sense of his own guilt. He expressed
the deepest sorrow for having been the occasion of my ruin, endeavoured
to comfort me with a promise of assistance, and indeed, by practising
medicine among the prisoners, made shift to keep us both from starving.
But surely no sinner underwent such severe remorse as that which he
suffered during his imprisonment. From the day of our meeting, I never
once saw him smile; a melancholy cloud continually overhung his
countenance. He numbered the minutes by his groans, he used to start
with horror from his sleep, and, striking his breast, would exclaim, 'O
Elenor! I am the worst of villains!' Sometimes he seemed disordered in
his brain, and raved about Renaldo and Monimia. In a word, his mind was
in a dreadful situation, and all his agonies were communicated to me,
whom by this time he had married, in order to make some atonement for my
wrongs. Wretched as he then was, I remembered the accomplished youth
who had captivated my virgin heart, the old impressions still remained, I
saw his penitence, pitied his misfortune, and his wife being dead,
consented to join his fate, the ceremony having been performed by a
fellow-prisoner, who was in orders. Though his hard-hearted creditor had
no other chance of being paid, than that of setting him at liberty, he
lent a deaf ear to all our supplications; and this cruelty conspiring
with the anguish of my husband's own reflection, affected his health and
spirits to such a degree, that he could no longer earn the miserable
pittance which had hitherto supported our lives. Then our calamities
began to multiply. Indigence and famine stared us in the face; and it
was with the utmost difficulty that we resisted their attacks, by selling
or pledging our wearing apparel, until we were left almost quite naked,
when we found ourselves discharged by an act passed for the relief of
insolvent debtors. This charitable law, which was intended for a
consolation to the wretched, proved to us the most severe disaster; for
we were turned out into the streets, utterly destitute of food, raiment,
and lodging, at a time when Mr. Fathom was so weakened by his distemper,
that he could not stand alone. I supported him from door to door,
imploring the compassion of charitable Christians, and was at length
permitted to shelter him in this miserable place, where his disease
gaining ground, he lay three days in that deplorable condition, from
which he hath now been resc