tance proceeded to a degree of intimacy, during which he perceived
her weak side, and being enamoured of her person, flattered her out of
all her caution. The privilege of his character furnished him with
opportunities to lay snares for her virtue, and, taking advantage of that
listlessness, languor, and indolence of the spirits, by which all the
vigilance of the soul is relaxed, he, after a long course of attention
and perseverance, found means to make shipwreck of her peace.

Though he mastered her chastity, he could not quiet her conscience, which
incessantly upbraided her with breach of the marriage vow; nor did her
undoer escape without a share of the reproaches suggested by her
penitence and remorse. This internal anxiety co-operating with her
disease, and perhaps with the medicines he prescribed, reduced her to the
brink of the grave; when her husband returned from a neighbouring
kingdom, in consequence of her earnest request, joined to the information
of her friends, who had written to him an account of the extremity in
which she was. The good man was afflicted beyond measure when he saw
himself upon the verge of losing a wife whom he had always tenderly
loved; but what were his emotions, when she, taking the first opportunity
of his being alone with her, accosted him to this effect:

"I am now hastening towards that dissolution from which no mortal is
exempted, and though the prospect of futurity is altogether clouded and
uncertain, my conscience will not allow me to plunge into eternity
without unburdening my mind, and, by an ingenuous confession, making all
the atonement in my power for the ingratitude I have been guilty of, and
the wrongs I have committed against a virtuous husband, who never gave me
cause of complaint. You stand amazed at this preamble, but alas! how
will you be shocked when I own that I have betrayed you in your absence,
that I have trespassed against God and my marriage vow, and fallen from
the pride and confidence of virtue to the most abject state of vice; yes,
I have been unfaithful to your bed, having fallen a victim to the
infernal insinuations of a villain, who took advantage of my weak and
unguarded moments. Fathom is the wretch who hath thus injured your
honour, and ruined my unsuspecting innocence. I have nothing to plead in
alleviation of my crime but the most sincere contrition of heart, and
though, at any other juncture, I could not expect your forgiveness, yet,
as I now