but his Defigns would end in your Ruin, and, Town it, not wishing he would marry you; for little did I know of your Merit and Excellence, nor could I, but for your Letters fo lately fent me, have had any Notion of either. I don't queftion but, if you have recited my paffionate Behaviour to you, and when I was at the Hall, I fhall make a ridiculous Figure enough; but I will forgive all that, for the fake of the Pleasure you have given me, and will ftill farther give me, if you comply with my Requeft.

Lady Betty fays, it is the best Story fhe has heard, and the most instructive; and fhe longs to have the Conclufion of it in your own Words. She fays nowand-then, What a hopeful Brother you have, Lady. Davers!-O these intriguing Gentlemen!-What Rogueries do they not commit! I fhould have had a fine Hufband of him, had I received your Propofal! The dear Pamela would have run in his Head, and had I been the first Lady in the Kingdom, I should have stood but a poor Chance in his Efteem; for, you fee, his Defigns upon her began early.

She fays, You had a good Heart to go back again to him, when the violent Wretch had driven you from him on fuch a flight Occafion: but yet, the thinks, the Reasons you give + in your Relation, and your Love for him, (which then you began to difcover was your Cafe) as well as the Event, fhew'd you did right.

But we'll tell you all our Judgments, when we have read the reft of your Accounts. So pray fend them, as foon as you can, to (I won't write myself Sifter till then)

Your Affectionate, Fe.

B. DAVERS.

LET

* See Vol. I. p. 85% 410. † Sge Val. II. p. 46.

LETTER VII.

My dear good Lady,

You

OU have done me great Honour in the Letter your Ladyfhip has been pleased to send me; and it is a high Pleasure to me, now all is fo happily over, that my poor Papers were in the leaft diverting to you, and to fuch honourable and worthy Perfons as your Ladyfhip is pleafed to mention. I could with, my dear Lady, I might be favour'd with such Remarks on my Conduct, fo nakedly fet forth, (without any Imagination that they would ever appear in fuch an Affembly) as may be of use to me in my future Life, and make me, by that means, more worthy than it is otherwife poffible I can be, of the Honour to which I am raised. Do, dearest Lady, favour me fo far. I am prepared to receive Blame, and to benefit by it, and cannot expect Praife fo much from my Actions as from my Intentions; for, indeed, thefe were always juft and honourable: But why, even for thefe, do I talk of Praife, fince, being prompted by Impulfes I could not refift, it can be no Merit in me to have been govern'd by them?

As to the Papers following thofe in your Ladyfhip's Hands, when I fay, that they muft needs appear impertinent to fuch Judges, after what you know, I dare fay your Ladyfhip will not infift upon them: Yet I will not fcruple briefly to mention what they

contain.

All my Dangers and Trials were happily at an end: So that they only contain "the Converfations that "paffed between your Ladyfhip's generous Brother "and me; his kind Affurances of honourable Love "to me; my Acknowlegements of Unworthinefs to

him; Mrs. Jewkes's refpectful Change of Beha"viour towards me; Mr. B's Reconciliation to Mr.. "Williams;

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"Williams; his introducing me to the good Fami"lies in the Neighbourhood, and avowing before "them his honourable Intentions. A Vifit from

my honeft Father, who (not knowing what to "conclude from the Letter I wrote to him before I returned to your honoured Brother, defiring my Papers from him) came in great Anxiety of Heart "to know the worft, doubting I had at last been caught by a Stratagem that had ended in my Ruin. "His joyful Surprize to find how happy I was likely "to be. All the Hopes given me, anfwer'd, by the "private Celebration of our Nuptials-An Ho

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nour fo much above all that my utmost Ambition "could make me afpire to, and which I never çan "deferve! Your Ladyfhip's Arrival, and Anger, "not knowing I was actually marry'd, but fup"pofing me a vile wicked Creature; in which Cafe "I should have deferved the worst of Ufage. Mr. "B.'s angry Leffons to me, for daring to interfere, "though I thought in the tenderest and most dutiful I "Manner, between your Ladyfhip and himself. "The most acceptable Goodnefs and Favour of "your Ladyfhip afterwards to me, of which, as be

comes me, I fhall ever retain the most grateful "Senfe. My Return to this fweet Manfion in a "Manner fo different from my quitting it, where "I had been so happy for Four Years, in paying my "Duty to the beft of Miftreffes, your Ladyfhip's "excellent Mother, to whofe Goodness in taking "me from my poor honeft Parents, and giving me

what Education I have, I owe, under God, my

Happiness. The Joy of good Mrs. Jervis, Mr. "Longman, and all the Servants, on this Occafion. "Mr. B.'s acquainting me with Mifs Godfrey's Af"fair, and prefenting to me the pretty Mifs Good

win, at the Dairy-houfe. Our Appearance at "Church, the Favour of the Gentry in the Neigh"bourhood, who, knowing your Ladyfhip had not "difdain'd

"difdained to look upon me, and to be favourable "to me, came the more readily into a neighbourly "Intimacy with me, and still fo much the more "readily, as the continued Kindness of my dear "Benefactor, and his condefcending Deportment "to me before them, (as if I had been worthy of the "Honour done me) did Credit to his own generous « A&t.”

Thefe, my Lady, down to my good Parents fetting out to this Place, in order to be fettled by my honour'd Benefactor's Bounty, in the Kentish Farm, are the most material Contents of my remaining Papers: And tho' they might be the most agreeable to thofe for whom only they were written, yet, as they were principally Matters of course, after what your Ladyfhip has with you; as the Joy of my fond Heart can be better judg'd of by your Ladyfhip, than defcrib'd by me; and as your Ladyfhip is acquainted with all the Particulars than can be worthy of any other Perfon's Notice but my dear Parents; I am fure your Ladyfhip will difpenfe with your Commands; and I make it my humble Request, that you will.

For, Madam, you must needs think, that when my Doubts were difpell'd; when I was confident all my Trials were over; when I had a Profpect before me of being fo abundantly rewarded for what I had fuffered; when every Hour rofe upon me with new Delight, and fraught with fresh Inftances of generous Kindness from fuch a dear Gentleman, my Mafter, my Benefactor, the Son of my honour'd Lady; your Ladyfhip muft needs think, I say, that I must be too much affected, my Heart must be too much open'd; and especially as it then, (relieved from its past Anxieties and Fears, which had kept down and damp'd the latent Flame) firft difcover'd to me Impreffions of which before I hardly thought it fufceptible.So that it is fcarce poffible, that my Joy and my Prudence,

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Prudence, if I were to be try'd by fuch Judges of Delicacy and Decorum as Lord and Lady Davers, the honour'd Countefs, and Lady Betty, could be fo intimately, fo laudably coupled, as were to be wifh'd: Altho', indeed, the continued Senfe of my Unworthiness, and the Difgrace the dear Gentleman would bring upon himself by his generous Goodness to me, always went hand-in-hand with my foy and my Prudence; and what these Confiderations took from the former, being added to the latter, kept me steadier, and more equal to myself, than otherwise it was poffible fuch a young Creature as I could have been.

Wherefore, my dear good Lady, I hope I stand excus'd, and fhall not bring upon myfelf the Cenfure of being difobedient to your Commands.

Befides, Madam, fince you inform me, that my good Lord Davers will attend your Ladyfhip hither, I fhould never dare to look his Lordship in the Face, if all the Emotions of my Heart on fuch affecting Occafions, ftood confefs'd to his Lordfhip; and, indeed, if I am asham'd they should to your Ladyship and to the Countess, and Lady Betty, whofe Goodnefs must induce you all three to think favourably, in fuch Circumftances, of one who is of your own Sex, how would it concern me, that the fame should appear before fuch Gentlemen as my Lord and his Nephew?Indeed I could not look up to either of them in the Sense of this.And give me leave to Hope, that fome of the Scenes, in the Letters your Ladyfhip had, were not read to Gentlemen :-Your Ladyfhip muft needs know which I mean, and will think of my two grand Trials of all. For tho' I was the innocent Subject of wicked Attempts, and fo cannot, I hope, fuffer in any one's Opinion for what I could not help; yet, for your dear Brother's fake, as well as for the Decency of the Matter, one would not, when one fhall have the Honour to appear before my Lord and his Nephew, be look'd upon, methinks,