was seized not long afterwards by a fit of giddiness, and again heard
of the sickness and danger of Mrs. Johnson. He then left the house of
Pope, as it seems, with very little ceremony, finding "that two sick
friends cannot live together;" and did not write to him till he found
himself at Chester.

He turned to a home of sorrow: poor Stella was sinking into the grave,
and, after a languishing decay of about two months, died in her
forty-fourth year, on January 28, 1728. How much he wished her life, his
papers show; nor can it be doubted that he dreaded the death of her whom
he loved most, aggravated by the consciousness that himself had hastened
it.

Beauty and the power of pleasing, the greatest external advantages that
woman can desire or possess, were fatal to the unfortunate Stella. The
man whom she had the misfortune to love was, as Delany observes, fond of
singularity, and desirous to make a mode of happiness for himself,
different from the general course of things and order of providence.
From the time of her arrival in Ireland he seems resolved to keep her in
his power, and, therefore, hindered a match sufficiently advantageous,
by accumulating unreasonable demands, and prescribing conditions that
could not be performed. While she was at her own disposal he did not
consider his possession as secure; resentment, ambition, or caprice,
might separate them; he was, therefore, resolved to make "assurance
doubly sure," and to appropriate her by a private marriage, to which he
had annexed the expectation of all the pleasures of perfect friendship,
without the uneasiness of conjugal restraint. But with this state poor
Stella was not satisfied; she never was treated as a wife, and to the
world she had the appearance of a mistress. She lived sullenly on, in
hope that in time he would own and receive her; but the time did not
come till the change of his manners and depravation of his mind made her
tell him, when he offered to acknowledge her, that "it was too late."
She then gave up herself to sorrowful resentment, and died under the
tyranny of him, by whom she was in the highest degree loved and
honoured.

What were her claims to this eccentrick tenderness, by which the laws of
nature were violated to retain her, curiosity will inquire; but how
shall it be gratified? Swift was a lover; his testimony may be
suspected. Delany and the Irish saw with Swift's eyes, and, therefore,
add little confirmation. That she was virtu