had lived almoſt
two months under my private inſpec-
tion, attended by a little female or-
phan, whom he treats rather as a
younger fifter than a fervant, as the girl,
whofe age is about twelve, is particu-
larly endeared to her, by being the
daughter of her deceafed nurfe, and
of an unfortunate honeft fellow who
loft his life in trying to recover fome
fhipwrecked merchandife of her fa-
ther's. The charms, the character,
and the fituation, of Guliana, foon
made
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
97
made me love her as a fifter or a
child; and I urged the poor ill-fated
Peverell to try his influence with his
uncle Sir Richard, and, without con-
feffing the fecret of the lady's prefence
in England, to obtain his confent to
marry the object of his ardent affection,
by defcribing her, as the really is, the
beautiful daughter of an opulent fa-
ther. I had received a letter from my
friend, who had left us for this pur-
pofe, to tell me, he faw little poffibi-
lity of fucceeding with his uncle; and
I was writing him a long letter of
advice, when his faithful valet, a moſt
excellent and kind-hearted fellow, en-
tered my ſtudy, more like a ſpectre
than a living man: this good creature,
whom I fhall love as long as I exiſt,
for his fidelity and feeling, had rode
all night to tell me, as foon as poffi-
H
VOL. I.
ble,
98
THE HISTORY OF
ble, what he could not utter when he
ſtood by my fide; he had only voice
enough to fay, "Oh, Sir-my dear
maſter!”—and funk in a kind of
hyfteric fit, from the united effects of
forrow, emptinefs, and fatigue. When
I had a little reftored him, he related
to me the horrid calamity occafioned
by an unruly horfe; and as he de-
fcribed the death of my poor friend
with all the ſtrong pathos of genuine
affliction, our tears flowed apace,
when the feeling Robert fuddenly ex-
claimed to me, "Ah, Sir, we have rea-
fon to weep for him, for he loved us
both; but what will that tender foul
poor madam Giuliana do!-O Sir, I
can never tell her he is dead!-No;
I had rather be daſhed to pieces myſelf
than tell her! O Sir, you do not
know how the loves him! You may
think
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 99
think ſhe was his miftrefs, perhaps
and to be fure I thought fo once; but
it is no fuch thing; they lived as pure
as two angels, to my certain know-
ledge. Dear lady-nobody knows but
myſelf how virtuouſly ſhe loved my
poor maſter and well fhe might; for
to be fure he was the handſomeſt and
the kindest man in the world. Alas!
poor lady-left all alone in a ftrange
country! But as long as I live fhe
fhall never want a fervant; and I am
fure, Sir, you will be a kind friend to
her." This heart-felt eulogy and
lamentation from an honeft domeftic
proved of infinite fervice to me; for
the artless and pathetic manner in
which the poor fellow delivered it,
drew from me a very plentiful fhower
of tears, which rendered me much
Etter than I fhould otherwife have
been
H 2
100 THE HISTORY OF
been to engage in the mournful duty
that he fo feelingly recommended to
my attention. My first care was to
recruit the exhauſted frame of the
faithful Robert himſelf: having or-
dered him into a warm bed, I fate my-
felf on the fide of it, to be fure of
keeping him quiet, and to meditate on
the beſt plan of preparing poor Giuliana
for a calamity which was foon to
change her prefent chearfulneſs into
the deepeſt affliction. My meditation
was foon diſturbed, by the ſtarts of
poor Robert, who no fooner got a little
flumber than it was broken by terrific
viſions of his maſter's mangled body,
or of the diftreffed Giuliana. As the lat-
ter feemed to dwell moft on his fpirit,
I hoped to make the good fellow's
compaffion adminifter to his own re-
covery, by telling him (what indeed I
be
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 101
believed) that nothing could preferve
his miſtreſs from immediate diſtraction
but his fummoning' up refolution
enough to vouch for the truth of every
thing that I ſhould find it expedient
to ſay to her, to prevent her obtaining
any fudden certainty of the horrible
event. The honeft fellow ſeemed to
gain new life from this idea, and was
very firm in his promifes and his in-
tentions. He conjured me to let him
rife and attend me immediately to the
cottage, left in his return to War-
wickſhire he ſhould be too late to at-
tend the funeral of his mafter, whofe
poor mangled frame was to be depofit-
ed, as foon as poffible, in the church
where many of his gallant anceſtors
repofe, and which ftands within the
pale of Sir Richard's Park. If poor
Robert and I had been going to execu-
H 3
tion,
102
THE HISTORY OF
tion, we could not, I believe, have fuf-
fered more than we did, in our walk
to the refidence of Giuliana. It was ftill
early in the morning; and my lovely
charge, who has a great deal of devo-
tional enthuſiaſm in her character, was
finging to her harp one of the moſt
fimple facred airs of Marcello; this
was a cruel incident to me and Robert,
for at the firſt found of her pathetic
melody half of the ftrength we had
fummoned for the occafion deferted us.
Giuliana faw us from her window, and
flew to let us in, with her ufual viva-
city and delight; but her features
changed on the first glimpſe that ſhe
caught of ours: What is the mat-
ter!-where is my dear Peverell !”
faid the tender Giuliana, with all the
wildneſs of terrified affection. I en-
deavoured, with all the firmnefs I could
4
col-
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 103
collect, to perſuade her that my friend
was only confined by a very trouble-
ſome, but not a very dangerous illneſs,
and that, knowing our folicitude, he
had diſpatched the faithful Robert to
give us a clearer account of him than
he was able to write. She then de-
clared herſelf refolved to fly to him
immediately, and attend him through
his ſickneſs, at any hazard of her re-
putation or her life. She uttered this
refolution with fuch an air of fonduefs
and magnanimity, that it overthrew
all the promiſed fortitude of Robert,
and the poor fellow burst into tears.
"O Chrift !"exclaimed the quick Giuli-
ana, fixing her keen eyes upon him,
66 my Peverell is dead! yes, I fee clear-
ly he is dead, by that honeft fellow's
diftrefs.' I tried to remove her from
Robert, and fill to conceal from her
H 4
the
104
THE HISTORY OF
the truth; but pufhing me gently from
{
her with a majeſty of affliction that
could not refift, fhe faid, with the
moft heart-piercing tone that I ever
heard, Robert, you never told me a
falfehood in your life: I charge you,
do not deceive me in a point ſo near
my foul as the health of your dear
mafter; anſwer me!-O GOD! you
need not!-I fee that he is dead!".
The folemnity of this appeal utterly
overwhelmed the poor fervant. He
burſt into a freſh agony of tears, and
faid to her, "O my dear lady, you
are an angel; and though I refolved
to tell you a lye for your own fake, I
have not power to do it."-He then
looked at me, as if dreading my re-
buke; but feeing that I alfo was un-
able to repreſs my tears, the poor fel-
low feemed a little confoled for his
1
par-
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
105
pardonable weakneſs, and withdrawing
from us as fast as he could, fhut me
and the defolate Giuliana into her little
parlour, where we fat filent together
for many minutes in a lifelefs forrow
that ſeemed to abforb all the faculties
of both.
I intended, my dear Seymour, to
give you a moſt minute detail of all
the converfation that has paffed be-
tween me and this moſt intereſting
mourner; but two things, Ifind, will
oblige me to contract the limits of
this hiftory Firft, I am preffed for
time, as I wiſh to bring you ſpeedily
to my aid; and fecondly, the fcenes I
have already gone through for this un-
fortunate lovely creature have left fo
ftrong and recent an impreffion upon
me, that I find I cannot yet relate them
to you very minutely without ſuffer-
ing
106
THE HISTORY OF
ing in the relation much more than
you would with me to fuffer. I will
only fay, therefore, that I never beheld
affliction which appeared to me fo
much the affliction of the heart as
poor Giuliana's. Inſtead of burſting
into thoſe vehement expreffions of dif
treſs which I expected from the natu-
ral vivacity of her character, her grief
has been calm and concentrated in her
boſom; ſhe ſheds no tears, and ſpeaks
as if there was hardly life enough in
the organs of her voice to permit her
to articulate. She made but one re-
queft to me-it was a very diftreffing
one, yet made in fuch a manner that I
would willingly have encountered any
difficulties in the world rather than
have barbarouſly thwarted this fond
and natural defire of her heart and ſoul.
You will probably gueſs that her de-
fire
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
107
fire was to fold once more in her arms
the dear breathlefs idol of her affec-
tion; and you will think me little leſs
romantic than yourfelf, when I in-
form you that I have really taken a
long journey, and actually ftolen at
midnight into the refidence of the dead,
to gratify this angelic mourner.
Woe to the marble-hearted philo-
fophers, who infult real forrow by
their pretended confolation, which
the bofom of the afflicted is juſt as
able to receive, as the lips of the dead
are to open for a cordial! The only
way,
I believe, to triumph over true
grief of heart is, to indulge it in all
the vehemence of its fond defires; it
was by this method that I have gained
an influence over the feeling ſpirit of
the afflicted Giuliana, which I could not
otherwiſe have acquired. But you
will
108
THE HISTORY OF
will want to know fome particulars of
our fecret admiffion to the tomb. I
contrived it thus: I let the faithful Ro-
bert return with all the expedition he
wiſhed, and ſupplied him with money
to purchaſe for me the private affift-
ance of the fexton. This man hap-
pened to be my old acquaintance, as
he had often attended me and my
poor departed friend, in our fhooting
parties, when Sir Richard was abroad,
and his young nephew had the com-
mand of his domains. The honeft
fellow lives in a cottage, juft without
the park-pale, by the fide of the high
road, and picks up fome fhillings in a
year by fhewing his church, in which
there are a few curious old monuments.
Being very defirous to keep our expe-
dition as fecret as poffible, we managed
fo as to reach the cottage of the fex-
ton
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 109
ton between eleven and twelve at night.
The faithful Robert had not only met
us at the Inn we appointed, but, to
fhew his uncommon folicitude for his
afflicted miftrefs, had contrived, by his
intimacy with the innkeeper, to ac
himſelf as our poftilion. This unex-
pected and touching proof of delicate
attention paid to her forrow by this
feeling domeftic, drew from Giuliana
the only tear that I obſerved her to ſhed
in our journey. As we found the fex-
ton perfectly prepared to attend us, we
proceeded on foot to cross the park-
ftyle, and walked by a triple row of
old and venerable trees that lead to the
church. The night was particularly
clear, and the moon in her fulleſt
quarter; never in my life had I taken
a nightly walk fo affecting. Giuliana
leant on my arm; but a facred horror
feemed
I
110 THE HISTORY OF
}
feemed to have fealed up the lips of
both, and we glided into the church
as filent as two ghoſts returning to their
graves: I had ftored my pocket with
drops and cordials, left any weakneſs
or panic thould opprefs the nerves of
my dejected and almoft lifeless compa-
nion; but, to my furpriſe, ſhe diſco-
vered nothing of that chill terror which
the time and the ſcene were fo likely
to infpire; on the contrary, animation
feemed to rekindle in her frame, in
proportion as the drew nigh to the
dear fource of her forrow. I confefs
my own heart was chilled within me,
when the fexton, who now preceded
us with a glaſs lantern, with which
the careful Robert had fupplied him,
opened the maffive and hollow-founding
door of an extenfive vault, that holds
two regularly marſhalled ranks of the
dead,
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
III
►
dead, in mouldering magnificence; in
this vault there are two iron gates, for
a circulation of air, and it happened,
as we entered, that the beams of the
moon were darted through one of theſe
on a freſh coffin of fky-coloured velvet
and filver ornaments. Giuliana fprung
from me at the fight of it, and em-
braced the coffin with a paffionate ve-
hemence; the foon found that the lid
had been left unfaftened for her grati-
fication, and having feized the right
hand of my poor departed friend the
clapt it wildly on her own heart. A
ghaftly ſmile of mingled agony and
delight was now visible in her pale
face: I began to fear from her looks
and gefture that her brain was turned
by the impreffion of the fcene; and I
repented my indulgence, efpecially
when the requeſted, with the air of
fettled
112 THE HISTORY OF
fettled madnefs, permiffion to live in
that vault, promifing not to deftroy
her own life, but to receive a daily
fupply of bread and water from the poor
fexton. I never endured a moment fo
diftreffing: I was obliged to fpeak to
her in a tone of authority, and indeed
of reproach, very foreign to my heart.
"Have you forgot, faid I, that Peverell
was my friend as well as yours, and
that his fpirit now enjoins me to guide
and protect you? is it not ungrateful
to us both, to reward me thus for in-
dulging the request of your affliction ?"
She fell on her knees at this rebuke,
and kiffed my hand; then joining it to
the cold hand of her dead lover, the
kiffed them both together, and thus
took a moſt affecting oath of implicit
obedience to me. I haftened to ufe
*the power I had gained by leading her
out
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
113
out of the vault, but was foon diftreffed
by a new petition to return to it, for the
fake of taking a lock of hair from the
corfe; but I infifted on giving this com-
miffion to the faithful Robert, who had
attended us. I hurried my tender charge,
as faſt as poffible, into the open air. I
muſt reſerve all the particulars of our
return till I have the comfort of ſeeing
you, which I truft will be very foon.
Let me add, however, that I am now
very far from repenting of this mourn-
ful expedition: I take, indeed, an honeft
pride in the part I have acted; as I am
convinced that nothing could have fo
well prepared my diſconſolate compa-
nion for regulating her future conduct
as I wish her to do; fhe has ftill in
her countenance and manners the deep
traces of intenfe affliction ; but I
can perceive that her grief is gradually
VOL. Ì.
melt-
I
114 THE HISTORY OF
}
}
melting into a tender and divine me-
lancholy as long as Peverell lived, E
kept his feeret fo faithfully, that Giu-
liana was unknown even to my fifter
Lucy, who was under my roof at the
time of the fair ftranger's arrival at her
cottage. I had many reafons for this
referve; but the death of my friend
and the affliction of this lovely mour-
ner having removed them all, I have
borrowed the affiftance of my fifter in
confoling: Giuliana; they have con-
tracted a great regard for each other,
and I had thoughts of going abroad
myſelf with my fifter that we might
both enjoy the delight of reftoring this
ill-fated, but amiable fugitive, to the
houfe of her father: fome very im-
portant private concerns of our family
will render this project impracticable,
and I know not the man on earth to
whom
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 115
whom I would willingly refign this
delicate office except yourſelf. Per-
haps it would interfere too much with
your prefent very anxious purfuit; at
all events I intreat you to haften to
me, and let me at leaſt have the fatis-
faction of confulting you in perfon on
a bufinefs of infinite moment to the
afflicted heart of.
Your affectionate, &c.
LETTER VII.
FROM HENRY SEYMOUR TO
EDMUND AUDLEY.
YOU,
OU, and your divine Giuliana,
may command me to the extre-
mity of the earth; but why fend her
back to an old wretch of a father, who
1 2
call
116 THE HISTORY OF
can never deſerve ſuch a child! More
of this when we meet. There is, as
you juſtly expreſs it, a majeſty in her
affliction, that enforces the homage of
my foul; and if I can render her any
kind of ſervice, fhe may depend on
finding a moft obedient, refpectful,
and affectionate vaffal, in
Your devoted SEYMOUR.
I hope to reach your gate in a few
hours after this hafty billet. If any
circumſtances ſhould make it proper
for the faithful Robert to quit the
fervice of Giuliana, I beg that he may
live and die in my houſehold. At pre-
fent I am proud of confidering myſelf
as his fellow-fervant. Adieu.
LET-
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 117
LETTER VIII.
FROM MISS AUDLEY
TO MRS. AUDLEY.
RAY quiet the apprehenfions
P which you good fouls have con-
ceived, concerning the morals and the
difcretion of our dear brother Edmund.
Believe me, the fine ftory of his
being entangled with an Italian miſ-
treſs is a fiction of that artful toad-eater
in petticoats who related it fo circum-
ſtantially, and who is, you know, in
my opinion, the great nuifance of your
neighbourhood. Like moſt of her mif-
chievous ftories, it cuts like a ſword
with a double edge, from being a mix-
ture of falfhood and of truth.
13
Yes,
you
118
THE HISTORY OF
you may look as grave as you pleaſe
upon it, but it is even fo: we have
had an Italian lady concealed in our
cottage; but let me add, that if one
of our family had been tempted to
fleep with her, it would have been
your humble fervant Lucy, and not
the innocent Edmund: not but my fage
and fyftematic batchelor, as he ftyles
himſelf, is fometimes a traitor to his
own Platonic philoſophy; yet, as he
comes to me, like a culprit to his con-
feffor, for fpiritual admonition, I have
hopes of working a very complete re-
form in his conduct, though none of
feeing him a married man. To confefs
my own felf-intereſted nature very
frankly, as we live on fuch pleaſant
terms together, and as I think the
chance a thouſand to one againſt his
being ſo fortunate in marriage as a cer-
6
tain
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 119
tain married brother of mine of your
ladyship's acquaintance, I have no very
earneſt defire that Edmund fhould ceaſe
to be a batchelor; yet, if he were
really enamoured of this fair Italian,
who has frightened you and your good
man fo dreadfully, as I am abfolutely
in love with her myſelf, and have not
alas the power of metamorphofing
myſelf into a huſband, I fhould moft
vehemently with for Edmund's fuccefs.
After this honeft declaration, if you
are not dying with an encreaſed curi-
ofity to know all that I can tell you
concerning this bewitching "the of
Italy," to borrow a phraſe from Shakf-
peare, you muſt certainly be fomething
more than mortal.
And now am I ready to quarrel with
my fooliſh ſelf, for having talked with
fuch an air of flippant, unfeeling levity,
I 4
of
120
THE HISTORY OF
of a moft admirable creature, in the
utmoſt grief and anguifh, perhaps, that
a human bofom can experience; but
the truth is, your alarm concerning
the philofophical Edmund's being ſud-
denly ruined by a foreign courtezan
hit my fancy fo ludicrously, that I
could not help ſmiling, though with a
heart full of forrow, for our lovely Giu-
liana. How to tell you who our
lovely Giuliana is I hardly know, ex-
cept by repeating, that ſhe is the moſt
afflicted and the moſt intereſting crea-
ture I ever met with; but, as fo brief
a defcription will not, I am fure, con-
tent you, I muſt add, that ſhe is the
daughter of a rich merchant in Italy, and
was tempted, by the most dangerous
and infinuating of all modern tempters,
Love,to viſitEngland, with that wonder_
fully handfome and unfortunate young
+
friend
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 121
friend of Edmund's, whofe calamitous
death you mention fo feelingly. Poor
Peverell had deceived himſelf with
the hope of being able to make his
ſtately proud uncle receive, and even
love Giuliana as his niece. The horrid
accident we are all lamenting hurried
him out of life, not only before he had
made any fuccefsful advances in this
chimerical project, but before he had
taken care, as he certainly ought to
have done, to provide for the fubfift-
ence of this lovely ftranger, in cafe of
ſuch a calamity as it has pleaſed Hea-
ven to inflict; yet, full as he was of
all the fanguine hopes that generous
love can inſpire, added to the natural
high ſpirits of youth in perfect health,
we cannot wonder that he forgot to
reflect on his mortality. The confe-
quence, however, of ſuch forgetfulneſs
3
might
122
THE HISTORY OF
might have been cruel indeed to the
defolate object of his affection, if it
had not pleaſed Heaven to raiſe a guar-
dian, I might fay, a new and better
father to the diftreffed Giuliana, in our
kind-hearted Edmund. The lovely
romantic girl, who perfectly under-
ftood her lover's abfolute dependence
on his uncle, had repeatedly declined
a private marriage, from a very gene-
rous refolution, of not becoming the
wife of the man ſhe adored while there
was a chance that fuch a ſtep might
involve him in ruin. She had, indeed,
two events to expect: Sir Richard is
neither young nor healthy; his con-
fent, or his death, might have fettled
our beautiful ftranger in the ftation
ſhe deſerved to fill. There appeared a
fair chance, that one or other might
foon improve her fituation; and, as
the
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 123
ſhe had an entire reliance on the truth
and generoſity of her lover, the was
contented to abide this chance, in what
moſt women would have thought a
wretched and humiliating obſcurity,
though under the protection of Ed-
mund.
I muſt do my brother the juftice to
ſay, he kept the fecret of theſe un-
fortunate lovers with fo much fidelity
and addrefs, that I knew nothing of
Giuliana, though fhe had refided many
weeks in a neighbouring cottage, till
the feaſon of her diftrefs. Edmund,
who has indeed behaved to her like a
father, then made us known to each
other, in thehope, which I have not,
I truft, utterly diſappointed, that I
might affift him in the very difficult
taſk of healing, or rather foothing,
the wounded ſpirit of this lovely
mourner.
124
THE HISTORY OF
mourner. As you are now acquainted
with the fingularity of her fituation,
you may, in fome meaſure, conceive
the intenſe grief occafioned by a loſs ſo
unexpected, which rendered her the
moſt defolate of beings.
When ſhe ventured to quit the houſe
of her father, whofe ruling paffion is
money, the made it a point of honour
to leave him her jewels, and to take
from him nothing of value, except
indeed herſelf-a treaſure that he ſeems
never to have eſtimated as he ought.
As to her departed lover, his heart
was much richer than his purſe: his
allowance from the fparing Sir Richard
never equalled his expences; and his
love being of too noble a kind to fhew
itſelf in coftly trifles, he had made
his miſtreſs no fuch prefents as might
on a ſudden exigence be converted into
gold.
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 125.
gold. Thus, if my brother had not
ſtood like a good angel by her fide,
the young, the beautiful, the chaſte,
and lately opulent Giuliana, might
have been reduced, with her little
Abigail, a ſweet orphan girl of twelve
years, either to beg her way home to
an enraged father, or to feek fubfif-
tence among ftrangers by fome hu-
miliating occupation. The bare idea
of fuch a lovely creature falling fud-
denly into fuch penury and wretched-
neſs makes my heart fhudder when-
ever it recurs to my mind; but our
tender Giuliana never felt her mif-
fortune in this hideous point of view;
fhe felt only the lofs of him by the
light of whoſe countenance alone ſhe
appeared to exift; and fhe felt it fo in-
tenfely, that Edmund affures me it
was the paffionate defire of her foul
to
126:
THE HISTORY OF
to be ſhut up from the world, and
end her exiſtence in the vault that
holds the ſhattered frame of her ill-
fated lover. I will tell you, one day
or other all that our dear Edmund
has done to indulge the wildneſs of her
affliction; at prefent I muft only fay,
that no Don Quixote ever exerted
more generous fpirit to reſtore a dif-
treffed fair-one to her living lord, than
our brother has done to gratify the in-
tenfe grief of this true and engaging
mourner for the gallant youth fhe has
loft. His fuccefs has been equal to
his good intention. I never faw gra-
titude expreffed by any human being
in a manner fo touching as Giuliana's
in expreffing hers to us both. It is
not by faying the is obliged to us, but
by fhewing, in a thouſand undeſcribe-
able ways, that her gratitude is by no
means
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 127
means inferior to her exceffive afflic-
tion; by letting us fee that the makes
her poor broken and bleeding heart
fubmit itſelf entirely to the guidance
of my brother; and that he has gained
an influence like that of Heaven over
her actions and even her will. I have
really had a great, though melancholy
delight in contemplating the very fin-
gular regard which compaffion on his
part, and forrow and gratitude on
hers, have produced between them.
I never beheld any human attachment
more affecting; and Edmund, you
know, has imparted to me his habit
of moralizing on our paffions and af-
fections. My contemplations, I con-
fcfs, are very apt to be infected with
feminine weaknefs; and, to tell you
an honest truth, I could not behold
the influence of Edmund and Giuliana
on
128
THE HISTORY OF
: E
1
on each other without finding an idea
of their union perpetually obtruding
itſelf on my reluctant mind; yet, as I
own the idea was very unfuitable to
the time and circumftances, I never
mentioned it to either, and I will
pawn my life that it never occurred
either to the one or the other. Ed-
mund is fo very anxious to have this
tender unhappy fugitive fafely restored
and reconciled to her father, that we
had thoughts of taking a trip to Italy,
for the fatisfaction of eſcorting her
home. How charming would this
have been, to have united humanity
and pleaſure ſo delightfully! But, alas!
the provoking legal bufinefs, which
we now find in fuch a train as to re-
quire our preſence in England for fome
months, is an infuperable bar to this
captivating project. Edmund, how-
+
ever,
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
129
ever, has been fo fortunate as to find
a charitable proxy, to his heart's con-
tent. Giuliana and her little atten-
dant are fet forth this morning on
their return to Italy, under the guid-
ance and protection of his friend Sey-
mour, who, after paffing a few days
here, has undertaken, in the moſt de-
licate and generous manner, not only
to convey the two forlorn foreigners to
their own country, but to accompliſh
a reconcilement between Giuliana and
her father, exactly in the way that my
brother had devifed.
So you really think that your ſweet
friend Cornelia has conceived, with-
out knowing it, a real paffion for Sey-
mour. I am not at all furprized at it;
eſpecially after the diverting anecdotes
you tell me of the fondnefs which her
children have conceived for this en-
VOL. I.
K
gaging
130
THE HISTORY OF
gaging mortal. I own, if I were a
widow myfelf, nothing would win me
fo foon as the perceiving a man beloved
by my children, and of courſe very
fond of them. I believe Seymour is
perfectly fincere in his prefent extreme
paffion for the widow; but, were I
in her cafe, I ſhould tremble for the
iffue of the expedition in which he has
fo gallantly embarked. To travel fo
far, by land and by fea, with a moſt
beautiful creature, in the most in-
terefting of all poffible fituations!-
Well, I will only fay, if he continues
fteady in his attachment to your Cor-
nelia, he is a Phoenix of a lover, and
deferves to be cherished accordingly.
As our dear Edmund is apt, you
know, to be very profound in his pro-
jects of benevolence, he has a double
view in committing Giuliana to the
care
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 131
care of his friend. But, to explain this,
I must tell you a circumftance in
which your good huſband will triumph
not a little, as it affords a ftriking
confirmation of his favourite maxims,
concerning the ufe and efficacy of de-
votion in every period of life. Pray
defire him, therefore, to take notice,
that this piece of information is ad-
dreffed particularly to himfelf; and
he, I am fure, will not fuppofe me
miſtaken, when I tell him, that al-
though Edmund's very tender and pa-
rental attention to the defolate Giuli-
ana had great influence in foothing
her forrow, yet, in truth, it is Reli-
gion alone that has enabled her wound-
ed fpirit to furmount the calamity
which appeared to crufh it. From all
the particulars of her ſtory, I am con-
vinced that the felt for the unhappy
K 2
Peve
132
THE HISTORY OF
Peverell as pure and as ftrong a paffion
as the female bofom is capable of feel-
ing. The devotional turn of her mind
has converted her love into literal and
furely happy and pardonable adora-
tion. She confiders this dear object,
not as hurried out of life to leave her
without a guardian, in the thorny
and dangerous paths of the world, but
as tranfported to Heaven, to fecure for
her, and to ſhare with her, everlaſting
felicity. She thinks herſelf not only
awakened and directed by this angelic
guide to fave her own foul, but to at-
tempt and accompliſh the falvation of
her father. She is perfuaded, and per-
haps with fome truth, that both have
been deficient in their refpective duties,
from being equally blinded by two dif-
ferent deceivers, Intereft and Love.
Your husband would be marvellously
เ
de-
t
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
133
delighted by her pathetic eloquence on
this devout fubject. Indeed, I hardly
think it poffible for the moſt hardened
Infidel to hear her without tears, and
without paying the lovely preacher at
leaſt ſuch a compliment as Agrippa
paid to Paul. It is on the ſweet magic
of this heavenly forrow that our good
Edmund has built fome very friendly
hopes in behalf of Seymour. He is
willing to believe that a long atten-
dance on this engaging mourner, this
divine enthuſiaſt, may cure that too
light though agreeable and generous
young man, of the alarming irreligious
levity, which is the only blemiſh in
his attractive character. For my own
part, I must fay, though I think the
obfervation does not become a fpinſter,
I fear there is more benevolence than
probability in Edmund's idea. I am
K 3
afraid
134
THE HISTORY OF
afraid the expedition may rather lead
this too lively creature into a profane
paffion for the beauty before him, than
into a religious attachment to an abfent
fair. I muſt however do him the juſ-
tice to fay, that he fhews the moſt
delicate reſpect to the grief of Giuliana.
But his efteem for her devotion I can
guefs, by one of his fprightly remarks
to me concerning her prefent views.
The rogue faid, he did not apprehend
that any piety was ftrong enough to cure
a young woman of Love, or an old
man of Avarice. I fhould add, however,
that after oppofing Giuliana's return
to the old mifer, to uſe his own word,
he became an abfolute convert to the
reaſoning of my brother, and appeared
to ſympathife with him moſt cordial-
ly in his wifh of reconciling the dear
lovely devout girl, and her outrageous
- father.
I am
CORNELIA ŠEDLEY.
135
I am charged, by Seymour, to foli-
you and
cit both
your Cornelia to ho-
nor him with fome commiffions abroad;
and I have promifed to convey to him
your reſpective commands. As your
friend has fo fweet a voice, I think
you
cannot do better than defire a complete
collection of all the airs fung by our
dear Giuliana. My brother fays, fhe
has an infinite variety of fongs, un-
known in our country, and wonder-
fully fweet.
Beſides their intrinfic
merit as mufical compofitions, they
will have an additional charm to all of
us, in recalling the lovely image of
Giuliana to our minds. The attractions
of her character are fuch, that even
you and Cornelia, who have never be-
held her beauty, will yet have a plea-
fure in thinking of her, when Edmund
and I have had fufficient opportunities
K 4
to
136
THE HISTORY OF
to tell you a thouſand little interefting
anecdotes relating to her ſhort refidence
in our country.
At preſent I muſt add but a few
lines to this enormous pacquet, for
which I fhall hope to be as amply re-
paid, by a full hiſtory of all the new
diſcoveries that you may have made in
the heart of Cornelia. Pray fend, if
you dare, a few animating words for
me to diſpatch to the generous guardian
of Giuliana on his travels. There is
fome virtue in this petition, for it may
keep him conftant to his prefent chafte
paffion, to give him fome profpect of
future fuccefs. I am ready to laugh at
myſelf, in perceiving what a lively
intereft I, who have renounced love
or my own account, am ftill ready to
take in the loves of my acquaintance.
I am, I think, like an unlucky game.
fter,
CORNÉLIA SEDLEY. 137
fter, who, having narrowly escaped
the utter wreck of his fortune, and
having folemnly fworn never to touch
a card again, yet loiters round the ta-
bles, and has an odd pleaſure in peeping
into every hand that he can catch a fight
of. Well, Heaven bleſs all the anxious
adventurers, fay I, in this round game
of chance, that I have declined for ever.
You, my dear Harriot, are like a lucky
mortal at commerce, who has triumph-
antly cried, "Content;" perfectly ſecure
that no one can exhibit a richer hand.
The contemplative Edmund fays, that
in every numerous family there fhould
be one maiden aunt, and one batchelor
uncle, to buy toys for the children,
and to lecture the parents.
We are
both ſteady in our purpoſe to fill theſe
humble, but uſeful and quiet depart-
ments of life, and to remain, as the
great
738
THE HISTORY OF
great philofopher whom I have juſt
named expreffes it, in a wife and armed
neutrality, between the joys and af
flictions that are continually treading
on the heels of each other, both in
love and wedlock.—Adieu.
LETTER IX.
MRS. AUDLEY
[in anſwer to the preceding].
You
OU are a charming good crea-
ture, my dear Lucy, to relieve
us fo foon, and fo effectually, from
our apprehenfions. You have made
us laugh at our own moral panic, as I
may call it, concerning the continence
of Edmund. You have made us weep
5
at
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
139
at the very bitter affliction of your in-
terefting Giuliana; and you have made
us laugh again by the pleafantry of
your fage reflections upon fingle bleſs-
edneſs. You may talk as you pleaſe
of your wife intentions; but I hope
deſtiny has more benevolence to man,
than to have devoted fuch a delightful
creature as my dear correſpondent to a
life of celibacy. You have, indeed,
had a narrow eſcape, after much agi-
tation of the heart, from matrimonial
mifery, with a partner who fhewed
himſelf in a fortunate, though painful
moment, unworthy of the bleffing that
in the blindneſs of our deluded affection
we all wished him to poffefs. You felt,
and you fupported, the diſappointment
in a manner that has rendered you inex-
preffibly dear to all who have the hap-
pineſs of your friendſhip; and I truſt
it
140
THE HISTORY OF
it will be your lot to receive a richer
reward in the love of fome happier
man, as perfectly deferving of you as
the wretch I allude to was unworthy.
Deuce take the artful fellow! I hate to
think of him; yet the remembrance of
all his baſe deceptions will often creep
over my mind, like a chilling miſt
with a damp eafterly wind. There
is certainly much more true heroiſm in
your foul, my dear Lucy, than in mine;
though my good man often pays me
compliments on my fortitude, I could
not have paffed through ſuch ſcenes as
you have had to fuftain, with half your
fpirit, or half your good ſenſe. I rejoice
to find that you ſtill retain the natural
tender gaiety of your heart, and form
to yourſelf an agreeable amuſement in
contemplating the affections of your
acquaintance.
I am
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 141
I am most willing to impart to you
the intelligence you requeft; yes, yes,
I have made diſcoveries in the boſom
of our Cornelia. Do not the philoſo-
phers talk of little fpots in the moon
that they affirm to be burning volca-
nos! I can perceive, without the aid
of any marvellous glaffes from that
moſt obliging and polite man of deep
ſcience Mr. Herfchell, a fpot of this
flaming nature in that chaſte luminary
the heart of our lovely widow. Hea-
vens! what a crimſon cheek would the
have, were ſhe to peep over my thould-
er, and peruſe this faucy fentence!
But'tis even fo; love is like murder, not
to be concealed, however obftinately
it may be denied. The dear dainty
hypocrite is angry with me, when I
tell her fo; yet I could give you a
thouſand little unquestionable evidences
I
in
1
142
THE HISTORY OF
in fupport of my charge; but I have
only time to tell you one, that ftruck
me yeſterday: a gentleman happened
to dine with us, who has paffed the
greater part of his life abroad. Corne-
lia engaged him in a converfation apart,
and I accidentally difcovered that Ge-
noa had been a capital fubject in their
difcourfe: the had enquired if Engliſh
travellers had ever been tempted to mar-
ry there by the fair natives of that opu-
lent city: when I, jeſtingly, alluded to this
enquiry, which ſhe did not ſuppoſe me
to know, the blufhed in fuch a violent
degree, that as we were alone I could
not help feizing her hand, and exclaim-
ing, in a very odd fort of emotion,
between a laugh and a cry, "Well,
my dear, you ſhall have him, let him
be Jew or Gentile." This led us into
much ferious converfation, in which,
with
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
143
with more frankneſs than ſhe had ever
fhewn upon this fubject before, the
confeffed-Here, Lucy, I fee you ſmile,
in full and rogueifh expectation of pe-
rufing the word Love; that, indeed,
would have been a confeffion worth
liftening to; but not fo faft, my dear
girl, we are not yet arrived at that
ſtage of the diſorder; no, we confeffed
only, that of all the fingle men in the
world this lively and generous travel-
ler, Mr. Seymour, is the moſt agreeable
in figure, in manners, in converfation;
but as to love, no: pofitively, feriouf-
ly, and by all the unquestionable
affeverations that ever paffed the chaſte
lips of widowhood, we have not the
flighteſt ſpark of that fiery paffion in
our frame: Mr. Seymour may pafs his
whole life in Italy, and we ſhould feel
no farther folicitude concerning him,
than
144
THE HISTORY OF
than what every amiable mind muſt
feel for the welfare of an accompliſhed
young man, who engaged fo readily
in a rare and noble act of humanity,
And fo, my dear Lucy, fo "we de-
ceive ourſelves, and the truth is not in
us." She means all that ſhe ſays, for her
honeft lips have not the power of ut-
tering even an equivocation, if her
mind was capable of confpiring with
her heart to meditate difguife. She be-
lieves herſelf perfectly free from the ſoft
infection. But if I know any thing of
love, or human nature, fhe is actually
fallen into the malady of poor Dido;
and as Virgil and Dryden fay of that
hapless Queen,
She feeds within her veins a flame unfeen."
Oh, pray order for us the col-
lection of Giuliana's fongs; Love is an
admirable mufic-mafter. Do not fail
to fend us the earlieſt tidings you re-
ceive
3
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
145
ceive of the interefting travellers; you
may tell Seymour, from me, that if
he will but grow half as devout as he
is agreeable, there is nothing honour-
able which he may not hope from the
moft fcrupulous of our fex. I have
ftill a thouſand things to fay to you,
but I must referve them till I write
again the youngest of my dear little
chits has been ailing thefe two days;
and I must throw afide my pen to take
the little invalid in my arms..
Ah, Lucy, the taxes on matrimonial
happineſs run very high! Adieu.
poor
VOL. I.
L
LET-
146 THE HISTORY OF
LETTER X.
SEYMOUR TO EDMUND AUDLEY.
ERE we are, fafe at Dover;
and after writing the incloſed
extempore tranflation of what the
grateful Giuliana dictated to me in her
own language, I have hardly time to
add a word more, as they are hurry-
ing us on board the packet, left we
loſe our paffage. Yet I will fay, I am
inexpreffibly obliged to you for the
very high, though mournful delight,
I receive in executing the office with
which you have honoured me. I now
indeed fubſcribe to your maxim, that
the melancholy pleaſures are far fupe-
rior to the gay ones. What a heavenly
creature is this Giuliana! How wil-
lingly
CORNELIA SÉ DLEY.
147
lingly would I expire by any death, tỏ
receive from my adored Cornelia ſuch
genuine tenderneſs as Peverell receives
from this angelic mourner! How
nonfenfical, how frantic, would this
idea appear, to beings who never were
in love, and have no feelings for the
delicious extravagance of that ſublime
paffion! yet it reigns at this moment
in full force over my heart and ſoul.
But here is a fecond fummons from
the captain of the packet; fo fare-
well.
L 2
LET-
148 THE HISTORY OF
LETTER XI.
GIULIANA TO EDMUND AND LUCY
TH
AUDLEY.
HOUGH I borrow the hand
and the language of my gene-
rous conductor, it is with my own
poor and broken, but not ungrateful
heart, that I fend theſe hafty thanks
and tendereft remembrances to you
both, dear friends; deareft and kind-
eft of all living natives of this dear
land, that I am going to quit for ever,
though it holds in its bofom the loft
treaſure of my foul. Do not think
that your Giuliana, whom you have
fo benignly laboured to reſcue from
defpair and diſtraction, begins to mur-
mur again in wicked forgetfulneſs,
either
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 149
either of your moſt friendly admoni-
tions, or of thoſe ſacred ſuggeſtions in-
fpired into her wounded bofom by
that
"Alma felice che fovente torna
A confolar le mie notti dolenti
Con gli occhi fuoi che morte non ha
fpenti."
PETRARCH.
[That bleffed foul that often returns to
foothe my nights of forrow with his eyes
that death has not extinguifhed.]
No, my dear friends, let me affure
you, fince I know it will pleaſe your
benevolent hearts, that I have rather
gained than loft both compoſure and
fortitude of mind; and my bodily
health is far better than I thought it
could poffibly be on fuch an embark-
ation as this. I will confefs to you,
that the firſt fight of the fea, which I
L 3
am
150
THE HISTORY OF
am to repaſs, affected my whole frame
in a manner that no words can exprefs;
it brings to me, with fuch new force,
the dear image of him who led me a-
croſs it to your ſhore;
"Rende a gli occhi a gli orecchi il pro-
prio obbietto
Senz'l qual imperfetto
E lor oprar, e'l mio viver' e morte."
PETRARCH.
[It reftores to my eyes and to my ears
their proper object, without which their
functions are imperfect, and my life is
death.]
i.
Pardon me, dearest friends, for per-
petually uſing the words of a tender
and heavenly poet of my country,
who, though his lofs and calamity was
not equal to mine, has powerfully
expreffed the feelings of my affliction.
It ſeems to me as if my Peverell had
a pre-
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
151
a prefentiment of what was to befall
me when he delighted in making me
recite to him the most pathetic com-
pofitions of our favourite Petrarch: it
feems as if he forefaw that the melan-
choly verſes of that exquifite poet would
one day be a fort of foothing magic
to the heart on which he fo diligently
imprinted them. Such indeed they
are to me now; and efpecially all the
many heavenly paffages that fo forcibly
repreſent to me,
"il mio fido e caro duce
Che mi conduffe al mondo or mi conduce
Per miglior via a vita fenza affanni."
[My faithful and dear guide, who once
conducted me in this world, and now
conducts me by a better road to a life
without pain.]
But my devout attachment to this
dear celeftial guide of my foul muſt
L 4
not
152 THE HISTORY OF
not make me ungratefully omit to
thank you for the affiftance I receive
from that friendly and generous con-
ductor to whofe care you have ſo kind-
ly commended me, and who is fo
good as to make my poor thoughts in-
telligible to you. He is fo indulgent
to my forrow, and fhews fo much
fympathy in it, that I almoft perfuade
myſelf he is a brother of my dear
Peverell. Ah! my heart tells me,
that every gentle fpirit of your be-
loved country must be confidered by
me as his brother. If any fuch ſhould
happen to be overtaken by calamity in
the land where I muft pafs the refidue
of my mournful life, what fatisfaction
fhould I have in adminiftering to their
diftrefs; and thus proving myfelf ever
mindful of thofe infinite and inexpref-
fible obligations which my dear Eng-
lifh
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 153
liſh father Edmund and his angelic
fifter have heaped on your poor devot-
ed Giuliana !—Dear England, and dear-
ett of friends, adieu! I kiss your cha-
ritable hands with the moft impaffioned
gratitude and reverence-Encor adio.
Thus far Giuliana-I cannot clofe
this paper, as her fecretary, without
adding, in this fpare corner of it, a
ſhort ejaculation, imploring the genius
of this divine woman, and the ſpirit of
Petrarch, to forgive me for all the in-
juſtice I have done to their rich, de-
licate, harmonious language, by the
poverty and roughneſs of my rapid ex-
tempore tranflation.
SEYMOUR.
LET-
1
154
THE HISTORY OF
LETTER XII.
SEYMOUR TO EDMUND AUDLEY
Calais.
A
FTER a fmooth, but rather
flow paffage, we are at length in
France! thank Heaven. You want not
any defcription of French people, or
French buildings; if you did, I fear
the accounts you would gain from me
would be very unfatisfactory. I can
fee and hear nothing but my marvel-
louſly interefting fellow-traveller.
What a divine creature fhe is! how
admirable in her form and faculties!
how exquifite in her fenfations! what
efforts of heart and foul has it cost her
to tear herſelf from the land that holds
her buried lover! I can never forget
her
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
155
her looks and gefture as fhe quitted our
coaft. The last thing ſhe did on ſhore
was to stoop and pick up a pebble,
which the kiffed devoutly, and then
preffed into her bofom: a million of
words could not have expreffed fo much
as ſhe did by this little geſture. I be-
lieve I ſhould have thought it fantaſtic
in another woman; but in Giuliana it
appeared fimple, graceful and affecting,
in the highest degree. What a rich
fund of fingular and entirely new de-
lights have
afforded me, my
me, my dear
Edmund, by this commiffion! Had a
prophet told me, two years ago, that
I ſhould at this time be travelling with
a young beauty, not connected with
any living mortal; that I fhould hear,
day after day, the fofteft language from
the moſt lovely lips; that I ſhould have
every opportunity for the moft tender
fami-
you
156
THE HISTORY OF
familiarities, and yet that I fhould fit
by the fide of this fair creauture with-
out thinking that ſhe had fuch a thing
as a lip belonging to her, without feel-
ing a fingle intimation from all the
warm and wanton blood in my veins
that I had a daughter of Eve within
the reach of my embrace; had a pro-
phet, I fay, told me this, I should
have laughed at him for a lying ora-
cle, and have informed him, that his
prediction was not very confiftent with
general nature, and ftill lefs fo with
my conſtitution: yet this is truly the
cafe. Giuliana ſeems to have realized
the idea, in a charming fong of Par-
nell's, to have been a woman to Peverell
alone, and to be an angel to all the reſt
of mankind. I may, in truth, apply
to her the expreflion of her darling
Petrarch, and fay, that her eyes feem
་
to
•
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 157
to purify the air, and to baniſh every
evil thought from her prefence. You
know I have long been fond of the
Italian language; and I thought my-
felf an intelligent admirer of Petrarch,
that infipid and wearifome fonneteer in
the eſtimation of ordinary readers, that
moft exquifite and enchanting of all
poets to every refined fpirit under the
immediate influence of forrow or of
love. But, though a tolerable profi-
cient in his language, I really never
felt the magic of Petrarch till I heard
him recited by Giuliana; and for this
very high delight I am partly indebted
to accident. In drawing out her purſe,
at Canterbury, to beftow her charity
on a venerable old mendicant, Giuli-
ana let fall a moft elegant diminutive
copy of this celebrated poet: this, as
fhe herſelf informed me, had been the
conftant
2
158 THE HISTORY OF
conftant pocket-companion of her dear
Peverell the book, as if in fympathy
with its mafter, had even received a
wound from the horrid accident which
occafioned his death; and his fervant,
the faithful Robert, thinking, very
justly, that his tender-hearted miſtreſs
would prize it as a facred invaluable
relique, had begged, preſerved, and pre-
fented it to her. I was highly pleafed
with this little anecdote; and particu
larly happy to catch a fubject for con
verfation that I knew to be in harmony
with the feelings of my afflicted compa-
nion. I made Petrarch, therefore, the
main topic of our diſcourſe; I feigned
myſelf puzzled by fome paffages, for the
pleaſure of leading Giuliana to amuſe
herſelf by a kind explanation of them.
Heavens! if the foul of the poet was
conſcious of our conference concerning
him,
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 159
I
him, what delight muft he have re-
ceived from the eloquent praife of his
lovely commentator! When the found
I had fome reliſh for her darling au-
thor, fhe began to indulge herſelf in
various quotations, fo pathetically ap-
pofite to her own condition, and de-
livered with fuch perfect eloquence,
that I ſeemed never to have been ac-
quainted either with true poetry, or
true elocution, till that moment.
fhould fill a volume were I to enume-
rate and give you a full account of all
thefe. Indeed you have a little fpeci-
men; but, without her voice, and with
my tranſlation, a moſt imperfect ſpeci-
men of them, in her letter from Dover.
I muſt however tell you one of her
quotations, which ftruck me moſt for-
cibly; but let me first
occafion that produced it.
3
mention the
You know
I join
160
THE HISTORY OF
I join with
you in detefting that cruel
and abfurd maxim of endeavouring to
confole extreme forrow by leading it
from its object; grief is a noble impe-
rious paffion, that ought not to be
thwarted, but to be flattered and in-
dulged on theſe principles, inftead of
avoiding the name of Peverell, I have
frequently introduced it; and as we
were within a few miles of Dover, in
fpeaking of the perfonal attractions of
Laura, I extolled in the warmest terms
that rare portion of mafculine grace
and comelinefs which that gallant
young man was univerfally allowed to
poffefs. I thought I faw in the fea-
tures of Giuliana that her impaffioned
heart fwelled with a delightful, though
melancholy pride, in hearing this ho-
neft praiſe of its idol'; and in a moment
the exclaimed,
" Dif-
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
151
"Diſcolorato hai morte il piu vel volto
Che mai fi vide; ei piu begli occhi ſpenti
Spirto piu accefò di virtuti ardenti
Del più leggiadro, e piu vel nodò hai
fciolto.
In un momento ogni mio ven mihai tolto."
[Oh Death, thou haft difcoloured the
moft beautiful countenance, and extin-
guifhed the brighteft eyes! thou haft
loofed from the moft graceful of mortal
bonds a ſpirit moſt animated by every
ardent virtue. In a moment thou haft
robbed me of all my treaſure.]
Would to heaven I were a poet, that
I might give you a jufter idea of theſe
enchanting numbers! yet, even then,
I could not convey to you the inimita-
ble geſture and heart-fearching tone of
Giuliana; theſe were fo exquifitely
pathetic on this occafion, that I was
never half fo much affected by the
Vot. I.
deepeſt
M
162
THE HISTORY OF
deepeſt tragedy as by her recitation of
theſe few verſes. My tears, I believe,
would have continued flowing till we
entered Dover, had not my affection
been called to a little auditor who felt
the pathos of this paffage ftill more in-
tenſely than I did: you will immedi-
ately fee this could be no other than
the poor faithful Giannina, whom you
feated on the ftool at our feet. I foon
perceived her little rofy face was grown
as pale as death itſelf; and I verily be-
lieve the girl would have fainted, or
fallen into convulfions, if I had not
jumped from the chaife, and carried
her in my arms for a few paces in the
cool air. Giuliana, who is, you know,
all tenderneſs to this little orphan, foon
completed her recovery, by the fweet-
nefs of her maternal folicitude for the
affectionate fufferer. But let me re-
turn
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 163
;
turn to Petrarch: As we are fuch ido-
laters of the poet, we have agreed to
vifit Vauclufe on our journey, and I
ſhall not write to you again till we
have paid our devotions there. Icon.
jure you and Lucy to fit down and be-
gin learning Italian together: you know
not what delight you have loft, by not
being able to converſe with our lovely
friend in her own fweet language.
Thank Heaven, my Cornelia both
fpeaks and fings it. My Cornelia, do Í
fay? alas! if the is deftined not to be
fo! Do you know, that Giuliana, who
has, I fancy, received fome hints from
Lucy, begins to preach to me, like
an angel as the is, on my impetuous
character, and the danger of the paffi-
ons! I am impetuous, I confefs, yet
not unreaſonable in my wifhes. Oh
Heaven! let me be but as ardently be-
M 2
loved
164
THE HISTORY OF
loved by Cornelia as Peverell fill is
by Giuliana, and I will afk no more!
Adieu. My engaging fellow-traveller
intreated me to fay every thing that is
kind for her. While I have been wri-
ting, ſhe and Giannina have been try-
ing to fleep off the unpleaſant effects of
their fea-fickneſs. They are now
much reſtored. Once more adieu;
and let me repeat my request, and con-
fign you to your Italian Grammar,
that you may read the future letters of
Giuliana with full pleaſure. She will
write to you, the fays, as long as the ex-
ifts; and if you do not acquire her
language, you may oblige her perhaps,
hereafter, to have her thoughts and
words mangled by fome tranflator ftill
worſe than your affectionate, &c.:
LET-
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 165
LETTER XIII.
FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
A
Lyons.
S I knew I fhould find opportu
nities of fending our kind re-
membrances to you by your intimate
friend, and moft punctual correfpond-
ent, at Paris, I intended not to write
to you again till we had reached Avig-
non, and vifited Vauclufe, the only
object in our road that I thought like-
ly to intereft the curiofity, and afford
any thing like amufement, to my love-
ly grief-devoted companion. But we
have unexpectly met with fome adven
tures in our way, that not only drove
Petrarch and Vaucluſe from her mind,
but almoſt made her forget even Peve
rell himfelf. In a word, my dear Ed
mund
M 3
1
166 THE HISTORY or
mund (but do not be alarmed, for the
danger is all over), I have been at the
point of death. I had reafon indeed
to call Giuliana an angel; for I muſt
have expired, had not this divine crea-
ture watched over me with an atten-
tion as indefatigable and inceffant as
ever was paid by a fond mother to her
fick infant. We have now been eleven
days in this commodious and charita
ble city: I ought, I am fure, to beſtow
upon it that honourable epithet, as I
have received from its generous inha-
bitants, to whom even my name was
unknown, various prefents of fuch ar-
ticles as they fuppofed might be of uſe
and comfort to a ſtranger, whom fick→
neſs had overtaken on his travels. My
diſorder, I confefs, has been the na
tural effect of my own imprudence;
for at Moulines I did a very foolish
thing:
J
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 167
thing: unknown to Giuliana, and truft-
ing too much to a ftrong conflitution,
I contracted a villainous cold and fever,
by paffing the whole night in the open
air, to gratify a nonfenfical whim that
I will explain to you hereafter. By
flighting my complaint at first, I made
it miferably ferious. On my arrival
here, I was obliged to keep my bed;
and during the firft feven days Giu-
liana and her good little filent fhadow
Giannina were conſtantly in my cham-
ber day and night. They have now (God
bless them!) reſtored me to ſuch a de-
gree that we are to fet forward again
to-morrow, and in a mode of travel-
ling that, inftead of wearying me with
the fatigue of a journey, will rather
reſtore me by the moft eafy, pleafant,
and refreshing exerciſe; for we are to
deſcend the Rhone in a large batteau,
M 4
}
in
168
THE HISTORY OF
in which there is a cabbin; it will take
our carriage on board, and we are to
ftop in this agreeable voyage for the
purpoſes of dining and fleeping at the
different towns that embelliſh the banks
of the river: thus, they tell us, we fhall
be ſmoothly and gaily wafted to
Avignon; and in truth, though my
fever is entirely gone, I am not yet fit
for any fort of rapid or rough motion.
Here is my beſt phyfician, nurſe, and
governefs, Giuliana, looking at her
fubmiffive and grateful patient with
her angelic black eyes, and command-
ing me to refign my pen; firft, becauſe
my head is not very fit to guide it any
longer; and fecondly, becaufe fhe is
determined fhe fays to add herſelf an
Engliſh poſtſcript to this epiftle. She
fhall not, however, take the paper
from me till I have told you, that in-
ftead
CORNELIA SEDLEY,
169
ftead of lamenting, I really blefs *my
illnefs; becauſe it has in its termina-
tion done more effential fervice to the
wounded ſpirit of my lovely friend,
than my broken health could poſ-
fibly have rendered her. My recovery
feems indeed to have given her new
exiſtence. O Benevolence! I was not
before infenfible to thy beauty or thy
power; but I knew not till now thy
healing efficacy over a heart, however
bruiſed and torn, that is ftill able to
feel thee in all thy pureft exceſs! Gi-
uliana, in faving, and fecuring to me,
that life which was on the point of its
departure from this fuffering frame,
has in great meaſure difpelled the
oppreffive cloud which hung fo heavy
on her celeftial mind. Though it is a
cordial to me to praife her to you as
I ought, ſhe will not allow me to fcrib-
ble
.:5
170 THE HISTORY OF
blea fyllable more. So farewell. Be
not at all alarmed for me; and depend
on my writing again very foon.
P. S. by GIULIANA.
I muſt invite you to rejoice with
me, dearest friends; for I did not think
my poor heart could ever feel again
upon earth a joy of fo much fincerity
and ſpirit like what I feel in the ſafety
of this generous foul, my kind con-
ductor, who has been fick indeed. By
the affiſtance of the good GoD, I have
made him to live, when I thought he
muft die! Now, praifed be Heaven,
all the danger is over! Theſe are joy-
ful English words from the pen of
your Giuliana. Praying a moft happy
courſe to your honourable lives, 1 kifs
your dear hands, my beloved father
Edmund and fifter Lucy. Adio.
LET-
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 171
LETTER XIV.
FROM MISS AUDLEY
TO MRS. AUDLEY.
[with the preceding inclofed.]
THANK you, my dear Harriot,
for the very amufing peep you
have given me into the boſom of our
Cornelia. You have, in a moft lively
manner, preſented her whole heart to
my eyes; and methinks fuch a view
of a heart in love is like viewing a little
lump of cheeſe through a microſcope.
I fees all the poor Cornelia's doubts,
fears, hopes, wiſhes, caprices, argu-
ments, furmifes, phantafies, &c. &c.
Bc. all huddled and hurried together
in perpetual rotation, like a legion of
mites, and forming as it were the very
fub-
172
THE HISTORY OF
fubftance of her heart. I fancy all
her honest and delicate hypocrify,
though it deceives herſelf, will never
lead you to doubt on the real ſtate of
her affection: but if you wiſh to put
the point to ſtill farther proof, I fhall
enable you to do fo, for I enclofe what
I think an infallible touchſtone for that
purpoſe. You have only to read to her
the letter from Seymour, which you
will find in this; taking care however
to omit a parentheſis of comfort juſt
before you come to the words "I have
been at the point of death." If the is
in truth fo deeply in love with the
engaging creature as we have reafon
to conjecture, you will fee her turn as
pale as I did in a moment you well re
member, when you and I were firſt
informed that a certain plaufible de-
ceiver, who had juft boasted to us of
his
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 173
his profperous voyage, was utterly
undone. I moft heartily hope that
the iffue of your Cornelia's love may
be more happy than mine-it may be
more happy, and yet not fo tranquil ;
for my own part, I now reft on the
fafe maxim of a reaſonable poet,
"Aim not at joy, but reft content with eafe."
Let me, however, in difclaiming
joy, declare, that I mean only the joys
of love; for as to thoſe of friendſhip,
which I am perfuaded are infinitely
the more valuable, few mortals poffefs
them in more abundance, and none
can feel them in a higher degree than
I do; particularly when I reflect, my
dear Harriot, on all your kindneſs to-
wards me; and aſſure you, with a love
paffing the Love of MAN," that I
66
am
Your affectionate, &c.
P. S.
-174
THE HISTORY OF
P. S. Edmund is well, but not a
little anxious concerning the health of
his friend. For my part, I am in-
clined to think this illneſs is provi-
dential, and only deftined to prevent
his being licentiously enamoured of his
lovely companion; of which I confefs
I had terrible apprehenfions. What a
charming creature fhe is! I was in-
finitely more affected by her little poſt-
fcript of odd English, than by all Sey-
mour's account of his malady. Fáre-
well. Pray tell me very foon how
my touchſtone operates on the tender
widow. Methinks I am like an old
chemiſt, who, having burnt his fin-
gers, impaired his health, and then
deſtroyed all his books in dudgeon,
takes a fort of half-malicious and half-
goodnatured pleaſure in obferving a
chemical novice, who carelessly ſports
with
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 175
with the moft fubtle corrofive, before
he is perfectly and painfully apprized
of its extreme power.
I intended you a larger pacquet ;
but as the contents of this are very in-
terefting, and I have an opportunity
of difpatching them immediately by a
private conveyance, I feize it with
great eagerness; fo once more fare-
well.
1
LETTER XV.
MRS. AUDLEY
in anſwer to the preceding.
OU are a fkilful chemift indeed,
You
my dear Lucy-an abfolute con-
juror; but pray fend us no more of
your corrofive touchftones, my dear;
or
176
THE HISTORY OF
or when you do, befo kind as to give
me, at the fame time, a leffon of cau
tion on the uſe of them.-Turn pale
indeed! do you call this turning pale,
to be half frightened out of fenfe and
exiftence? Ah, poor Cornelia ! verily
thou art infected. But let me recover
from my fympathy in her panic, and
make a full confeffion to you, my
dear full fifter in this little piece of
inquifitorial iniquity, how very wick-
edly I managed it. Your pacquet tra-
velling by a private hand, found me
alone in the morning. Cornelia had
left me, to write letters in her own
room. Having perufed both yours and
Seymour's, I was feized with a paſ-
fionate defire to make the moſt of
your
touchſtone. I believe, my dear, all
women have a little white malice in
their minds on fuch occafions. I in-
ftantly.
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
177:
ftantly fealed the -pacquet again very
neatly, and told my own maid to
bring it to me as juſt arrived, when
ſhe found that Cornelia and I were fat
down as ufual to work together in
the favourite little dreffing-room. This
critical time foon arrived; and while
we were difcourfing on the travellers,
a very frequent topic with us, your
kind pacquet was put again into my
hand. Before I broke the feal, I ob-
ferved no fmall degree of folicitude in
the countenance of my companion.
I thought her eyes fparkled with plea-
fure on the fight of Seymour's hand.
She entreated me to read his letter
aloud. I obeyed your direction; and
left out the parentheſis that ſpeaks of
his recovery; and in flowly pronounc-
ing the words
at the point of death,"
I fixed a ſearching eye on the features
VOL. I.
N
of
>
178
THE HISTORY OF
of my friend; defcribe them to you I
cannot-no language can do juftice to
their expreffion; I must therefore con-
tent myſelf with telling you my own
varied fenfations of the moment.
When I caught the first glimpfe of
her face, as I had my own treacherous
trick very frongly in my head, I was
on the point of laughing at the ap-
pearance of its fuccefs; but the pallid
hue of affectionate terror, and I may
fay agony, growing every inftant more
alarming in the countenance of Cor-
nelia, who fat before me with the
open but fpeechlefs lips of anxiety and
expectation, my heart fmote me, and
rendered me unable to execute all the
cruel defign that I had formed againſt
her; which was, to let her remain
for fome hours in an abfolute perfua-
fion of Seymour's being ftill in great
dan-
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
179
danger: this barbarity I could not
ſupport; I read the reviving paren-
thefis; but without an avowal that I
ought to have read it before. She
was a little comforted: but her fuf-
ferings were ſtill ſevere enough to ex-
cite my compaffion: fhe perceived that
I pitied her, and it both foftened and
opened her heart towards me; for, on
my faying, with an half-fmile, "Ah,
my dear Cornelia, can you ftill fay,
and think, that you do not love Sey-
mour?" ſhe burſt into a flood of tears,
and hiding her lovely face in my bo-
fom, fhe faid, in a heart-piercing mur-
mur, "I do, my dearest friend, I do
love him in my foul: but it is a folly.
and a crime, my dear Harriot, that
you must not encourage, but help me
to cure.'
""
N 2
You,
189
THE HISTORY OF
You, my dear Lucy, who know
what a friend I am to all honeft love,
will readily guefs the part I now took
in our converfation. I faid every thing
that the moſt friendly fympathy could
fuggeft, to foothe and to fortify her
over-fcrupulous and trembling heart,
I faid what I really think, that her
affection, inſtead of being either fool-
ifh or criminal, is the fair offspring,
not only of nature, but of propriety
and juftice. The very delicate and re-
fpectful manner in which Seymour
had fought her eſteem, during the life
of the poor old querulous invalid,
whom it was impoffible for her to
love; the trembling awe, and the fond
anxiety, with which he ventured to
force himſelf into her prefence in this
houſe; and all his behaviour here;
furniſhed me with weighty arguments
in
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 181
in his favour; and I pleaded his cauſe,
I believe, with all the warmth of a
fifter; for I almoſt feel that I love
him with a fifterly affection myſelf.
The poor fellow feemed to derive fo
much comfort from my little civility
to him in his fhort vifit here, when my
good man and Cornelia were both in-
clined to look rather blank upon him,
that he convinced me of the truth and
force of his paffion, by the exceſs of
his timidity and embarraffment; for in
the first hour or two he ſeemed as it
were to cling to me, to give him cou-
rage, as a child does, in firft entering
a dark room with its nurfe. As the
rogue does not want either grace or
decent confidence in his general man-
ners, his extreme fenfibility on this
occafion inclined me very much to
befriend him. I did fo when he was
here;
N 3
182
THE HISTORY OF
here; I have now done fo in his ab-
fence; and if it fhould really prove a
misfortune to Cornelia to love him,
as the dear weeping trembler told me
it certainly muft, Heaven forgive me
for the fin I have incurred in fanning
the flame of her bofom! Not that I
think Seymour much indebted to the
abilities or the zeal of his advocate,
for the fway he has gained over this
little fubmiffive, though murmuring
heart, we are talking of. I faid indeed
a good deal in his praiſe: but what of
that had not the moft eloquent of all
eulogifts fpoke before me ?-had not
Love informed her, that in age, in
figure, in fortune, and in mutual re-
gard, Seymour and Cornelia are a
couple uncommonly well-paired: they
are, indeed, fo perfectly matched in
thefe effential points, that it is hardly
poffible
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 183
poffible to ſee them together without
wiſhing them united.-"Aye, but my
fweet Harriot, fays the trembling con-
fcientious Cornelia, think of that tre-
mendous article, Religion! Remem-
ber the dying advice of my kind and
provident Sedley! No, let me die by
a malady more painful and more lin-
gering than his, rather than act in
oppofition to ſo juft, fo benevolent, a
counſellor." My dear Cornelia, I ad-
mire your virtuous fpirit-I am charm-
ed with your refolution; but do not
difquiet your gentle heart with theſe
imaginary terrors; there may be no
fuch obftacle as you fuppofe in your
way to happineſs. -"Nay, my good
Harriot, why would you wiſh to flat-
ter and delude me? Didnot you your-
felf, the other day, in fpeaking of
Seymour, allude to the univerfal opi-
N 4
nion
184
THE HISTORY OF
nion of his being an Infidel? You ſpoke
indeed in jeft-a barbarous jeft-but
you did not know how deeply you
wounded this very fooliſh heart. Now
I have laid open to you all its aching
fibres, pray, my dear Harriot, drop a
little oil upon them; and do not, I
conjure you, do not adminiſter to me
any of thoſe dangerous medicines,
which, under the pretence of healing
a wound, only inflame and render it
incurable.-Indeed I muft not think
of Seymour-no, I never will think of
him! I hope he will remain in Italy-.
I wish he may fall in love with Giu-
liana 'Tis very likely." Here a deep
figh; which made me exclaim, “Oh,
you abominable lovely hypocrite! you
have not any fuch with in your heart;
and if you ever forced yourſelf to feel
it for a moment, and heard of its being
accom-
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
185
accompliſhed, it would ftill make you
half-frantic. Come, come, my dear
Cornelia, there is really no occafion
for any of theſe deſperate inſupporta-
ble wishes; with him a good godly
huſband to yourſelf, and try to make
him fo. Who, my dear, could mould
the rough arrogant mind of man better
than fuch a gentle angel as yourſelf,
when infpired by the beſt motives,
both of heaven and earth, true piety
and chafte affection? Do we not read
in hiftory, that moft of the Gothic
fovereigns in Europe were converted
to Chriftianity by their wives? After
all, my dear, though we have allowed
ourſelves to talk freely of Seymour's
wanting devotion; yet furely he is
not more deficient in that point than
the general herd of young men who
have been bred to his rank and for-
tune:
186
THE HISTORY OF
tune: they are all fo engroffed by
pleaſure or ambition, that few can find
time either to think or to hear of God.
Indeed I believe the generality of men
in all ſtations are little acquainted with
devotional ideas, till towards the mid-
dle, or rather the latter ftage of their
life; when, being fettled in a domeftic
circle, and feeing a new generation rife
to fucceed in their departments, they
find it high time to reflect on a better
world.
You know, my dear Cornelia, it
was my fingular good fortune to fall
into the arms of a man whofe amiable
mind imbibed very early a deep ſenſe
of religion; but, as he has told me him-
felf, he was indebted for this bleffing
to fome remarkable incidents that hap-
pened to him in his youth, much more
than to any inftruction. Religious as
he
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 187
he is, no man can be more indulgent
to thoſe who differ from himſelf, though
his fenfe of the beneficial influence
which religion has had, and ftill has
on his own happineſs, makes him wiſh
moſt cordially to fee it more prevalent:
his fentiments and difcourfe on the
levity of others are never violent or
intrufive. I know he moſt fincerely
admires all the generous and all the
agreeable qualities in Seymour; and I
will venture to ſay, that no event in
the world would give him more plea-
fure than one which he thinks by no
means improbable, and which I con-
fefs myſelf inclined to reckon in the
claſs of certainties: I mean, the event
of our feeing the engaging Seymour
every thing we can with him; or, to
ufe the devout and gallant language of
chivalry, moft perfect in his homage,
both to God and his fair-one."
24
'Twas
188
THE HISTORY OF
"Twas thus, my dear Lucy, that I
ran on, in my affectionate harangue to
comfort and enliven the dear troubled
Cornelia. I had the fatisfaction of
feeing her fweet countenance more and
more ferene, as I proceeded, till at laft
her face growing bright as the face of an
angel, the preffed my hand, and ex-
claimed, in a tranfport from her fa-
vourite tragedy of Zara :
"Were he but Chriftian, what could man
be more !"
She uttered this line with fuch an air
of fond and devout paffion, and as the
ſpoke the poffibility, or rather the hope,
of being holily united to the only man
The has ever loved, gave fuch a rich and
tender glow to her lovely features, that
I never faw any woman look fo glori-
oufly beautiful, to ufe a ftrong expref-
fion of our admired Lady Wortley, as
my
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
189
my
dear comforted Cornelia looked in
that moment. I believe I remained
gazing at her, in mute delight, for a
minute, as the pleafant traveller I have
juſt mentioned gazed on the fair Fatiną
at Adrianople: though the Turkiſh
lady, I grant, was a more dazzling
figure, from the fplendid novelty of
her drefs, I am perfuaded fhe was not
equal in beauty to my incomparable
friend; for, in the first place, I can ne-
ver think that black eyes can equal the
delicious tenderneſs of blue; fecondly,
the monotony of Turkish love can
hardly permit the face of a fultana to
expreſs that ſweet and rich combina-
tion of intelligence, fentiment, and
paffion, which
gave fuch inexpreffible
charms to the countenance of Corne-
lia at the inftant I am talking of. But
this little digreffion on beauty, of which
you
190
THE HISTORY OF
you know I am a great idolater, has
detained me too much: I must haften
to tell you, that we remained not long
on thofe tranfporting heights to which
our fpirits were fuddenly carried. Cor-
nelia foon fell from the pinacle of hope,
and I gently defcended from that of
admiration. Our conference took a
more fober turn, and cloſed with a
difcreet refolution, not to enter into
any warm arguments, either for or
against the object of our debate; but
to leave things as they now are to
thoſe two great fettlers of human
doubts and perplexities, time and
chance. In the mean time you will
readily believe, that our eagernefs to
be favoured with all the diſpatches you
receive from the travellers, is not in a
way to be diminished. Exclufive, in-
deed, of the intereft Cornelia takes in
his
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 191
his welfare, I am heartily concerned
for Seymour's illneſs; both on his own
account, and that of his intereſting
charge. Heaven fend us an early and
good account of them! As to your re-
mark, my dear Lucy, concerning the
chafte providential tendency of Sey-
mour's illneſs, I moft heartily hope
that you may be in the right; but I
confeſs it ſtrikes me in the oppofite
point of view, though I would not tell
Cornelia fo for the world; and perhaps
it is merely becauſe I remember a
whimſical ſpeech, made by a curious
old gentleman, who uſed to viſit my
father very often, and delighted to make
us girls laugh by the oddity of his
remarks upon love and matrimony, his
never-failing fubjects of difcourfe. This
faid old gentleman once gave the fol-
lowing caution to my mother: "Ma-
dam,
192 THE HISTORY OF
dam," faid he, with an arch and hu-
morous folemnity of face, " permit
me to adviſe you never to employ a
young woman to attend a fick man,
unleſs you wish to make a match be-
tween them; for I have always ob-
ferved in theſe caſes, that the firſt uſe
which a convalefcent makes of his re-
viving ſtrength is, a grateful tender of
it to his nurſe; and the good girl is fo
delighted to ſee a fick man growing
well again, that he has no heart to
contradict him."
Heaven
There's a fhort story for you, as an
epilogue to the long one.
grant it may make you ſmile, without
being any bad omen for Cornelia!
Mercy on us! if any fuch things ſhould
happen, as the recollection of this
nonſenſical old profer has put into my
head: Deuce take him! for ftarting up
4
in
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
193
-
in my memory; but not a word more,
for here comes Cornelia, with two
maps in her hand, to fhew me all the
route of the travellers. Ah, poor
ftricken deer! Well I muſt poſitively
cloſe with all our love to you both.
Dear girl, ſend us fome good news the
first moment that you have it in your
power and remember, that my pac-
quets to you are as voluminous as an
old counſellor's opinion; fo pray imi-
tate the lawyers on your part, and be
not ſparing in reply. Farewell.
1
VOL. Í.
.0
LET-
194 THE HISTORY OF
J
1
LETTER XVI.
SEYMOUR TO EDMUND AUDLEY.
A'
From my Batteau on the Rhone,
LIVE! alive, my dear Ed-
mund! Behold me floating
down the Rhone, by the fide of the
lovely and now ſmiling Giuliana. Do
not therefore let
kind apprehen-
your kind
fion ſuggeſt to you, that I may be
croffing the Styx with old Charon :
my prefent voyage is a thouſand times
better; for I was never more difpofed
in my life to reliſh the charms of this
world. Every thing I fee is beautiful,
every thing I tafte is delicious. If this
is the uſual effect of a recovery from
fickneſs, I would willingly be fick once
a-year.
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 195
you
a-year. There is one thing, however,
that puzzles me to account for: as
you are a profound fpeculator, and as
love to ruminate on the variety
and oddity of human fenfations, I pro-
poſe to your fage worship the follow-
ing query for your folution: Why
was I a good and faithful Platonist a
month ago, when I was in the full
vigour of health? and why, at this
ſeaſon, when I am little more than
half reſtored from a ftate of debility,
why do I feel a deſperate inclination
to the philoſophy of Epicurus? What
ftrange creatures we are! It feems to
me as if all our wit and ftupidity, our
wiſdom and folly, our virtues and
vices, depended on a few drops, more
or lefs, of the red, white, and yellow
fluids, that are perpetually changing
in theſe tragi-comical machines that
O
0 %
we
196
THE HISTORY OF
•
we call human bodies. I am at this
moment a ftriking illuſtration of my
theory. I feized a pen, all gaiety, to
write you at leaſt the beginning of a
gay epiftle on board. The motion of
the boat as I write has moved my
bile, made me half fqueamish; and
behold my gaiety turned to a dull dif
fertation on the mechaniſm of man,
of which, like many who have at-
tempted to explain it, I know nothing.
But this I know, that when the manly
machine is out of tune, nothing can
put it ſo foon into harmony as placing
it within the influence of an enchant-
ing female; fo allow me to throw
down the pen, and take a few turns on
the fhort deck of our veffel with my
ſweet mefimate Giuliana. I will finiſh
this as foon as we land at the village
where we mean to dine.
I am
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
197
I am now on fhore; but toffed at
this moment in one of the most dif-
quieting half-tempefts of heart and
mind that I ever experienced. Alas!
my dear Edmund, I have played the
fool moſt abominably. I reproach my-
felf, and, what is worfe, I feel incef-
fantly that I ftill more deferve your
reproaches. But that you may not,
from theſe imperfect intimations, fup-
pofe my offences more flagrant than
they have been, I will give you a very
full and frank hiftory of the extreme
folly by which I have poifoned the
pure delight that, in fpite of fickneſs
itſelf, I had enjoyed, till this lucklefs
day, in the faithful diſcharge of my
truft.
After a moft pleafant and thort day's
voyage, the kind confiderate Giuliana,
thinking me more an invalid than I
0 3
am,
1
198
THE HISTORY OF
am, and defirous that I fhould avoid
the evening air on the river, contrived
for us to take a late dinner at a de-
lightful village, where we are alſo to
paſs the night. Our hotel is a new
and elegant little ftructure built after
an Engliſh model with bow windows,
commanding one of the moſt enchant-
ing proſpects that the eye can behold.
Our landlady had been particularly re-
commended to Giuliana at Lyons, and
not without reafon, for the feems to
poffefs in very rare and happy propor-
tions the vivacity of France, and the
neatneſs of Holland. In high delight
with this fingular and moft agreeable
auberge, I and my lovely companion,
after a chearful dinner in one of its
upper apartments, were leaning toge-
ther on the open bow-window that
commands this delicious country, when
chance,
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 199
chance, or the devil, call it which you
will, preſented a fight to me that in an
inftant fet fire to all the reviving wan-
ton blood in my veins; yet it was by
no means a fight of licentious pleaſure,
but one that rather favoured of pri-
meval innocence and the golden age.
Our window commanded a very pretty
cottage, with a little vineyard and
flower-garden. The happy maſter of
this diminutive kingdom is, it feems,
a Scotch Catholic, who, after paffing a
few years in the French fervice, fettled
here with a very beautiful fair-one ofthis
country. Having a paffion for garden-
ing, and being ſtill in the prime of life,
he draws a moſt healthy and delightful
fubfiftence from wine, fruit, and flowers,
the produce of his little domain. The
buſineſs of the vintage is all paſt for
this year; but it ſeems this honeft man
0 4
has
200
THE HISTORY OF
has a fenfible good-natured cuftom of
rewarding his handfome wife, and
fweet children, for their labours in that
buſy ſeaſon, by faving for them, as a
treat after their toil, a little portion
of his moft exquifite fruit. We hap-
pened to behold him in the inſtant of
collecting and diftributing this referv-
ed treaſure. Figure to yourſelf, my
dear Edmund, a fine tall military
florid fellow, ftretching out his manly
frame at the top of a ladder, to reach
fome bunches of magnificent grapes,
at the lofty extremities of a broken
rock, part of which he had fashioned
into a garden-wall. Obferve towards
the feet of the ladder a little golden-
headed boy, like a cherubim, who
has crept up four or five fieps, and is
holding up the hollow of his hat;
while his mother, a woman as comely,
?
as
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 201
as luxuriant in beauty as Pomona her-
felf, holds one fide of the ladder,
while two beautiful little girls (both
older than the boy) feem to delight
themſelves in thinking that they fup-
port the other. Behold the happy
father deſcending with a neat open
baſket, well filled, in his hand. His
children form a little circle around
him; each receives a luxuriant bunch
of grapes; each fmiles with content
and tranſport at the allotted fhare.
Thus far all is well: but the honeft
man having kiffed each of his chil-
dren, in diftributing his prefents, upon
delivering the refidue of the fruit and
the baſket to their fimiling mother,
throws his left arm around her, and
gives her fo hearty a kifs, a kifs fo
marvelloufly expreffive of connubial
happineſs, that an old hermit in ſeeing
it
202
THE HISTORY OF
:
it muſt have longed for a wife. No
words can tell you the kind of electric
fire that it ſeemed to communicate to
all my fibres. Giuliana moved from the
window, under the pretence of help-
ing herſelf to a glafs of water. I could
not forbear following her; and I ex-
claimed, "What a couple of fimpletons
are you and I, my dear Giuliana! You
are folicitous to fave the foul of a father
who
may not perhaps thank you for
your intention; and I to gain the heart
of a widow, who has, perhaps, already
beſtowed it on a more fortunate fuitor.
How much wifer would it be in both
of us to fettle together in this delicious
country, and act the ſweet ſcene that
we have juft beheld in a vineyard of
our own!" In uttering the laft word, I
imprinted an hafty kifs on her lips. I
had never made the flighteft advance
towards
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 203
towards touching them before, and
her extreme furprize did not allow
her either time or prefence of mind
fufficient to fhrink from my carefs: but
if
you wiſh to know how she looked
on the occafion, imagine to yourſelf,
my dear Edmund, an Attic prieſteſs,
in the moment of ſeeing an altar which
fhe had guarded with the devouteſt
fidelity prophaned by a barbarian.
Indignant difpleafure lightened from
her eyes; her whole countenance ex-
preffed the rebuke of an offended
angel; and I believe fhe was on the
point of uttering fome words of great
feverity, but he checked herſelf, and
remained filent a few moments.
fancy my appearance affected her; it
muſt have been very fingular; for the
flame of wanton defire, which had, I
confefs, a momentary exiftence in my
I
bofom,
204
THE HISTORY OF
The
bofom, had funk in the fhouldering
vapour of vexation and remorſe.
agitation of thefe oppofite feelings had
given fuch a tremulous weakneſs to
my unbraced nerves, that I believe
Giuliana foon beheld me rather as an
object of pity than of terror. I abſo-
lutely had not power to fpeak; and,
after a ſhort paufe, Giuliana faid with
a plaintive gentleness of voice and
manner, a thoufand times more affect-
ing to me than any vehement acrimo-
nious reproof could have been, "This
is
very wrong and very unexpected in
my generous guide! Do not, Seymour,
do not fo cruelly deftroy the fincere fa-
tisfaction I felt, in being the inftrument,
under God, of preferving your life!"
Clofing this tender reprimand with a
look ſtill more expreffive of her own
wounded feelings, fhe left the room,
and I felt as if I had heard my good
genius
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 205
genius fay,
"You are become unwor-
thy of my care, and I abandon you to
a legion of infernal tormentors." My
heart indeed was full of fuch vifitants:
I traverſed the room in vain to fhake
them off, my attempts were equally
fruitless, whether I tried to reafon, or
to laugh myſelf out of my bitter vex-
ation. Pho! nonfenfe! faid Pride, to
comfort me. After all, what is your
mighty crime? barely touching the
lip of a very beautiful woman, with
whom you were alone. Aye, but, fays
Confcience, you know there are cer-
tain fituations in which a fimple kiſs
may ſeem an outrage, as cruel as ab-
folute violation: it is in thefe tender
points where a delicate heart and mind
are concerned,
"that nothing is but thinking makes it fo."
What-
206 THE HISTORY OF
!
Whatever felf-flattery can fuggeft in
my defence, the troubled look of Giu-
liana, imprinted on my heart, refutes
every fyllable of my delufive advocate.
I find no relief but in the moſt per-
fect repentance. When I had brought
my mind into a tolerable calm, by pe-
nitent refolutions of making all the
atonement in my power for having fo
ungratefully offended my divine com-
panion, I fate down to give you this
hiftory. I am now jaded with writing.
Giuliana is not returned to me; I feel,
like a wretch as I am, that I hardly
deferve to fee her more; yet I muſt
enquire where ſhe is.-Death and dif-
traction! I may not fee her for theſe
two hours; fhe is gone, with Giannina
and the hoftefs, Heaven knows whither.
I deſerve it all, but her abſence is
:
more
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
207.
more torturing to me than either the
looks or language of her difpleaſure.
Some demon has furely had the con-
duct of this whole day: it was from
a perverſe incident of his contrivance
that Giannina happened to have left us
alone after dinner; for I have con-
ftantly made a point of treating the
girl more as a relation than a fervant
to Giuliana, and of courfe we have
had her perpetually in our prefence till
this unfortunate afternoon.
I am this inftant interrupted by a
meffage from an obliging English tra-
veller, who is juſt ſetting off for
Lyons, and has kindly offered to take
charge of any little packet that I may
wish to diſpatch. I am much more.
inclined to commit this epiftle to the
flames, than to any conveyance what-
ever; yet, in recollecting that
that my
laft
2
may
208
THE HISTORY OF
may have filled your affectionate heart
with painful apprehenfions for my life,
I think it beft to fend you the fpeé-
dieft account I can of my reviving
health, though I fhew you at the
fame time that I hardly deferve to live.
Indeed I fhall hardly defire a longer
exiftence than may fuffice for me to
reconcile Giuliana and her father ;
for I feel that I have forfeited all
claims, if I ever had any, to the love
of that irreproachable angelic creature,
whofe very name my lips are now be-
come unworthy to pronounce, Cornelia.
How fhould I prefume to call her
my Cornelia,, as I fondly ufed to do,
when I reflect that he never faltered
in the execution of long, irkfome, and
painful duties, for which the was
often repaid, they fay, by querulous
ingratitude; and that I (Heavens!
what
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 209
what a contraſt!) that I have villai-
nouſly failed in one delicate and ho-
nourable duty, though I felt the faith-
ful diſcharge of it not only free from
pain, but abfolute delight. Oh! Ed-
mund, the fever that has ceaſed to
prey on my frame, and that I thought
fo grievous, was eafe and pleaſure,
compared to this new kind of fever
that I feel at this moment in my mind.
I am fick with the worst of all fick-
neſs, I am fick of myſelf. As I have
always found you a moft indulgent
and foothing father-confeffor in my
moſt impetuous and extravagant fol-
lies, let me conjure you to be fo now;
pray let me find, on my arrival at Ge-
noa, fuch a letter from you as may
tend to tranquillize my perturbed fpi-
rit, and make me lefs odious to myſelf,
by fhewing me that you still retain
VOL. I.
P
fome
210
THE HISTORY OF
fome eſteem for your moft fincere and
affectionate, &c.
P. S. Giuliana is not yet returned; and
I cannot detain this another inſtant.
Adieu.
+
LETTER XVII.
FROM MISS AUDLEY
TO MRS. AUDLEY.
AKE back to yourſelf, my
TA
dear
Harriot, the fine title you be-
ftowed on me. 'Tis you who are the
real conjurer; you are the true prophe-
tefs. O man! man! inconftant abo-
minable man! in fober truth now F
could almoſt weep to think that, in re-
ply to your most delightful hiſtory of
Cor
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 211
Cornelia, I have a forry anecdote to
tell you of her too agreeable infidel,
who ſeems to prove himſelf as unor-
thodox in the nice points of love and
honour, as he is ſuppoſed to be in the
effential article of Religion. Alas! how
would the tremulous heart of our poor
Cornelia palpitate; if ſhe knew what I
have learnt this morning! that the
wicked rogue has been wantonly kiffing
his lovely afflicted fellow-traveller. O
Heavens! I hear you exclaim; but
huſh, huſh, my dear Harriot; drop not
a word, I conjure you, that may ſug-
geft fuch a tormenting idea to the ten-
der widow. In truth, all this terrific
affair was nothing but the idle frolic of
a moment; and the rogue has made
himſelf fuch a frank confeffion, and
expreffed fo much fincere contrition for
his offence, that we ought perhaps to
P 2
be
212
THE HISTORY OF
•
You
be rather quieted than alarmed by the
incident. Let us act therefore as
true Charity does with greater finners,
and conclude that his paſt wickednefs
will only furnish him with a furer
foundation for his future virtue.
and I, my dear Harriot, may reſt per-
haps on this conclufion; but it would
not do for the difquieted Cornelia. I
know, by woeful experience, that
ideas which act as an opiate on the
moderate apprehenfions of Friendſhip,
may produce nothing but an increaſe
of irritation on the wild and feverish
terrors of Love. Pray obferve what a
wondrous philofopher I grow, in living
fo much with our dear fpeculative Ed-
mund. Indeed, he kindly lets me in-
to many myſteries, to which I fhould
be otherwiſe an utter ftranger; and the
knowledge of them has no little influ-
ence
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 213
ence in fecuring that degree of content
which I have happily recovered. There
was a time, you may remember, when
I wiſhed to be a young man, of a good
figure, and an independent fortune ;
fuppofing, as I believe many miffes
ſuppoſe, that ſuch a character ſports in
the world at his pleaſure, as in a per-
fect paradiſe. I have now very differ-
ent ideas of this being, once fo envied:
an opulent young man, of ftrong paf-
fions, acute fenfibility, and with no
well-fettled principles, fuch in ſhort
as they moſt of them are, ſuch a cha-
racter, I fay, now ſtrikes me as reſem-
bling the dancers that I have read of
in fome barbarous nation, who twift,
torture, and wound themfelves a thou-
fand horrible ways, under the name of
gaiety and diverfion: it is true, in-
deed, as Rowe has fweetly told us,
P 3
"That
214 THE HISTORY OF
66
That man, the lawleſs libertine, may
rove
Free and unqueftion'd thro' the wilds of
love."
But what does he generally find in
thefe rovings, fo delightful to a young
and credulous fancy? what are his ad-
ventures in this alluring wild? Why,
truly, at one thicket he encounters a
tigrefs; in another he is ftung by an
adder; or, if he is one of the lucky
mortals who meet with a milder def-
tiny in this faid variegated wild, ftill,
in ſtooping to gather a primrofe, it is
ten to one but he pricks his fingers
againſt an hedge-hog. But what a
fimple chattering monkey am I myſelf,
in thus running into a fantaſtic differ-
tation on libertines, when I only meant
to affure you, in a few fimple words,
that you and your lovely friend may
5
be
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
215
be perfectly eaſy concerning the health
of our interefting travellers! I wish
of all things to inclofe to you Sey-
mour's letter to Edmund; but the rigid
philofopher ſays, No; adding, with
a kind feverity, "If Cornelia fhould ac-
cidentally catch a fight of the hand,
and petition for a perufal of the letter,
the fympathetic Harriot has not forti-
tude enough to refufe; nor could fhe,
indeed, with any very good grace."
You muſt allow there is fome reaſon,
as well as good-nature, in this argu-
ment; ſo if your curiofity, my dear
Harriot, teizes you a little on this
point, as I fear it will, I can only fay,
as Hamlet does to his dear Horatio,
"O'ermafter it as you may.'
I ought, perhaps, to proceed like
Hamlet; and bind you, by a folemn
form of adjuration: fo come, my dear,
P 4
pre-
216 THE HISTORY OF
prepare yourſelf to take the oath I re-
quire; ſwear to me upon your fan
(which is a lady's fword); fwear, I fay,
"Not to make known what you have
heard to night;
Nor, by pronouncing of fome doubtful
phraſe;
Nor, by ambiguous giving out, denote,
That you know aught from me.”
I would not, for the world, be aç-
cidentally the inftrument to wound
your Cornelia; I moft cordially with
her happy, though I fear fhe has but
little chance of being fo: I know how
dangerous it is to love a man for whom
our eſteem cannot keep pace with our
affection. But away with thefe gloo-
my prefages: Heaven blefs her to the
utmoſt of her fond expectation, and
preferve me as I am,
"In maiden meditation fancy-free!"
A cu-
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
217
i
A curious prayer this on my part,
when I am juft fallying forth to take
captive the noble General who has late-
ly fettled in our neighbourhood! We
are to dine with him to-day; I dreffed
very early on purpoſe (not to captivate
him, my dear, but) to ſcribble to you,
without the dread of fcribbling, as you
know I have fometimes done, without
thinking of my drefs till the very
moment the carriage was ordered.
Among my late philofophical obferva-
tions I have obferved, there is nothing
which the lordly creature man diflikes
more than to be made to wait for a
woman who has no means of repay-
ing him for her delay.
Well, here is the dear lordly Ed-
mund himſelf just come into my
room, to tell me the chariot is at the
door; and let me add, there is a new
horfe
218 THE HISTORY OF
horfe to it, which is fo like a man,
that he cannot wait with patience, and
is at this inftant pawing up the new-
laid gravel under his feet. Horfe and
man, be as impatient as ye pleafe, I
cannot lay down my pen till I have
told my dear Harriot the faucy fpeech
Edmund has juft made to me; efpe-
cially as he delivered it as a kind of
maxim for the grand purpoſe of teach-
ing a ſpinſter how to chufe a huſband:
66
Come, Lucy, faid my dear dictator,
come, and fet your cap at the General:
the love of a young man is like a
dram; if it does not intoxicate, it in-
flames and undermines the health; but
the love of a man in middle life is like
wine; it does not agitate the animal
fpirits too furioufly, but only acts as
an excellent ftomachick." So you fee,
dear Harriot, if I take the General,
my
it
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 219.
it is nothing more than taking a glaſs
of port by the advice of my phyſician.
But, as you know I hate to follow pre-
ſcriptions, I truſt you will fee me, like
a wife invalid, recover all my natural
gaiety, by prudently and refolutely
abftaining from all cordials whatever,
From this fcrawl I think you may
conclude that I am growing as great
a rattle as I uſed to be.-Mercy, the
horfe has begun to rear! and if I ftay
another moment, the philofophic Ed-
mund will begin to fwear; fo Gon
bleſs you! and believe me ever,
Your affectionate, &c.
LET-
220
THE HISTORY OF
LETTER XVIII.
SEYMOUR TO EDMUND AUDLEY.
THE offended angel has forgiven
me. But I am not yet reconciled
to myſelf. My tranfgreffion, indeed,
admits of palliation-and it might
have been infinitely greater. But
what a forry apology is this, my dear
Edmund! Was not Adam, as they
tell us, baniſhed from Paradife for
taſting the tree of knowledge; though
he touched not the tree of life? I feel
like Adam; I feel exiled from a men-
tal Paradiſe, which I have bafely for-
feited, and can hope to enter no more;
I may indeed deſcribe the divine Giu-
liana as the Adam of Milton defcribes
Heaven after his offence,
"I ſaw her placable and mild."
And
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 221
And I may alſo ſay of myſelf, that I
have
<i many days
Given me of grace, wherein I may repent,
And one bad act with many deeds well done
May cover.
But I feel that thefe days of mine,
like thofe of poor Adam after his fall,
muſt be paſſed in a ſtate very different
from my forfeited felicity. Though
Giuliana, who has feen me not only
penitent, but half-ill again with cha-
grin and vexation, has treated me with
great indulgence and kindnefs; yet
too plainly perceive it is not in her
own power to recall thofe pure, thofe
tender, thoſe deliciouſly flattering fen- -
fations of fifterly love towards me,
which my folly has difpelled. I have
heard thoſe who drink more freely than
we do, my dear Edmund, declare,
that
6
22 Ż
THE HISTORY OF
that there is a certain pitch of pleaſure
as you approach towards intoxication,
which gives you an idea of cœleftial
delight. I cannot fay I have felt this
to the exquiſite degree they defcribe
in any convivial feftivity; but I main-
tain there is ſomething which anſwers
their deſcription in a certain period of
perfect friendſhip, with a modeft, beau-
tiful, afflicted woman. In the chaſte
familiarity and entire confidence of
Giuliana, there was an unexpreffible
charm, which approached nearer to
angelic blifs than all the raptures of
triumphant love: like a brutal idiot
as I was, I have deftroyed this charm
for ever; fince, as I have told you al-
ready, it is not in the power of the
lovely forgiving angel herſelf to reſtore
it. But 1 will ceafe to weary you with
this fruitless lamentation, and tell you
the progrefs of our journey.
After
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
223
2
After a moft tranquil voyage, in
which the three gentleſt elements, wa-
ter, earth, and air, feemed to ſmile
upon us as if they vied with each
other in a wiſh to pleafe us, we arrived
laſt night at Avignon. Our progreſs
down the Rhone, which is by no means
fo rapid as I expected to find it, would
have proved indeed a perfect jaunt of
pleaſure, if our minds had been in
harmony with the fcene around us;
but this was far from being the cafe :
poor Giuliana was frequently abforbed
in melancholy reveries; and as to my-
felf, being neither fick nor well, nor
happy nor wretched, my affections and
my imagination, inftead of doing what
they ought to have done, inftead of
contributing to the proper and falutary
exerciſe of each other, feemed to have
funk into a ſtupid and deteftable lethar-
gy
224
THE HISTORY OF
gy together. I did not look indeed on
this fmiling face of nature with fuch
malignant eyes as the devil caft upon
Eden, for I had not vivacity enough
in my frame to feel the paffion of en-
vy; but I ftared with heavy, four,
and moft uncomfortable apathy, upon
a feries of animated fcenes, from which
I had expected to catch a tender gaiety
of heart, and fprightlinefs of fancy.
As we drew near Avignon, I could
not help obferving to Giuliana, that
we had both difcovered fomewhat of
ungrateful infenfibility to the extreme
fineness of our weather, and profperity
of our voyage. She anſwered me by
a happy quotation of theſe charming
words from Metaftafio (which I hope
your fair fellow-ftudent Lucy
you and
are by this time able to conftrue),
" Secondo
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 225
de Secondo in guerra, o in pace
Trovano il noſtro cor
Cambiano di color
Tutti gli oggetti."
[All objects change their colour, in pro-
portion as they find war or peace in our
hearts."]
This quotation was applicable to
both. I have already given you too
long an account of my own feelings,
the poor rickety children of Indifpo-
fition and Folly; two miferable pas
rents! Thoſe of Giuliana had a nobler
pedigree; and deſerve a more ample
hiſtory.
!!
The great fatisfaction, I may fay
the tranfient delight, which her feel-
ing ſpirit received from my recovery,
was foon over-caft by many cloudy
thoughts. She has endured much pain,
not indeed from the recurring force of
VOL. I.
Q
her
226
THE HISTORY OF
her former affliction; nor from that
diſquieting incident of the kiſs, which
my mifty imagination has magnified,
perhaps, to a very foolish degree, in
all that I have faid to you upon it.-
The divine Giuliana has adopted a new
and much deeper fource of difquie-
tude. Her benevolent and tender mind
will intereſt itſelf in a point that I
have weakly ſuffered to become the
fubject of her thoughts, though I did
not mean that it ſhould ever fall with-
in her knowledge, or even within her
fufpicion. This founds a little like
the language of an Iriſhman; but a
few words will make the bull, if it is
one, intelligible.
You muſt know then, that during
my fever at Lyons I had two days of
delirium; in which they tell me I
made fome very curious remarks con-
cerning
CORNELIA SED LEY. 227
cerning the immaculate conception,
and diverſe articles in the birth, paren-
tage, and education, of a certain myſ-
terious Perfonage, whom I fhould ra-
ther have fuppofed myſelf likely to
mention in the words afcribed to the
lively Aretine: "Io no'l conofco"-I do
not know him. This paffed as deli-
rious raving; fo in truth it was: yet
had I been in Spain, perhaps the good
folks of the Inquifition might have
kindly cured my fever by an applica-
tion of their falutary fire.
What eſcaped from me in my fren-
zy dwelt on the compaffionate mind of
Giuliana; at various times the dif
covered a half-repreffed and half-in-
dulged inclination to fearch into my
religious opinions. Though you know
there is nothing in the world that I
deteſt ſo much as hypocrify, I reſolved
Q 2
On
228
THE HISTORY OF
on this head to play the hypocrite
with my lovely companion, on ac-
count of her tender afflicted fpirits.
I was pleafed, however, to obſerve,
that in her own remarks on various
convents that we have paffed, fhe
fhewed herſelf perfectly purified from
the nonfenfical bigotry of her coun-
try. I find that Peverell had taken
peculiar pains to eradicate from her
mind all the notions of Catholic fuper-
ftition; but at the fame time he at-
tached her moſt firmly to his own per-
fuafion. With love for his affiftant,
what tenet might he not have ftolen
from her mind! what might he not
have implanted on her tender heart!
In converfing with her on theſe to-
pics, I was fo charmed with the
ftrength and luftre of her natural un-
derſtanding, that I fuffered my own
native
3
CORNELIA SE DL E Y. 229
?
native fincerity to triumph over my
prudence. I talked to her as if I was
talking to you; and as ſhe had led me
to ſpeak of Hume, Bolingbroke, and
Voltaire, I expreffed my wonder that
fuch a triumvirate, uniting all the
powers of reaſon, eloquence, and wit,
had not baniſhed a decaying fuperſti-
tion from every cultivated mind. But
all our debates on this fubject have
ended as I believe every conference is
apt to do between a man and a woman
who differ very widely on any inter-
efting theme. Arguments have no ef-
ficacy oppofed to feelings. The man
lofes fome portion of his eſteem for
the intellects of the woman; and the
woman ceaſes to revere and to confide
in the heart of the man. Do not ſuppoſe,
however, that, like moft theological
difputants, we are become bitter ene-
Q3
mies:
230
THE HISTORY OF
mies no, never did you hear of two
polemics fo tender and benevolent to
each other. Our difputes have indeed
fome vivacity, but not a particle of
acrimonious malignity. You would
have been much affected, had you heard
the cloſe of our laft; when Giuliana,
with that graceful energy of gefture fo
peculiar to herſelf, fell on one knee,
and exclaimed, “O my dear Peverell,
if I have loved, and continue to love
thee, with a fidelity of affection agree-
able to thy pure ſpirit, grant me, be-
fore I die, to behold this generous, but
miſguided young man, made as happy
as thou wert upon earth in the know-
ledge of thy God !"
The pathetic
kindneſs of this little prayer pierced
me to the foul. I kiffed her hand,
bathed it with a tear, and begged that
we might drop the fubject for ever.
Sq
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 231
So ended our conference laſt night
in this antient refidence of the popes.
Never did one of thofe keen fanctified
fenfualifts labour to make a convert to
their intereft or their pleaſure (which
were the main points of their purſuit,
you know, in this city), with a fer-
vency of ſpirit equal to that of the dear
devout Giuliana. And, zealous as ſhe
is, I may give her the praiſe fo rarely
deſerved by any Religionist, in truly
ſaying, that her charity is ftill fuperior
to her zeal.
Before we retired to our feparate
pillows, the good creature, fuppofing
the ftate of my bodily and men-
tal health equally unfound, made me
promiſe to reft a couple of days in this
city, before I fuffer myſelf to be fhaken
over the rocky roads of Provence. As
The withdrew to her chamber ſhe ſaid,
* I will
Q4
232
THE HISTORY OF
"I will engage to amuſe you to-morrow;
and I fhall lead you to make an atone-
ment for fome of your paft offences at
the tomb of Laura, which we ſhall
find, they tell me, within a very fhort
walk from this houfe." She faid this
to me in her own foft language, and
with a fweetnefs of manner that no
language in the world could perfectly
defcribe: her features in the moment
expreffed a mixture of melancholy and
benevolence, that affected me in a mar-
vellous degree. And I uttered to my
felf, as I withdrew from her to my
own apartment,
"L'amour n'a rien de fi tendre,
Ni l'amitié de fi douce."
[Love has nothing fo tender: Friend-
fhip nothing fo fweet.]
My angelic fellow-traveller having
difmiffed me to my own chamber with
a fancy
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
233
4
a fancy fo full of gentle ideas, pro-
cured me a dream of happineſs in a
fortunaté vifionary marriage with Cor-
nelia happineſs that I am deſtined
perhaps to fee only in a dream. On
rifing this morning, I found the ſcene
very difmally altered: not only the
delights of my vifion were fled; but
the elements, as if angry with us for
our infenfibility to their fmiles, have
begun to frown upon us in a manner
very unexpected: an unfeaſonable and
violent rain has been falling for ſeveral
hours; and my good governefs Giu-
liana, who is full of tears for me with-
out any for herſelf, has infifted on my
not venturing abroad; and thus given.
me an opportunity of fcribbling to you
a letter enormoufly long, and as dull
as the weather. As to Giuliana, fhe
has deferted me, and is fallied forth,
..
under
234
THE HISTORY OF
under the protection of Robert and a
very ample umbrella. She has pro-
miſed not to vifit the tomb of Laura
without me; and I rather fufpect, from
a word the dropt at her departure, that
fhe is gone to a bookfeller's in queft of
fome favourite religious author, whom
ſhe wiſhes to make her coadjutor in
the grand project of my converfion.-
Heaven blefs her! I begin to grow
reſtleſs at her long abfence, and often
turn an anxious eye from my paper to
the street. Oh, there fhe is; I ſpy her
from the window this inftant on her
return; and with a face of fuch joyous
animation, that, inftead of having
picked an old dufty theologian from
an obfcure ſhelf, I could almoſt be
lieve the has conjured the foul of poor
Peverell out of Paradife to attend her,
What can this mean? But joy is ever
wela
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 235
welcome; and eſpecially when it ap-
proaches in a form of fuch tendernefs
and beauty. Here the is.
Oh, my dear Edmund, and no lefs
dear Lucy, how kind, how confide-
rate, how unlike the conduct of com-
mon friends, and how worthy of your
own quick and benevolent fpirits, was
your fortunate idea of diſpatching a
pacquet fo delightful, with a chance
of catching us on our road! Your
obliging friends, the two lively bro-
thers, who are galloping towards Rome,
luckily drove into Avignon, while
the faithful Robert was waiting for
his miſtreſs at the door of the book-
feller I have mentioned. My lord's
valet happened to be an old acquain-
tance of Robert's; and after ſhaking
the honeft fellow by the hand, in
formed
5
236
THE HISTORY OF
formed him, that his maſter had let-
ters for me. Robert inftantly imparted
thefe glad tidings to Giuliana, who,
wiſhing to have the delight of deliver-
ing the pacquet to me herſelf, defired
to have it brought to her where the
was. This moſt welcome, this tranf-
porting pacquet, is now in my hands;
but, before I reply to a line of it,
Imuft exclaim, like fome happy being
whoſe name I have forgot: "Heaven,
I had a foul to endure pain; now give
me one to ſupport delight!" I believe,
indeed, that the good Giuliana thought
me finking into a new fort of delirium,
when the beheld me kiffing in an ec-
ftacy that enchanting morfel of paper
on which the bleffed hand of Lucy
affures me,"
me," that, if Cornelia has a par-
tiality for any man on earth, it is un-
queſtionably for me;" and then bids
me
1
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 237
me "deferve her."-Deferve her! O
ye powers who prefide over love and
felicity, what would I not do to de-
ferve her!
By Heaven, methinks it were an eaſy
leap
To pluck bright Honour from the pale-
fac'd moon."
Aye, verily, my dear Edmund, I
would do more for Love than the noble
Hotſpur could meditate for honour.-
But here comes my divine monitor, to
moderate my rapture. I have fcrib-
bled theſe few hafty expreffions of my
joy and gratitude, while Giuliana has
been adjuſting her dreſs for our viſit to
the church of the Cordeliers.—Your
charming and magical letter feems to
have given ferenity to the ſky, as well
as to our hearts; 'tis a delicious after-
noon, and we are juſt fallying forth to
pay
238
THE HISTORY OF
ራ
pay our devotions at the grave of
Laura,
"To fee that buried duft of living fame,
Whoſe tomb fair Love and fairer Virtue
kept."
I ſhall ſtill add to this voluminous
letter before we leave Avignon ; but
I will not lay down the pen, even for
a fhort paufe, without affuring you,
that the tender Giuliana takes a moft
friendly, I may fay, a lively intereft,
in thoſe tranſports of hope which you
have ſo kindly awakened in my re-ani-
mated frame; and ftill more does the
ſhare with me in the fincere joy that I
receive from thefe utterly unexpected,
and therefore more delightful affur-
ances of your welfare, and your regard
for the two travellers, who both love
you and
your fifter with all the warmth
that friendſhip and gratitude can in-
fpire.
We
1
CORNELIA SEDLEY. 239
We are now juſt preparing for our
departure from this remarkable city;
whoſe curiofities have entertained us
beyond my expectation: but it is to
you, my dear friends, diftant as ye
are, that we are indebted even for this
entertainment; for, had not your en-
chanting letter put us into tune, I
fhould have continued to ftare at the
objects that folicited my notice with
all the fpleen of Smelfungus. What
curious machines we are!-the human
heart appears to me like a clock, good
for nothing unlefs frequently wound
up by the hand of affection: you have
now converted mine into a fine time-
piece of ornamental and lively mecha-
nifm, in which a multitude of the
moſt chearful little images are at work
together, by means of that mighty
Spring which you have fo happily put
I with
in motion.
240
THE HISTORY OF
I wiſh I may reward you by ac
compliſhing every thing you wish with
the father of Giuliana.-I think I fhall;
and ground my hopes on fome parti-
cular lines in his character, which I
have collected from her, and will tell
you hereafter. I muſt now haſtily
cloſe theſe voluminous diſpatches; but
not without telling you how ardently
we wished that you and Lucy could
have ſhared the penfive delight we en-
joyed at the tomb of Laura. We were
fortunate, however, in our attendant,
having met with the moſt polite and
intelligent prieft that ever fell in my
way. He was enchanted with Giu-
liana, who, inſpired by the ſcene, re-
peated ſome paffages of Petrarch with
a grace and pathos fo magical, that I
expected to ſee the ſhade of Laura ex-
preffing her fatisfaction in theſe pleaſ
ing
CORNELIA SEDLEY.
241
ing honours. Giuliana will not allow
the fonnet to be genuine which was
found in the tomb, and which our
books of travels exhibit to you as
copied from the hand-writing of Pe-
trarch. Apropos of poets the polite
Cordelier I have juft mentioned, ob-
ferving our paffion for poetry, and
hearing that we were to travel acroſs
Provence, has kindly recommended to
my perufal a Latin poetical epiftle of
the famous Chancellor de l'Hopital,
defcribing the country we are to paſs.
Giuliana's book feller has furniſhed me
with a copy of this moft refpectable
poet; I was before only acquainted
with his political integrity. If I find
his verfes equal to the praife with
which the friendly Cordelier recom-
mended them to me, you ſhall hear
more of them in my next: I can now
VOL. I.
only
R
242
THE HISTORY, &C.
only add, that Giuliana and I beſtow:
on you, and the dear. compaffionate
Lucy, our moſt cordial, benedictions.
Adieu.
$
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.”
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 06398 0133
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A 515115 M
DUPL