hands of strangers, she began to dread a much more disagreeable fate, and
conceived doubts and ideas that filled her tender heart with horror and
affliction. When she expostulated with the duenna, she was treated like
a changeling, admonished to be quiet, and reminded that she was under the
direction of those who would manage her with a tender regard to her own
welfare, and the honour of her family. When she addressed herself to the
old gentleman, who was not much subject to the emotions of humanity, and
besides firmly persuaded that she was deprived of her reason, he made no
answer, but laid his finger on his mouth by way of enjoining silence.

This mysterious behaviour aggravated the fears of the poor hapless young
lady; and her terrors waxed so strong, that when she saw Tom Clarke,
whose face she knew, she called aloud for assistance, and even pronounced
the name of his patron Sir Launcelot Greaves, which she imagined might
stimulate him the more to attempt something for her deliverance.

The reader has already been informed in what manner the endeavours of Tom
and his uncle miscarried. Miss Darnel's new keeper having in the course
of his journey halted for refreshment at the Black Lion, of which being
landlord, he believed the good woman and her family were entirely devoted
to his will and pleasure, Aurelia found an opportunity of speaking in
private to Dolly, who had a very prepossessing appearance. She conveyed
a purse of money into the hands of this young woman, telling her, while
the tears trickled down her cheeks, that she was a young lady of fortune,
in danger, as she apprehended, of assassination. This hint, which she
communicated in a whisper while the governante stood at the other end of
the room, was sufficient to interest the compassionate Dolly in her
behalf. As soon as the coach departed, she made her mother acquainted
with the transaction; and as they naturally concluded that the young lady
expected their assistance, they resolved to approve themselves worthy of
her confidence.

Dolly having enlisted in their design a trusty countryman, one of her own
professed admirers, they set out together for the house of the gentleman
in which the fair prisoner was confined, and waited for her in secret at
the end of a pleasant park, in which they naturally concluded she might
be indulged with the privilege of taking the air. The event justified
their conception; on the very first day of their watch they sa