at the same time bidding the bailiff carry him wherever he durst.

"I'll shew you what I dare," cries the bailiff; and again ordered the followers to lay hold of their prisoner, saying, "He has assaulted me already, and endeavoured a rescue. I shan't trust such a fellow to walk at liberty. A gentleman, indeed! ay, ay, Newgate is the properest place for such gentry; an arrant carrion as ever was carried thither.'

The fellows then both laid violent hands on Booth, and the bailiff stept to the door to order a coach; when, on a sudden, the whole scene was changed in an instant; for now the serjeant came running out of breath into the room; and seeing his friend, the Captain, roughly handled. by two ill-looking fellows, without asking any questions, stepped briskly up to his assistance, and instantly gave one of the assailants so violent a salute with his fist, that he directly measured his length on the floor.

Booth having by this means his right arm at liberty, was unwilling to be idle, or entirely to owe his rescue from both the ruffians to the serjeant; he therefore imitated the example which his friend had set him, and with a lusty blow levelled the other follower with his companion on the ground.

The bailiff roared out, "A rescue, a rescue!" to which the serjeant answered, "There was no rescue intended. The Captain," said he, "wants no rescue. Here are some friends coming who will deliver him in a better manner."

The bailiff swore heartily he would carry him to Newgate, in spite of all the friends in the world.

"You carry him to Newgate!" cried the serjeant, with the highest indignation: "offer but to lay your hands on him, and I will knock your teeth down your ugly jaws."-Then turning to Booth, he cried, "They will be all here within a minute, sir; we had much ado to keep my lady from coming herself; but she is at home in good health, longing to see your honour; and I hope you will be with her within this half hour."

And now three gentlemen entered the room; these were an attorney, the person whom the serjeant had procured in the morning to be his bail with Colonel James, and lastly, Dr Harrison himself.

The bailiff no sooner saw the attorney, with whom he was well acquainted (for the others he knew not,) than he began, as the phrase is, to pull in his horns, and ordered the two followers, who were now got again on their legs, to walk down stairs.

"So, Captain," says the Doctor, "when last we parted, I believe we neither of us expected to meet in such a place as this."

"Indeed, Doctor," cries Booth, "I did not expect to have been sent hither by the gentle Iman who did me that favour."

"How so, sir?" said the Doctor; "you was

sent hither by some person, I suppose, to whom you was indebted. This is the usual place, I apprehend, for creditors to send their debtors to. But you ought to be more surprised that the gentleman who sent you hither is come to release you.-Mr Murphy, you will perform all the necessary ceremonials."

The attorney then asked the bailiff with how many actions Booth was charged, and was informed there were five besides the Doctor's, which was much the heaviest of all. Proper bonds were presently provided, and the Doctor and the serjeant's friend signed them; the bailiff, at the instance of the attorney, making no objection to the bail.

Booth, we may be assured, made a handsome speech to the Doctor for such extraordinary friendship, with which, however, we do not think proper to trouble the reader; and now, every thing being ended, and the company ready to depart, the bailiff stepped up to Booth, and told him he hoped he would remember civility money.

"I believe," cries Booth, " you mean incivility money; if there be any fees due for rudeness, I must own you have a very just claim.”

"I am sure, sir," cries the bailiff, "I have treated your honour with all the respect in the world; no man, I am sure, can charge me with using a gentleman rudely. I knows what belongs to a gentleman better; but you can't deny that two of my men have been knocked down; and I doubt not but, as you are a gentleman, you will give them something to drink."

Booth was about to answer with some passion, when the attorney interfered, and whispered in his ear, that it was usual to make a compliment to the officer, and that he had better comply with the custom.

"If the fellow had treated me civilly," answered Booth, "I should have had no objection to comply with a bad custom in his favour; but I am resolved I will never reward a man for using me ill, and I will not agree to give him a single farthing."

"Tis very well, sir," said the bailiff, " I am rightly served for my good-nature; but if it had been to do again, I would have taken care you should not have been bailed this day."

Doctor Harrison, to whom Booth referred the cause, after giving him a succinct account of what had passed, declared the Captain to be in the right. He said it was a most horrid imposition, that such fellows were ever suffered to prey on the necessitous; but that the example would be much worse to reward them where they had behaved themselves ill. "And I think," says he, "the bailiff is worthy of great rebuke for what he hath just now said; in which, I hope, he hath boasted of more power than is in him. We do, indeed, with great justice and propriety, value ourselves on our freedom, if the liberty of the subject depends on the pleasure of such fellows as these!"

"It is not so neither altogether," cries the lawyer; "but custom hath established a present or fee to them at the delivery of a prisoner, which they call civility money, and expect as in a manner their due, though in reality they have no right."

"But will any man," cries Dr Harrison, "after what the Captain hath told us, say that the bailiff hath behaved himself as he ought? and if he had, is he to be rewarded for not acting in an unchristian and inhuman manner? It is pity, that instead of a custom of feeing them out of the pockets of the poor and wretched, when they do not behave themselves ill, there was not both a law and a practice to punish them severely when they do. In the present case, I am so far from agreeing to give the bailiff a shilling, that, if there be any method of punishing him for his rudeness, I shall be heartily glad to see it put in execution; for there are none whose conduct should be so strictly watched as that of

these necessary evils in society; as their office concerns, for the most part, those poor creatures who cannot do themselves justice, and as they are generally the worst of men who undertake it." The bailiff then quitted the room, muttering that he should know better what to do another time; and shortly after Booth and his friends left the house; but as they were going out, the author took Dr Harrison aside, and slipt a receipt into his hand, which the Doctor returned, saying, he never subscribed when he neither knew the work nor the author; but that if he would call at his lodgings, he would be very willing to give all the encouragement to merit which was in his power.

The author took down the Doctor's name and direction, and made him as many bows as he would have done had he carried off the half guinea for which he had been fishing.

Mr Booth then took his leave of the philosopher, and departed with the rest of his friends.

CHAP. I.

In which the History looks backwards. BEFORE we proceed farther with our history, it may be proper to look back a little, in order to account for the late conduct of Dr Harrison; which, however inconsistent it may have hitherto appeared, when examined to the bottom, will be found, I apprehend, to be truly congruous with all the rules of the most perfect prudence, as well as with the most consummate goodness.

We have already partly seen in what light Booth had been represented to the Doctor abroad. Indeed, the accounts which were sent of the Captain, as well by the curate as by a gentleman of the neighbourhood, were much grosser and more to his disadvantage, than the Doctor was pleased to set them forth in his letter to the person accused. What sense he had of Booth's conduct, was, however, manifest by that letter. Nevertheless, he resolved to suspend his final judgment till his return; and though he censured him, would not absolutely condemn him without ocular demonstration.

The Doctor, on his return to his parish, found all the accusations which had been transmitted to him confirmed by many witnesses, of which the curate's wife, who had been formerly a friend to Amelia, and still preserved the outward ap

pearance of friendship, was the strongest. She introduced all with, "I am sorry to say it; and it is friendship which bids me speak; and it is for their good it should be told you;" after which beginnings, she never concluded a single speech without some horrid slander and bitter invective.

Besides the malicious turn which was given to these affairs in the country, which were owing a good deal to misfortune, and some little perhaps to imprudence, the whole neighbourhood rung with several gross and scandalous lies, which were merely the inventions of his enemies, and of which the scene was laid in London since his absence.

Poisoned with all this malice, the Doctor came to town, and learning where Booth lodged, went to make him a visit. Indeed, it was the Doctor, and no other, who had been at his lodgings that evening when Booth and Amelia were walking in the Park; and concerning which the reader may be pleased to remember so many strange and odd conjectures.

Here the Doctor saw the little gold watch, and all those fine trinkets with which the noble lord had presented the children; and which, from the answers given him by the poor ignorant innocent girl, he could have no doubt, had been purchased within a few days by Amelia.

This account tallied so well with the ideas he had imbibed of Booth's extravagance in the country, that he firmly believed both the husband and wife to be the vainest, silliest, and

most unjust people alive. It was, indeed, almost incredible, that two rational beings should be guilty of such absurdity; but monstrous and absurd as it was, ocular demonstration appeared to be the evidence against them.

The Doctor departed from their lodgings en raged at this supposed discovery, and, unhappily for Booth, was engaged to supper that very evening with the country gentleman of whom Booth had rented a farm. As the poor Captain happened to be the subject of conversation, and occasioned their comparing notes, the account which the Doctor gave of what he had seen that evening, so incensed the gentleman to whom Booth was likewise a debtor, that he vowed he would take a writ out against him next morning, and have his body alive or dead; and the Doctor was at last persuaded to do the same. Mr Murphy was thereupon immediately sent for, and the Doctor in his presence repeated again what he had seen at his lodgings, as the foundation of his suing him, which the attorney, as we have before seen, had blabbed to Atkinson.

But no sooner did the Doctor hear that Booth was arrested, than the wretched condition of his wife and family began to affect his mind. The children, who were to be utterly undone with their father, were entirely innocent; and as for Amelia herself, though he thought he had most convincing proofs of very blameable levity, yet his former friendship and affection to her were busy to invent every excuse, till, by very heavily loading the husband, they lightened the suspi cion against the wife.

In this temper of mind, he resolved to pay Amelia a second visit, and was on his way to Mrs Ellison, when the serjeant met him, and made himself known to him. The Doctor took his old servant into a coffee-house, where he received from him such an account of Booth and his family that he desired the serjeant to shew him presently to Amelia ; and this was the cordial which we mentioned at the end of the ninth chapter of the preceding book.

The Doctor became soon satisfied concerning the trinkets which had given him so much uneasiness, and which had brought so much mis. chief on the head of poor Booth. Amelia likewise gave the Doctor some satisfaction as to what he had heard of her husband's behaviour in the country; and assured him, upon her honour, that Booth could so well answer every complaint against his conduct, that she had no doubt but that a man of the Doctor's justice and candour would entirely acquit him, and would consider him as an innocent unfortunate man, who was the object of a good man's compassion, not of his anger or resentment.

This worthy clergyman, who was not desirous of finding proofs to condemn the Captain, or to justify his own vindictive proceedings, but, on the contrary, rejoiced heartily in every piece of evidence which tended to clear up the character

of his friend, gave a ready ear to all which Amelia said. To this, indeed, he was induced by the love he always had to that lady, by the good opinion he entertained of her, as well as by pity for her present condition, than which nothing appear ed more miserable; for he found her in the highest agonies of grief and despair, with her two little children crying over their wretched mother. These are, indeed, to a well-disposed mind, the most tragical sights that human nature can furnish, and afford a juster motive to grief and tears in the beholder, than it would be to see all the heroes who have ever infested the earth, hanged altogether in a string.

The Doctor felt this sight as he ought. He immediately endeavoured to comfort the afflict ed; in which he so well succeeded, that he restored to Amelia sufficient spirits to give him the satisfaction we have mentioned; after which he declared he would go and release her husband; which he accordingly did, in the manner we have above related.

CHAP. II.

In which the History goes forward.

We now return to that period of our history, to which we had brought it at the end of our last Book.

Booth and his friends arrived from the bailiff's, at the serjeant's lodgings; where Booth immediately ran up stairs to his Amelia; between whom I shall not attempt to describe the meeting. Nothing certainly was ever more tender or more joyful. This however I will observe, that a very few of these exquisite moments, of which the best minds only are capable, do, in reality, overbalance the longest enjoyments which can ever fall to the lot of the worst.

Whilst Booth and his wife were feasting their souls with the most delicious mutual endearments, the Doctor was fallen to play with the two little children below stairs. While he was thus engaged, the little boy did somewhat amiss; upon which the Doctor said, "If you do so any more, I will take your papa away from you again."-" Again, sir ?” said the child; "why, was it you then that took away my papa before?" Suppose it was," said the Doctor, "would not you forgive me ?"-"Yes," cries the child, "I would forgive you, because a Christian must forgive every body; but I should hate you as long as I live."

The Doctor was so pleased with the boy's answer, that he caught him in his arms, and kissed him; at which time, Booth and his wife returned. The Doctor asked which of them was their son's instructor in religion; Booth answered that he must confess Amelia had all the merit of that kind. "I should have rather thought he

had learned it of his father," cries the Doctor, "for he seems a good soldier-like Christian, and professes to hate his enemies with a very good grace."

How, Billy," cries Amelia, "I am sure I did not teach you so.

"I did not say I would hate my enemies, madam," cries the boy; "I only said I would hate papa's enemies; sure, mamma, there is no harm in that; nay, I am sure there is no harm in it; for I have heard you say the same thing a thousand times."

The Doctor smiled on the child, and chucking him under the chin, told him, he must hate nobody; and now Mrs Atkinson, who had provided a dinner for them all, desired them to walk up, and partake of it.

And now it was that Booth was first made acquainted with the serjeant's marriage; as was Dr Harrison, both of whom greatly felicitated him upon it.

Mrs Atkinson, who was, perhaps, a little more confounded than she would have been had she married a Colonel, said, "If I have done wrong, Mrs Booth is to answer for it; for she made the match: indeed, Mr Atkinson, you are greatly obliged to the character this lady gives you." "I hope he will deserve it," said the Doctor; " and if the army hath not corrupted a good boy, I believe I may answer for him."

While our little company were enjoying that happiness which never fails to attend conversation, where all present are pleased with each other, a visitant arrived, who was, perhaps, not very welcome to any of them. This was no other than Colonel James, who, entering the room with much gaiety, went directly up to Booth, embraced him, and expressed great satisfaction at finding him there; he then made an apology for not attending him in the morning, which he said had been impossible; and that he had with the utmost difficulty put off some business of great consequence, in order to serve him this afternoon; "But I am glad on your account," cried he to Booth, " that my presence was not necessary."

Booth himself was extremely satisfied with this declaration, and failed not to return him as many thanks as he would have deserved, had he performed his promise; but the two ladies were not quite so well satisfied. As for the serjeant, he had slipped out of the room when the Colonel entered; not entirely out of that bashfulness which we have remarked him to be tainted with; but indeed, from what had passed in the morning, he hated the sight of the Colonel, as well on the account of his wife as on that of his friend. The Doctor, on the contrary, on what he had formerly heard from both Amelia and her husband of the Colonel's generosity and friendship, had built so good an opinion of him, that he was very much pleased with seeing him, and took the first opportunity of telling him so. "Colonel,"

said the Doctor, "I have not the happiness of being known to you; but I have long been desirous of an acquaintance with a gentlemen, in whose commendation I have heard so much from some present." The Colonel made a proper answer to this compliment, and they soon entered into a familiar conversation together: for the Doctor was not difficult of access; indeed, he held the strange reserve, which is usually practised in this nation between people who are in any degree strangers to each other, to be very unbecoming the Christian character.

The two ladies soon left the room; and the remainder of the visit, which was not very long, passed in discourse on various common subjects not worth recording. In the conclusion the Colonel invited Booth and his lady, and the Doctor, to dine with him the next day.

To give Colonel James his due commendation, he had shewn a great command of himself, and great presence of mind on this occasion; for, to speak the plain truth, the visit was intended to Amelia alone; nor did he expect, or, perhaps, desire, any thing less than to find the Captain at home. The great joy which he suddenly conveyed into his countenance at the unexpected sight of his friend, is to be attributed to that noble art which is taught in those excellent schools, called the several courts of Europe. By this men are enabled to dress out their countenances as much at their own pleasure, as they do their bodies; and to put on friendship with as much ease as they can a laced coat.

When the Colonel and Doctor were gone, Booth acquainted Amelia with the invitation he had received. She was so struck with the news, and betrayed such visible marks of confusion and uneasiness, that they could not have escaped Booth's observation, had suspicion given him the least hint to remark: but this, indeed, is the great optic glass helping us to discern plainly almost all that passes in the minds of others, without some use of which nothing is more purblind than human nature.

Amelia, having recovered from her first perturbation, answered, "My dear, I will dine with you wherever you please to lay your commands on me."-"I am obliged to you, my dear soul," cries Booth, "your obedience shall be very easy; for my command will be, that you shall always follow your own inclinations."

"My inclinations," answered she, "would, I am afraid, be too unreasonable a confinement to you; for they would always lead me to be with you and your children, with at most a single friend or two, now and then.”—“ O my dear,' replied he, "large companies give us a greater relish for our own society when we return to it ; and we shall be extremely merry, for Dr Harrison dines with us." I hope you will, my dear," cries she; "but I own I should have been better pleased to have enjoyed a few days with yourself and the children, with no other

person but Mrs Atkinson, for whom I have conceived a violent affection, and who would have given us but little interruption. However, if you have promised, I must undergo the penance."-" Nay, child," cried he, "I am sure I would have refused, could I have guessed it had been in the least disagreeable to you: though I know your objection."-" Objection!" cries Amelia eagerly, "I have no objection.”—“ Nay, nay," said he, come be honest; I know your objection, though you are unwilling to own it." "Good Heavens!" cried Amelia frightened, "what do you mean? what objection ?""Why," answered he, " to the company of Mrs James; and I must confess she hath not behaved to you lately as you might have expected; but you ought to pass all that by, for the sake of her husband, to whom we have both so many obligations; who is the worthiest, honestest, and most generous fellow in the universe, and the best friend to me that ever man had."

Amelia, who had far other suspicions, and began to fear that her husband had discovered them, was highly pleased when she saw him taking a wrong scent. She gave, therefore, a little into the deceit, and acknowledged the truth of what he had mentioned; but said, that the pleasure she should have in complying with his desires, would highly recompense any dissatisfaction which might arise on any other account; and shortly after, ended the conversation on this subject, with her chearfully promising to fulfil his promise.

In reality, poor Amelia had now a most unpleasant task to undertake; for she thought it absolutely necessary to conceal from her husband the opinion she had conceived of the Colonel: for, as she knew the characters, as well of her husband as of his friend, or rather enemy, (both being often synonymous in the language of the world,) she had the utmost reason to apprehend something very fatal might attend her husband's entertaining the same thought of James, which filled and tormented her own breast.

And, as she knew that nothing but these thoughts could justify the least unkind, or, indeed, the least reserved behaviour to James, who had, in all appearance, conferred the greatest obligations upon Booth and herself, she was reduced to a dilemma the most dreadful that can attend a virtuous woman, as it often gives the highest triumph, and sometimes no little advantage, to the men of professed gallantry.

In short, to avoid giving any umbrage to her husband, Amelia was forced to act in a manner which she was conscious must give encouragement to the Colonel; a situation which, perhaps, requires as great prudence and delicacy, as any in which the heroic part of the female character can be exerted.

CHAP. III.

A conversation between Dr Harrison, and others.

THE next day, Booth and his lady, with the Doctor, met at Colonel James's, where Colonel Bath likewise made one of the company.

Nothing very remarkable passed at dinner, or till the ladies withdrew. During this time, however, the behaviour of Colonel James was such as gave some uneasiness to Amelia, who well understood his meaning, though the particulars were too refined and subtle to be observed by any other present.

When the ladies were gone, which was as soon as Amelia could prevail on Mrs James to depart, Colonel Bath, who had been pretty brisk with champagne at dinner, soon began to display his magnanimity." My brother tells me, young gentleman," said he to Booth," that you have been used very ill lately by some rascals; and I have no doubt but you will do yourself justice."

Booth answered, that he did not know what he meant. "Since I must mention it then," cries the Colonel, "I hear you have been arrested; and I think you know what satisfaction is to be required by a man of honour."

"I beg, sir," says the Doctor, "no more may be mentioned of that matter. I am convinced, no satisfaction will be required of the Captain, till he is able to give it."

"I do not understand what you mean by able," cries the Colonel.-To which the Doctor answered, that it was of too tender a nature to speak more of.

"Give me your hand, Doctor,” cries the Colonel; " I see you are a man of honour, though you wear a gown. It is, as you say, a matter of a tender nature. Nothing, indeed, is so tender as a man's honour. Curse my liver, if any man,—I mean, that is, if any gentleman.was to arrest me I would as surely cut his throat as-"

"How sir!" said the Doctor, "would you compensate one breach of the law by a much greater, and pay your debts by committing murder ?"

"Why do you mention law between gentlemen?" says the Colonel." A man of honour wears his law by his side. And can the resentment of an affront make a gentleman guilty of murder? And what greater affront can one man cast upon another, than by arresting him? I am convinced that he that would put up an arrest, would put up a slap in the face."

Here the Colonel looked extremely fierce, and the divine stared with astonishment at this doetrine; when Booth, who well knew the impos