"the remorseful recollection of fome indirect means not wholly con"fiftent with the lovely fincerity of "truth, which my refiftless paffion for "you urged me to adopt. For the de"ceptions which only love can excufe, "I humbly entreat your pardon, and I faithfully promise you, that as they "were the firft, fo they fhall be the "laft inftances of moral turpitude "which you shall ever discover in the " conduct of r "Madam, "Your entirely devoted "EDWARD FITZOSBORNE." "TO THE HONOURABLE EDWARD FITZOSBORNE. "Does Mr. Fitzosborne suppose the unhappy victim of his treachery as "meanly base as he has proved her to " be "C "be weakly credulous, that he affronts "her with a propofal, which atrocious guilt alone empowers him to make; "and from the indignity of which she "was once happily fecured by infur"mountable barriers, till he reduced "her to the dire neceffity of furrender"ing the facred name of wife, and mingling her blushes with her tears, "when he hears the once joyful ho"nourable appellation of mother. 66 "You seem, fir, to difown the "charge of deliberate cruelty. Act count, if you can, for your conduct "by any other motive. You know "what I was when I had firft the mif"fortune of seeing you. You know "how foon you formed a plan for my "deftruction, and by what arts you have "made me what I am. You know "too, how your infidious friendship "feduced lord Monteith, and made 0 2 " him "him unconsciously acceffary to my undoing. To you he owes the con"<tamination of his once unfullied ho"nour. From you, my innocent, dif"graced, deferted children, require "their mother, their inftructor, the guardian of their infant years. From "you I demand my ruined peace, my "unfullied fame, my loft health, and "every blasted prospect, which, while "they rendered life valuable, taught "me to look on death with ferenity. "I not only require of you the life of "my dear venerable father, but I also "charge you with having given in"conceivable anguish to the laft hours << of one who lived but to make others "happy; whose benevolence would "not have hurt a worm!-He is at "reft.-Would I were fo too!-O "that I were now joined to his pure "beatified spirit!-But I must firft pafs "through J << row. "through many a purifying fea of forHow excruciatingly refined has your cruelty been! Life is infupport"able, but I dare not afk to die. "I fcorn to reply to the arguments · " urged in your infamous letter. Ad"drefs them, fir, to thofe who, while "the lead a life of guilt, wifh cheaply "to purchase the reputation of virtue. "Yet beware how you confide in them, << when the awful fummons of death " calls you to an invisible world. For "me, all my temporal views have ter"minated. I feek no fubterfuges. I " will endure the cenfures of the world; they are my juft portion. Its vindi"cations I would reject with difdain. "I fubmit to whatever punishment lord "Monteith's lawful refentment inflicts. "It does not belong to imprudence "like mine either to justify its actions, "or to complain of fuffering. In re"pentance is all my hope. "I will enumerate the offences which "claim my conftant tears. You will "then fee what portion of guilt falls to "your share. Your artful adulation pleafed my vanity, and while I fuppofed myself merely amufed by your "converfation, you excited a growing "intereft in my regard. To you, by "imperceptible degrees I transferred "the esteem of which I thought my "lord undeferving; and I foothed my "reproving confcience by fuppofing, "thatin admiring you, I honoured virtue. Blindly pertinacious, I perfifted in rejecting the counfels of my more dif«cerning friends, and pursued my own "fallacious judgment which taught me, "that immoral actions were not the "natural confequence of relaxed prin ❝ciple. |