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 his feelings by Lord O'Sinister's conduct to him in the hour of 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 from 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 him to form. But what had brought him to Firgrove, a seat she knew he disliked, from its remote

ness 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 real 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 in London, and whose husband, a gallant officer, was 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, confidant, 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 accidentally, but without being seen himself, beheld the fair Elizabeth

"Her form fresher than the morning rose

When the dew wets its leaves; unstain'd and pure
As is the lily, or the mountain snow.”

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