onsternation at these words; but he soon unravelled the mystery, by
relating the whole story, not omitting what the assassin said in
presenting the pistol, and then as a confirmation throwed the letter
he had received into Maria's lap, and at the same time shewed the
passage one of the bullets had made through the sleeve of his
coat:--the young lady no sooner cast her eyes upon the letter, than
she gave a great shriek, and crying out, 'O Humphry, Humphry! every
way my ruin!' immediately fell fainting on the floor; her father,
without regarding the condition she was in, snatched up the paper, the
hand-writing of which he presently recollected, as having, it seems,
intercepted several wrote by the same person;--'Abandoned, infamous
creature,' cried he;--'shame of thy sex and family,' added the mother,
striking her breast in the utmost agony:--in fine, never was such a
scene of distraction and despair!--Natura, injured as he had been,
could not behold it without compassion;--he ran by turns to Maria,
endeavouring to raise her,--then to her parents, beseeching them to
moderate their passion,--then to her again:--'You are too generous,'
said the father, 'let her die, happy had it been if she had perished
in the cradle':--Just as he spoke these words she revived, and lifting
up her eyes, 'O, I am no murd'ress,' cried she, 'guilty as I am, in
this Heaven knows my innocence.'--'It is false, it is false,' said the
father; 'but were it true, canst thou deny, thou most abandoned
wretch, that thou wert also ignorant that the villain who wrote this
letter had followed us to Spaw, and bring a second shame upon
us?'--She answered to this only with her tears, which assuring him she
had no defence to make on this article, his rage grew more inflamed;
he loaded her with curses, and could not keep himself from spurning
her with his feet, as she still lay groveling on the ground, and might
perhaps have proceeded to greater violences, had not Natura, by main
force, with-held him, while her mother, tho' little less incensed
against her, dragged her in a manner out of the room, more dead than
alive.

The unhappy object removed from his sight, the provoked father grew
somewhat more calm, and turning to Natura, 'You see now, sir,' said
he, 'how unworthy this wretched girl is of that affection with which
you once honoured her; but how shall I obtain your pardon for what the
too great tenderness for an only child has made me guilty of to
you;--a