Sir
Thomas Courtal has occasion to render her a slight service at the
overturn of her coach, and fires her with a passion which her mild
esteem for Worthly is too weak to overcome. Courtal perceives and
encourages her fondness, though he poses as Worthly's friend. She gives
him an assignation in a wood, where she is saved from becoming a victim
to his lust only by the timely arrival of her true admirer. In the duel
that ensues Worthly falls, Courtal flees, and a little later Belinda
goes to London in hopes of seeing him. At the playhouse she is only too
successful in beholding him in a box accompanied by his wife and
mistress. From the gossip of her friends she learns that his real name
is Lord----, and from one of the ladies she hears such stories of his
villainy that she can no longer doubt him to be a monster.

Worthly, meanwhile, has recovered from his wound and weds Belinda's
sister. Lysander and Courtal prove to be in reality the same bland
villain, the inconstant Bellamy. His two victims, sympathizing in their
common misfortune, agree to retire together to a remote spot where they
can avoid all intercourse with the race of men. "And where a solitary
Life is the effect of Choice, it certainly yields more solid Comfort,
than all the publick Diversions which those who are the greatest
Pursuers of them can find."

The same admirable sentiment was shared by the surviving heroine of "The
Double Marriage: or, the Fatal Release" (1726), who after witnessing a
signal demonstration of the perfidy of man, resolves to shun for ever
the false sex.

Dazzled by the numerous accomplishments of Bellcour, the charming
Alathia weds him in secret. When he finds that his father has designed
to bestow his hand upon the heiress of an India merchant, he dares not
confess his fault, but lets himself be carried to Plymouth to meet his
intended bride. There he determines to escape from his father during a
hunting party, but while passing a wood, he hears cries and rescues a
fair maiden from violation. The beautiful stranger allows him to conduct
her back to Plymouth, and turns out to be Mirtamene, the woman he is to
marry. Though very much in love with this new beauty, Bellcour cannot
relinquish the thought of Alathia without a struggle. But in fatal
hesitation the time slips by, and he is finally compelled to wed a
second bride. Meanwhile the deserted Alathia hears disquieting reports
of her husband's conduct. In disguise as a boy she