heard by the German and his wife, who by her it was at present in the hands of a this time stood listening at the door, the jeweller, in order to be new set according young lady replied, in a shrill accent of dis- to her own directions, and that, whenever it pleasure," Sir, I am bound to believe that should be altered, he would send it home to all your actions are conducted by honour; her by some safe conveyance. This account but you must give me leave to tell you, that the good lady took for an evasion, and, upon your mistake is a little extraordinary, and that supposition, has again written to him in your visit, even to my father, at this time of such a provoking style, that although the the night, altogether unseasonable, if not letter arrived but half an hour ago, he is demysterious. As for the interruption I have termined to dispatch a courier before mornsuffered in my repose, I impute it to my own ing with the mischievous ring, for which, in forgetfulness in leaving my door unlocked, compliance with the impetuosity of his temand blame myself so severely for the omiss-per, I have taken the freedom to disturb you ion, that I shall to-morrow put it out of my at this unseasonable hour." own power to be guilty of the like for the future, by ordering the passage to be nailed up; meanwhile, if you would persuade me of your well-meaning, you will instantly withdraw, lest my reputation should suffer by your continuance in my apartment."

The German paid implicit faith to every circumstance of this story, which indeed could not well be supposed to be invented extempore; the ring was immediately restored, and our adventurer took his leave, congratulating himself upon his signal deliverance from the snare into which he had fallen.

CHAPTER XVII.

The step-dame's suspicions being awakened, she lays a snare for our adventurer, from which he is delivered by the interposition of his good genius.

"Madam," answered our hero, "I will not give you an opportunity to repeat the command, which I shall forthwith obey, after having entreated you once more to forgive the disturbance I have given." So saying, he gently opened the door, and, at sight of the German and his wife, who he well knew waited for his exit, started back, and gave tokens of confusion, which was partly real and partly affected. The jeweller, fully satisfied with Fathom's declaration to his daugh- THOUGH the husband swallowed the bait ter, received him with a complaisant look, without further inquiry, the penetration of and, in order to alleviate his concern, gave the wife was not so easily deceived. That him to understand, that he already knew the same dialogue in Wilhelmina's apartment, reason of his being in that apartment, and far from allaying, rather inflamed her suspidesired to be informed of what had procured cion; because, in the like emergency, she him the honour to see him at such a juncture. herself had once profited by the same or "My dear friend," said our adventurer, nearly the same contrivance. Without compretending to recollect himself with diffi- municating her doubts to the father, she reculty, "I am utterly ashamed and con- solved to double her attention to the daughfounded to be discovered in this situation; ter's future conduct, and keep such a strict but, as you have overheard what passed eye over the behaviour of our gallant, that between mademoiselle and me, I know you he should find it very difficult, if not impossiwill do justice to my intention, and forgive ble, to elude her observation. For this purmy mistake. After begging pardon for hav-pose, she took into her pay an old maiden, ing intruded upon your family at these hours, of the right sour disposition, who lived in I must now tell you, that my cousin, Count a house opposite to her own, and directed Melvil, was some time ago so much misre-her to follow the young lady in all her outpresented to his mother by certain malicious goings, whenever she should receive from informers, who delight in sowing discord in the window a certain signal, which the moprivate families, that she actually believed ther-in-law agreed to make for the occasion. her son an extravagant spendthrift, who had It was not long before this scheme succeeded not only consumed his remittances in the to her wish. The door of communication most riotous scenes of disorder, but also in-betwixt Wilhelmina's apartment and the dulged a pernicious appetite for gaming, to stair-case being nailed up by the jeweller's such a degree, that he had lost all his clothes express order, our adventurer was altogether and jewels at play. In consequence of such deprived of those opportunities he had hithfalse information, she expostulated with him erto enjoyed, and was not at all mortified to in a severe letter, and desired he would find himself so restricted in a correspondence transmit to her that ring which is in your which began to be tiresome and disagreeable; custody, it being a family stone, for which but the case was far otherwise with his Dulshe expressed an inestimable value. The cinea, whose passion, the more it was thwartyoung gentleman, in his answer to her re-ed, raged with greater violence, like a fire, proof, endeavoured to vindicate himself from the aspersions which had been cast upon his character, and, with regard to the ring, told

that, from the attempts that are made to extinguish it, gathers greater force, and flames with double fury.

Upon the second day of her misfortune, she had written a very tender billet, lamenting her unhappiness in being deprived of those meetings which constituted the chief joy of her life, and entreating him to contrive some means of renewing the delicious commerce in an unsuspected place. This intimation she proposed to convey privately into the hand of her lover, during his next visit to the family; but both were so narrowly eyed by the mother, that she found the execution of her design impracticable; and, next forenoon, on pretence of going to church, repaired to the house of a companion, who, being also her confidant, undertook to deliver the billet with her own hand.

gallant was not in reality her professed admirer, Mr Fathom, but rather one of his fellow-lodgers, whose passion he favoured with his mediation and assistance.

On this notion, which nothing but mere vanity could have inspired, in opposition to so many more weighty presumptions, she took the resolution of bringing the affair to a fuller explanation, before she would concert any measures to the prejudice of our adventurer, and forthwith dispatched her spy back to his lodgings, to solicit, on the part of Wilhelmina, an immediate answer to the letter he had received. This was an expedition with which the old maiden would have willingly dispensed, because it was founded upon an uncertainty, which might be attended with troublesome consequences: but, rather than be the means of retarding a negotiation so productive of that sort of mischief which is particularly agreeable to all of her tribe, she undertook to manage and effect the discovery, in full confidence of her own talents and experience.

The she-dragon employed by her mother, in obedience to the sign which was displayed from the window, immediately put on her veil, and followed Wilhelmina at a distance, until she saw her fairly housed: she would not even then return from her excursion, but hovered about in sight of the door, with a view of making further observations. In less than five minutes after the young lady disappeared, the scout perceived her coming out, accompanied by her comrade, from whom she instantly parted, and bent her way towards the church in good earnest, while the other steered her course in another direction. The duenna, after a moment's suspense and consideration, divined the true cause of this short visit, and resolved to watch the mo-ceived a message from a certain young lady. tions of the confidant, whom she traced to the academy in which our hero lodged, and from which she saw her return, after the supposed message was delivered.

With such a fund of self-sufficiency and instigation, she repaired to the academy on the instant, and inquiring for Mr Fathom, was introduced to his apartment, where she found him in the very act of writing a billet to the jeweller's daughter. The artful agent having asked, with the mysterious air of an expert go-between, if he had not lately re

and being answered in the affirmative, gave him to understand, that she herself was a person favoured with the friendship and confidence of Wilhelmina, whom she had known from her cradle, and often dandled on her knee; then, in the genuine style of a prattling dry-nurse, she launched out in encomiums on his Dulcinea's beauty and sweetness of tem

her infancy and childhood; and, finally, desiring a more circumstantial answer to that which she had sent to him by her friend Catherina. In the course of her loquacity, she had also, according to her instructions, hinted at the misfortune of the door; and, on the whole, performed her cue with such dexterity and discretion, that our politician was actually over-reached, and, having finished his epistle, committed it to her care, with many verbal expressions of eternal love and fidelity to his charming Wilhelmina.

Fraught with this intelligence, the rancorous understrapper hied her home to the jeweller's wife, and made a faithful recital of what she had seen, communicating at the same time her own conjectures on the sub-per, recounting many simple occurrences of ject. Her employer was equally astonished and incensed at this information;, she was seized with all that frenzy which takes possession of a slighted woman, when she finds herself supplanted by a detested rival: and, in the first transports of her indignation, devoted them as sacrifices to her vengeance. Nor was her surprise so much the effect of his dissimulation, as of his want of taste and discernment. She inveighed against him, not as the most treacherous lover, but as the most abject wretch, in courting the smiles of such an awkward dowdy, while he enjoyed the favours of a woman who had numbered princes in the train of her admirers. For the brilliancy of her attractions, such as they at present shone, she appealed to the decision of her minister, who consulted her own satisfaction and interest, by flattering the other's vanity and resentment; and so unaccountable did the depravity of our hero's judgment appear to this conceited dame, that she began to believe there was some mistake in the person, and to hope that Wilhelmina's

The messenger, doubly rejoiced at her achievement, which not only recommended her ministry, but also gratified her malice, returned to her principal with great exultation, and, delivering the letter, the reader will easily conceive the transports of that lady when she read the contents of it in these words;

"ANGELIC WILHELMINA!-To forget those ecstatic scenes we have enjoyed together, or even live without the continuation of that mutual bliss, were to quit all title to

Before the circumstances of the plan could be adjusted, it was his good fortune to meet his Dulcinea in the street, and, in the midst of their mutual condolence on the interruption they had suffered in their correspondence, he assured her, that he would never give his invention respite, until he should have verified the protestations contained in the letter he had delivered to her discreet agent. This allusion to a billet she had never received, did not fail to alarm her fears, and introduce a very mortifying explanation, in which he so accurately described the person of the messenger, that she forthwith comprehended the plot, and communicated to our hero her sentiments on that subject.

perception, and resign every hope of future | design should be defeated, in order to reserve happiness. No; my charmer, while my head him for more important occasions. retains the least spark of invention, and my heart glows with the resolution of a man, our correspondence shall not be cut off by the machinations of an envious stepmother, who never had attractions to inspire a generous passion; and, now that age and wrinkles have destroyed what little share of beauty she once possessed, endeavours, like the fiend in paradise, to blast those joys in others, from which she is herself eternally excluded. Doubt not, dear sovereign of my soul! that I will study, with all the eagerness of desiring love, how to frustrate her malicious intention, and renew those transporting moments, the remembrance of which now warms the breast of your ever-constant FATHOM." Had our hero murdered her father, or left her a disconsolate widow by effecting the death of her dear husband, there might have been a possibility of her exerting the christian virtues of resignation and forgiveness; but such a personal outrage as that contained in this epistle precluded all hope of pardon, and rendered penitence of no signification. His atrocious crin. being now fully ascertained, this virago gave a loose to her resentment, which became so loud and tempestuous, that her informer shuddered at the storm she had raised, and began to repent of having communicated the intelligence which seemed to have such a violent effect upon her brain.

She endeavoured, however, to allay the agitation, by flattering her fancy with the prospect of revenge, and gradually soothed her into a state of deliberate ire; during which she determined to take ample vengeance on the delinquent. In the zenith of her rage, she would have had immediate recourse to poison or steel, had she not been diverted from her mortal purpose by her counsellor, who represented the danger of engaging in such violent measures, and proposed a more secure scheme, in the execution of which she would see the perfidious wretch sufficiently punished, without any hazard to her own person or reputation. She advised her to inform the jeweller of Fathom's efforts to seduce her conjugal fidelity, and impart to him a plan, by which he would have it in his power to detect our adventurer in the very act of practising upon her virtue.

The lady relished her proposal, and actually resolved to make an assignation with Ferdinand, as usual, and give notice of the appointment to her husband, that he might personally discover the treachery of his pretended friend, and inflict upon him such chastisement as the German's brutal disposition should suggest, when inflamed by that species of provocation. Had this project been brought to bear, Ferdinand, in all likelihood, would have been disqualified from engaging in any future intrigue; but fate ordained that the

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Though he expressed infinite anxiety and chagrin at this misfortune, which could not fail to raise new obstacles to their love, his heart was a stranger to the uneasiness he affected; and rather pleased with the occasion, which would furnish him with pretences to withdraw himself gradually from an intercourse by this time become equally cloying and unprofitable. Being well acquainted with the mother's temperament, he guessed the present situation of her thoughts, and concluding she would make the jeweller a party in her revenge, he resolved from that moment to discontinue his visits, and cautiously guard against any future interview with the lady whom he had rendered so implacable.

It was well for our adventurer that his good fortune so seasonably interposed; for that same day, in the afternoon, he was favoured with a billet from the jeweller's wife, couched in the same tender style she had formerly used, and importing an earnest desire of seeing him next day at the wonted rendezvous. Although his penetration was sufficient to perceive the drift of this message, or at least to discern the risk he should run in complying with her request, yet he was willing to be more fully certified of the truth of his suspicion, and wrote an answer to the billet, in which he assured her that he would repair to the place of appointment with all the punctuality of an impatient lover. Nevertheless, instead of performing this promise, he, in the morning, took post in a public house opposite to the place of assignation, in order to reconnoitre the ground, and about noon had the pleasure of seeing the German, wrapped in a cloak, enter the door of his wife's she-friend, though the appointment was fixed at five in the evening. Fathom blessed his good angel for having conducted him clear of this conspiracy, and kept his station with great tranquillity till the hour of meeting, when he beheld his enraged Thalestris take the same route, and enjoyed her disappointment with ineffable satisfaction.

Thus favoured with a pretext, he took his

leave of her, in a letter, giving her to under- | restrained from prosecuting those measures stand, that he was no stranger to the barbar- her resentment had planned against his ous snare she had laid for him: and upbraid-fortitude and indifference; he would have ing her with having made such an ungrate- found greater difficulty than he had foreseen, ful return for all his tenderness and attach- in disengaging himself from the daughter, ment. She was not backward in conveying whose affections he had won under the most a reply to this expostulation, which seemed solemn professions of honour and fidelity, to have been dictated in all the distraction and who, now she was debarred of his of a proud woman who sees her vengeance company and conversation, and in danger baffled, as well as her love disdained. Her of losing him for ever, had actually taken letter was nothing but a succession of re- the resolution of disclosing the amour to her proaches, menaces, and incoherent execra- father, that he might interpose in behalf of tions. She taxed him with knavery, insen- her peace and reputation, and secure her sibility, and dissimulation; imprecated a happiness by the sanction of the church. thousand curses upon his head, and threatened not only to persecute his life with all the arts that hell and malice could inspire, but also to wound him in the person of her daughter-in-law, who should be inclosed for life in a convent, where she should have leisure to repent of those loose and disorderly practices which he had taught her to commit, and of which she could not pretend innocence, as they had it in their power to confront her with the evidence of her lover's own confession. Yet all this denunciation was qualified with an alternative, by which he was given to understand, that the gates of mercy were still open, and that penitence was capable of washing out the deepest stain of guilt.

Ferdinand read the whole remonstrance with great composure and moderation, and was content to incur the hazard of her hate, rather than put her to the trouble of making such an effort of generosity, as would induce her to forgive the heinous offence he had committed; nor did his apprehension for Wilhelmina in the least influence his behaviour on this occasion; so zealous was he for her spiritual concerns, that he would have been glad to hear she had actually taken the veil; but he knew such a step was not at all agreeable to her disposition, and that no violence would be offered to her inclinations on that score, unless her stepmother should communicate to the father that letter of Fathom's which she had intercepted, and by which the German would be convinced of his daughter's backsliding; but this measure, he rightly supposed, the wife would not venture to take, lest the husband, instead of taking her advice touching the young lady, should seek to compromise the affair, by offering her in marriage to her debaucher; a proffer, which, if accepted, would overwhelm the mother with vexation and despair. He therefore chose to trust to the effects of lenient time, which he hoped would gradually weaken the resentment of this Penthesilea, and dissolve his connexion with the other parts of the family, from which he longed to be totally detached.

How well soever he might have succeeded in his attempts to shake off the yoke of the mother, who, by her situation in life, was

CHAPTER XVIII.

Our hero departs from Vienna, and quits the domains of Venus for the rough field of Mars.

LUCKILY for our adventurer, before he adhered to this determination, the young Count de Melvil was summoned to Presburg by his father, who desired to see him, before he should take the field, in consequence of a rupture between the emperor and the French king; and Fathom, of course, quitted Vienna, in order to attend his patron, after he and Renaldo had resided two whole years in that capitol, where the former had made himself perfect in all the polite exercises, become master of the French tongue, and learned to speak the Italian with great facility; over and above those other accomplishments in which we have represented him as an inimitable original.

As for the young count, his exteriors were so much improved by the company to which he had access, since his departure from his father's house, that his parents were equally surprised and overjoyed at the alteration. All that awkwardness and rusticity, which hung upon his deportment, was, like the rough coat of a diamond, polished away; the connection and disposition of his limbs seemed to have been adjusted anew; his carriage was become easy, his air perfectly genteel, and his conversation gay and unrestrained. The merit of this reformation was in a great measure ascribed to the care and example of Mr Fathom, who was received by the old count and his lady with marks of singular friendship and esteem; nor was he overlooked by mademoiselle, who still remained in a state of celibacy, and seemed to have resigned all hope of altering her condition; she expressed uncommon satisfaction at the return of her old favourite, and re-admitted him into the same degree of familiarity with which he had been honoured before his departure.

The joy of Teresa was so excessive at his arrival, that she could scarce suppress her raptures, so as to conceal them from the

notice of the family; and our hero, upon this | condition of his legs, ventured to ride out on occasion, performed the part of an exquisite horseback to visit the lines, though the count actor, in dissembling those transports which and his son would never yield to his solicitahis bosom never knew. So. well had this tions so far, as to let him accompany Renaldo pupil retained the lessons of her instructor, in those excursions and reconnoitring parties, that, in the midst of those fraudulent appro- by which a volunteer inures himself to toil priations, which she still continued to make, and peril, and acquires that knowledge in the she had found means to support her interest operations of war, which qualifies him for a and character with mademoiselle, and even command in the service. to acquire such influence in the family, that no other servant, male or female, could pretend to live under the same roof, without paying incessant homage to this artful waiting-woman, and yielding the most abject submission to her will.

Notwithstanding this exemption from all duty, our adventurer managed matters so as to pass for a youth of infinite mettle, and even rendered his backwardness and timidity subservient to the support of that character, by expressing an impatience oflying inactive, and a desire of signalizing his prowess, which even the disabled condition of his body could scarce restrain. He must be a man of very weak nerves and excessive irresolution, who can live in the midst of actual service, without imbibing some portion of military fortitude; danger becomes habitual, and loses a great part of its terror; and as fear is often caught by contagion, so is courage communicated among the individuals of an army. The hope of fame, desire of honours and preferment, envy, emulation, and the dread of disgrace, are motives which co-operate in suppressing that aversion to death or mutilation, which nature hath implanted in the human mind; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, if Fathom, who was naturally chicken-hearted, gained some advantages over his disposition, before the end of the campaign, which happened to be neither perilous nor severe.

The young gentlemen having tarried at Presburg about six weeks, during which a small field equipage was prepared for Renaldo, they repaired to the camp at Heilbron, under the auspices of Count Melvil, in whose regiment they carried arms as volunteers, with a view to merit promotion in the service by their own personal behaviour. Our adventurer would have willingly dispensed with this occasion of signalizing himself, his talents being much better adapted to another sphere of life; nevertheless, he affected uncommon alacrity at the prospect of gathering laurels in the field, and subscribed to his fortune with a good grace; foreseeing that even in a campaign, a man of his art and ingenuity might find means to consult his corporal safety, without any danger to his reputation. Accordingly, before he had lived full three weeks in camp, the damp situation, and sudden change in his way of life, had During the winter, while both armies such a violent effect upon his constitution, remained in quarters, our adventurer attended that he was deprived of the use of all his his patron to Presburg, and, before the troops limbs, and mourned, without ceasing, his were in motion, Renaldo obtained a comhard fate, by which he found himself pre-mission, in consequence of which he went cluded from all opportunity of exerting his diligence, courage, and activity, in the character of a soldier, to which he now aspired. Renaldo who was actually enamoured of a martial life, and missed no occasion of distinguishing himself, consoled his companion with great cordiality, encouraged him with the hope of seeing his constitution familiarized to the inconveniences of a camp, and accommodated him with everything which he thought would alleviate the pain of his body, as well as the anxiety of his mind. The old count, who sincerely sympathized with his affliction, would have persuaded him to retire into quarters, where he could be carefully nursed, and provided with every thing necessary to a person in his condition; but such was his desire of glory, that he resisted his patron's importunities with great constancy, till at length, seeing the old gentleman obstinately determined to consult his health by removing him from the field, he gradually suffered himself to recover the use of his hands, made shift to sit up in his bed and amuse himself with cards and backgammon, and, notwithstanding the feeble

into garrison at Philipsburg, whither he was followed by our hero, while the old count's duty called him to the field in a different place. Ferdinand for some time had no reason to be dissatisfied with this disposition, by which he was at once delivered from the fatigues of a campaign, and the inspection of a severe censor, in the person of Count Melvil; and his satisfaction was still increased by an accidental meeting with the Tyrolese who had been his confederate at Vienna, and now chanced to serve in garrison on the same footing with himself. These two knightserrant renewed their former correspondence, and, as all soldiers are addicted to gaming, levied contributions upon all those officers who had money to lose, and temerity to play.

However, they had not long pursued this branch of traffic, when their success was interrupted by a very serious occurrence, that for the present entirely detached the gentlemen in the garrison from such amusements. The French troops invested Fort Kehl, situated on the Rhine, opposite to Strasburg; and the imperialists, dreading that the next storm would fall upon Philipsburg, employed