!--I dare not
stir. It will be thought done by my contrivance--and if I am absent from
this place, that will confirm the suspicion.

Damnation seize quick this accursed woman!--Yet she thinks she has made
no small merit with me. Unhappy, thrice unhappy circumstances!--At a
time too, when better prospects were opening for the sweet creature!

Hasten to her!--Clear me of this cursed job. Most sincerely, by all
that's sacred, I swear you may!----Yet have I been such a villanous
plotter, that the charming sufferer will hardly believe it: although the
proceeding be so dirtily low.

Set her free the moment you see her: without conditioning, free!--On your
knees, for me, beg her pardon: and assure her, that, wherever she goes, I
will not molest her: no, nor come near her without her leave: and be sure
allow not any of the d----d crew to go near her--only let her permit you
to receive her commands from time to time.--You have always been her
friend and advocate. What would I now give, had I permitted you to have
been a successful one!

Let her have all her clothes and effects sent her instantly, as a small
proof of my sincerity. And force upon the dear creature, who must be
moneyless, what sums you can get her to take. Let me know how she has
been treated. If roughly, woe be to the guilty!

Take thy watch in thy hand, after thou hast freed her, and d--n the whole
brood, dragon and serpents, by the hour, till thou'rt tired; and tell
them, I bid thee do so for their cursed officiousness.

They had nothing to do when they had found her, but to wait my orders how
to proceed.

The great devil fly away with them all, one by one, through the roof of
their own cursed house, and dash them to pieces against the tops of
chimneys as he flies; and let the lesser devils collect the scattered
scraps, and bag them up, in order to put them together again in their
allotted place, in the element of fire, with cements of molten lead.

A line! a line! a kingdom for a line! with tolerable news, the first
moment thou canst write!--This fellow waits to bring it.

LETTER XIII

MISS CHARLOTTE MONTAGUE, TO MISS HOWE
M. HALL, TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

DEAR MISS HOWE,

Your letter has infinitely disturbed us all.

This wretched man has been half distracted ever since Saturday night.

We knew not what ailed him, till your letter was brought.

Vile wretch, as he is, he is however innocent of this new evil.

Indeed he is, he must be