ad_
lost great part of its atrocity, and he bewailed the fate of the
transgressor, with unfeigned tears and lamentations.

This event putting an end to the motive which had induced Natura to
think of marriage, put an end also to his desires that way;--he was
sorry he had gone so far with Laetitia, was loth to appear a deceiver
in her eyes, or in those of her father; but thought it would be the
extremest madness in him to prosecute his intent, as his beloved
sister had a son, who would now be his heir, and only had desired to
be the father of one himself to hinder _him_ from being so, whose
crimes had rendered him unworthy of it.

The emotions of this revenge having entirely subsided, he now had
leisure to consider how oddly the world would think and talk of him,
if he perpetrated a marriage with a girl such as Laetitia;--he almost
wondered at himself, that the just displeasure he had conceived
against his brother, should have transported him so far as to make him
forgetful of what was owing to his own character; and when he
reflected on the miseries, vexations, and infamy, his last marriage
had involved him in, he trembled to think how near he had been to
entering into a state, which tho' he had a very good opinion of
Laetitia's virtue, might yet possibly, some way or other, have given
him many uneasinesses.

He was, however, very much embarrassed how to break with her
handsomely; and it must be confessed, that after what had passed, this
was no very easy matter to accomplish.--Make what pretence he would,
he could not expect to escape the censure of an unstable fluctuating
man.--This is indeed a character, which all men are willing, nay
industrious, to avoid, yet what there are few men, but some time or
other in their lives, give just reason to incur.--Natura very well
knew, that to court a woman for marriage, and afterwards break his
engagements with her, was a thing pretty common in the world; but
then, it was thing he had always condemned in his own mind, and looked
upon as most ungenerous and base:--besides, though he had made his
addresses to Laetitia, meerly because he imagined she would prove a
virtuous, obedient, and fruitful wife, and was not inflamed with any
of those sentiments for her which are called love; yet, designing to
marry her, he had set himself as much as possible to love her, and had
really excited in his heart a kind of a tenderness, which made him
unable to resolve on giving her the mortifi