into a serpent: that, if they penetrated farther into the country, they would be assaulted by monsters a thousand times more hideous and destructive than all the beasts mentioned in the Revelations. But all these reports were vain and ineffectual: for so far from striking terror into those who were appointed to go upon this expedition, it rather acted as an incentive to glory, upon those who had no manner of business in it. Jermyn appeared among the foremost of those; and, without reflecting that the pretence of his indisposition had delayed the conclusion of his marriage with Miss Jennings, he asked the duke's permission and the king's consent to serve in it as a volunteer. Some time before this, the infatuation which had imposed upon the fair Jennings in his favour, had begun to subside. All that now inclined her to this match were the advantages of a settlement. The careless indolence of a lover, who faintly paid his addresses to her, as it were, from custom or habit, disgusted her; and the resolution he had taken, without consulting her, appeared so ridiculous in him, and so injurious to herself, that, from that moment, she resolved to think no more of him. Her eyes being opened by degrees, she saw the fallacy of the splendour which had at first deceived her; and the renowned Jermyn was received according to his real merit when he came to acquaint her with his heroical project. There appeared so much indifference and ease in the raillery with which she complimented him upon his voyage, that he was entirely disconcerted, and so much the more so, as he had prepared all the arguments he thought capable of consoling her, upon announcing to her the fatal news of his departure. She told him "that nothing could be more glorious for him, who had triumphed over the liberty of so many persons in Europe, than to go and extend his conquests in other parts of the world; не пицце шаке ш дппса, in order to replace those uties whom his absence would bring to the grave." ermyn was highly displeased that she should be capable of lery in the condition he supposed her reduced to; but he perceived she was in earnest. She told him, that she sidered this farewell visit as his last, and desired him not hink of making her any more before his departure. hus far every thing went well on her side. Jermyn was only confounded at having received his discharge in so alier a manner; but this very demonstration of her indifnce had revived, and even redoubled, all the love and afon he had formerly felt for her. Thus she had both the sure of despising him, and of seeing him more entangled he chains of love than he had ever been before. This was sufficient: she wished still farther, and very unadvisedly, train her resentment. vid's Epistles,172 translated into English verse by the greatvits at court, having lately been published, she wrote a letter a shepherdess in despair, addressed to the perfidious Jer1. She took the epistle of Ariadne to Theseus for her el. The beginning of this letter contained, word for word, complaints and reproaches of that injured fair to the cruel by whom she had been abandoned. All this was proy adapted to the present times and circumstances. It was design to have closed this piece with a description of the , perils, and monsters that awaited him in Guinea, for ch he quitted a tender mistress, who was plunged into the ss of misery, and was overwhelmed with grief and der; but not having had time to finish it, nor to get that ch she had written, transcribed, in order to send it to him er a feigned name, she inconsiderately put this fragment, ten in her own hand, into her pocket, and still more gid 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 Jennings'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 fatality, that seemed to delight in disuniting hearts, in order to engage them soon after to different objects. One would have imagined, that the God of Love, actuated by some new caprice, had placed his empire under the dominion of Hymen, and had, at the same time, blind-folded that god, in order to cross-match most of the lovers whom we have been speaking of. The fair Stewart married the Duke of Richmond; the invincible Jermyn, a silly country girl;173 Lord Rochester a melancholy heiress; 174 the sprightly Temple, the serious Littleton; Talbot, without knowing why or wherefore, took to wife the languishing Boynton; 175 George Hamilton, under more favourable auspices, married the lovely Jennings; and the Chevalier de Grammont, as the reward of a constancy he had never before known, and which he never afterwards practised, found Hymen and Love united in his favour, and was at last blessed with the possession of Miss Hamilton.176 |