ofligates, and secretly shocked
at the scenes of libertinism he was a daily witness of.

His thoughts thus divided and perplexed, he at length fell into a kind
of despair; and not caring what became of himself, he resolved to
enter on board some ship, and never see England again, unless fortune
should do more than he had reason to hope for in his favour.

CHAP. VI.

Shews the great force of natural affection and the good effects it
has over a grateful mind.

If children could be sensible of parental tenderness, or knew what
racking cares attend every misdoing of an offending offspring, the
heart of Natura would have been so much touched with what his father
endured on his account, as to have enabled him to have got the better
of that guilty shame, which alone hindered him from submitting to him;
but conscious of deferring only the severest reproofs, he could not
flatter himself there was a hope of ever being reinstated in that
affection he had once possessed, and was too proud to content himself
with less.

That afflicted parent being informed of his son's flight, spared no
cost or pains to find out the place of his retreat; but all his
enquiries were in vain, and he was wholly in the dark, till it came
into his head to search a little escritore which stood in his chamber,
and of which he had taken away the key: on breaking it open, he found
the counterpart of his contract with Harriot, and by that discovery
was no longer at a loss for the motives which had obliged his son to
raise money, not doubting but the woman was either extremely indigent;
or a jilt: but to think the heir of his estate had been so weak as to
enter into so solemn and irretrievable an engagement, with a person of
either of these characters, gave him an inexpressible disquiet. All
his endeavours were now bent on finding her out, not in the least
questioning but his son was with her: the task was pretty difficult,
the contract discovering no more of her than her name, and the parish
in which she lived; yet did the emissaries he employed at last
surmount it: they brought him word not only of the exact place where
she lodged, but also of her character, as they learned it from the
neighbours; they heard also that a young gentleman, whose description
answered that of Natura, had been often seen with her, and that she
had given out she was married to him.

The father having received this information, consulted with his
brother-in-law wh