London, who, contrary to the usual custom, divided his ample property between them, a circumstance which induced Lord O'Sinister, who had always an eye to his own interest, to pay his addresses to the young lady. Mr. Beerscroft was brought up to his father's business, which he found in too flourishing a state, at the old gentleman's decease, to think of withdrawing from: averse, however, to trouble, and inclined besides, to pleasure, he soon resolved on relieving himself from all the fatiguing part of it, by taking an active partner. Naturally of an unsuspicious temper, and of an age, besides, when he formed this resolution, in which the mind is apt to be precipitate in its decisions, he was not long in making choice of one, a man of manners so plausible, that he soon obtained a complete ascendancy over him; and, by degrees, succeeded in leading him into deep and, so at least to a cool and sober judgment they would have appeared, extravagant speculations, for the carrying on of which, he pretended large sums were requisite, a pretence that obtained for him the wealth he coveted, and of which he had no sooner made himself master, than he decamped, leaving the too credulous Beerscroft stripped of fortune, and ruined in credit, in consequence of the incorrect manner the business had been carried on, from the time he ceased to take an active part in it himself. He fled for consolation to his brother-in-law....but consolation was almost the last thing he had a chance of receiving from him....his sister was sent out of the way, in order to prevent her lending him any assistance; and the noble Peer did nothing but upbraid and execrate the folly, which pérmitted the embezzlement of a fortune he had secretly hoped some unexpected casualty might yet have put him in possession of. In the hour of calamity, rebuke, however it may be merited, should be avoided, since 'tis an hour in which the heart cannot endure it with calmness, particularly if it comes from those whom we fondly imagined would have sympathised in our sufferings. Beerscroft quitted the mansion of his titled relative with greater precipitation than he had hurried to it, despair in his heart, distraction in his eye, when his good genius threw him in the way of an old friend, who, like the good Samaritan, carried him to his home, bound up the wounds of his almost broken heart, nor suffered him to leave his hospitable roof till he had obtained him a lucrative situation under government. The deep impression made on him by Lord O'Sinister's conduct to him in the height of his distress, would have induced him to forego all further communication with his Lordship, but on account of his sister, whom he most tenderly loved, as she did him. His society soon became her chief pleasure, every succeeding day tending still more fully to convince her, that happiness was not to be enjoyed with such a man as Fate had made her lord,' His total want of those virtues he had so well assumed the semblance of when paying his addresses to her....the indignity and cruel malevolence with which he was constantly in the habit of treating her....his abominable hypocrisy....his vile licentiousness, of which scarce a day passed in which some new account did not reach her ears to wound her heart....his ignoble conduct to her beloved brother....all, by degrees, so completely alienated her affection for him, that, but for her daughter, whom in the event of a separation between them, she knew she should not be allowed to retain with her, she would have proposed one. Aware of the atrocities her lord was capable of committing, she thought herself not only justified, but performing an indispensible duty, in keeping a watch upon him, for the purpose of being enabled in some degree to counteract his schemes. In the measures she had recourse to for defeating them, her brother was not only her confident but chief agent; and to their exertions many a father was indebted for not bewailing the hour he had become one, many a lovely innocent for not perishing like a loathsome weed in the streets of the metropolis. In addition to these particulars, Mrs. Dunbar further informed her attentive auditor, that generosity was known but by name to his Lordship; that he did nothing without a secret view to his own interest or gratification; yet that, unacquainted as he was in reality with virtue, none could better assume the appearance of it, whenever he found it requisite to do so for the furtherance of his schemes; in short, that he was a complete man of the world, as the term is generally understood....a violator of every moral obligation, an insidious friend, an implacable enemy, a hardened libertine, holding in absolute detestation his amiable lady, her patient merit, and undeviating rectitude, notwithstanding her thorough knowledge of his baseness, being a kind of reproach to him he could not bear, nor more regarding his lovely daughter, but on account of the still more illustrious and extensive connexions she might be the means of enabling his to form. But what had brought him to Firgrove, a seat she knew he disliked, from his remoteness from the capital, where he could indulge his vicious propensities without fear of absolute exposure, for, in order to be better enabled to deceive, he wished to conceal his character from the world, Mrs. Dunbar could not pretend to say. We, however, being better informed on the subject, are able to state, that his visit to it was on account of a married lady of distinction in the neighbourhood, with whom he had formed an acquaintance the preceding winter, and whose husband was a gallant officer, then risking his life abroad in the service of his king and country. The place in which their assignations were generally kept, was the ruined Abbey; and, in order to prevent the least danger of intrusion, his Lordship employed Mr. Jenkins, his valet, confident, and prime agent in every villainy, to make use of some contrivance for keeping the rustics away from it. To the ingenuity, therefore, of this gentleman, was owing the noises and appearances that so alarmed and astonished the simple inhabitants of Heathwood. An easy conquest was never a valued one by Lord O'Sinister; his passion, therefore, for this lady quickly subsided, and, about the same period, he accidently, but without being seen himself, beheld the fair Elizabeth.... Her form fresher that the morning rose When the dew wets its leaves; unstain'd and pure That very instant love, but not, like Palemon's, chaste desire, sprung in his heart; and he resolved not to rest, until he had discovered who she was, and made an effort to introduce himself to her. As usual, he had recourse to Jenkins, to obtain him the information he desired; and, by his means, soon learnt her name and situation in life. This, however, did not satisfy him; ere he commenced his plans against her, he conceived it requisite to know the principles of her parents, and how they were circumstanced. Accordingly, a pretext was formed for bringing Stubbs to him, whom the indefatigable Jenkins soon succeeded in learning was able to give him all the particulars he required. Convinced, from the account the honest rustic gave of Munro, that to hope to overcome his principles, or elude the vigilance with which he watched over his daughter, would be ridiculous, he conceived the project of getting him out of the way, by offering him the adjutancy of his regiment; and also (under the supposition of his resembling his father in point of disposition) of keeping the son from Heathwood, by promising to become his patron in future. On succeeding in this, he lost no time in introducing himself to the innocent Elizabeth and her mother, under the fictitious name of Eaton....fearing to do so by his own, lest premature suspicion should be excited. Accustomed to deceive and triumph, he flattered himself he should find her an easy victim to his extreme disappointment and mortification, however, he soon perceived that there was not the smallest chance of succeeding with her by the common arts of seduction....by any other, notwithstanding her youth, innocence, inexperience, and consequent unsuspicion of the deceitfulness of mankind, but by apparently honourable means, or actual violence....to which last measure he was unwilling to have recourse, lest it should deprive him of all chance of obtaining her heart, for the possession of which he now began to be almost as anxious as he was for the possession of her person. M At length he decided on making her a matrimonial overture, and, if she rejected it, on carrying her off....than which nothing could be easier, as he had several emissaries constantly in pay, capable of executing any villainy he set them on. The rapture he derived, from Elizabeth's acceptance of his addresses, was not a little damped by her father's positively interdicting their nuptials, till he had received unquestionable proofs of his respectability. The chagrin, however, this interdiction caused him, the scheme he formed for deceiving him on the subject, quickly enabled him to get over, but for carrying which into effect he was prevented by a hint from Mrs. Munro, that she would on no account consent to the marriage of her daughter, till her father could be present at it; and, in its place, formed the horrible project of incapacitating Munro, by personal injury, from retaining the situation he had given him, (a project which had nearly been attended with fatal consequences, the ruffian whom he employed on this occasion being of a still more atrocious disposition than him; self,) and reducing him to such a state of poverty, by the destruction of his habitation, as would prevent him, he trusted, from throwing new obstacles in the way of his wishes. The partial failure of it threw him into a rage that exceeded description, in the first paroxysm of which, he again thought of carrying off Elizabeth, but again relinquished the idea, from the dread he entertained, of converting the favourable sentiments he had reason to believe she then entertained for him into horror and disgust, by such a step: the one he had at length recourse to, for getting her into his power, succeeded according to his wishes. The dread he experienced of his conduct towards her being resented by her father or brother, gave way to the conviction of their being both in his power.... the former in consequence of the bond he had given him, and which, by a legerdemain trick of Mr. Jenkins, was made payable on demand, and the other, from knowing he had no chance of preferment but through his means. Mrs. Elford, his vile confederate, in order to prevent any thing like suspicion entering the mind of Elizabeth, took advantage of what she told her respecting Delacour, |