w her
approach, accompanied by her duenna. Dolly and her attendant immediately
tied their horses to a stake, and retired into a thicket, which Aurelia
did not fail to enter. Dolly forthwith appeared, and, taking her by the
hand, led her to the horses, one of which she mounted in the utmost hurry
and trepidation, while the countryman bound the duenna with a cord
prepared for the purpose, gagged her mouth, and tied her to a tree,
where he left her to her own meditations. Then he mounted before Dolly,
and through unfrequented paths conducted his charge to an inn on the
post-road, where a chaise was ready for their reception.

As he refused to proceed farther, lest his absence from his own home
should create suspicion, Aurelia rewarded him liberally, but would not
part with her faithful Dolly, who indeed had no inclination to be
discharged; such an affection and attachment had she already acquired for
the amiable fugitive, though she knew neither her story nor her true
name. Aurelia thought proper to conceal both, and assumed the fictitious
appellation of Meadows, until she should be better acquainted with the
disposition and discretion of her new attendant.

The first resolution she could take, in the present flutter of her
spirits, was to make the best of her way to London, where she thought she
might find an asylum in the house of a female relation, married to an
eminent physician, known by the name of Kawdle. In the execution of this
hasty resolve, she travelled at a violent rate, from stage to stage, in a
carriage drawn by four horses, without halting for necessary refreshment
or repose, until she judged herself out of danger of being overtaken. As
she appeared overwhelmed with grief and consternation, the good-natured
Dolly endeavoured to alleviate her distress with diverting discourse,
and, among other less interesting stories, entertained her with the
adventures of Sir Launcelot and Captain Crowe, which she had seen and
heard recited while they remained at the Black Lion; nor did she fail to
introduce Mr. Thomas Clarke in her narrative, with such a favourable
representation of his person and character, as plainly discovered that
her own heart had received a rude shock from the irresistible force of
his qualifications.

The history of Sir Launcelot Greaves was a theme which effectually fixed
the attention of Aurelia, distracted as her ideas must have been by the
circumstances of her present situation. The pa