Twelfth book ¹

Claribella ²

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Ladies, 

You cannot be insensible how little compassion the woes, occasioned by love, find from this iron-hearted age; nor how ready everyone is, on the least breach of decorum, ³ to censure ⁴ and condemn, without considering either the force of that passion, which those who are most upon their guard against, have not always the power of restraining, or what particular circumstances may have concurred ⁵ to ensnare a young creature into a forgetfulness of what she owes herself:—her fault alone engrosses the discourse and attention of the town, and few there are will take the pains to enquire ⁶ if any excuses may be made for it: all the misfortunes her inadvertency ⁷ brings upon her are unpitied, and looked upon as a just punishment; all her former merit is no more remembered; and people no longer allow her to be possessed of any virtues, if once detected in transgressing one. 

I am sure you are too just not to condemn such a proceeding ⁸ as highly cruel, and also too generous, not to make some allowances for heedless ⁹ youth, when hurried on by an excess of passion to things which cooler reason disapproves. 

In this confidence I take the liberty to give you the narrative of an adventure, which, though exactly true in every circumstance, has in it something equally surprising with any that the most celebrated romance has presented to us.

The heroine of it, whom I shall distinguish by the name of Aliena, ¹⁰ is the daughter of a gentleman descended of a very ancient family, who, from father to son, had, for a long succession of ages, enjoyed an estate, not inferior to some of the nobility; but by an unhappy attachment, in his immediate predecessor, to the race of the Stuarts, ¹¹ was deprived of the greatest part of it; and as he had several children besides this Aliena, none of them, excepting the eldest son, could expect any other fortunes than their education, which he indeed took care should be very liberal. ¹²

But though his paternal tenderness seemed equally divided among them all, and Aliena had no more opportunities of improvement than her other sisters, yet did she make a much greater progress in every thing she was instructed in than any of them; and as nature had bestowed on her a much larger share of beauty, so was also her genius more extensive than that which either one who was elder, and another a year younger than herself, had to boast of. 

In fine, ¹³ dear ladies, she was at fourteen one of the most charming creatures in the world. —As her father lived in London, she went frequently to public places, and those diversions which were too expensive for the narrowness of her circumstances were, however, not denied her:—she was never without tickets, for the masquerades, ¹⁴ ridottos, ¹⁵ operas, concerts, and plays, presented to her by her friends; none of whom but thought themselves happy in her accompanying them to those entertainments. 

I was intimately acquainted with her, and have often thought her one of the happiest of our sex; because, whether it was owing to her good conduct or good fortune, she lived without making any enemies;—the sweetness of her behaviour charmed all who were witnesses of it; and though there are many equally innocent with herself, yet some have a certain sourness or haughtiness ¹⁶ in their deportment [18.  “Manner of conducting oneself; conduct (of life); behaviour” (OED, “Deportment, n.” 1).] which renders people industrious to find out something to condemn them; and those who think themselves insulted by any airs ¹⁷ of that kind are apt enough to construe to themselves, or at least represent to others, the most harmless actions as highly criminal. 

But Aliena was the darling of all that knew her,—wherever she came a general and unfeigned pleasure diffused itself in every face through the whole company. It is scarce possible to say whether she was more admired by the men, or loved by the women: a thinking wonderful you will own ¹⁸ and what some people take upon them to say is incompatible, yet so in reality it was.—Dear, sweet, agreeable, entertaining Aliena, how I lament the sad reverse of thy condition! 

But, ladies, I detain you too long from the promised narrative; compelled by the restless impulse of my commiseration for this unfortunate creature, I have, perhaps, too much encroached upon your patience, and that of your readers, for which I ask pardon of both, and will now come to the point. 

Among the number of Aliena’s admirers, there was a commander of one of his majesty’s ships, a gentleman of good family, agreeable person, and handsome fortune, exclusive of his commission: [21.  “Commission” may refer to both the authority and the monetary compensation granted to a commissioned officer in the military.] —whether he had more the art of persuasion than any of his rivals, I will not pretend to say; but it is certain that either his merit or good fortune rendered everything he said to her more acceptable than the most courtly addresses of any other person. 

To be brief, she loved him:—his manner, whatever it was, ensnared her young heart, and the society ¹⁹ of her dear captain was preferable to her to any other joy the world could give. 

I am very well assured his pretensions ²⁰ were on an honourable foot, otherwise they had been rejected at the first; all her acquaintance expected every day to hear of the completion of their wishes by a happy marriage; when contrary to her, and it may be to his expectations, he was ordered to sail for the West Indies, ²¹ and to be stationed there for three years. 

How terrible a rebuff this was to her dearest hopes anyone may judge, and the more so as he did not press her to complete the marriage before his departure:—she thought with reason, that if his passion had been equal to his pretensions, he would have instead of that, he seemed rather less assiduous than he had been, and much more taken up with the vexation of being obliged to be so long absent from his native country, than from that person, whom he had a thousand times sworn was infinitely more valuable to him than anything beside, either in that or the whole world. 

I will not pretend to be so well acquainted with his thoughts, as to say positively he had never loved her; but, I believe, you will be of opinion with me, that this behaviour was far from being the indication of a sincere and ardent passion. 

She had too much wit not to perceive this slight, but too much tenderness to resent it as she ought to have done; and when he told her, as he sometimes vouchsafed to do, that he depended on her constancy, and that he should find her at his return with the same inclinations he left her possessed of in his favour, she always answered, that it was impossible for time, absence, or any other solicitations, ever to prevail on her to call back that heart she had given him; and confirmed the promise of preserving herself entirely for him with all the imprecations the most violent and faithful passion could suggest. 

Had there been no possibility for him to have implored, nor she to have granted stronger assurances for his future happiness, he doubtless might, and ought to have been content with these; but as there were consent of friends, licenses, and wedding rings easy to be had, and churches, chapels, and clergymen plenty, no impediment to prevent their being joined forever, how could the dull insensible entertain one thought of going away without having first settled so material a point! 

But in all the tender interviews that passed between them, after the arrival of those orders, which were to separate them for so long a time, he never once asked her to marry him; and as he made no offers that way, her modesty would not suffer ²² her to be the first proposer. 

At length the cruel day of taking leave was come:—never parting had more the show of mournful; I say the show, because I cannot think the captain had any real grief at heart: but on the side of Aliena it was truly so; yet did not all she expressed in his presence come in any competition with what she suffered after he was gone.—No description can any way equal the distraction ²³ she was in; I shall therefore not attempt it, but leave you to judge of the cause by the consequence. 

For some days she shut herself up, gave a loose to ²⁴ tears and to complaining, and scarce could be prevailed upon to take needful nourishment:—her father’s commands, however, and remonstrance, ²⁵ how much this conduct would incur ²⁶ the ridicule of the world, at last made her assume a more cheerful countenance, and she content to see company, and appear abroad ²⁷ as usual; but while we all thought her grief was abated, it preyed with greater violence by being restrained, and inspired her with a resolution to sacrifice everything she had once valued herself upon, rather than continue in the condition she was. 

In fine, one day when she was thought to be gone on a visit to one of her acquaintance, she went to a sale-shop, equipped herself in the habit of a man, or rather boy, for being very short, she seemed in that dress not to exceed twelve or thirteen years of age at most. 

Thinking herself not sufficiently disguised even by this, she made her fine flaxen hair be shaved, and covered her head with a little brown wig; which wrought so great a change in her, that had her own father happened to have met her, he would scarce have known her after this transformation. 

But it was not her intention to run that hazard, nor had she taken all this pains to live concealed in London:—she always knew she loved the captain, but knew not till now with how much violence she did so; or that for the sake of being near him, she could forego all that ever had or ought to have been dear to her. 

I will not detain your attention with any repetition of those conflicts which must necessarily rend her bosom, while going about the execution of a design, the most daring sure that ever woman formed:—you will naturally conceive them when I acquaint you what it was. 

Not able to support life without the presence of him who had her heart, she seemed with her habit to have thrown off all the fears and modesty of womanhood:—the fatal softness of our sex alone remained; and that, guided by the dictates of an ungovernable passion, made her despise all dangers, hardships, infamy, and even death itself. 

She went directly to Gravesend, ²⁸  where her lover’s ship lay yet at anchor, waiting his arrival, who was gone into the country to take leave of some relations. This she knew, and resolved, if possible, to get herself entered on board before he came, being unwilling he should see her till they were under sail: not that, as she has since declared, she had any thoughts of discovering herself to him in case he knew her not, but that if he should happen to do so, she might avoid any arguments he might make use of to dissuade her from an enterprise ²⁹ she was determined to pursue at all events, and even against the inclination of him whose sake she undertook it. 

She was a great admirer of an old play of Beaumont and Fletcher’s, ³⁰ called Philaster; or, Love lies a bleeding: ³¹ —the character of Ballario, ³² who, disguised like a page, followed and waited on her beloved prince in all his adventures, strangely charmed by her; and she thought, as her passion was equal to that of any woman in the world, it would become her to attest it by actions equally extravagant; and in the midst of all those shocks, with which reason and modesty at some times shook her heart, felt a pleasure in the thoughts of attending her dear captain, being always about him, doing little services for him, and having an opportunity of observing his behavior on all occasions.

As she had often heard the captain talk of his first lieutenant ³³ with a great deal of friendship, she thought him the most proper person to address; accordingly she waited till he came on shore, and went to his lodgings, where being easily admitted, she told him she had a great inclination to the sea; but as her age and want ³⁴ of skill in the art of navigation rendered her unfit as yet for any service, excepting that of attending some or other of the officers, she begged to be received in the station of a cabin boy: ³⁵ —she added, that she had heard such extraordinary praises of the captain’s humanity and gentleness to all belonging to him, that she had an extreme ambition to attend on him, if such a favour might be granted her. 

The lieutenant eyed her attentively all the time she was speaking, and was seized with a something which he had never felt before, and at that time was far from being able to account for; and this secret impulse it was that made him unable to refuse her request, though he knew very well that a sufficient number of boys had been already entered: he told her, however, that he could not give her an assurance of being employed about the captain’s person, till he had spoke to him concerning it; but that since she seemed so desirous of it, he would use all his interest with him on that score; and added, what she knew as well as himself, that he was absent at that time, but was expected to arrive the same day. 

Aliena was highly content with the promise he made her, and not doubted but when she was once in the ship with him, she should find out some stratagem or other to make him take notice of her, and also to ingratiate ³⁶ herself so much with him, as to occasion him to take her under his own care, even though it should be her fate at first to be placed with any of the inferior officers. 

She thanked the lieutenant a thousand times over, and was ready to fall at his feet in token of her gratitude; but entreated he would continue his goodness so far as to order her to be put on board, lest he should, in the hurry of his affairs, forget the promise he had made, and they should sail without her. To which he answered, that she had no need to be under any apprehensions ³⁷ of that sort, for he would send his servant with her to a house where there were several boys of the same station, and he believed much of the same age, and that the long-boat ³⁸ would put them all on board that evening. 

This entirely eased all her scruples, and she was beginning afresh to testify the sense she had of the favour he did her, when some company coming in to visit the lieutenant, he called his man, and sent him to conduct her to the house he had mentioned. 

There she found several youths ready equipped for their voyage, and whose rough athletic countenances ³⁹ and robust ⁴⁰ behaviour became well enough the vocation they had taken upon them, but rendered them very unfit companions for the gentle, the delicate Aliena. 

The discourse they had with each other, the oaths they swore, and the tricks they played by way of diverting themselves, frighted her almost out of her intention; but she was much more so when they began to lay their hands on her to make one in their boisterous exercises: the more abashed ⁴¹ and terrified she looked, the more rude they grew, and pinching her on the ribs, as boys frequently do to one another, one of them found she had breasts, and cried with a great oath, that they had got a girl among them:—on this they were all for being satisfied, and had doubtless treated her with the most shocking indecency, had not her cries brought up the woman of the house, who, being informed of the occasion of this uproar, took Aliena from them, and was going to carry her into another room, in order to learn the truth of this adventure, when the lieutenant entered, and found his new sailor all in tears, and the rest in a loud laugh. 

The cause of all this was soon explained to him, but the greatest mystery was still behind, nor did he find it very easy to come at; for though Aliena confessed to him, and to the landlady, after they had taken her into a private room, that she was a woman, yet who she was, and the motive which had induced her to disguise herself in this manner, she seemed determined to keep from their knowledge, and only begged, that as her design had miscarried, by her sex being so unfortunately discovered, they would permit her to go without making any further inquiry concerning her. 

But this request the lieutenant would by no means comply with;—he now no longer wondered at those secret emotions which had worked about his heart at first sight of her, and avowed the force of nature, which is not to be deceived, though the senses may, and frequently are. 

He now indulged the admiration of her beauty, much more than he would give himself the liberty of doing while he thought her what her habit ⁴² spoke her, and looked so long till he entirely looked away his heart:—he was really in love with her, but was either ashamed of being so for a young creature, whose virtue and discretion he had no reason to have a very high idea of, or was awed by that respect which is inseparable from a true affection, from declaring himself. ⁴³ To whichever of these motives it was, I will not take upon me to determine, but he was entirely silent on that head, ⁴⁴ and only told her in a gay manner, that as he had entered her on her earnest desire, he could not consent to discharge her, without knowing something more of her than that she was a woman:—“Nay,” added he, “even of that I am not quite assured:—I have only the testimony of two or three boys, who, in such a case, are not to be depended upon:—I think that I ought, at least, to satisfy myself in that point.”

In speaking these words he offered to pluck her towards him, and the vile woman of the house, who had no regard for anything but her own interest, in obliging her customers, guessing the lieutenant’s designs, and perhaps thinking them worse than they were in reality, went out of the room, and left them together. 

This, indeed, quite overcame all the resolution of Aliena; she thought she saw something in the eyes of the lieutenant that, even more than his words, threatened her with all a maid ⁴⁵ of honor and condition ⁴⁶ had to dread; and after having struggled with all her might to get loose of the hold he had taken of her, threw herself at his feet, and with a flood of tears, and broken trembling voice, conjured ⁴⁷ him to have pity on her, and suffer her to depart.—“If ever,” said she, “you were taught to revere virtue in another, or love the practice of it yourself; if you have any kindred whose chastity is dear to you, for their sakes, and for your own, commiserate ⁴⁸ a wretched maid, whom chance and her own folly alone have thrown her into your power.”

These words, the emphasis with which they were delivered, and the action that accompanied them, made the lieutenant, who as it luckily proved for her, was really a man of honour, shudder as she spoke them:—he raised her from the posture she had been in, with more respect than indeed, considering all things, she could in reason have expected; desired she would not be under any apprehensions of his behaving to her in a manner she could not be brought to approve; but in return for that self-denial, he still insisted she should make him the confidante of the motive which had obliged her to expose herself to the dangers she had done. 

“Alas, sir,” answered she, still weeping, “as for the dangers you mention, and which I have but too cruelly experienced, I never had once a thought of them; and as for any I might encounter from the inclemency ⁴⁹ of the winds and the waves, I despised them:—whatever hardships I should have sustained in the prosecution ⁵⁰ of my intended enterprise, would have afforded me more pleasure than pain, had fate permitted me to have undergone them concealed:—nay, death itself had been welcome, had it seized me on board that ship my heart was bent to live or die in:—but endless grief and misery is now my doom, since denied the last, the only satisfaction this wide world could give me.” 

“Yet pardon me,” continued she, “if I cannot let you into the secret of who I am, or what induced me to this strange ramble: ⁵¹ —let it therefore content you to know I am not of the lowest rank of people;—that my reputation is not altogether my own, since my family will be sufferers by my fault, if known; and also, that how much so ever my disguising myself in this manner may subject me to your censure, yet my very soul shrinks at dishonour; and that this action, which alone can be alleged against me, is a greater disguise to my real principles, than my habit has been to my fear.” 

The lieutenant listened with all the attention she wished; every syllable she uttered sunk into his soul:—his love, his admiration, his astonishment, increased every moment; but though he began to feel more pure flames for her, than this he testified at his first information she was a woman, yet they were too ardent to permit him to let her go from him without giving him some probable hopes of ever seeing her more: he gave a turn indeed to his manner of treating her, yet still gave her to understand, he would not part from her, without being made privy to everything he wished to know. 

To this poor Aliena answered little but with tears; and while he continued pressing, she evading, a sailor came in to acquaint him the captain was arrived; on which he hastily took leave, but before he left the house, charged the landlady, as she valued his friendship, not to let the seeming boy stir out of the room. 

This Aliena was ignorant of, till imagining herself at liberty, she was going downstairs, in order to quit a place where she had nothing but ruin to expect, she was met by the woman of the house, who obliged her to turn back, and then locked her into a room, telling her she must stay till the return of the lieutenant. 

Now had this unfortunate creature full liberty to reflect on the mischiefs she had brought upon herself:—night came on, and every moment came loaded with new horrors:—the lieutenant returned not, but as she was in continued apprehensions of him, she resolved not to pluck off her clothes, nor even to venture to lie down on the bed, lest she should fall into a sleep, and by that means be rendered incapable of resisting any violence that might be offered to her. 

All night long did she walk about the chamber, in an agony of mind which stands in need of no description, nor can be reached by any:—had the window looked into the street, she would certainly have jumped out, but being backwards her escape would have been no farther than the yard of the same house, which, as she was wholly ignorant of the passages, left her no room to hope she could get through without discovery. 

A thousand different ideas rose in her almost-distracted brain:—she feared the lieutenant, and saw no way to avoid him, but by the protection of the captain, and how to acquaint with anything of what had passed she knew not;—at last she be thought herself of attempting to do it even by the lieutenant himself; and accordingly when he came, as he did pretty early in the morning, she said to him with all the courage she could assume, “Sir, you insist on knowing who I am, which I am determined to die rather than comply with: there is but one way, by which you have a chance of gratifying your curiosity:—the the bearer of a letter from me to your captain:—he knows me, and if he thinks fit, will inform you of everything.” 

The lieutenant on this began to guess somewhat of the truth, and agreed to do as she desired, and immediately called for pen, ink, and paper for her; which being brought, she was not long writing these lines: 

“To Captain ——
Unable to support your absence, I followed you in disguise, desirous of no other happiness than to enjoy concealed your sight: an unlucky accident has discovered me:—your first lieutenant, whose prisoner I now am, can tell you by what means:—for heaven’s sake deliver me from his power, that I may either return to my father, if he will receive me after this adventure, or die with shame of it in some obscure corner of this world.”

She subscribed ⁵² no name, nor was there indeed any occasion for doing it to one so well acquainted with the characters of her handwriting; the lieutenant suffered her to seal it without once asking to see the contents, and gave his word and honour to deliver it the same hour into the captain’s hands, and bring whatever answer should be returned. 

He now, it is certain, began to see a good deal into this extraordinary affair:—he had no longer doubted but love of the captain had been the cause; but, it is highly probable, imagined also that more had passed between that gentleman and his fair charge, than they in reality were guilty of. 

The generous concern he had for her youth and beauty, however, made him impatient to see in what manner her lover would receive this billet; ⁵³ he therefore hurried away to his lodging, where he was strangely surprised to find a great crowd of officers and other people about the door, and on his going upstairs saw the captain, and three gentlemen, whom he knew not, engaged in a very warm ⁵⁴ dispute.—The cause of it was this: 

The family of Aliena had no sooner missed her, than strict ⁵⁵ search was made for her all over the town:—accident at last discovered where she had exchanged her habit, and the disguise she had made choice of, made them naturally conjecture on what design she was gone; but not being able to imagine that so young and artless ⁵⁶ a maid should have undertaken an enterprise of this bold ⁵⁷ kind, concluded she must have her advisors and exciters ⁵⁸ to it, and who but the captain could they suspect of being so:—they were therefore assured in their own minds, that some private correspondence had been carried on between them since his pretended taking leave.—Incensed against him, as had their thoughts been true, they would have had the highest reason, they complained of the insult, and obtained an order to search the ship, and force her from this betrayer of her honor:—to this end, they brought proper officers with them to Gravesend, and had the assistance of others belonging to that place. 

Before they proceeded to extremities, ⁵⁹ however, they went to the captain’s lodgings, being told on their arrival he was not yet gone on board:—at first, the father, an uncle, and a cousin of Aliena’s, who all came down together, remonstrated to him, in terms tolerably mild, how ungentleman-like an action it was, to delude a young girl of family, ⁶⁰ and to whom he had made an honourable courtship, to quit her friends, and accompany him in so shameful a manner; but finding he denied all they accused him of, as well he might, they began to grow extremely rough:—the uncle, who had some interest ⁶¹ at the Board of Admiralty, ⁶² told him he would shake his commission, and many such-like menaces: which the captain, bowing his innocence, was little able to endure, and their mutual rage was expressing itself in the highest terms, when the lieutenant entered. 

This gentleman listened for some moments to what was said, without speaking, and easily perceiving, by the repartees ⁶³ on both sides, the meaning of what at his first entrance seemed so astonishing,—“Hold, gentlemen,” cried he to the kindred of Aliena, “your passion has transported you too far, and I dare say you will hereafter own ⁶⁴ to be guilty of an injustice you will be ashamed of, when once the truth comes to be revealed:—I believe,” continued he, “I am the only person capable of clearing up this mystery; but before I do so, beg leave to give a letter to my captain, put into my hands this morning, for the safe delivery of which I have pawned my honour.” 

Not only the captain, but those who came to accuse him were surprised at what he said; but the former taking the letter hastily out of his hands, and having read it with a great deal of real amazement, which I have heard them all allow was very visible in his countenance, walked several times about the room with a confused emotion; then paused,—then walked and paused again, as if uncertain how he should behave in an exigence ⁶⁵ which, it must be owned, demanded some deliberation; the father and the uncle of Aliena still crying out he must produce the girl, and growing clamorous, ⁶⁶  spleen, ⁶⁷ pettishness, ⁶⁸ or a value for his own character, more than for that of the woman he had once pretended to adore, made him throw the letter upon the table in an abrupt manner, and at the same time bad ⁶⁹ them go in search of the person they came in quest of; adding, that what was wanting in ⁷⁰ the young lady was owing to her want of proper education, rather than to any insinuations or crafts he had practiced on her. 

The father, finding it his daughter’s hand, read it with a shock which is not to be expressed; and having given it to his brother, cried, “Where,—who is this lieutenant, into whose power my poor unhappy girl has fallen?” 

“I am the person,” said the lieutenant, “and but to clear my captain from any imputation of a base design, should not have spoke what I now find myself obliged to do.” 

He then related in what manner Aliena came to him, the earnestness with which she begged to be entered on board; and in fine, neither omitted nor added to anything of the truth. 

This struck the kindred of Aliena into the utmost confusion:—everything proved the innocence, and as even I, dear ladies, who am her friend must own, the folly of this unhappy girl; all blushed and hung down their heads oppressed with conscious shame:—the captain pitied the consternation ⁷¹ they were in, and his heart, I cannot but think, throbbed for the condition of Aliena:—“Come,” said he to his lieutenant, in as gay a manner as the circumstances would admit, “let us go visit the lady who it seems is your prisoner, and see what ransom will be demanded for her.” 

The lieutenant made no other answer than a low bow, and immediately conducted them where they found the unfortunate Aliena walking about the room in her boy’s clothes, distracted in her mind at what reception her letter would find from the captain, but little thinking of the new guests who now entered her chamber. 

Oh, dear Spectator, think and judge what this poor soul must feel, at the sight of her lover, her father, and the nearest of her kindred thus at once presented to her:—what might have excused her to the one, rendered her criminal to the other; nor could the soft impulse of love coincide with what she owed to duty, and the decorum of reputation. 

At seeing them thus altogether, she fell into fainting, from which she was recovered but to relapse again, and the first words she spoke were, “I am ruined forever.—You, sir,” said she to her father, “can never, I am sure, forgive the dishonour I have brought upon our family:—and you,” pursued she, turning to the captain, “what can you think of the wretched Aliena! This very proof I have given you of my love, the extremest, the tenderest love that ever heart was capable of feeling, even you may censure, as not consistent with the prudence and decorum of my sex:—oh wretched!—wretched am I every way, by all deservedly abandoned.” 

The condition they saw her in disarmed her kindred of great part of the indignation they had before been full of, and hearing the captain testify abundance of tender concern for the hazards to which she had exposed herself for his sake, they withdrew to a window, and after a short consultation, desired the captain to go with them to another room; which request he readily complying with, the father of Aliena told him, that as he had courted his daughter, and so far engaged her affections as to be induced by them to take a step so contrary to duty and reputation, he thought it would become him to silence the reproaches of the world by marrying her before he embarked. 

The captain not returning an immediate answer to this proposal, gave opportunity to the uncle and cousin of Aliena to second what the father had said; and they made use of many arguments to convince him, that in honour and conscience he ought not to depart and leave her to be exposed to calumny ⁷² for an action of which he had been the sole cause. 

To all which, as soon as they had done speaking, the captain replied, that he desired no greater happiness in life than being the husband of Aliena, provided the duties of his post had not called him so suddenly away; but as he must not only immediately be snatched from her arms, but also be absent thence for so long a time, he thought it inconsistent, either with love or reason, to leave her a wife under such circumstances:—that if her affection was as well rooted as she said it was, she would doubtless have the patience to wait his return; and that if he heard nothing on her part, which should oblige him to change the sentiments he at present had, he should then himself be a petitioner for her hand. 

On this they told him, he had no reason to suspect the sincerity of her love, she had given but too substantial a proof of it, by the mad exploit she had undertaken. 

“Do not think me ungrateful,” answered he hastily, “if I say it is a proof of the violence of it, which I see with more grief than satisfaction; because actions of this kind are judged by those who view them with different eyes, as somewhat romantic, and occasion a good deal of idle ridicule among the laughing part of the world:—but,” continued he, “as constancy more than vehemence of affection is requisite ⁷³ to render the conjugal state ⁷⁴ a happy one, it is time alone can assure me of felicity with the lady in question:—for which reason I must not think of entering into any bonds of the nature you mention till after my return.” 

This answer, determinate ⁷⁵ as it was, did not make them give over; but all they urged was preaching to the wind, and the more they seemed to resent his refusal, the more obstinately he persisted in it; and they were obliged to leave Gravesend, taking with them the disconsolate ⁷⁶ Aliena, no less dissatisfied in their minds than when they came into it. 

How changed is now the fate of this young lady!—The idol once of her acquaintance, the pity now of some, and the contempt of other.—The search made for her in town after her elopement made the affair no secret:—everyone talks and judges of it according to their different humours; ⁷⁷ but few there are who put the best construction. ⁷⁸ —Sensible of this, she rarely stirs abroad, and at home is treated in a manner quite the reverse of what she was accustomed to before this accident:—her father and brothers look on her as a blemish to their family, and her sisters take every opportunity to reproach her.—The captain has never wrote to her since he went, though several letters from him have been received by others.—In fine, it is impossible to paint her situation so truly miserable as it is.—All I can say gives but a faint idea of it; yet such as it is, I flatter myself, will be sufficient to induce you to make her innocence as public as possible, by inserting this faithful account of the whole affair.

I am also pretty confident that the good nature which seems to sparkle through all your writing, besides the common interest of our sex, will make you a little expatiate on ⁷⁹ the ungenerous proceeding of the captain:—the more honour he may have in other respects, the less he is to be excused in regard to Aliena; since it was that very honour which betrayed her into a fatal confidence of his love and sincerity. 

Had he been possessed of a much less share of passion for her than he had professed, or had she even been indifferent to his gratitude, methinks, should have made him marry her, since there was no other way to heal the wounds she had given her reputation for his sake. 

But I will not anticipate your judgments on this head, and after begging pardon for this long letter, conclude with assuring you that

Red Lion Square ⁸⁰

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