elf,
was far from being in a proper state to afford him advice on the present
occasion: he listened to nothing but jealousy, and breathed nothing but
revenge; but these emotions being somewhat abated, in hopes that there
might be calumny, or at least exaggeration in the charges against Lady
Chesterfield, he desired her husband to suspend his resolutions, until he
was more fully informed of the fact; assuring him, however, that if he
found the circumstances such as he had related, he should regard and
consult no other interest than his.

Upon this they parted; and Hamilton found, on the first inquiry, that
almost the whole court was informed of the adventure, to which every one
added something in relating it. Vexation and resentment, inflamed his
heart, and by degrees extinguished every remnant of his former passion.

He might easily have seen her, and have made her such reproaches as a man
is generally inclined to do, on such occasions; but he was too much
enraged to enter into any detail which might have led to an explanation:
he considered himself as the only person essentially injured in this
affair; for he could never bring his mind to think that the injuries of
the husband could be placed in competition with those of the lover.

He hastened to Lord Chesterfield, in the transport of his passion, and
told him that he had heard enough to induce him to give such advice, as
he should follow himself in the same situation, and that if he wished to
save a woman so strongly prepossessed, and who perhaps had not yet lost
all her innocence, though she had totally lost her reason, he ought not
to delay one single instant, but immediately to carry her into the
country with the greatest possible expedition, without allowing her the
least time to recover her surprise.

Lord Chesterfield readily agreed to follow this advice, which he had
already considered as the only counsel a friend could give him; but his
lady who did not suspect he had made this last discovery of her conduct,
thought he was joking with her, when he told her to prepare for going
into the country in two days: she was the more induced to think so as it
was in the very middle of an extremely severe winter; but she soon
perceived that he was in earnest: she knew from the air and manner of her
husband that he thought he had sufficient reason to treat her in this
imperious style; and finding all her relations serious and cold to her
complaint, she had no hope left