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 thou wilt remember make not a little to my honour.' And I told him, 'That I wished I had kept Copies of those to my friend on the same occasion; by which he would have seen how much in earnest I was in my professions to her, although she would not answer one of them.' And thou mayst remember, that one of those four Letters accounted to herself, why I was desirous she should remain where I had left her (b) [Footnote b: 1Kb].
I then proceeded to give him an account 'of the visit made by Lady Sarah and Lady Betty to Lord M. and me, in order to induce me to do her justice: Of my readiness to comply with their desires; and of their high opinion of her merit: Of the visit made to Miss Howe by my Cousins Montague, in the name of us all, to engage her interest with her friend in my behalf: Of my conversation with
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Miss Howe, at a private Assembly, to whom I gave the same assurances, and besought her interest with her friend.'
I then read the Copy of the Letter (tho' so much to my disadvantage) which was written to her by Miss Charlotte Montague, Aug. 1. (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb]entreating her alliance in the names of all our family.
This made him ready to think, that his fair Cousin carried her resentment against me too far. He did not imagine, he said, that either myself or our family had been so much in earnest.
So thou seest, Belford, that it is but glossing over one part of a Story, and omitting another, that will make a bad cause a good one at any time. What an admirable Lawyer should I have made! And what a poor hand would this charming creature, with all her innocence, have made of it in a Court of Justice against a man who had so much to say and to shew for himself!
I then hinted at the generous annual tender which Lord M. and his Sisters made to his fair Cousin, in apprehension that she might suffer by her friends implacableness.
And this also the Colonel highly applauded, and was pleased to lament the unhappy misunderstanding between the two families, which had made the Harlowes less fond of an alliance with a family of so much honour as this instance shewed ours to be.
I then told him, 'That having, by my friend [meaning thee] who was admitted into her presence (and who had always been an admirer of her virtues, and had given me such advice from time to time in relation to her as I wished I had followed) been assured, that a visit from me would be very disagreeable to her, I once more resolved to try what a Letter would do; and that, accordingly, on the 7th of August I wrote her one.'
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'This, Colonel, is the Copy of it. I was then out of humour with my Lord M. and the Ladies of my family. You will therefore read it to yourself (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb].'
This Letter gave him high satisfaction. You write here, Mr. Lovelace, from your heart. 'Tis a Letter full of penitence and acknowlegement. Your request is reasonable---To be forgiven only as you shall appear to deserve it after a time of probation, which you leave to her to fix. Pray, Sir, did she return an Answer to this Letter?
She did, but with reluctance, I own, and not till I had declared by my friend, that if I could not procure one, I would go up to town, and throw myself at her feet.
I wish I might be permitted to see it, Sir, or to hear such parts of it read, as you shall think proper.
Turning over my papers, Here it is, Sir (b) [Footnote b: 1Kb]. I will make no scruple to put it into your hands.
This is very obliging, Mr. Lovelace.
He read it. My charming Cousin!---How strong her resentments!---Yet how charitable her wishes! Good Heaven! that such an excellent creature---But, Mr. Lovelace, it is to your regret, as much as to mine, I doubt not---
Interrupting him, I swore that it was.
So it ought, said he. Nor do I wonder that it should be so. I shall tell you by-and-by, proceeded he, how much she suffers with her friends by false and villainous reports. But, Sir, will you permit me to take with me these two Letters? I shall make use of them to the advantage of you both.
I told him, I would oblige him with all my heart. And this he took very kindly (as he had reason); and put them in his pocket-book, promising to return them in a few days.
I then told him, 'That upon his her refusal, I
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took upon myself to go to town, in hopes to move her in my favour; and that, tho' I went without giving her notice of my intention, yet had she got some notion of my coming, and so contrived to be out of the way: And at last, when she found I was fully determined at all events to see her, before I went abroad (which I shall do, said I, if I cannot prevail upon her) she sent me the Letter I have already mentioned to you, desiring me to suspend my purposed visit: And that for a reason which amazes and confounds me; because I don't find there is anything in it: And yet I never knew her once dispense with her word; for she always made it a maxim, that it was not lawful to do evil, that good might come of it: And yet in this Letter, for no reason in the world but to avoid seeing me (to gratify an humour only) has she sent me out of town, depending upon the assurance she had given me.'
Col. This is indeed surprising. But I cannot believe that my Cousin, for such an end only, or indeed for any end, according to the character I hear of her, should stoop to make use of such an artifice.
Lovel. This, Colonel, is the thing that astonishes me; and yet, see here! ---This is the Letter she wrote me---Nay, Sir, 'tis her own hand.
Col. I see it is; and a charming hand it is.
Lovel. You observe, Colonel, that all her hopes of Reconciliation with her parents are from you. You are her dear blessed friend! She always talked of you with delight.
Col. Would to Heaven I had come to England before she left Harlowe-Place!---Nothing of this had then happened. Not a man of those whom I have heard that her friends proposed for her, should have had her. Nor you, Mr. Lovelace, unless I had found you to be the man every one who sees you, must wish you to be: And if you had been that man, no one living should I have preferred to you for such an excellence.
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My Lord and I both joined in the wish: And 'faith I wished it most cordially.
The Colonel read the Letter twice over, and then returned it to me. 'Tis all a mystery, said he. I can make nothing of it. For, alas! her friends are as averse to a Reconciliation as ever.
Lord M. I could not have thought it. But don't you think there is something very favourable to my Nephew in this Letter---Something that looks as if the Lady would comply at last?
Col. Let me die if I know what to make of it. This Letter is very different from her preceding one!---You returned an Answer to it, Mr. Lovelace?
Lovel. An Answer, Colonel! No doubt of it. And an Answer full of transport. I told her, 'I would directly set out for Lord M's, in obedience to her will. I told her, that I would consent to anything she should command, in order to promote this happy Reconciliation. I told her, that it should be my hourly study to the end of my life, to deserve a goodness so transcendent.' But I cannot forbear saying, that I am not a little shocked and surprised, if nothing more be meant by it than to get me into the country without seeing her.
Col. That can't be the thing, depend upon it, Sir. There must be more in it than That. For were that all, she must think you would soon be undeceived, and that you would then most probably resume your intention---Unless, indeed, she depended upon seeing me in the interim, as she knew I was arrived. But I own, I know not what to make of it. Only that she does me a great deal of honour, if it be me that she calls her blessed friend, whom she always loved and honoured. Indeed, I ever loved her: And if I die unmarried, and without children, shall be as kind to her, as her grandfather was: And the rather, as I fear that there is too much of envy and self-love in the resentments her Brother and Sister endeavour to
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keep up in her Father and Mother against her. But I shall know better how to judge of This, when my Cousin James comes from Edinburgh; and he is every hour expected.
But let me ask you, Mr. Lovelace, What is the name of your friend, who is admitted so easily into my Cousin's presence? Is it not Belford, pray?
Lovel. It is, Sir; and Mr. Belford's a man of honour; and a great admirer of your fair Cousin.
Was I right, as to the first, Jack? The last I have such strong proof of, that it makes me question the first; since she would not have been out of the way of my intended visit but for thee.
Col. Are you sure, Sir, that Mr. Belford is a man of honour?
Lovel. I can swear for him, Colonel. What makes you put this question?
Col. Only this: That an officious pragmatical novice has been sent up to enquire into my Cousin's life and conversation: And, would you believe it? the frequent visits of this gentleman have been interpreted basely to her disreputation.---Read that Letter, Mr. Lovelace; and you will be shocked at every part of it.
This cursed Letter, no doubt, is from the young Levite, whom thou, Jack, describedst, as making enquiry of Mrs. Smith about Miss Harlowe's character and visitors (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb].
I believe I was a quarter of an hour in reading it: For I made it, tho' not a short one, six times as long as it is, by the additions of oaths and curses to every pedantic line. Lord M. too helped to lengthen it, by the like execrations. And thou, Jack, wilt have as much reason to curse it, as we.
You cannot but see, said the Colonel, when I had done reading it, that this fellow has been officious in his malevolence; for what he says is mere hearsay, and that hearsay conjectural scandal without fact, or
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the appearance of fact, to support it; so that an unprejudiced eye, upon the face of the Letter, would condemn the writer of it, as I did, and acquit my Cousin. But yet, such is the spirit by which the rest of my relations are governed, that they run away with the belief of the worst it insinuates, and the dear creature has had shocking Letters upon it; the pedant's hints are taken; and a voyage to one of the Colonies has been proposed to her, as the only way to avoid Mr. Belford and you. I have not seen these Letters indeed; but they took a pride in repeating some of their contents, which must have cut the poor Soul to the heart; and these, joined to her former sufferings---What have you not, Mr. Lovelace, to answer for?
Lovel. Who the devil could have expected such consequences as these? Who could have believed there could be Parents so implacable? Brother and Sister so envious? And, give me leave to say, a Lady so immoveably fixed against the only means that could be taken to put all right with every-body?---And what now can be done?
Lord M. I have great hopes, that Col. Morden may yet prevail upon his Cousin. And by her last Letter, it runs in my mind, that she has some thoughts of forgiving all that's past. Do you think, Colonel, if there should not be such a thing as a Reconciliation going forward at present, that her Letter may not imply, that if we could bring such a thing to bear with her friends, she would be reconciled to Mr. Lovelace?
Col. Such an artifice would better become the Italian subtlety than the English simplicity. Your Lordship has been in Italy, I presume?
Lovel. My Lord has read Boccacio, perhaps; and that's as well, as to the hint he gives, which may be borrowed from one of that author's stories. But Miss Clarissa Harlowe is above all artifice. She must have some meaning I cannot fathom.
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Col. Well, my Lord, I can only say, That I will make some use of the Letters Mr. Lovelace has obliged me with: And after I have had some talk with my Cousin James, who is hourly expected; and when I have dispatched two or three affairs that press upon me; I will pay my respects to my dear Cousin; and shall then be able to form a better judgment of things. Mean time I will write to her; for I have sent to enquire about her, and find she wants consolation.
Lovel. If you favour me, Colonel, with the damn'd Letter of that fellow Brand for a day or two, you will oblige me.
Col. I will. But remember, the man is a Parson, Mr. Lovelace; an innocent one too, they say. Else I had been at him before now. And these College Novices, who think they know every-thing in their Cloisters, and that all Learning lies in Books, make dismal figures when they come into the world among Men and Women.
Lord M. Brand! Brand! It should have been Firebrand, I think in my conscience!
Thus ended this doughty conference.
I cannot say, Jack, but I am greatly taken with Col. Morden. He is brave and generous, and knows the world; and then his contempt of the Parsons is a certain sign that he is one of Us.
We parted with great civility: Lord M. (not a little pleased that we did, and as greatly taken with the Colonel) repeated his wish, after the Colonel was gone, that he had arrived in time to save the Lady; if that would have done it.
I wish so too. For by my Soul, Jack, I am every day more and more uneasy about her. But I hope she is not so ill as I am told she is.
I have made Charlotte transcribe the Letter of this Firebrand, as my Lord calls him; and will inclose her Copy of it. All thy phlegm I know will be roused into vengeance when thou readest it.
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I know not what to advise as to shewing it to the Lady. Yet, perhaps, she will be able to reap more satisfaction than concern from it, knowing her own innocence; in that it will give her to hope that her friends treatment of her is owing as much to misrepresentation as to their own natural implacableness. Such a mind as hers, I know, would be glad to find out the shadow of a reason for the shocking Letters the Colonel says they have sent her, and for their proposal to her of going to some one of the Colonies [Confound them all---But if I begin to curse, I shall never have done]---Then it may put her upon such a defence as she might be glad of an opportunity to make, and to shame them for their monstrous credulity---But this I leave to thy own fat-headed prudence---Only it vexes me to the heart, that even Scandal and Calumny should dare to surmise the bare possibility of any man's sharing the favours of a woman, whom now methinks I could worship with a veneration due only to a Divinity.
Charlotte and her Sister could not help weeping at the base aspersion: When, when, said Patty, lifting up her hands, will this sweet Lady's Sufferings be at an end?---O Cousin Lovelace!---
And thus am I blamed for every one's faults!---When her brutal Father curses her, it is I. I upbraid her with her severe Mother. The implacableness of her stupid Uncles is all mine. The virulence of her Brother, and the spite and envy of her Sister, are entirely owing to me. The Letter of this rascal Brand is of my writing---O Jack, what a wretch is thy Lovelace!
Returned without a Letter!---This damn'd fellow Will. is returned without a Letter!---Yet the rascal tells me that he hears you have been writing to me these two days!
Plague confound thee, who must know my impatience, and the reason for it!
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To send a man and horse on purpose; as I did! My imagination chained to the belly of the beast, in order to keep pace with him!---Now he is got to this place; Now to that; Now to London; Now to thee!
Now [a Letter given him] whip and spur upon the return. This town just entered, not staying to bait: That village passed by: Leaves the wind behind him; in a foaming sweat man and horse.
And in this way did he actually enter Lord M's Court-yard.
The reverberating pavement brought me down---The Letter, Will! The Letter, Dog!---The Letter, Sirrah!
No Letter, Sir!---Then wildly staring round me, fists clenched, and grinning like a Maniac, Confound thee for a dog, and him that sent thee without one!---This moment out of my sight, of I'll scatter thy stupid brains thro' the air. I snatched from his holsters a pistol, while the rascal threw himself from the foaming beast, and ran to avoid the fate which I wished with all my soul thou hadst been within the reach of me to have met with.
But, to be as meek as a lamb to one who has me at his mercy, and can wring and torture my Soul as he pleases, What canst thou mean to send back my varlet without a Letter?---I will send away by day-dawn another fellow upon another beast for what thou hast written; and I charge thee on thy allegiance, that thou dispatch him not back empty-handed.
POSTSCRIPT.
·Charlotte, in a whim of delicacy, is displeased that I send the inclosed Letter to you---That her hand-writing, forsooth! should go into the hands of a single man!
·There's encouragement for thee, Belford! This is a certain sign that thou may'st have her if thou
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wilt. And yet, till she had given me this unerring demonstration of her glancing towards thee, I could not have thought it. Indeed I have often in pleasantry told her, that I would bring such an affair to bear. But I never intended it; because she really is a dainty girl. And thou art such a clumsy fellow in thy person, that I should as soon have wished her a Rhinoceros for an husband, as thee. But, poor little dears! they must stay till their time's come! They won't have this man, and they won't have that man, from Seventeen to Twenty-five: But then, afraid, as the saying is, that God has forgot them, and finding their bloom departing, they are glad of whom they can get, and verify the Fable of the Parson and the Pears.·