LETTER I. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Friday, July 28. I have three Letters of thine to take notice of (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] : But am divided in my mind, whether to quarrel with thee, on thy unmerciful reflections; or to thank thee, for thy acceptable particularity and diligence. But several of my sweet Dears have I, indeed, in my time made to cry and laugh in a breath; nay, one side of their pretty faces laugh, before the cry could go off the other: Why may I not, therefore, curse and applaud thee in the same moment? So take both in one: And what follows, as it shall rise from my pen. How often have I ingenuously confessed my sins against this excellent creature?---Yet thou never sparest me, altho' as bad a man as...
[Page 14] LETTER II. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; But now I have cleared myself of any intentional Levity on occasion of my Beloved's Meditation; which, as you observe, is finely suited to her case (that is to say, as she and you have drawn her case); I cannot help expressing my pleasure, that by one or two verses of it [The arrow, Jack, and what she feared being come upon her!] I am encouraged to hope, what it will be very surprising to me if it do not happen: That is, in plain English, that the dear creature is in the way to be a Mamma. This cursed Arrest, because of the ill effects the terror might have had upon her, in that hoped-for circumstance, has concerned me more than on any other account. It would be...
LETTER III. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. [In answer to hers of July 27. No. c. ci. in Vol. VI.] Friday Night, July 28. I will now, my dearest friend, write to you all my mind, without reserve, on your resolution not to have this vilest of men. You gave me, in yours of Sunday the 23d, reasons so worthy of the pure mind of my Clarissa, in support of this your resolution, that nothing but Self-love, lest I should lose my ever-amiable friend, could have prevailed upon me to wish you to alter it. Indeed, I thought it was impossible there could be (however desirable) so noble an instance given by any of our Sex, of a passion conquered, when there were [Page 22] so many inducements to give way to it. And, therefore, I was...
LETTER IV. Miss Howe, To the two Misses Montague. Sat. July 29. Dear Ladies, I have not been wanting to use all my interest with my beloved friend, to induce her to forgive and be reconciled to your kinsman (tho' he has so ill deserved it); and have even repeated my earnest advice to her on this head. This repetition, and the waiting for her Answer, having taken up time, have been [Page 27] the cause, that I could not sooner do myself the honour of writing to you on this subject. You will see, by the inclosed, her immoveable resolution, grounded on noble and high-souled motives, which I cannot but regret and applaud at the same time: Applaud, for the justice of her determination, which will confirm all your worthy house...
[Page 29] LETTER V. Mrs. Norton, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Friday, July 28. My dearest young Lady, I have the consolation to tell you, that my Son is once again in an hopeful way, as to his health. He desires his duty to you. He is very low and weak. And so am I. But this is the first time that I have been able, for several days past, to sit up to write, or I would not have been so long silent. Your Letter to your Sister is received and answered. You have the Answer by this time, I suppose. I wish it may be to your satisfaction: But am afraid it will not: For, by Betty Barnes, I find they were in a great ferment on receiving yours, and much divided whether it should be answered or not. They will not yet believe...
LETTER VI. Mrs. Norton, To Mrs. Harlowe. Friday, July 28. Honoured Madam, Being forbidden (without leave) to send you any-thing I might happen to receive from my beloved Miss Clary, and so ill, that I cannot attend to ask your leave, I give you this trouble, to let you know, that I have received a Letter from her; which, I think, I should hereafter be held inexcuseable, as things may happen, if I did not desire permission to communicate to you, and that as soon as possible. Applications have been made to the dear young Lady from Lord M. from the two Ladies his Sisters, and from both his Nieces, and from the wicked man himself, to forgive and marry him. This, in noble indignation for the usage she has received from...
LETTER VII. Mrs. Harlowe, To Mrs. Judith Norton. Sunday, July 30. We all know your virtuous prudence, worthy woman: We all do. But your partiality to this your rash Favourite is likewise known. And we are no less acquainted with the unhappy body's power of painting her distresses so as to pierce a stone. Every one is of opinion, that the dear naughty creature is working about to be forgiven and received; and for this reason it is, that Betty has been forbidden [Not by me, you may be sure!] to mention any more of her Letters; for she did speak to my Bella of some moving passages you read to her. This will convince you, that nothing will be heard in her favour. To what purpose then should I mention any-thing about her?---...
LETTER VIII. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To Mrs. Judith Norton. Sat. July 29. I congratulate you, my dear Mrs. Norton, with all my heart, on your Son's recovery; which I pray to God, with your own health, to perfect. I write in some hurry, being apprehensive of the consequence of the hints you give of some method you propose to try in my favour [With my relations, I presume, you mean]: But you will not tell me what, you say, if it prove unsuccessful. Now I must beg of you, that you will not take any step in my favour, with which you do not first acquaint me. I have but one request to make to them, besides what is contained in my Letter to my Sister; and I would not, methinks, for the sake of their own future peace of...
LETTER IX. Miss Ar. Harlowe, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. [In Answer to hers of Friday July 21. Letter xcv. of Vol. VI.] Thursday, July 27. O my unhappy lost Sister! What a miserable hand have you made of your romantic and giddy expedition!---I pity you at my heart. You may well grieve and repent!---Lovelace has left you!---In what way or circumstances, you know best. I wish your conduct had made your case more pitiable. But 'tis your own seeking! God help you!---For you have not a friend will look upon you!---Poor, wicked, undone creature!---Fallen, as you are, against warning, against expostulation, against duty! But it signifies nothing to reproach you. I weep over you. My poor Mother!---...
[Page 41] LETTER X. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sunday, July 30. You have given me great pleasure, my dearest friend, by your approbation of my reasonings, and of my resolution founded upon them, never to have Mr. Lovelace. This approbation is so right a thing, give me leave to say, from the nature of the case, and from the strict honour and true dignity of mind, which I always admired in my Anna Howe, that I could hardly tell to what, but to my evil destiny, which of late would not let me please any-body, to attribute the advice you gave me to the contrary. But let not the ill state of my health, and what that may naturally tend to, sadden you. I have told you, that I will not run away from life, nor avoid...
[Page 50] LETTER XI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Harlowe. Saturday, July 29. I repine not, my dear Sister, at the Severity you have been pleased to express in the Letter you favoured me with; because that Severity was accompanied with the grace I had petitioned for; and because the reproaches of mine own heart are stronger than any other person's reproaches can be: And yet I am not half so culpable as I am imagined to be: As would be allowed, if all the circumstances of my unhappy Story were known; and which I shall be ready to communicate to Mrs. Norton, if she be commissioned to enquire into them; or to you, my Sister, if you can have patience to hear them. I remembred with a bleeding heart what day the 24th of...
LETTER XII. Mrs. Norton, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Monday July 31. My dearest young Lady, I must indeed own, that I took the liberty to write to your Mother, offering to inclose to her, if she gave me leave, yours of the 24th: By which I thought she would see what was the state of your mind; what the nature of your last troubles was, from the wicked Arrest; what the people are where you lodge; what proposals were made you from Lord M's family; also your sincere penitence; and how much Miss Howe's writing to them, in the terms she wrote in, disturbed you---But, as you have taken the matter into your own hands, and forbid me, in your last, to act in this nice affair unknown to you, I am glad the Letter was not required of me---...
[Page 54] LETTER XIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Mrs. Norton. Wednesday, Aug. 2. You give me, my dear Mrs. Norton, great pleasure in hearing of yours and your Son's recovery. May you continue, for many, many years, a blessing to each other! You tell me, that you did actually write to my Mother, offering to inclose to her mine of the 24th past: And you say, It was not required of you. That is to say, altho' you cover it over as gently as you could, that your offer was rejected; which makes it evident, that no plea will be heard for me. Yet, you bid me hope, that the grace I sued for would, in time, be granted. The grace I then sued for was indeed granted: But you are afraid, you say, that they will wait for...
LETTER XIV. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Tuesday, Aug. 1. I am most confoundedly chagrined and disappointed: For here, on Saturday, arrived a messenger from Miss Howe, with a Letter to my Cousins (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] ; which I knew nothing of till yesterday; when Lady Sarah and Lady Betty were procured to be here, to sit in judgment upon it with the old Peer, and my two Kinswomen. And never was Bear so miserably baited as thy poor friend!---And for what?---Why, for the Cruelty of Miss Harlowe: For have I committed any new offence? And would I not have reinstated myself in her favour upon her own terms, if I could? And is it fair to punish me for what is my misfortune, and not my fault? Such event-judging fools as I...
[Page 60] LETTER XV. Miss Montague, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Tuesday, Aug. 1. Dearest Madam, All our family is deeply sensible of the injuries you have received at the hands of one of it, whom You only can render in any manner worthy of the relation he stands in to us all: And if, as an act of mercy and charity, the greatest your pious heart can shew, you will be pleased to look over his past wickedness and ingratitude, and suffer yourself to be our Kinswoman, you will make us the happiest family in the world: And I can engage, that Lord M. and Lady Sarah Sadleir, and Lady Betty Lawrance, and my Sister, who are all admirers of your virtues, and of your nobleness of mind, will for ever love and reverence you, and do...
LETTER XVI. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Thursday Morning, Aug. 3. Six o'Clock. I have been so much employed in my own and Belton's affairs, that I could not come to town till last night; having contented myself with sending to Mrs. Lovick, to know, from time to time, the state of the Lady's health; of which I received but very indifferent accounts, owing, in a great measure, to Letters or Advices brought her from her implacable family. I have now completed my own affairs; and, next week, shall go to Epsom, to endeavour to put Belton's Sister into possession of his own house, for him: After which, I shall devote myself wholly to your service, and to that of the Lady. I was admitted to her presence last night;...
LETTER XVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Montague. Thursday, Aug. 3. Dear Madam, I am infinitely obliged to you for your kind and condescending Letter. A Letter, however, which heightens my regrets, as it gives me a new instance of what a happy creature I might have been in an alliance so much approved of by such worthy Ladies; and which, on their accounts, and on that of Lord M. would have been so reputable to myself, and was once so desirable. But indeed, indeed, Madam, my heart sincerely repulses the man, who, descended from such a family, could be guilty, first, of such premeditated violence as he has been guilty of; and, as he knows, further intended me, on the night previous to the day he set out for Berkshire; and,...
LETTER XVIII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Thursday Afternoon, Aug. 3. I am just now agreeably surprised by the following Letter, delivered into my hands by a messenger from the Lady. The Letter she mentions, as inclosed (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] , I have returned, without taking a copy of it. The contents of it will soon be communicated to you, I presume, by other hands. They are an absolute Rejection of thee---Poor Lovelace!--- [Page 64] To John Belford, Esq; Aug. 3. Sir, You have frequently offered to oblige me in anything that shall be within your power: And I have such an opinion of you, as to be willing to hope, that at the times you made these offers, you meant more than mere...
LETTER XIX. Mr. Belford, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Aug. 3, 4. Madam, You have engaged me to communicate to you, upon honour (making neither better nor worse of the matter) what Mr. Lovelace has written to me, in relation to yourself, in the period preceding your going to Hamstead, and in that between the 11th and 19th of June: And you assure me, you have no view in this request, but to see if it be necessary for you, from the account he gives, to touch the painful subjects yourself, for the sake of your own character. Your commands, Madam, are of a very delicate nature, as they may seem to affect the Secrets of private friendship: But as I know you are not capable of a view, the motives to which you will not own; and as...
LETTER XX. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To John Belford, Esq; Friday, Aug. 4. Sir, I hold myself extremely obliged to you for your communications. I will make no use of them, that you shall have reason to reproach either yourself or me with. I wanted no new lights to make the unhappy man's premeditated baseness to me unquestionable, as my Answer to Miss Montague's Letter might convince you (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] . I must own in his favour, that he has observed some decency in his accounts to you of the most indecent and shocking actions. And if all his strangely-communicative narrations are equally, decent, nothing will be rendered criminally odious by them, but the vile heart that could meditate such contrivances as were much...
LETTER XXI. Mr. Belford, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Friday, Aug. 4. Madam, I am so sensible of the honour done me in yours of this day, that I would not delay for one moment the answering of it. I hope you will live to see many happy years; and to be your own Executrix in those points which your heart is most set upon. But, in case of survivorship, I most chearfully accept of the Sacred Office you are pleased to offer me; and you may absolutely rely upon my Fidelity, and, if possible, upon the literal performance of every arricle you shall enjoin me. The effect of the kind wish you conclude with, has been my concern ever since I have been admitted to the honour of your conversation. It shall be my whole endeavour that it...
LETTER XXII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Friday Night, Aug. 4. I have actually delivered to the Lady the Extracts she requested me to give her from your Letters. I do assure you that I have made the very best of the matter for you, not that conscience, but that friendship, could oblige me to make. I have changed or omitted some free words. The warm description of her Person in the Fire-Scene, as I may call it, I have omitted. I have told her, that I have done justice to you, in the justice you have done to her unexampled virtue. But take the very words which I wrote to her immediately following the Extracts: 'And now, Madam,'---See the paragraph marked with inverted commas [ 'thus] p. 67. The Lady is extremely...
LETTER XXIII. Miss Arab. Harlowe, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. [In Answer to hers of July 29. See No xi. Thursday Morn. Aug. 3. Sister Clary, I wish you would not trouble me with any more of your Letters. You had always a knack at writeing; and depended upon making every one do what you would when you wrote. But your Wit and your Folly have undone you. And now, as all naughty creatures do, when they can't help themselves, you come begging and praying, and make others as uneasy as yourself. When I wrote last to you, I expected that I should not be at rest. And so you'd creep on, by little and little, till you'll want to be received again. But you only hope for forgiveness, and a blessing, you say. A Blessing...
LETTER XXIV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To her Mother. Sat. Aug. 5. Honoured Madam, No self-convicted criminal ever approached her angry and just judge with greater awe, nor with a truer contrition, than I do you by these lines. [Page 77] Indeed I must say, that if the matter of my humble prayer had not respected my future welfare, I had not dared to take this liberty. But my heart is set upon it, as upon a thing next to God Almighty's forgiveness necessary for me. Had my happy Sister known my distresses, she would not have wrung my heart, as she has done, by a Severity, which I must needs think unkind and unsisterly. But complaint of any unkindness from her belongs not to me: Yet, as she is pleased to...
LETTER XXV. Miss Montague, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. [In Answer to hers of Aug. 3. See No xvii.] Monday, Aug. 7. Dear Madam, We were all of opinion before your Letter came, that Mr. Lovelace was utterly unworthy of you, and deserved condign punishment, rather than to be blessed with such a Wife: And hoped far more from your kind consideration for us, than any we supposed you could have for so base an injurer. For we were all determined to love you, and admire you, let his behaviour to you be what it would. But, after your Letter, what can be said? I am, however, commanded to write in all the subscribing names, to let you know, how greatly your sufferings have affected us: To tell you, that my Lord M. has forbid...
[Page 80] LETTER XXVI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Sat. Aug. 5. I am so excessively disturbed at the contents of Miss Harlowe's Answer to my Cousin Charlotte's Letter of Tuesday last (which was given her by the same fellow that gave me yours) that I have hardly patience or consideration enough to weigh what you write. She had need indeed to cry out for mercy herself from her friends, who knows not how to shew any! She is a true Daughter of the Harlowes!---By my Soul, Jack, she is a true Daughter of the Harlowes! Yet has she so many excellencies, that I must love her; and, fool that I am, love her the more for her despising me. Thou runnest on with thy cursed nonsensical reformado-rote, of dying, dying,...
LETTER XXVII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; [In Answer to his of Aug. 4. See No xxii.] Monday, Aug. 7. And so you have actually delivered to the fair Implacable Extracts of Letters written in the confidence of friendship! Take care---Take care, Belford---I do indeed love you better than I love any man in the world: But this is a very delicate point. The matter is grown very serious to me. My heart is bent upon having her. And have her I will, tho' I marry her in the agonies of death. She is very earnest, you say, that I will not offer to molest her. That, let me tell her, will absolutely depend upon herself, and the Answer she returns, whether by pen and ink, or the contemptuous one of silence, which she bestowed...
LETTER XXVIII. Mr. Lovelace, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Monday, Aug. 7. Little as I have reason to expect either your patient ear, or forgiving heart, yet cannot I forbear to write to you once more (as a more pardonable intrusion, perhaps, than a visit would be) to beg of you to put it in my power to atone, as far as it is possible to atone, for the injuries I have done you. Your angelic Purity, and my awakened Conscience, are standing records of your exalted merit, and of my detestable baseness: But your Forgiveness will lay me under an eternal obligation to you---Forgive me then, my dearest Life, my earthly Good, the visible Anchor of my future hope!---As you (who believe you have something to be forgiven for) hope [Page 86...
LETTER XXIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Lord M. and to the Ladies of his House. [In Reply to Miss Montague's of Aug. 7. See No xxv.] Tuesday, Aug. 8. Excuse me, my good Lord, and my ever-honoured Ladies, from accepting of your noble quarterly bounty; and allow me to return, with all grateful [Page 88] acknowlegement, and true humility, the inclosed earnest of your goodness to me. Indeed I have no need of the one, and cannot possibly want the other: But, nevertheless, have such a sense of your generous favour, that, to my last hour, I shall have pleasure in contemplating upon it, and be proud of the place I hold in the esteem of such venerable persons, to whom I once had the ambition to hope to be related. But give...
LETTER XXX. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Thursday Night, Aug. 10. You have been informed by Tourville, how much Belton's illness and affairs have engaged me, as well as Mowbray and him, since my former. I called at Smith's on Monday, in my way to Epsom. The Lady was gone to chapel: But I had the satisfaction to hear she was not worse; and left my compliments, and an intimation that I should be out of town for three or four days. I refer myself to Tourville, who will let you know the difficulty we had to drive out this meek mistress, and frugal manager, with her cubs, and to give the poor fellow's Sister possession for him of his own house; he skulking mean while at an Inn at Croydon, too dispirited to...
LETTER XXXI. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Friday, Aug. 11. Mr. Belford acquaints his friend with the generosity of Lord M. and the Ladies of his family; and with the Lady's grateful sentiments upon the occasion. He says, that in hopes to avoid the pain of seeing him [Mr. Lovelace], she intends to answer his Letter of the 7th, tho' much against her inclination. 'She took great notice, says Mr. Belford, of that passage in yours, which makes necessary to the Divine pardon, the forgiveness of a person causlesly injured.' 'Her grandfather, I find, has enabled her at Eighteen years of age to make her Will, and to devise great part of his Estate to whom she pleases of the family, and the rest out of it (if...
LETTER XXXII. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Friday, Aug. 11. It is a cruel alternative to be either forced to see you, or to write to you. But a will of my own has been long denied me; and to avoid a greater evil, nay, now I may say, the greatest, I write. Were I capable of disguising or concealing my real sentiments, I might safely, I dare say, give you the remote hope you request, and yet keep all my resolutions. But I must tell you, Sir, (It becomes my character to tell you) that, were I to live more years than perhaps I may weeks, and there were not another man in the world, I could not, I would not, be yours. There is no merit in performing a duty. Religion enjoins me, not only to forgive...
[Page 99] LETTER XXXIII. Mr. John Harlowe, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. [In Answer to hers to her Mother. See No xxiv. Monday, Aug. 7. Poor ungrateful naughty Kinswoman, Your Mother neither caring, nor being permitted, to write, I am desired to set pen to paper, tho' I had resolved against it. And so I am to tell you, that your Letters, joined to the occasion of them, almost break the hearts of us all. Were we sure you had seen your folly, and were truly penitent, and, at the same time, that you were so very ill as you pretend, I know now what might be done for you. But we are all acquainted with your moving ways when you want to carry a point. Unhappy girl! how miserable have you made us all! We...
LETTER XXXIV. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To John Harlowe, Esq; Thursday, Aug. 10. Honoured Sir, It was an act of charity I begged: Only for a Last Blessing, that I might die in peace. I ask not to be received again, as my severe Sister [O! that I had not written to her!] is pleased to say, is my view. Let that grace be denied me when I do. I could not look forward to my last Scene with comfort, without seeking, at least, to obtain the Blessing I petitioned for; and that with a contrition so deep, that I deserved not, were it known, to be turned over from the tender nature of a Mother, to the upbraiding pen of an Uncle! and to be wounded by a cruel question, put by him in a shocking manner; and which a little, a very little...
[Page 102] LETTER XXXV. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, Monday, Aug. 7. My dearest Creature, I can write just now but a few lines. I cannot tell how to bear the sound of that Mr. Belford for your Executor, cogent as your reasons for that measure are: And yet I am firmly of opinion, that none of your relations should be named for the Trust. But I dwell the less upon this subject, as I hope (and cannot bear to apprehend the contrary) that you will still live many, many years. Mr. Hickman, indeed, speaks very handsomely of Mr. Belford. But he, poor man! has not much penetration.---If he had, he would hardly think so well of me as he does. I have a particular opportunity of...
LETTER XXXVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, Aug. 11. I will send you a large packet, as you desire and expect; since I can do it by so safe a conveyance: But not all that is come to my hand---For I must own that my friends are very severe; too severe for any-body who loves them not, to see their Letters. You, my dear, would not call them my Friends, [Page 103] you said, long ago; but my Relations: Indeed I cannot call them my Relations, I think!---But I am ill; and therefore perhaps more peevish than I should be. It is difficult to go out of ourselves to give a judgment against ourselves; and yet, oftentimes, to pass a just judgment, we ought. I thought I should alarm you in the choice of my Executor. But...
LETTER XXXVII. Mr. Antony Harlowe, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. [In Reply to hers to her Uncle Harlowe, of Thursday, Aug. 10.] Aug. 12. Unhappy girl! As your Uncle Harlowe chuses not to answer your pert Letter to him; and as mine written to you before (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] , was written as if it were in the spirit of prophecy, as you have found to your sorrow; and as you are now making yourself worse than you are in your [Page 105] health, and better than you are in your penitence, as we are very well assured, in order to move compassion; which you do not deserve, having had so much warning: For all these reasons, I take up my pen once more; tho' I had told your Brother, at his going to Edinburgh, that I would not write...
[Page 107] LETTER XXXVIII. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To Ant. Harlowe, Esq; Sunday, Aug. 13. Honoured Sir, I am very sorry for my pert Letter to my Uncle Harlowe. Yet I did not intend it to be pert. People new to misfortune may be too easily moved to impatience. The fall of a regular person, no doubt, is dreadful and inexcuseable. It is like the sin of Apostasy. Would to Heaven, however, that I had had the circumstances of mine enquired into! If, Sir, I make myself worse than I am in my health, and better than I am in my penitence, it is fit I should be punished for my double dissimulation: And you have the pleasure of being one of my punishers. My sincerity in both respects will, however, be best justified by the...
LETTER XXXIX. Mrs. Norton, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Monday, Aug. 14. All your friends here, my dear young Lady, now seem set upon proposing to you to go to one of the Plantations. This, I believe, is owing to some misrepresentations of Mr. Brand; from whom they have received a Letter. I wish with all my heart, that you could, consistently with your own notions of honour, yield to the pressing requests of all Mr. Lovelace's family in his behalf. This, I think, would stop every mouth; and, in time, reconcile every-body to you. For your own friends will not believe that he is in earnest to marry you; and the hatred between the families is such, that they will not condescend to inform themselves better; nor would believe him, if...
LETTER XL. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Mrs. Norton. Thursday, Aug. 17. What Mr. Brand, or any-body, can have written or said to my prejudice, I cannot imagine; and yet some evil reports have gone out against me; as I find by some hints in a very severe Letter written to me by my Uncle Antony. Such a Letter as I believe was never written to any poor creature, who, by ill health of body, as well as of mind, was before tottering on the brink of the grave. But my friends may possibly be better justified than the reporters---For who knows what they may have heard? You give me a kind caution, which seems to imply more than you express, when you advise me [Page 112] against countenancing visitors that may discredit me. You should, in...
[Page 116] LETTER XLI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Bedford, Esq; Sunday, Aug. 13. I don't know what a devil ails me; but I never was so much indisposed in my life. At first, I thought some of my blessed relations here had got a dose administered to me, in order to get the whole house to themselves. But, as I am the hopes of the family, I believe they would not be so wicked. I must lay down my pen. I cannot write with any spirit at all. What a plague can be the matter with me! Lord M. paid me just now a cursed gloomy visit, to ask how I do after bleeding. His Sisters both drove away yesterday, God be thanked. But they asked not my leave; and hardly bid me good-bye. My Lord was more tender, and more dutiful, than...
[Page 120] LETTER XLII. Mr. Bedford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Monday, Aug. 14. I am extremely concerned for thy illness. I should be very sorry to lose thee. Yet, if thou diest so soon, I could wish, from my Soul, it had been before the beginning of last April: And this as well for thy sake, as for the sake of the most excellent woman in the world: For then thou wouldst not have had the most crying sin of thy life to answer for. I was told on Saturday, that thou wert very much out of order; and this made me forbear writing till I heard further. Harry, on his return from thee, confirmed the bad way thou art in. But I hope Lord M. in his unmerited tenderness for thee, thinks the worst of thee. What can it be, Bob? A...
[Page 121] LETTER XLIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Bedford, Esq; Tuesday, Aug. 15. Thank thee, Jack; most heartily I thank thee, for the sober conclusion of thy last!---I have a good mind, for the sake of it, to forgive thy till-now absolutely unpardonable Extracts. But dost think I will lose such an angel, such a forgiving angel, as this?---By my Soul, I will not!---To pray for mercy for such an ungrateful miscreant!---How she wounds me, how she cuts me to the Soul, by her exalted generosity!---But She must have mercy upon me first!---Then will she teach me a reliance for the sake of which her prayer for me will be answered. But hasten, hasten to me, particulars of her health, of her employments, of her conversation...
LETTER XLIV. Mr. Bedford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Thursday, Aug. 17. I am sincerely rejoiced to hear that thou art already so much amended, as thy servant tells me thou art. Thy Letter looks as if thy morals were mending with thy health. This was a Letter I could shew, as I did, to the Lady. She is very ill (Cursed Letters received from her implacable family!): So I could not have much conversation with her, in thy favour, upon it.---But what passed will make thee more and more adore her. She was very attentive to me, as I read it; and, when I had done, Poor man! said she; what a Letter is this! He had timely instances, that my temper was not ungenerous, if generosity could have obliged him! But his remorse, and that...
LETTER XLV. Mr. Belford, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Sat. Morn. Aug. 19. Madam, I think myself obliged in honour to acquaint you, that I am afraid Mr. Lovelace will try his fate by an interview with you. I wish to Heaven you could prevail upon yourself to receive his visit. All that is respectful, even to veneration, and all that is penitent, will you see in his behaviour, if you can admit of it. But as I am obliged to set out directly for Epsom (to perform, as I apprehend, the last friendly offices for poor Mr. Belton, whom once you saw) and as I think it more likely, that Mr. Lovelace will not be prevailed upon, than that he will, I thought fit to give you this intimation, lest, if he should come, you should be too much...
LETTER XLVI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; [In Answer to his of Aug. 17. See Letter xliv. Sunday, Aug. 20. What an unmerciful fellow art thou! A man has no need of a conscience, who has such an impertinent monitor. But if Nic. Rowe wrote a Play that answers not his title, am I to be reflected upon for that?---I have sinned; I repent; I would repair---She forgives my sin: She accepts my repentance: But she won't let me repair---What wouldst have me do? But get thee gone to Belton, as soon as thou canst. Yet whether thou goest or not, up I must go, and see what I can do with the sweet oddity myself. The moment these prescribing varlets will let me, depend upon it, I go. Nay, Lord M. thinks she ought to permit...
LETTER XLVII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; London, Aug. 21. Monday. I believe I am bound to curse thee, Jack. Nevertheless I won't anticipate, but proceed to write thee a longer Letter, than thou hast had from me for some time past. So here goes. That thou mightest have as little notice as possible of the time I was resolved to be in town, I set out in my Lord's chariot-and-six yesterday, as soon as I had dispatched my Letter to thee, and arrived in town last night: For I knew I could have no dependence on thy friendship where Miss Harlowe's humour was concerned. I had no other place so ready, and so was forced to go to my old lodgings, where also my wardrobe is; and there I poured out millions of curses upon the...
[Page 147] LETTER XLVIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Tuesday, Aug. 22. I must write on, to divert myself: For I can get no rest; no refreshing rest. I awaked just now in a cursed fright. How a man may be affected by dreams! 'Methought I had an interview with my Beloved. I found her all goodness, condescension, and forgiveness. She suffered herself to be overcome in my favour by the joint intercessions of Lord M. Lady Sarah, Lady Betty, and my two Cousins Montague, who waited upon her in deep mourning; the Ladies in long trains sweeping after them; Lord M. in a long black mantle trailing after him. They told her, they came in these robes to express their sorrow for my sins against her, and to implore her to...
[Page 149] LETTER XLIX. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Curse upon my Stars!---Disappointed again! It was about Eight when I arrived at Smith's.---The woman was in the shop. So, old acquaintance, how do you now? I know my Love is above.---Let her be acquainted that I am here, waiting for admission to her presence, and can take no denial. Tell her, that I will approach her with the most respectful duty, and in whose company she pleases; and I will not touch the hem of her garment, without her leave. Indeed, Sir, you are mistaken. The Lady is not is this house, nor near it. I'll see that. Will! beckoning him to me, and whispering, See if thou canst any way find out (without losing sight of the door, lest...
[Page 157] LETTER L. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Tuesday, Aug. 22. I have been under such concern for the poor man, whose exit I almost hourly expect, and at the shocking scenes his illness and his agonies exhibit, that I have been only able to make memoranda of the melancholy passages, from which to draw up a more perfect account, for the instruction of us all, when the writing appetite shall return. It is returned! Indignation has revived it, on receipt of thy Letters of Sunday and Yesterday; by which I have reason to reproach thee in very serious terms, that thou hast not kept thy honour with me: And if thy breach of it be attended with such effects as I fear it will be, I shall let thee know...
LETTER LI. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Wednesday Morn. 11 o'clock. I believe no man has two such servants as I have. Because I treat them with kindness, and [Page 173] do not lord it over my inferiors, and damn and curse them by looks and words like Mowbray; or beat their teeth out like Lovelace; but cry, Pr'ythee, Harry, do this, and, Pr'ythee, Jonathan, do that; the fellows pursue their own devices, and regard nothing I say, but what falls in with these. Here, this vile Harry, who might have brought your Letter of yesterday in good time, came not in with it till past Eleven last night (drunk, I suppose); and concluding that I was in bed, as he pretends (because he was told I sat up the preceding night) brought it...
[Page 175] LETTER LII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Wednesday Morn. Aug. 23. All alive, dear Jack, and in ecstasy!---Likely to be once more a happy man! For I have received a Letter from my beloved Miss Harlowe; in consequence, I suppose, of that which I mentioned in my last to be left for her from her Sister. And I am setting out for Berks directly, to shew the contents to my Lord M. and to receive the congratulations of all my kindred upon it. I went, last night, as I intended, to Smith's: But the dear creature was not returned at near Ten o'clock. And, lighting upon Tourville, I took him home with me, and made him sing me out of my Megrims. I went to bed tolerably easy at Two; had bright and pleasant dreams (...
[Page 180] LETTER LIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Wedn. Evening. I have been reading thy shocking Letter--- Poor Belton! what a multitude of lively hours have we passed together! He was a fearless, chearful fellow: Who'd have thought that all should end in such dejected whimpering and terror? But why didst thou not comfort the poor man about the Rencounter between him and that poltroon Metcalfe? He acted in that affair like a man of true honour, and as I should have acted in the same circumstances. Tell him I say so; and that what happened, he could neither help nor foresee. Some people are as sensible of a scratch from a Pin's point, as others from a push of a Sword: And who can say any-thing for...
LETTER LIV. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Well, but now my heart is a little at ease, I will condescend to take brief notice of some other passages in thy Letters. I find, I am to thank thee, that the dear creature has avoided my visit. Things are now in so good a train, that I must forgive thee; else thou shouldst have heard more of this new instance of disloyalty to thy General. Thou art continually giving thyself high praise, by way of opposition, as I may say, to others; gently and artfully blaming thyself, for qualities, thou wouldst at the same time have to be thought, and which generally are thought, praise-worthy. Thus, in the airs thou assumest about thy servants, thou wouldst pass for a mighty...
[Page 187] LETTER LV. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Wednesday, Three o'clock. I will proceed where I left off in my last. As soon as I had seen Mowbray mounted, I went to attend upon poor Belton; whom I found in dreadful agonies, in which he awoke, as he generally does. The doctor came in presently after; and I was concerned at the scene that passed between them. It opened with the dying man's asking him, with melancholy earnestness, If nothing, if nothing at all, could be done for him? The doctor shook his head, and told him, he doubted, not. I cannot die, said the poor man; I cannot think of dying. I am very desirous of living a little longer, if I could but be free from these...
LETTER LVI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Aug. 24. Thursday Morn. I received thy Letter in such good time, by thy fellow's dispatch, that it gives me an opportunity of throwing in a few paragraphs upon it. I read a passage or two of it to Mowbray; and we both agree, that thou art an absolute master of the Lamentable. Poor Belton! what terrible conflicts were thy last conflicts!---I hope, however, that he is happy: And I have the more hope, because the hardness of his death is likely to be such a warning to thee. If it have the effect thou declarest it shall have, what a world of mischief will it prevent! How much good will it do! How many poor wretches will rejoice at the occasion (if they know it) however melancholy in...
LETTER LVII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Sat. Aug. 26. On Thursday afternoon I assisted at the opening of poor Belton's Will, in which he has left me his sole Executor, and bequeathed me a Legacy of an hundred guineas; which I shall present to his unfortunate Sister, to whom he has not been so kind as I think he ought to have been. He has also left Twenty pounds apiece to Mowbray, Tourville, Thyself, and Me, for a ring to be worn in remembrance of him. After I had given some particular orders about the preparations to be made for his funeral, I went to town; but having made it late before I got in on Thursday night, and being fatigued for want of rest several nights before, and low in my spirits [I could not...
LETTER LVIII. The Rev. Dr. Lewen, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. Friday, Aug. 18. Presuming, dearest and ever-respectable young Lady, upon your former favour, and upon your opinion of my judgment and sincerity, I cannot help addressing you by a few lines, on your present unhappy situation. I will not look back upon the measures into which you have either been led or driven: But will only say as to those, that I think you are the least to blame of any young Lady that was ever reduced from happy to unhappy circumstances; and I have not been wanting to say as much, where I hoped my freedom would have better received than I have had the mortification to find it to be. What I principally write for now, is, to put you upon doing a...
LETTER LIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To the Rev. Dr. Lewen. Sat. Aug. 19. Reverend and Dear Sir, I thought, till I received your affectionate and welcome Letter, that I had neither Father, Uncle, Brother left; nor hardly a friend among my former favourers of your Sex. Yet, knowing you so well, and having no reason to upbraid myself with a faulty will, I was to blame (even although I had doubted the continuance of your good opinion) to decline the trial whether I had forfeited it or not; and if I had, whether I could not, honourably, reinstate myself in it. But, Sir, it was owing to different causes that I did not; partly to shame, to think how high, in my happier days, I stood in your esteem, and how much I [Page 212]...
LETTER LX. Miss Arab. Harlowe, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. In answer to hers to her Uncle Antony of Aug. 13 (a). [Footnote a: 1Kb] Monday, Aug. 21. Sister Clary, I find by your Letters to my Uncles, that they, as well as I, are in great disgrace with you for writing our minds to you. We can't help it, Sister Clary. You don't think it worth your while, I find, a second time to press for the Blessing you pretend to be [Page 217] so earnest about. You think, no doubt, that you have done your duty in asking for it: So you'll sit down satisfied with That, I suppose, and leave it to your wounded parents to repent hereafter that they have not done Theirs, in giving it to you, at the first word; and in making...
LETTER LXI. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To Miss Arab. Harlowe. Tuesday, Aug. 22. Write to me, my hard-hearted Sister, in what manner you please, I shall always be thankful to you for your notice. But (think what you will of me) I cannot see Mr. Ackland and the Counsellor on such a business as you mention. The Lord have mercy upon me indeed! For none else will. Surely I am believed to be a creature past all shame, or it could not be thought of sending two Gentlemen to me on such an errand. Had my Mother required of me (or would Modesty have permitted You to enquire into) the particulars of my sad Story, or had Mrs. Norton been directed to receive them from me, methinks it had been more fit: And I presume to think, that it...
LETTER LXII. Mrs. Norton, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. In answer to hers of Thursday, Aug. 17 (a). [Footnote a: 1Kb] Tuesday, Aug. 22. My dearest young Lady, The Letters you sent me, I now return by the hand that brings you this. It is impossible for me to express how much I have been affected by them, and by your last of the 17th. Indeed, my dear Miss Clary, you are very harshly used; indeed you are! And if you should be taken from us, what grief and what punishment are they not treasuring up against themselves in the heavy reflections which their rash censures and unforgivingness will occasion them! But I find to what your Uncle Antony's cruel Letter is owing, as well as one you will be still more...
[Page 223] LETTER LXIII. Mrs. Norton, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Tuesday, Aug. 22. After I had sealed up the inclosed, I had the honour of a private visit from your Aunt Hervey; who has been in a very low-spirited way, and kept her chamber for several weeks past; and is but just got abroad. She longed, she said, to see me, and to weep with me, on the hard fate that had befallen her beloved Niece. I will give you a faithful account of what passed between us; as I expect, that it will, upon the whole, administer hope and comfort to you. 'She pitied very much your good Mother, who, she assured me, is obliged to act a part entirely contrary to her inclinations; as she herself, she owns, had been in a great...
[Page 226] LETTER LXIV. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To Mrs. Judith Norton. Thursday, Aug. 24. The relation of such a conversation as passed between my Aunt and you, would have given me pleasure, had it come some time ago; because it would have met with a spirit more industrious than mine now is, to pick out remote comfort in the hope of a favourable turn that might one day have rewarded my patient duty. I did not doubt my Aunt's good-will to me. Her affection I did not doubt. But shall we wonder that Kings and Princes meet with so little controul in their passions, be they ever so violent, when in a private family, an Aunt, nay, even a Mother in that family, shall chuse to give up a once favoured child against their own...
LETTER LXV. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. In reply to hers of Friday Aug. 11 (a). [Footnote a: 1Kb] Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, Aug. 23. My dearest Friend, I have read the Letters and Copies of Letters you favoured me with: And I return them by a particular hand. I am extremely concerned at your indifferent state of health: But I approve of all your proceedings and precautions in relation to the appointment of Mr. Belford for an office, in which, I hope, neither he nor any-body else will be wanted to act, for many, very many years. I admire, and so we do all, that greatness of mind which can make you so stedfastly despise (thro' such inducements as no other woman could resist, and in such desolate...
LETTER LXVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, Aug. 25. You are very obliging, my dear Miss Howe, to account to me for your silence. I was easy in it, as I doubted not, that among such near and dear friends as you are with, you was diverted from writing by some such agreeable excursion as that you mention. I was in hopes that you had given over, at this time of day, those very sprightly airs, which I have taken the liberty to blame you for as often as you have given me occasion to do so; and that has been very often. I was always very grave with you upon this subject: And while your own and a worthy man's future happiness are in the question, I must enter into it, whenever you forget yourself, altho' I had...
LETTER LXVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. In this Letter the Lady acquaints Miss Howe with Mr. Brand's Report; with her Sister's Proposals either that she will go abroad, or prosecute Mr. Lovelace. She complains of the severe Letters of her Uncle Antony and her Sister; but in milder terms than they deserved. She sends her Dr. Lewen's Letter, and the Copy of her Answer to it. She tells her of the difficulties she had been under to avoid seeing Mr. Lovelace. She gives her the contents of the Letter she wrote to him to divert him from his proposed visit: She is afraid, she says, that it is a step that is not strictly right, if Allegory or Metaphor be not allowable to one in her circumstances. She informs...
LETTER LXVIII. Mr. Wyerley, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Wednesday, Aug. 23. Dearest Madam, You will be surprised to find renewed, at this distance of time, an address so positively tho' so politely discouraged: But, however it be received, I must renew it. Every-body has heard, that you have been vilely treated by a man, who, to treat you ill, must be the vilest of men. Every-body knows your just resentment of his base treatment: That you are determined never to be reconciled to him: And that you persist in these sentiments against all the entreaties of his noble relations, against all the prayers and repentance of his ignoble self. And all the world that have the honour to know you, or have heard of him, applaud your...
LETTER LXIX. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To Alex. Wyerley, Esq; Sat. Aug. 26. Sir, The generosity of your purpose would have commanded not only my notice, but my thanks, although you had not given me the alternative you are pleased to call artful. And I do therefore give you my thanks for your kind Letter. At the time you distinguished me by your favourable opinion, I told you, Sir, that my choice was the Single Life. And most truly did I tell you so. [Page 240] When that was not permitted me, and I looked round upon the several gentlemen who had been proposed to me, and had reason to believe that there was not one of them against whose morals or principles there lay not some exception, it would not have been...
LETTER LXX. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Monday Noon, Aug. 28. About the time of poor Belton's interrment last night, as near as we could guess, Lord M. Mowbray and Myself toasted once, To the Memory of honest Tom Belton; and, by a quick transition to the living, Health to Miss Harlowe; which Lord M. obligingly began, and, To the happy Reconciliation; and then we stuck in a remembrance To honest Jack Belford, who, of late, we all agreed, is become an useful and humane man; and one who prefers his friend's service to his own. But what is the meaning I hear nothing from thee (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] ? And why dost thou not let me into the grounds of the sudden Reconciliation between my Beloved and her Friends, and the cause...
LETTER LXXI. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Monday Night, Aug. 28. I doubt you will be all impatience, that you have not heard from me since mine of Thursday last. You would be still more so, if you knew that I had by me a Letter ready-written. I went early yesterday morning to Epsom; and found every-thing disposed according to the directions I had left on Friday; and at night the solemn office was performed. Tourville was there; and behaved very decently, and with greater concern than I thought he would ever have expressed for any-body. Thomasine, they told me, in a kind of disguise, was in an obscure pew, out of curiosity (for it seems she was far from shewing any tokens of grief) to see the [Page...
LETTER LXXII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Wednesday, Aug. 30. I have a conversation to give you that passed between this admirable Lady and Dr. H. which will furnish a new instance of the calmness and serenity with which she can talk of death, and prepare for it, as if it were an occurrence as familiar to her as dressing and undressing. As soon as I had dispatched my servant to you with my Letters of the 26th, 28th, and yesterday the [Page 255] 29th, I went to pay my duty to her, and had the pleasure to find her, after a tolerable night, pretty lively and chearful. She was but just returned from her usual devotions. And Doctor H. alighted as she entered the door. After enquiring how she did, and hearing her...
LETTER LXXIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Tuesday Morn. Aug. 29. Now, Jack, will I give thee an account of what passed on occasion of the visit made us by Col. Morden. He came on horseback, attended by one servant; and Lord M. received him as a relation of Miss Harlowe's, with the highest marks of civility and respect. After some general talk of the times, and of the weather, and such nonsense as Englishmen generally make their introductory topics to conversation, the Colonel addressed himself to Lord M. and to me, as follows: I need not, my Lord, and Mr. Lovelace, as you know the relation I bear to the Harlowe family, make any apology for entering upon a subject, which, on account of that relation, you...
LETTER LXXIV. Mr. Lovelace. In Continuation. Tuesday Afternoon, Aug. 29. I went back in this part of our conversation to the day that I was obliged to come down to attend my Lord, in the dangerous illness which some feared would have been his last. I told the Colonel, 'What earnest Letters I had written to a particular friend, to engage him to prevail upon the Lady not to slip a day that had been proposed for the private celebration of our nuptials; and of my Letters (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] written to herself on that subject;' for I had stept to my closet, and fetched down all the Letters and Draughts and Copies of Letters relating to this affair. I read to him 'several passages in the Copies of those Letters, which...
LETTER LXXV. Mr. Brand, To John Harlowe, Esq; [Inclosed in the preceding.] Worthy Sir, my very good Friend and Patron, I arrived in town yesterday, after a tolerable pleasant journey (considering the hot weather, and dusty roads). I put up at the Bull and Gate in Holborn, and hastened to Covent-garden. I soon found the house where the unhappy Lady lodgeth. And, in the back-shop, had a good deal of discourse (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] with Mrs. Smith (her Landlady) whom I found to be so highly prepossessed in her favour, that I saw it would not answer your desires to take my informations altogether from her: And being obliged to attend my patron (who, to my sorrow, ...
LETTER LXXVI. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Wednesday Night, Aug. 30. It was lucky enough that our two servants met at Hannah's (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] , which gave them so good an opportunity of exchanging their Letters time enough for each to return to his master early in the day. Thou dost well to boast of thy capacity for managing Servants, and to set up for correcting our Poets in their characters of this class of people (b) [Footnote b: 1Kb] , when, like a madman, thou canst beat their teeth out, and attempt to shoot them thro' the head, for not bringing to thee what they had no power to obtain. You well observe (c) [Footnote c: 1Kb] that you would have made a thorough-paced Lawyer. The whole of the...
LETTER LXXVII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Thursday, 11 o'clock, Aug. 31. I am just come from the Lady, whom I left chearful and serene. She thanked me for my communication of the preceding night. I re'd to her such parts of your Letters as I could read to her; and I thought it was a good test to distinguish the froth and whipt-syllabub in them from the cream, in what one could and could not read to a woman of so fine a mind; since four parts out of six of thy Letters, which I thought entertaining as I re'd them to myself, appeared to me, when I would have re'd them to her, most abominable stuff, and gave me a very contemptible idea of thy talents, and of my own judgment. She was far from rejoicing, as I...
LETTER LXXVIII. Colonel Morden, To Miss Cl. Harlowe. Tuesday, Aug. 29. ·I should not, my dearest Cousin, have been a fortnight in England, without either doing myself the honour of waiting upon you in person, or of writing to you; if I had not been busying myself almost all the time in your service, in hopes of making my Visit or Letter still more acceptable to you---acceptable as I have reason to presume either will be from the unquestionable Love I ever bore you, and from the Esteem you always honoured me with. ·Little did I think, that so many days would have been required to effect my well-intended purpose, where there used to be a Love so ardent on one side, and where there still is, as I am thoroughly convinced, the...
[Page 302] LETTER LXXIX. Miss Cl. Harlowe, To Wm. Morden, Esq; Thursday, Aug. 31. I most heartily congratulate you, dear Sir, on your return to your native country. I heard with much pleasure that you were come; but I was both afraid and ashamed, till you encouraged me by a first notice, to address myself to you. How consoling is it to my wounded heart to find, that you have not been carried away by that tide of resentment and displeasure with which I have been so unhappily overwhelmed---But that, while my still nearer relations have not thought fit to examine into the truth of vile reports raised against me, you have informed yourself of my innocence, and generously credited the information! I have...
[Page 304] LETTER LXXX. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; In answer to his Letters lvii. lxxi. Thursday, Aug. 31. I cannot but own, that I am cut to the heart by this Miss Harlowe's interpretation of her Letter. She ought never to be forgiven. She, a meek person, and a penitent, and innocent, and pious, and I know not what, who can deceive with a foot in the grave!--- 'Tis evident, that she sat down to write this Letter with a design to mislead and deceive. And if she be capable of That, at such a crisis, she has as much need of Heaven's forgiveness, as I have of hers: And, with all her cant of Charity and Charity, if she be not more sure of it, than I am of her real pardon, and if she take the thing in the...
[Page 308] LETTER LXXXI. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Thursday Night, Aug. 31. When I concluded my last, I hoped, that my next attendance upon this surprising Lady would furnish me with some particulars as agreeable as now could be hoped for from the declining way she is in, by reason of the welcome Letter she had received from her Cousin Morden. But it proved quite otherwise to me, tho' not to herself; for I think I never was more shocked in my life than on the occasion I shall mention presently. When I attended her about Seven in the evening, she told me, that she found herself in a very petulant way, after I had left her. Strange, said she, that the pleasure I received from my Cousin's Letter should have...
[Page 311] LETTER LXXXII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Friday Morn. Sept. 1. It is surprising, that I, a Man, should be so much affected as I was, at such an object as is the subject of my former Letter; who also, in my late Uncle's case, and poor Belton's, had the like before me, and the directing of it: When she, a Woman, of so weak and tender a frame, who was to fill it (so soon perhaps to fill it!) could give orders about it, and draw out the devices upon it, and explain them with so little concern as the women tell me she did to them last night after I was gone. I really was ill, and restless all night. Thou wert the subject of my execration, as she of my admiration, all the time I was quite awake: And,...
LETTER LXXXIII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Friday, Sept. 1. How astonishing, in the midst of such affecting Scenes, is thy mirth on what thou callest my own aspirations! Never, surely, was there such another man in this world, thy talents and thy levity taken together!---Surely, what I shall send thee with this will affect thee. If not, nothing can, till thy own hour come:---And heavy will then thy reflections be! I am glad, however, that thou enablest me to assure the Lady, that thou wilt no more molest her; that is to say, in other words, That, after having ruined her fortunes, and all her worldly prospects, thou wilt be so gracious, as to let her lie down and die in peace. [Page 315] Thy giving up to poor Belton...
LETTER LXXXIV. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Uxbridge, Sept. 1. Twelve o'clock at Night. I send you the papers with this. You must account to me honestly and fairly when I see you for the earnestness with which you write for them. And then also will we talk about the contents of your last dispatch, and about some of your severe and unfriendly reflections. Mean time, whatever thou dost, don't let the wonderful creature leave us! Set before her the sin of her preparation, as if she thought she could depart [Page 317] when she pleased. She'll persuade herself, at this rate, that she has nothing to do, when all is ready, but to lie down, and go to sleep: And such a lively fancy as hers will make a reality of a jest at any...
LETTER LXXXV. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Sat. Morning, Sept. 2. I have some little pleasure given me by thine, just now brought me. I see now that thou hast a little humanity left. Would to heaven, for the dear Lady's sake, as well as for thy own, that thou hadst romaged it up from all the dark forgotten corners of thy soul a little sooner! The Lady is alive, and serene, and calm, and has all her noble intellects clear and strong: But Nineteen will not however save her. She says, she will now content herself with her Closet-duties, and the visits of the Parish-minister; and will not attempt to go out. Nor, indeed, will she, I am afraid, ever walk up or down a pair of stairs again. I am sorry at my soul to...
[Page 323] LETTER LXXXVI. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Tuesday, Aug. 29. My dearest Friend, We are at length returned to our own home. I had intended to wait on you in London: But my Mother is very ill---Alas! my dear, she is very ill indeed---And you are likewise very ill---I see that by yours of the 25th---What shall I do, if I lose two such near, and dear, and tender friends? She was taken ill yesterday at our last stage in our return home---And has a violent surfeit and fever, and the Doctors are doubtful about her. If she should die, how will all my pertnesses to her fly in my face!---Why, why, did I ever vex her? She says I have been all duty and obedience!---She kindly forgets all my faults,...
LETTER LXXXVII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday, Aug. 31. The Colonel thought fit once, in praise of Lovelace's generosity, to say, That (as a man of honour ought) he took to himself all the blame, and acquitted you of the consequences of the precipitate step you had taken; since, he said, as you loved him, and was in his power, he must have had advantages, which he would not have had, if you had continued at your Father's, or at any Friend's. Mighty generous, I said (were it as he supposed) in such insolent reflecters, the best of them; who pretend to clear reputations which never had been sullied, but by falling into their dirty acquaintance! But in this case, I averred, that there was no need of anything but...
LXXXVIII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Sunday Evening, Sept. 3. I wonder not at the impatience your servant tells me you express to hear from me. I was designing to write you a long Letter, and was just returned from Smith's for that purpose; but, since you are so urgent, you must be contented with a short one. I attended the Lady this morning, just before I set [Page 331] out for Edgware. She was so ill over-night, that she was obliged to leave unfinished her Letter to Miss Howe. But early this morning she made an end of it, and had just sealed it up as I came. She was so fatigued with writing, that she told me she would lie down after I was gone, and endeavour to recruit her spirits. They had sent for...
LETTER LXXXIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Saturday, Sept. 2. I write, my beloved Miss Howe, tho' very ill still: But I could not by the return of your messenger; for I was then unable to hold a pen. Your Mother's illness (as mentioned in the first part of your Letter) gave me great distress for you, till I re'd farther. You bewailed it as it became a Daughter so sensible. May you be blessed in each other for many, very many, happy years to come! I doubt not, that even this sudden and grievous indisposition, by the frame it has put you in, and the apprehension it has given you of losing so dear a Mother, will contribute to the happiness I wish you: For, alas! my dear, we seldom know how to value the blessings we...
LETTER XC. Mrs. Norton, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. [In Answer to hers of Thursday, August 24. See p. 226.] Thursday, Aug. 31. I had written sooner, my dearest young Lady, but that I have been endeavouring ever since the receipt of your last Letter, to obtain a private audience of your Mother, in hopes of leave to communicate it to her. But last night I was surprised by an invitation to breakfast at Harlowe-Place this morning: And the chariot came early to fetch me: An honour I did not expect. When I came, I found there was to be a meeting of all your family with Colonel Morden at Harlowe-Place; and it was proposed by your Mother, and consented to, that I should be present. Your Cousin, I understand, had with...
LETTER XCI. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Monday, Sept. 4. The Lady would not read the Letter she had from Mrs. Norton, till she had received the Communion, for fear it should contain any-thing that might disturb that happy calm, which she had been endeavouring to obtain for it. And when that solemn office was over, she was so composed, she said, that she thought she could receive any news, however affecting, with tranquillity. Nevertheless, in reading it, she was forced to leave off several times thro' weakness and a dimness in her sight, of which she complained; if I may say complained; for so easy and soft were her complaints, that they could hardly be called such. She was very much affected at divers parts...
LETTER XCII. Dr. H. To James Harlowe senior, Esq; London, Sept. 4. Sir, If I may judge of the hearts of other parents by my own, I cannot doubt but you will take it well to be informed, that you have yet an opportunity to save yourself and family great future regret, by dispatching hither some one of it, with your last Blessing, and your Lady's, to the most excellent of her Sex. I have some reason to believe, Sir, that she has been represented to you in a very different light from the true one. And this it is that induces me to acquaint you, that I think her, on the best grounds, absolutely irreproachable in all her conduct which has passed under my eye, or come to my ear; and that her very misfortunes are made glorious...
LETTER XCIII. Mr. Belford, To William Morden, Esq; London, Sept. 4. Sir, The urgency of the case, and the opportunity by your servant, will sufficiently apologize for this trouble from a stranger to your person; who, however, is not a stranger to your merit. I understand you are employing your good offices with the Parents of Miss Clarissa Harlowe, and other relations, to reconcile them to the most meritorious Daughter and Kinswoman, that ever family had to boast of. Generously as this is intended by you, we here have too much reason to think all your solicitudes on this [Page 362] head will be unnecessary: For it is the opinion of every one who has the honour of being admitted to her presence, that she cannot...
LETTER XCIV. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; [In Answer to Letter xci.] Uxbridge, Tuesday Morn. between 4 and 5. And can it be, that this admirable creature will so soon leave this cursed world? For cursed I shall think it, and more cursed myself, when she is gone. O Jack! thou, who canst sit so cool, and, like Addison's Angel, direct, and even enjoy, the Storm, that tears up my happiness by the roots, blame me not for my impatience, however unreasonable! If thou knewest, that already I feel the torments of the damned, in the remorse that wrings my heart, on looking back upon my past actions by her, thou wouldst not be the devil thou art, to halloo on a worrying conscience, which, without thy merciless aggravations...
LETTER XCV. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Tuesday, 5 Sept. 9 in the Morn. at Mr. Smith's. When I re'd yours of this morning, I could not help pitying you for the account you give of the dreadful anxiety and suspense you labour under. I wish from my heart all were to end as you are so willing to hope: But it will not be; and your suspense, if the worst part of your torment, as you say it is, will soon be over; but, alas! in a way you wish not. I attended the Lady just now. She is extremely ill: Yet is she aiming at an Answer to her Norton's Letter, which she began yesterday in her own chamber, and has written a good deal; but in a hand not like her own fine one, as Mrs. Lovick tells me, but much larger, and the lines...
LETTER XCVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Mrs. Norton. In Answer to Letter xc. (a). [Footnote a: 1Kb] My dearest Mrs. Norton, I am afraid I shall not be able to write all that is upon my mind to say to you upon the subject of your last. Yet I will try. As to my friends, and as to the sad breakfasting, I cannot help being afflicted for them. What, alas! has not my Mother, in particular, suffered by my rashness!---Yet to allow so much for a Son!---so little [Page 370] for a Daughter!---But all now will soon be over, as to me. I hope they will bury all their resentments in my grave. As to your advice in relation to Mr. Belford, let me only say, that the unhappy reprobation I have met with, and my short time, must...
LETTER XCVII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Wedn. Morn. Sept. 6. half an hour after Three. I am not the Savage which you and my worst enemies think me. My soul is too much penetrated by the contents of the Letter which you inclosed in your last, to say one word more to it, than that my heart has bled over it from every vein! ---I will fly from the subject---But what other can I chuse, that will not be as grievous, and lead into the same? I could quarrel with all the world; with thee, as well as the rest; obliging as thou supposest thyself for [Page 374] writing to me hourly. How daredst thou (tho' unknown to her) to presume to take an apartment under the same roof with her? ---I cannot bear to think, that...
LETTER XCVIII. Mr. Belford, to Robert Lovelace, Esq; Tuesday, Sept. 5. Six o'clock. The Lady remains exceedingly weak and ill. Her intellects, nevertheless, continue clear and strong, and her piety and patience are without example. Every one thinks this night will be her last. What a shocking thing is that to say of such an excellence! [Page 376] She will not however send away her Letter to her Norton, as yet. She endeavoured in vain to superscribe it: So desired me to do it. Her fingers will not hold her pen with the requisite steadiness. She has, I fear, written and re'd her last! Eight o'clock. She is somewhat better than she was. The Doctor has been here, and thinks she will hold out yet a day or two....
LETTER XCIX. ·Mr. Brand, To Mr. John Walton. ·Sat. Night, Sept. 2. ·Dear Mr. Walton, ·I am obliged to you for the very handsomely penned (and elegantly written) Letter which you have sent me on purpose to do justice to the character of the younger Miss Harlowe: And yet I must tell you, that I had reason, before that came, to think (and to know indeed) that we were all wrong: And so I had employed the greatest part of this week, in drawing up an apologetical Letter to my worthy Patron Mr. John Harlowe, in order to set all matters right between me and them, and (as far as I could) between them and Miss. So it required little more than connexion and transcribing, when I received yours; and it will be with Mr. Harlowe aforesaid,...
LETTER C. ·Mr. Brand, To John Harlowe, Esq; Sat. Night, Sept. 2. ·Worthy Sir, ·I am under no small concern, that I should (unhappily) be the occasion (I am sure I intended nothing like it) of widening differences by light misreport, when it is the duty of one of my function (and no less consisting with my inclination) to heal and reconcile. ·I have received two Letters to set me right: One from a particular acquaintance (whom I set to enquire of Mr. Belford's character); and that came on Tuesday last, informing me, that your unhappy Niece was greatly injured in the account I had had of her (for I had told him of it, and that with very great concern, I am sure, apprehending it to be true). So I then set about writing to...
LETTER CI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; [In Answer to Letter xcviii.] Wedn. Morn. Sept. 6. And is she somewhat better? ---Blessings upon thee without number or measure! Let her still be better and better! Tell me so at least, if she be not so: For thou knowest not what a joy that poor temporary reprieve, that she will hold out yet a day or two, gave me. But who told this hard-hearted and death-pronouncing Doctor, that she will hold it no longer? By what warrant says he this? What presumption in these parading solemn fellows of a college which will be my contempt to the latest hour of my life, if this brother of it (eminent as he is deemed to be) cannot work an ordinary miracle in her favour, or rather in mine!...
LETTER CII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Wedn. Morn. Eight o'clock (6 Sept.) Your servant arrived here before I was stirring. I sent him to Smith's to enquire how the Lady was; and ordered him to call upon me when he came back. I was pleased to hear she had had tolerable rest. As soon as I had dispatched him with the Letter I had written over-night, I went to attend her. I found her up, and dress'd; in a white satten nightgown. Ever elegant; but now more so, than I had seen her for a week past: Her aspect serenely chearful. She mentioned the encreased dimness of her eyes, and the tremor which had invaded her limbs. If this be dying, said she, there is nothing at all shocking in it. My body hardly sensible of...
LETTER CIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Kensington, Wednesday Noon. Like Æsop's Traveller, thou blowest hot and cold, life and death, in the same breath, with a view, no doubt, to distract me. How familiarly dost [Page 403] thou use the words, dying, dimness, tremor? Never did any mortal ring so many changes on so few bells. Thy true Father, I dare swear, was a Butcher, or an Undertaker, by the delight thou seemest to take in scenes of death and horror. Thy barbarous reflection, that thou losest her not by thy own fault, is never to be forgiven. Thou hast but one way to atone for the torments thou givest me, and that is, by sending me word that she is better, and will recover. Whether it be true or not, let me...
LETTER CIV. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Wednesday, 11 o'Clock. Dr. H. has just been here. He tarried with me till the minister had done praying by the Lady; and then we were both admitted. Mr. Goddard, who came while the Doctor and the Clergyman were with her, went away with them when they went. They took a solemn and everlasting leave of her, as I have no scruple to say; blessing her, and being blessed by her; and wishing (when it came to be their lot) for an Exit as happy as hers is likely to be. She had again earnestly requested of the Doctor his opinion how long it was now probable that she could continue: And he told her, that he apprehended she [Page 405] would hardly see to-morrow night. She said...
LETTER CV. Mr. Belford. In Continuation. Eight in the Evening. I had but just time in my former, to tell you, that Colonel Morden was arrived. He was on horseback, attended by two servants, and alighted at the door, just as the clock struck Five. Mrs. Smith was then below in her back-shop, weeping, her husband with her, who was as much affected as she; Mrs. Lovick having left them a little before, in tears likewise; for they had been bemoaning one another; joining in opinion, that the admirable Lady would not live the night over. She had told them, it was her opinion too, from some numbnesses, which she called the forerunners of death, and from an encreased inclination to doze. The Colonel, as Mrs. Smith told me afterwards,...
LETTER CVI. Mr. Belford. In Continuation. Soho, Six o'clock, Sept. 7. The Lady is still alive. The Colonel having just sent his servant to let me know that she enquired after me about an hour ago, I am dressing to attend her. Joel begs of me to dispatch him back, tho' but with one line to gratify your present impatience. He expects, he says, to find you at Knightsbridge, let him make what haste he can back; and if he has not a line or two to pacify you, he is afraid you will pistol him; for he apprehends that you are hardly yourself. I therefore dispatch this; and will have another ready as soon as I can, with particulars. But you must have a little patience; for how can I withdraw every half-hour to write, if I am admitted to the...
[Page 422] LETTER CVII. Mr. Belford. In Coutinuation. The Colonel tells me, That he has written to Mr. John Harlowe, by his servant, 'That they might spare themselves the trouble of debating about a Reconciliation; for that his dear Cousin would probably be no more, before they could resolve.' He asked me after his Cousin's means of subsisting; and whether she had accepted of any favour from me: He was sure, he said, she would not from you. I acquainted him with the truth of her parting with some of her apparel. This wrung his heart; and bitterly did he exclaim as well against you, as against her implacable relations. He wished he had not come to England at all, or had come sooner; and hoped I would apprise...
LETTER CVIII. Mr. Belford, To Richard Mowbray, Esq; Thursday Afternoon. Dear Mowbray, I am glad to hear you are in town. Throw yourself the moment this comes to your hand (if possible with Tourville) in the way of the man who least of [Page 424] all men deserves the Love of the worthy heart; but most That of Thine and Tourville: Else, the news I shall most probably send him within an hour or two, will make Annihilation the greatest blessing he has to wish for. You will find him between Piccadilly and Kensington, most probably on horseback, riding backwards and forwards in a crazy way; or put up, perhaps, at some Inn or Tavern in the way; a waiter possibly, if so, watching for his servant's return to him...
LETTER CIX. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Curse upon the Colonel, and curse upon the writer of the last Letter I received, and upon all the world! Thou to pretend to be as much interested in my Clarissa's fate as myself! 'Tis well for one of us, that this was not said to me, instead of written--- Living or dying, she is mine---and only mine. Have I not earned her dearly? ---Is not Damnation likely to be the purchase to me, tho' a happy Eternity will be hers? An eternal separation! O God! O God! ---How can I bear that thought! ---But yet there is Life! --- Yet, therefore, Hope---Enlarge my Hope, and thou shalt be my good genius, and I will forgive thee everything. For this last time---But it must not, shall not, be...
LETTER CX. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Seven o'Clock, Thursday Evening, Sept. 7. I have only to say at present---Thou wilt do well to take a Tour to Paris; or where-ever else thy destiny shall lead thee!!!--- John Belford.
LETTER CXI. Mr. Mowbray, To John Belford, Esq; Uxbridge, Sept. 7. between 11 and 12 at Night. Dear Jack, I send by poor Lovelace's desire, for particulars of the fatal breviate thou sentest him this night. He cannot bear to set pen to paper; yet wants to know every minute passage of Miss Harlowe's departure. Yet, why he should, I cannot see; for if she is gone, she is gone; and who can help it? I never heard of such a woman in my life. What great matters has she suffered, that grief should kill her thus? [Page 426] I wish the poor fellow had never known her. From first to last, what trouble has she cost him! The charming Fellow has been half lost to us ever since he pursued her. And what is...