rhaps might have afforded her some relief, but she chose
rather to deny herself that comfort, than to give her husband so much
satisfaction. Hamilton's conduct on this occasion appeared to her
unaccountable; and as he still never came near her, she found means to
convey to him the following billet.

"Is it possible that you should be one of those, who, without
vouchsafing to tell me for what crime I am treated like a slave, suffer
me to be dragged from society? What means your silence and indolence in
a juncture wherein your tenderness ought most particularly to appear,
and actively exert itself? I am upon the point of departing, and am
ashamed to think that you are the cause of my looking upon it with
horror, as I have reason to believe that you are less concerned at it
than any other person: do, at least, let me know to what place I am to
be dragged; what is to be done with me within a wilderness? and on what
account you, like all the rest of the world, appear changed in your
behaviour towards a person whom all the world could not oblige to change
with regard to you, if your weakness or your ingratitude did not render
you unworthy of her tenderness."

This billet did but harden his heart, and make him more proud of his
vengeance: he swallowed down full draughts of pleasure in beholding her
reduced to despair, being persuaded that her grief and regret for
her departure were on account of another person: he felt uncommon
satisfaction in having a share in tormenting her, and was particularly
pleased with the scheme he had contrived to separate her from a rival,
upon the very point perhaps of being made happy. Thus fortified as he
was against his natural tenderness, with all the severity of jealous
resentment, he saw her depart with an indifference which he did not even
endeavour to conceal from her: this unexpected treatment, joined to the
complication of her other misfortunes, had almost in reality plunged her
into despair.

The court was filled with the story of this adventure; nobody was
ignorant of the occasion of this sudden departure, but very few approved
of Lord Chesterfield's conduct. In England they looked with astonishment
upon a man who could be so uncivil as to be jealous of his wife; and in
the city of London it was a prodigy, till that time unknown, to see a
husband have recourse to violent means, to prevent what jealousy fears,
and what it always deserves. They endeavoured, however, to excuse poor
Lord