ues_
of the day, her destruction may be considered almost inevitable. The
amorous beaux naturally inflame the ardour of each other's desires by
their admiration of the general object of excitement; until the honour
of possessing such a treasure becomes a matter of heroism, a prize for
which the young and gay will perform the most unaccountable prodigies,
and, like the chivalrous knights of old, sacrifice health, fortune, and
eventually life, to bear away in triumph the fair conqueror of
hearts. Such was the situation of Miss Debouchette, when the Earl of
Chesterfield, whose passions had been unusually inflamed by the current
reports of the lady's beauty, found himself upon inspection that her
attractions were irresistible, but that it would require no unusual
skill to break down and conquer the prudence and good sense with which
superior education had guarded the mind of the fair _limonadiere_. To
a man of gallantry, obstacles of the most imposing import are mere
chimeras, and readily fall before the ardour of his impetuosity; 'faint
heart never won fair lady,' is an ancient but trite proverb, that always
encourages the devotee. The earl had made a large bet that he would
carry off the lady. In ~38~~England, among the retiring and the most
modest of creation's lovely daughters, his success in intrigues had
become proverbial; yet, for a long time, was he completely foiled by the
fair Debouchette. No specious pretences, nor the flattering attentions
of the most polished man in Europe, could induce the lady to depart from
the paths of prudence and of virtue; every artifice to lure her into
the snare of the seducer had been tried and found ineffectual, and his
lordship was about to retire discomfited and disgraced from the scene
of his amorous follies, with a loss of some thousands, the result of
his rashness and impetuosity, when an artifice suggested itself to the
fertile brain of his foreign valet, who was an experienced tactician in
the wars of Venus. This was to ascertain, if possible, in what part
of the mansion the lady slept; to be provided with a carriage and
four horses, and in the dead of the night, with the assistance of two
ruffians, to raise a large sheet before her window dipt in spirits,
which being lighted would burn furiously, and then raising the cry of
fire, the fair occupant would, of course, endeavour to escape; when the
lover would have nothing more to do than watch his opportunity, seize
her person, a