ue and devoted adherent. I will act by that counsel of
thine, and will not even ask thee--though it may grieve my heart as a
parent--with whom, or where, thou hast entrusted my child. I will try to
cut off, and cast from me, even my right hand, and my right eye; but for
thee, Christian, if thou dost deal otherwise than prudently and honestly
in this matter, it is what God and man will require at thy hand."

"Fear not me," said Christian hastily, and left the place, agitated by
reflections of no pleasant kind.

"I ought to have persuaded him to return," he said, as he stepped out
into the street. "Even his hovering in this neighbourhood may spoil the
plan on which depends the rise of my fortunes--ay, and of his child's.
Will men say I have ruined her, when I shall have raised her to the
dazzling height of the Duchess of Portsmouth, and perhaps made her
a mother to a long line of princes? Chiffinch hath vouched for
opportunity; and the voluptuary's fortune depends upon his gratifying
the taste of his master for variety. If she makes an impression, it must
be a deep one; and once seated in his affections, I fear not her being
supplanted.--What will her father say? Will he, like a prudent man, put
his shame in his pocket, because it is well gilded? or will he think it
fitting to make a display of moral wrath and parental frenzy? I fear the
latter--He has ever kept too strict a course to admit his conniving at
such licence. But what will his anger avail?--I need not be seen in the
matter--those who are will care little for the resentment of a country
Puritan. And after all, what I am labouring to bring about is best for
himself, the wench, and above all, for me, Edward Christian."

With such base opiates did this unhappy wretch stifle his own
conscience, while anticipating the disgrace of his friend's family, and
the ruin of a near relative, committed in confidence to his charge. The
character of this man was of no common description; nor was it by an
ordinary road that he had arrived at the present climax of unfeeling and
infamous selfishness.

Edward Christian, as the reader is aware, was the brother of that
William Christian, who was the principal instrument in delivering up the
Isle of Man to the Republic, and who became the victim of the Countess
of Derby's revenge on that account. Both had been educated as Puritans,
but William was a soldier, which somewhat modified the strictness of
his religious opinions; Edward,