CHAP. XI.

I live in an inverted order; they who ought to have succeeded me, are gone. before me. I am alone. I am stripped of all my honours; I am torn up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the earth.

BURKE.

LADY JANE received her with an open and friendly cordiality, which did honour to her own feelings and heart; she insisted on her immediately retiring to bed, and dispatched one of her domestics for a physician; and accompanying Maningham into the parlour, she learned from him the horrid circumstances which had occured since the morning; and, with a benevolent interest, seemed to enter into all the sufferings which such a scene must have produced on a mind of sensibility, young and inexperienced in the world.

Lady Jane Mackey was the daughter of a Scotch Peer; she had been in her youth remarkably handsome, and having received every advantage of education, was expected by her fa

ther to form some splendid alliance, which would contribute to the aggrandizement of the family, which consisted only of one son, and this daugh ter, who was to become the sacrifice of her brother's grandeur. All that œconomy could suggest, all that parental tenderness could lavish, was bestowed upon this son, the future Earl of Glenrouverie; and his hapless sister was con. demned to force her way in the world by the help of her own merit, and that beauty which Dame Nature had bestowed upon her.

Lady Jane felt the cruel distinction which family pride and hereditary prejudice made between those who had the same claim upon the natural tenderness of a father; she felt it severely, yet she fondly loved her brother; and having received, from nature and education, no small portion of the inherent pride of her race, she sedulously exerted herself in attaining all those graces and accomplishments which were calculated to adorn her rank, and give lustre to her beauty: but, alas! the idea of settling herself for life formed no part of her wishes. A romantic temper, a soul enthusiastically ardent, and a heart tender and affectionate, was not likely to mate for wealth. Lady Jane looked round the world for a kindred soul; she sought admiration, she sought devotion, in the man she should select for a partner, to be the sole and undivided object of his care, his thoughts, and his wishes.

Several respectable alliances were proposed to her, and rejected, when fortune presented to her view Colonel Mackey. He was a younger brother, of a good family, but without wealth. The

graces of his person, the fascination of his manners, made an instant impression on Lady Jane; while he, attracted by her beauty, by the eclat of carrying off a prize so much admired; attracted also by the hope which her being an only daughter presented of a fine fortune, and the promotion which the interest of the Earl might procure for him, assiduously sought her society.

The Earl of Glenrouverie no sooner perceived the intimacy, than he determined to put a stop to it. He spoke to the Colonel, and, in very peremptory terms, commanded him to desist; but this only increased the danger of his daughter, by involving her in a clandestine intercourse; during which the Colonel so well prosecuted his suit, and obtained so decided an interest in the heart of the lady, that she consented to a private mar-" riage.

For a time the romanticness of his stolen interviews with his bride, the warmth of her attachment to him, and her extreme beauty, lent a fervour to his passion for her, which overcame the natural bias of his selfish soul: but her situation having at length made the discovery of their secret connection necessary, he found himself obliged to confess his marriage to the Earl. That nobleman received the explanation with astonishment, for so well had the secrecy been preserved, that he never once suspected it; and then, endeavouring to recover himself, he coolly bade him take home his portionless wife. In vain Lady Jane threw herself on her knees-in vain she wept and intreated-he was inexorable; she was dismissed immediately from his household,

and compelled to accompany her husband to lodgings unfitted to her rank, or the accommodations she had been accustomed to.

The real character of her husband now began to unveil itself to her; the sordid selfishness of his narrow soul was no longer restrained; he set out to join his regiment, taking her with him, and reducing her, by his own extravagance, and the parsimoniousness of his allowance to her, to perform with her own hands many of the ordinary occupations of her domestic establishment.

A few, a very few weeks, entirely dissipated all the airy fabrics which the youthful Lady Jane had erected of love and happiness; the fine edge of affection was turned, by the rough stroke of harsh and unfeeling authority; every difficulty *was increased and embittered by the reproaches and unkindness of her partner, and every deprivation doubled upon the hapless sufferer, because the private expenditure of the Colonel had rather increased than diminished since his marriage; her situation, which called for indulgence and tenderness, was pointed out to her as a reason for new œconomy and greater exertion; while every effort was expected to be made by that party least accustomed to hardship, most delicate in constitution, and worst fitted, by nature and education, to sustain it.

There is, perhaps, no evil in nature more insupportable to a delicate mind, than the necessity of asking for pecuniary assistance, even from those whose duty it is to supply it.

Lady Jane waited from day to day, in the expectation of her husband foreseeing the necessa

ries which her situation required, and voluntarily bestowing them upon her; but, entirely engrossed by self, he either thought not of them, or, if he did think, purposely withheld them from her. The little stock of ready money which she had possessed when she quitted her father's mansion, had been long spent in purchasing the necessaries of life; for the Colonel, spending his days with the mess, never once troubled himself to inquire how his lady lived at home, or thought it at all necessary to provide for her, or his family, which, however, consisted only of two servants; and Lady Jane at length quietly set about altering her own wardrobe, to make preparations for the expected stranger.

A premature accouchement, however, happily prevented her from an accumulation of domestic sorrow; and her unfeeling lord openly rejoiced in the circumstance, exclaiming "There will be one less to provide for.”

The year following, however, he was less fortunate, and Lady Jane had the felicity of clasping to her bosom a beautiful girl, whose soft and innocent smile seemed to repay her for all that she had suffered, and bind her to an existence which had, for the two past years, been one of accumulated suffering and endurance. She had frequently written, during this period, to her father; but her letters of submission and duty had been uniformly returned unanswered. This she had concealed from her husband and from the world; alas! she had to conceal from the latter all the severity of her destiny, and, with a fortitude which would not have disgraced an ancient

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