lindness once
was broke, nothing but Lightnings were to flash for ever after. Thus in
mutual Discourse they spent their Hours, while _Frankwit_ was now
ravished with the Receipt of this charming Answer of _Belvira's_, and
blest his own Eyes which discovered to him the much welcome News of fair
_Celesia's_. Often he read the Letters o're and o're, but there his Fate
lay hid, for 'twas that very Fondness proved his Ruin. He lodg'd at a
Cousin's House of his, and there, (it being a private Family) lodged
likewise a Blackamoor Lady, then a Widower; a whimsical Knight had taken
a Fancy to enjoy her: _Enjoy her did I say? Enjoy the Devil in the Flesh
at once!_ I know not how it was, but he would fain have been a Bed with
her, but she not consenting on unlawful Terms, (_but sure all Terms are
with her unlawful_) the Knight soon marry'd her, as if there were not
hell enough in Matrimony, but he must wed the Devil too. The Knight a
little after died, and left this Lady of his (whom I shall _Moorea_) an
Estate of six thousand Pounds _per Ann_. Now this _Moorea_ observed the
joyous _Frankwit_ with an eager Look, her Eyes seemed like Stars of the
first Magnitude glaring in the Night; she greatly importuned him to
discover the Occasion of his transport, but he denying it, (as 'tis the
Humour of our Sex) made her the more Inquisitive; and being Jealous that
it was from a Mistress, employ'd her Maid to steal it, and if she found
it such, to bring it her: accordingly it succeeded, for _Frankwit_
having drank hard with some of the Gentlemen of that Shire, found
himself indisposed, and soon went to Bed, having put the Letter in his
Pocket: The Maid therefore to _Moorea_ contrived that all the other
Servants should be out of the Way, that she might plausibly officiate in
the Warming the Bed of the indisposed Lover, but likely, had it not been
so, she had warmed it by his Intreaties in a more natural Manner; he
being in Bed in an inner Room, she slips out the Letter from his Pocket,
carries it to her Mistress to read, and so restores it whence she had
it; in the Morning the poor Lover wakened in a violent Fever, burning
with a Fire more hot than that of Love. In short, he continued Sick a
considerable while, all which time the Lady _Moorea_ constantly visited
him, and he as unwillingly saw her (poor Gentleman) as he would have
seen a Parson; for as the latter would have perswaded, so the former
scared him to Repentance. In the mean while, du