n perceived she was
in earnest: she told him, that she considered this farewell visit as his
last, and desired him not to think of making her any more before his
departure.

Thus far everything went well on her side: Jermyn was not only confounded
at having received his discharge in so cavalier a manner; but this very
demonstration of her indifference had revived, and even redoubled, all
the love and affection he had formerly felt for her. Thus she had both
the pleasure of despising him, and of seeing him more entangled in the
chains of love than he had ever been before. This was not sufficient:
she wished still farther, and very unadvisedly, to strain her resentment.

Ovid's Epistles,--[This is the translation of Ovid's Epistles published
by Mr. Dryden. The second edition of it was printed in 1681.]--
translated into English verse by the greatest wits at court, having
lately been published, she wrote a letter from a shepherdess in despair,
addressed to the perfidious Jermyn. She took the epistle of Ariadne to
Theseus for her model. The beginning of this letter contained, word for
word, the complaints and reproaches of that injured fair to the cruel man
by whom she had been abandoned. All this was properly adapted to the
present times and circumstances. It was her design to have closed this
piece with a description of the toils, perils, and monsters, that awaited
him in Guinea, for which he quitted a tender mistress, who was plunged
into the abyss of misery, and was overwhelmed with grief and despair; but
not having had time to finish it, nor to get that which she had written
transcribed, in order to send it to him under a feigned name, she
inconsiderately put this fragment, written in her own hand, into her
pocket, and, still more giddily, dropped it in the middle of the court.
Those who took it up, knowing her writing, made several copies of it,
which were circulated all over the town; but her former conduct had so
well established the reputation of her virtue, that no person entertained
the smallest doubt but the circumstances were exactly as we have related
them. Some time after, the Guinea expedition was laid aside for reasons
that are universally known, and Miss Jenning's subsequent proceedings
fully justified her letter; for, notwithstanding all the efforts and
attentions Jermyn practised to regain her affections, she would never
more hear of him.

But he was not the only man who experienced the whimsical fatal