character of Emilia with the most perfect
love and adoration; yet, amiable and enchanting as she is, I am, more
than ever, determined to sacrifice the interest of my passion to my
glory, though my life should fail in the contest; and even to refuse
an offer, which, otherwise, the whole universe should not bribe me to
forego."

This declaration was not so unexpected as unwelcome to his friend
Gauntlet, who represented that his glory was not at all interested in
the affair; because he had already vindicated his generosity in
repeated proffers to lay his whole fortune at Emilia's feet, when it
was impossible that anything selfish could enter into the proposal;
but that, in rejecting her present purpose, he would give the world
an opportunity to say, that his pride was capricious, his obstinacy
invincible; and his sister would have undeniable reason to believe,
that either his passion for her was dissembled, or the ardour of it
considerably abated.

In answer to these remonstrances, Pickle observed, that he had long
set the world at defiance; and, as to the opinion of Emilia, he did not
doubt that she would applaud in her heart the resolution he had taken,
and do justice to the purity of his intention. It was not an easy task
to divert our hero from his designs at any time of life; but, since his
confinement, his inflexibility was become almost insurmountable. The
captain, therefore, after having discharged his conscience, in assuring
him that his sister's happiness was at stake, that his mother had
approved of the step she had taken, and that he himself should be
extremely mortified at his refusal, forbore to press him with further
argument, which served only to rivet him the more strongly in his own
opinion, and undertook to deliver this answer to Emilia's letter:--

Madam,--That I revere the dignity of your virtue with the
utmost veneration, and love you infinitely more than life,
I am at all times ready to demonstrate; but the sacrifice
to honour it is now my turn to pay; and such is the rigour
of my destiny, that, in order to justify your generosity,
I must refuse to profit by your condescension. Madam, I am
doomed to be for ever wretched; and to sigh without ceasing
for the possession of that jewel, which, though now in my
offer, I dare not enjoy. I shall not pretend to express the
anguish that tears my heart, whilst I communicate this fatal
renunciation, but