it were
from custom or habit, disgusted her; and the resolution he had taken,
without consulting her, appeared so ridiculous in him, and so injurious
to herself, that, from that moment, she resolved to think no more
of him. Her eyes being opened by degrees, she saw the fallacy of the
splendour, which had at first deceived her; and the renowned Jermyn was
received according to his real merit when he came to acquaint her with
his heroical project. There appeared so much indifference and ease in
the raillery with which she complimented him upon his voyage, that he
was entirely disconcerted, and so much the more so, as he had prepared
all the arguments he thought capable of consoling her, upon announcing
to her the fatal news of his departure. She told him, "that nothing
could be more glorious for him, who had triumphed over the liberty of so
many persons in Europe, than too and extend his conquests in other parts
of the world; and that she advised him to bring home with him all the
female captives he might make in Africa, in order to replace those
beauties whom his absence would bring to the grave."

Jermyn was highly displeased that she should be capable of raillery in
the condition he supposed her reduced to; but he soon perceived she was
in earnest: she told him, that she considered this farewell visit as
his last, and desired him not to think of making her any more before his
departure.

Thus far everything went well on her side: Jermyn was not only
confounded at having received his discharge in so cavalier a manner;
but this very demonstration of her indifference had revived, and even
redoubled, all the love and affection he had formerly felt for her.
Thus she had both the pleasure of despising him, and of seeing him more
entangled in the chains of love than he had ever been before. This
was not sufficient: she wished still farther, and very unadvisedly, to
strain her resentment.

Ovid's Epistles,--[This is the translation of Ovid's Epistles
published by Mr. Dryden. The second edition of it was printed in
1681.]--translated into English verse by the greatest wits at court,
having lately been published, she wrote a letter from a shepherdess in
despair, addressed to the perfidious Jermyn. She took the epistle
of Ariadne to Theseus for her model. The beginning of this letter
contained, word for word, the complaints and reproaches of that injured
fair to the cruel man by whom she had been abandoned. All this was
prop