, like hers, have demanded dates, facts, testimonials and witnesses? Would she not have made us undergo the fate of Lady Catherine, the legal heir of the house of Suffolk, whom, by a barbarous, unfeminine use of power, she tore from the most near and sacred of human tyes, and condemned, even in the bloom of youth, to a solitary life of imprisonment, only for having dared to become a wife and mother?—Would not, in a word, all the fury of her temper have

blazed forth, but that she meditated a more safe and silent ruin?
Unwilling to add to the anguish of this moment by one surmise, I threw myself into his arms, and silent, speechless, strained him to my heart—supplicating, mentally, that God who alone could protect us. No language could have affected Lord Leicester like this conduct.—He accused himself of having, meanly considered his own safety; and we were obliged repeatedly to assure him, we thought he had acted with the most consummate judgment, ere we could reconcile him to himself. "Surely Matilda thinks me a sufficient sufferer, cried he, in losing the charm of her society?—Can I have forgotten, that I dare no longer indulge even my eyes with her beauty?—Can I have forgotten that all other men may freely adore her, and that her happiness is not more in the power of Elizabeth than mine is in hers?—Did I not know the Queen would willingly punish her whole race with the celibacy she imposes on herself, I should doubt her protecting

the pretensions of Sydney; but she dreads too much multiplying claims to the crown, and I alone shall be persecuted with his passion—Pity my situation, added he, and with a uniform coldness, dash his presumptuous hopes. — How do I lament the fate which involves the fair Ellinor in calamities the same motives cannot reconcile her to! but since her choice and affections led her into the world, I rely upon her generous soul to support its evils with prudence and patience.—This will be our last conversation for some time—one only caution let me recommend to you both—make no confidants, cultivate the friendship of Lady Pembroke, and never forget that you constantly act under the eye of a haughty, jealous, and revengeful Sovereign."
Needless admonition! Could a daughter of the Stuart line cease to dread and hate Elizabeth?—Could a wife too, who saw the life of the man she loved depended on her prudence, for one moment dare to shew she did so?

Condemned to mingle with the world, I entered it with presages so melancholy
