 at breakfast—when he was inquired for, the servants said he had rode out, very early in the morning. I took my friend lady Creswell aside, and requested her, not without some confusion,

to deliver my letter to his lordship, as soon as he returned from riding. Almost at that instant, a servant of Sir William's galloped into the court-yard, and presented the following billet to me.

The infamy of your late conduct has for some time made me balance whether I should by the bearer command your immediate return to my house, or forbid your ever entering it. My respect for your family has so far turned the scale in your favour, as to make me, though unwillingly, condescend to receive you under my roof, till they shall be acquainted with your vileness, and either find you out a proper asylum, or join in abandoning you, with your highly injured husband,


I have already told you that Lady Creswell was with me, when I received this shocking sentence—Amazement suspended all my powers, while I read it! my sight forsook me, the paper dropped out of my hand, and I fell almost senseless, upon a couch! When I recovered my speech, I bid her read it, and tell me what it meant?
She quickly saw through the detested villainy, and at once exclaimed,
"your husband is abused! that wicked Colonel Walter has deceived him—My aunt, unhappy and infatuated woman! corresponds with him, and has doubtless transmitted an account of Lord Lucan's being here."

Her surmise was equal to conviction, and I that moment beheld myself the

victim of that wretch's disappointed passion—O could my heart have told me I was an innocent one, how slightly should I have regarded the utmost malice of this fiend!
I need not attempt to describe the distraction of my mind, during the journey. Harriet was so visibly affected with my grief, though unknowing of the cause, that I would, if possible, have concealed it from her; and even accused myself for making her heart so early acquainted with sorrow.
When we arrived at Southfield, Benson, with tears in her eyes, informed me, that Sir William was dangerously ill; the vein in his lungs, which had been closed, for some time, had opened, and the physician who attended him, had but

very faint hopes of his life—The agony which this account threw me into, I shall leave to your own sensibility to imagine—I fell upon my knees, and in an heart felt extasy, cried out,
"Gracious God! have pity on me
