 to disclose what shame forbid him to utter, and she dreading a horrid tale she had long and silently anticipated!
In this state—that hand of death extended over her brow which he would have given the world to have been directed to his—no merciful tear to relieve his swolen heart, he must have expired with excessive sensibility, had not a few inarticulate sounds, accompanied by a piteous sigh, burst from his tortured bosom.

'Be calm, my sweet love,' cried Lady Hazard:
'Calm!' returned he
—her celestial voice penetrating his torn heart, and the tears gushing in torrents

from his eyes—
'Yes, calm as the pitiless butcher that kills the innocent lamb! When thy spotless soul shall look down with just horror and kind commiseration on thy polluted husband, and thy cruel murderer, then tell me to be calm! Infuse thy incomparable innocence into my culpable heart, inspire me with virtue, and teach me to be happy. See! Oh heavenly God!—she hears me with sorrow, but not with astonishment! She knew it!—'tis plain she knew it!—and my foul crimes have, like the influence of a malignant poison, slowly consumed her life! Pity, pardon, immaculate angel!—But my thoughtless frenzy is too much for her tender frame. How are you, my love? She answers wildly!'
—And so indeed she did. Lord Hazard's violence had thrown her into a delirium, in which she remained a few minutes, and then expired!

The incoherent expressions she uttered during this melancholy interval, sufficiently confimed Lord Hazard that his lady was but too well acquainted with the fatal secret; and, lest he should not be wretched enough at her loss, he had now the additional reflection that his crime had first sapped the foundation of her peace, and afterwards gradually destroyed her life. Regardless however of any discovery, or its consequences, he summoned every

possible assistance to her aid; but no syllable that escaped Lady Hazard reached any ear, except that Charles, who first entered the room, heard his mother fervently exclaim, which were the last words she uttered,
'If any blessings were in store for me, of which I have been untimely deprived, shower them, merciful heaven, upon the head of my dear boy.'



Having so completely thrown the two families in the country into the vapours, as to make it impossible they should play any of their whimsical tricks in our absence, the reader and I will take a look at Mr. Standfast and his associates; and, as much as any thing, because it is
