ity, and he began to consider how much beneath a man of courage
it was to give way to despair at any event whatever, and that he ought
to look forward, and endeavour to _retrieve_, not _lament_, the
mischief that was past. He wrote to his father an exact account of
every thing, and intreated his advice: he sent also a letter to the
young lady, full of the most tender expressions, and pressures for the
continuance of her affection; though this latter was more for the sake
of form than any hope he had of being granted what he asked, or as he
was circumstanced, any benefit he could have received from it, if
obtained.

The answer his father sent, gave him both pain and pleasure; it
informed him, that the wounds he had given the person with whom he
fought, were not mortal; that it was only the vast effusion of blood
which had thrown him into a fainting, which occasioned the report of
his death, and that he was now in a fair way of recovery; so that he,
Natura, might return as soon as he pleased, there being no danger on
account of the rencounter; but that the occasion of that quarrel being
a party-affair, and represented in its worst colours by some private
enemies, it had reached the ears of the ministry, who, looking on him
as a disaffected person, had already disposed of his employment; he
also informed him, that he must not flatter himself with being able
ever hereafter to be thought qualified to hold any place or office
under the government:--he also added, that the friends of his intended
bride were so incensed against him, that they protested, they would
sooner see her in her coffin, than in the arms of a man who had
incurred the odious appellation of a _Jacobite_; and that she herself
expressed her detestation of the principles he was now accused of,
with no less virulence and contempt;--had torn the letter he had sent
to her in a thousand pieces; and to shew how much she was in earnest,
had accepted the addresses of a gentleman, who had been long his
rival, and to whom it was expected she would soon be married.

If Natura rejoiced to find himself cleared of having been the death of
a fellow-creature, he was equally mortified at having rendered himself
obnoxious to those who alone were capable of gratifying his ambition:
as for the change in the lady's sentiments concerning him, he was
under much less concern; he thought the affection she professed for
him must have been very small, when a difference of opinion in