TALE OF THE TIMES.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF A GOSSIP'S STORY.

DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO MRS. CARTER.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

Nor fhall the pile of hope God's mercy rear'd,
By vain philofophy be e'er destroy'd;
Eternity, by all or wifh'd or fear'd,

Shall be by all or fuffer'd or enjoy'd.

MASON'S Elegy on the Death of Lady Coventry.

THE THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY A. STRAHAN, PRINTERS-STREET, FOR T. N. LONGMAN, AND O. REES, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

TALE OF THE TIMES.

CHAP. XVIII.

O, how canft thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms which Nature to her vot'ry yields !
The warbling woodland, the refounding fhore,

The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields ¿
All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the fong of even,

All that the mountain's fheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of heaven,
O, how can't thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven!

BEATTIE.

THE intereft which the appearance and

behaviour of Mr. Powerfcourt had excited in Lord Monteith's mind had more permanence than the fudden emotions to which his difpofition was fubject com. monly poffeffed. His evanefcent im

VOL.11.

B

pulfes

pulfes might generally be compared to the impreffion which a flone makes upon the clear furface of a glaffy lake, which, after having formed a few tremulous circles, foon refumes its natural tranquillity. But on the prefent occafion he thought of his good-tempered rival, as he termed him, during moft part of his journey to Scotland; and, as neither a whistle nor a fong would always excite new ideas, he frequently expreffed himfelf anxious to know whether the poor fellow had fhot himfelf: "Yet I proteft, "my dear Geraldine," he added, "I "do not laugh at him; for, upon my "foul, if I were as miferable as he "feems to be, I should think of nothing

but driving out Cupid's arrows with "a brace of bullets."

As lady Monteith's endeavours to divert her lord from fufpecting Mr. Power court's attachment had proved