as Miss Meadows I never yet did
see.--Lord, let me never thrive but I think she is of something more than
a human creature!--Oh! had your honour but set eyes on her, you would
have said it was a vision from heaven, a cherubim of beauty:--For my
part, I can hardly think it was anything but a dream--then so meek, so
mild, so good-natured and generous! I say, blessed is the young woman
who tends upon such a heavenly creature:--And, poor dear young lady! she
seems to be under grief and affliction, for the tears stole down her
lovely cheeks, and looked for all the world like orient pearl."

Sir Launcelot listened attentively to the description, which reminded him
of his dear Aurelia, and sighing bitterly, withdrew to his own apartment.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN CANNOT ALWAYS SIP, WHEN THE CUP IS AT HIS LIP.

Those who have felt the doubts, the jealousies, the resentments, the
humiliations, the hopes, the despair, the impatience, and, in a word, the
infinite disquiets of love, will be able to conceive the sea of agitation
on which our adventurer was tossed all night long, without repose or
intermission. Sometimes he resolved to employ all his industry and
address in discovering the place in which Aurelia was sequestered, that
he might rescue her from the supposed restraint to which she had been
subjected. But when his heart beat high with the anticipation of this
exploit, he was suddenly invaded, and all his ardour checked, by the
remembrance of that fatal letter, written and signed by her own hand,
which had divorced him from all hope, and first unsettled his
understanding. The emotions waked by this remembrance were so strong,
that he leaped from the bed, and the fire being still burning in the
chimney, lighted a candle, that he might once more banquet his spleen by
reading the original billet, which, together with the ring he had
received from Miss Darnel's mother, he kept in a small box, carefully
deposited within his portmanteau. This being instantly unlocked, he
unfolded the paper, and recited the contents in these words:--

"SIR,--Obliged as I am by the passion you profess, and the eagerness with
which you endeavour to give me the most convincing proof of your regard,
I feel some reluctance in making you acquainted with a circumstance,
which, in all probability, you will not learn without some disquiet. But
the affair is become so interesting, I am compelled to tell you, that
however a