 great virulence, as a person who had endeavoured
to intail the curse of infamy upon her house; and assured the plaintiff, that he
had hired the apartment for a young lady, whom he pretended to have privately
espoused, without the consent of her parents, from whose inquiries he had
reasons to conceal the place of her abode.
    The rueful foreigner, baited with their joint invectives, and more than half
distracted with the terrors of an English jury, never dream'd of attempting to
vindicate himself from the imputation he had incurred; because he imagined the
whole affair was the result of a conspiracy against his life and fortune; but
falling upon his knees before his accuser, in the most suppliant manner,
implored her pardon, which he offered to acknowledge by a present of a thousand
pounds. Had these terms been seasonably proposed, matters would soon have been
brought to an accommodation; but she could not decently enter into a treaty with
him, in presence of such witnesses; and besides, she believed herself still
under the inspection of her husband. She therefore rejected his proffer with
disdain, observing, that his guilt was of such a nature, as to preclude all
hopes of forgiveness; and ordered the chairmen to take charge of his person,
until he should be taken into custody by an officer properly authorized.
    Having given these directions, at which the poor prisoner wrung his hands in
horror and despair, she withdrew with the matron into another room, in
expectation of being visited by her husband; and after having waited some time
with manifest impatience, could not forbear asking if there were any other
lodgers in the house: when the landlady replied in the negative, she began to
sift her with a variety of questions, in the course of which she learn'd, that
not a soul had entered the house after her own arrival; and then conjectured,
that the voice she had mistaken for her husband's, must have been part of a
conversation that passed in the next house, from which she was separated by a
thin party-wall.
    This discovery mortified her in one respect, and pleased her in another; she
was chagrined at the disagreeable interruption, because it laid her under the
necessity of exposing her character to the inquiries of those whom her cries had
brought to her assistance; though she was at the same time very well satisfied
to find that her lord was ignorant of the adventure, and that it was now in her
power to be revenged upon the count, for the severity of his behaviour, when he
acted in the capacity of her creditor. She therefore resolved
