lmost the only crime not to be found in the extraordinary
series of barefaced and infamous intrigues crowded into the pages of
"The Injur'd Husband: or, the Mistaken Resentment" (1723). The author
naively remarks in the dedication that "The Subject of the Trifle I
presume to offer, is, The Worst of Women," and she has indeed
out-villained the blackest of her male villains in the character of the
wicked Baroness.

The doting Baron de Tortillee marries the lascivious and extravagant
Mademoiselle La Motte, who promotes the villainous Du Lache to be the
instrument of her vile pleasures. After enjoying several lovers of his
procuring, she fixes her affections upon the worthy Beauclair. Du Lache
despairs of ensnaring him, because he is about to marry the lovely
Montamour, but by a series of base expedients he manages to blacken the
character of that lady in her lover's eyes, and to put the charms of the
Baroness in such a light that Beauclair is at length drawn in to pay his
court to her. For some time she thus successfully deludes her husband,
but when the despicable La Branche openly boasts of her favors and
allows some of her letters to fall into the hands of one of her numerous
lovers, her perfidy is soon completely exposed. To add to her confusion
she hears that the Baron, whom she had drugged into idiocy and sent into
the country, has been cured by a skilful physician and is about to
return. Du Lache despatches two assassins to murder him on the road, but
the Baron by a lucky chance escapes the murderers, forces them to
confess, and sets out to punish his guilty wife. Meanwhile Beauclair
suspects that he has wronged his innocent lady and endeavors to see her,
but she at first refuses to see him, and when by a ruse he gains access
to her presence, will not listen to him or give him any grounds for
hope. In despair he returns to Paris and meets the young Vrayment. He
discovers the infamous Du Lache hiding in a convent. To save his life
the wretch offers to reveal the frauds he had put in practice against
Montamour, but while he is doing so, the Baron meets them, and
concluding that Beauclair is in collusion with the villain, attacks them
both. Beauclair disarms his antagonist and is about to return him his
weapon, when Du Lache stabs the Baron in the back. Vrayment has
witnessed the quarrel and summoned assistance. Beauclair and Du Lache
are haled before a magistrate and are about to be condemned equally for
the crime, wh