day, he faluted me, and put into my hands a bank-note of a thousand pounds. "Take it, my dear Caroline," faid he," as a trifling teftimony of my affection for you. 'le it for your smaller expences, and be affured that I will not neglect to make your future profpecs equal to the education you have received, and to which you do fo much honour." I received this generolity as I ought. Alas! my benefactor went in a few weeks to Ergiand, and I faw him no more. A ftrange prefentiment of evil hung over my mother, whole health had long been very uncertain. She could not bear to take the laft leave of his Lordship; and he, who liv ed but to oblige her, Aili lingered and delayed his journey, till repeated letters from thofe who had the care of his eftates compelled him to determine on it. His two fous, one of ten, the other of eight years old, were by this time at a public school in England, and he promised to gratify my mother with the fight of them on his return, which he faid fhould be as foon as he could fettle, the affairs which called him over. "When he was gone, however, my mother fell into a deep melancholy; and as we were almost always alone together, he talked very frequently of the incidents of her past life, related the particulars I have repeated to you, and asked me whether I could forgiver for having thus been betrayed into a fituation which, whatever it might be in the fight of Heaven, would, in that of the world gender me liable to eternal reproach. It was pain I conjured her to banish from her mind, refle&ions which ferved only to destroy an health fo precious to us all. Still they recurred too often, and her delicate confotution very vifilly fuffered. After Lord Pevenfey, who had been used to write by every poft, had been gone about fix weeks, his letters fuddenly cealed. My mother for fome days flattered herself, that it was merely owing to his being on his journey back; bet her hopes gradually died away, and the moft terning apprehenfions fucceededapprehenfions too well founded. We were fitting together one morning, when a fudden luftle of the fervants in the anti-room furprised us. I rofe to enquire into the oc cafion of it, and, on my opening the door, was shocked by the fight of my two brothers, and their tutor, who had been attempting to prevent their fudden entrance. The peor boys on fecing me our into tears, and exclaiming, "Oh! Caroline! my father!" they fhed by me, and threw themfolves into the arms of their mother; who, wild with restor, had to power to enquire, what in hed they foon told her. Oh! mamma!" ed they, our papa, our papa, our dear pa is dead! They have fent us here to you they have taken him from us, and eve ry thing that was his!" "The Tutor, who highly refpected my mother, now attempted to take the children from her; but the held them in her arms, while, with a look which I fhall never for get, and with the voice of piercing anguish, the enquired what all this meant? The worthy man related, in a few words, that Lord Pevenfey had been seized with a fever at one of his country houses, where, after a few days illness, he died: that his brother, who became heir to his title, had inftantly poffeffed himself of all his effects, and had directed the two boys to be taken immedi ately to France, and to drop the name they had hitherto borne. With reluctance the Tutor added, that the prefent Lord intended in a few days being at the house we whabited, in order to receive the jewels and other valuables which belonged to his brother. "No tear fell from the eyes of the dear unhappy woman, no figh elcaped her heart. She defired me to tranquillife the poor boys, (who ftill fondly clung round her, weeping for their dead papa), and complaining that the fuffered great pain in her head, defired to be put to bed. I remained by her, and endeavoured to excite her tears, while mine flowed inceffantly; but the greatnefs and fuddennefs of the calamity overwhelmed her conftitution, though it fill left to her mind ftrength enough to reflect on the condition of her children. "Caroline," faid fhe to me as I fat by her, "I fhall probably be in a few hours reduced to that indigence, from which, perhaps, it were better I had never been relie ved. But your brothers! for them I fuffer! The proceedings of the prefent Lord Pevenfey leave me little reafon to hope that any Will exifts in England which fecures them the ample provifion their father defigned for them. There are, in a box which my Lord left, feveral papers which he told me were of confequence; but, they will be taken from me unlefs immediately fecured, Send therefore for Mr Montgomery, and deliver to him that box." "She then gave me a direction to him. I had never feen Mr Montgomery, though he was a friend of my Lord's. I haflened to execute her commands. He flew to the houfe on receiving my meffage; and, inftead of a man of bufinels as I expected, I beheld a young man of about feven and twenty, in the uniform of one of thofe Scottish regiments which were received by the King of France after their master's affairs became irretrievable. He had been quartered for fome time a remote province; but being diftantly related to, and highly esteemed by the late Lord Pevenfey, he had conflantly correfponded with him, and had been entrufted atrufted with his intentions relative to my nother, my brothers, and myself. "The warm and lively intereft Mont gomery took for my mother, the manly tenderness which he difcovered when he faw our diftrefs, and the trouble which he inftantly undertook to encounter for us, were powerful incentives to me to admire and efteem him. I then thought him the nobleft of human beings, and a few days convinced me that he deferved all the partiality my young heart had conceived for him. The new Lord Pevenfey, who in sended to have reached my mother's houfe before he could have notice of his journey (and was prevented only by the zeal of the sutor who had the care of my brothers), arrived on the third day after the had reseived these fatal tidings. He was a man not much turned of forty, but with a harsh and ftern countenance, a large heavy perfon, and a formal cold manner. He brought with him a lawyer from England, and engaged another in France to accompany him to the houfe; where, with very little cere mony, he demanded of my mother all the jewels and effects of his deceased brother. Summoning all her refolution, and fupported by Montgomery, who never left her, the tried to go through this dread ul cere mony with fome degree of fortitude. She delivered, with trembling hands, a star, a fword fet with brilliants, and feveral other family jewels. She then opened a cafket, in which her own were inclofed, and Lord Pevensey was taking them from her, when Montgomery interfered, faying that they were her's, and he should not fuffer her to part with them. "It would be tedious to relate the fcenes which paffed between Lord Pevenf-y, his lawyer, and Montgomery; who, finding it nece ary, engaged lawyers on the part of my mother. A will of the late Lord had been found among the papers which the had put in the poffeffion of Montgomery, in which an annuity of eight hundred a year was fettled on my mother, and all his ftates charged with the payment of ten thoufand pounds to each of my brothers, and two to me. This will the prefent Lord difputed; and the conte ding parties prepared for law, the circumstances of the cafe rendering it necessary that this contention fhould be carried on as well in England as in France. "The spirits and health of my mother gradually declined. The friendfhip, the unwearied kindness of Montgomery, alone fupported her; but neither his attention nor mine could cure the malady of the mind, or bind up the wounds of a broken heart. "I will not detain you with relating the variousexpedients for accommodation which were in the courfe of the fat month pro38 VOL. XIV. No. 84. posed by the relations of the family who knew the tenderness the late Lord Preven fey had for my mother; that he confidered her as his wife; and that her conduct could not have been more unexceptionable had he really been fo. Still lingering in France, and full vifiting a houfe into which his cruelty had introduced great mifery, the proceedings of Lord Pevenfey wore a very extraordinary appearance. My mother was now confined almost entirely to her room; and Montgomery concealed from her his uncafels at what he remarked; but to me he spoke more freely, and told me he was very fure his Lordship had other defigns than he fuffered immediately to appear. In a few days the truth of his conjecture be came evident I was alone in a fmali room at the end of the house, where I had a harpsichord which I had removed thither fince my mother's illness. She was afleep. Montgomery, on whom my Amagination had long been accustomed to dwell with inexpreffible delight, had been detained two days from us. Thofe days had appear ed two ages to me; and his abfence, com bined with the uneafinefs of our fituation, and the state of my mother's health, depreffed my fpirits, and I fought to foothe them by mufic. A little melancholy air, which often fung to Montgomery, was, before me; it expreffed my feelings; and I was loft in the pleasure of exprefling them, when the door from the garden red, and Lord Pevenfey talked, in his formal manner, into the room. "I rofe instantly from my feat, but he took my hand, and with an air of familia, rity bade me fit down again; then drawing a chair close to me, he looked in my face, and cried- Sweet Caroline! fhe will not refufe to fing to me! She does not hate me, and will perhaps be the lovely mediatrix who shall adjust all differences between me and her mamma.' "I have no power, Sir, to adjust differences," answered 1, much alarmed at his look and manner. "Indeed you have, my charming girl," cried he attempting very rudely to kifs me; and if you will only He fenfible of the fame friendship for me, as your mother had for my brother, every thing he left in her poffeffion fhall be hers, Nay, I will make you fele mittrefs of my fortune, and the thail enjoy all she 'claims with her beloved Montgomery." "I cannot defcribe what I felt at that moment. I knew not what I faid; in the firft emotion of terror and anger, I flew to the door, but it was fastened. I then attempted to reach that which led to the gar den. but he caught me in his arms. I thricked, I ftruggled to difengage myself, while the wretch exclaimed-Violent airs thefe, for the daughter of Mrs Douglas to fe wainscot Without staying to inquire into the cause of my fucks he flew at Lord Pevenon he pinioned in a moment to the A fcene flowel fo terrifying, that i cannot do it justice. Lord Pevenfey, far rom apologizing for his condue, had the brutish audacity to repeat to Montgo mery his miulting farcalm again' my moth. and cared to intimate that he him1of had taken the ple of the deceased Lord. The agony jeto which I was thrown by e violence of Montgomery's paflion, was the only thing capable of reftraining it. Seg me to al apje rance dying on the floor, where I had fallen be quitted his advertary and cane to raise and re:ffure ་་ Loid Feverfly took that opportunity to depart, threatening however potional vengeance again Mortgomery, and that he world recorle every attempt to rein my mother, whom he again infulted with f brayithers, that Montgomery was with difhority with held from following him, and d trapping an immediate reparation. Ireadfr." this feere had been, it was fuccecued by one which would have made me forget al its litterness. had not other confequences followed. When Lord Pevcnfy was dipořted. Menigen ery returned back to me; and while i thanked him as well as I was able for the protection he afforded me, he confed, with agitation almost ceral to mine, that from the first moments hi had feci ne he had loved me: that his aff &atou, vhich had Ince increated every hour, had mace him cremely attentive to every thing that related to he; and that he has been leg convireed of the defigns of Lord Pevenly, and forefer that to obtain me he wok aff & delays, and hold out hopes of compromise. "El however, as I thort of him. ” continued he, “ I could not lave believed that his villary would have gone fuck lengths, or have been fo ungcatcedly betrayed. Now we have every thing to a prefend that money or chicanery can execute." "This was no time for referve or affectation, I answered that I feared only what might afed his perfonal fofety; that the thats of Ferd Pevenfey in that refpect diftra& ed me with terror; and that I fculd not have a moment's tran-uillity till I faw life fecure which I very frankly confeffed was infinite y dearer to nic than my own. "It would be uninterefting, were I to 66 defcribe he raptures of Montgomery on the difcovery of my fentiments. A fcene tos tender to be related followed; and we were recalled from the delightful avowal of mus toa paflion, by a message from my mother, who had been awakened by the confufion which had happened below, and whole fervans had indifcreetly told her what they knew of its occafion. As he had been informed of so much, it was impotlible to conceal from her any part of what had paffed. Though Montgomery fofened as much as he could the opproprious foeeches which Lord Peverfey had made relative to her they funk deeply to her mind: he faw how much he was affe&ted, and ended the converfation as foon as he could. But when he had left us, my mother defited I would return to her, and thus spoke to me: "Caroline, I will attempt no longer to deceive you. I feel mylcif dying. A tes days, I am convinced, will terminate my life and my fuferings. I leave my poor boys with a few friends to contest the will of their father againft all the weight of afs fluerce and power. And you! oh child of my fif affeciens, Deave you, with an that fatal beauty of which my weak heart has been fo foolfkly proud, to encounter not merely indigence, but the hafenefs of a world, where your mother's character, jut tiffer, as I hope, and believe it is in the fight of heaven, will expofe you to the inicient addreffes of the profl gate; where you will be told, that as the mother deviated from the narrow path of rectitude the dangkter cannot pursue it My errors will be urged to betray my Caroline to deftruction; and when the refees on the example of her mother, fle will perhaps learn to defert her precepts." "The bitter anguish inflicted by these cruel reflections here ftifled her voice. I was myfelf more dead than alive; yet as I hung trembling over her on the fopha on which the lay I attempted to foy fom the g that might confole her, and with dificul ty articulated the name of Mongemery, Montgomery cried my mother as foo as the recovered her speech-* oh! be is the worthieft temoft generous of Ernun creatures! To him I have, in a will whil this paper contains, given the care of my two boys. But you! oh, Caroline!-is a man of his age a guardian proper for a lovely young woman of yours? I have herefore addreffed myflf in another paper to your father's family, and have befought them to pity and provet my Caroline, The preferit you received from my decrated Lord on your last birth-day willpreferve you at leaf from the indigence I once expericniced-To Providence, to your own good principles and strong understanding, I commit the rest." I had not courage to fay, that Montgomery defired only to have the ftrongest elim to become my protector, by receiving my hand. But in the evening, when I faw him, I told him all that had patied. Eagetly feizing on hopes to flattering to the ardour of his pallion, he bought me to allow him to go to my mother and propofe our immediate marriage. ohe heard him with gratitude and delight and though he knew he had nothing but his commillion in the French fervice, and that, being a Catholic, he could never rife to that rauk in England which his high birth would have entitled him to expect, the he fitated not to give her confent. Yes, my dear child," fald fhe, at the end of this affecting feene in his virtues you will find fortunein his honour and hs courage protection. In leaving you to the care of fuch a man, 1 die contented." She grew daily weaker; but was anxious, even to a degree of impatience, to fee us united before her death. Montgomery, therefore, to conquer every fcruple and every difficulty, procured a clergyman of the church of England, who married us in her prolenee; and at my delire (who wished to fhew Montgomery that I knew how to value his complaifance) the prie who officiated in his regiment performed the ceremony a fecond time. “But forms could do nothing towards uniting our hearts more cloicly; and the happiness of a marriage where love only prefided was perlips too great for humani ty: or thofe hilcyon days were greatly obfcured by the increafing illnes of my nother, who declined rapidly for almost a fortnight, and then died in the arms of Montgomery, commen.ling, with her last breath, her two boys to his protection. Her death, which, long as I had expected it, appeared utterly infupportable now it arrived, threw me into a fate of languor and dejection, from which I was fade aly roufed by hearing that Lord Pevenfey, who had quitted France immediately after his difgracetul difnition trom the houfe, was Low returned, and, én aged to find that Montgomery was actually my hufband, had determined to purfue, with all the eagerness, rage and hatred could infpire, the procefs by which he hoped to deprive me and my brothers of our legacies. Nor was this all; the perfonal affront he had received from Montgomery he could not bear, though he had delerved it; and he now fent him a challenge, which Montgomery readily accepted; but to evade the strictnels of thofe laws which, are in force in France against duelling, the place where they were to meet was fixed in the dominions of the Pope, a little beyond Avignon. Montgomery, anxious only to conceal this from me, found a pretence for his jour ney; and, teng me he had fome mili ay bulinels to tran act at Marfiles which would detain him for fome days, he parted from me, concealing with courage truly heroic the angui h he felt in knowing that we were perhaps to meet 10 more. "Provi ence yet proferved him to me. He dangeroully wounded his adverfary; and returned himself in fafely. Then he relat. 1 the caufe of his abfence; an the happiness I felt at his fafety, was dugmented, when a few days afterwards we received from Lord Pevenfey, who believed himfelf dying, and was visited with the reproaches of a troubled confcience, an acknowledgement of the juflice of my brother's claims to the provifion made for them by their facher, and an order to his procureur at Paris to put an end to every fuit depending agunt us. In a few months Lord Pevenley recovered; we were put in polledion of our rights; and my beloved Montgomery, to whom I owed every thing, studied not only how to make me happy but to purfue as near as pollible that line of conduct which my mother * would have done had the lived. A war was raging with great vio.ence between France and England, and I was unwilling to fend the two dear boys to a country where it would be now diflicult for me to fee them. But as I knew it was the defire of my mother and my benefactor to have thei brought up in the Proteftant religion, I fent them with their tutor to ceva. had hardly recovered the pain of this parting, before one much more grievous was inflicted. The regiment in which Montgomery had a company was ordered into Germany. The fituation I was then in made it fecmt madnels for me to think of following him but I was convinced that I fhould not furvive his departure. He was to me father, brother, over, hefband! I had no other earthly happinets; and without him the univerfe was to me nothing. At this fears for my fatety made him rehat my importunies; but he was compelled at length to confent, and I fotowed him, refiding wherever he was encamped! and, however horrid the fcenes were to which i thus b came a witnefs I fe red nothing but for his life; that one dre. dfal apprehenfion having the effect of all vinent pallions, and making me forego, without milling them. every convenience to which I had he n accustomed, and meet without apprehenfion a thousand dangers to which I was hourly expoted. In a fmail village on the banks of the Wefer, near the camp of Maref hal de Coutades, my dear Charles was born, towards the beginning of the campaign of 1759. But he had not above fix w eks blefed my eyes, and thofe of his doaring father, before that dear father went out to the fatal field of Minden. I cannot defcribe what I felt during the action. My faculties were fufpended by the most dread ful apprehenfions that could agonize the human heart; this frightful fufpenfe was terminated only by the certainty of all I dreaded. The Englth were victors; and the fervant who had long attended on Montgomery had only time to tell me that he fell at the head of his company, his arm broke by a mufket fhot, and receiving a thruft from a bayonet in the breast. The man added, that, with a party, of foldiers who adored their Captain, he had attempt ed to bring his mafter off the field; but that they were cut down by a body of Helfran horfe who, driving every thing before them, had compe led him to abandon the enterprize. I believe that my fenfes for some hours forfook me, during the horrors of a night too terrible to be defcribed; the English took poffeffion of the village where I was; but fortunately for me, a young officer of that nation was the first who, in endeavouring to pr vent the exceffes of the troops, entered the houfe where I remained with my infant in my arms. "Roufed by my fears for my child, I feemed fuddenly to acquire courage. I deman led protection of the young officer, which, with the generous ardour of the truly brave, he instantly granted me: and being himself compelled to quit me, he gave me a corpor.l's guard, recommended me to the men as an English woman; and, having fecured my fafety, promifed to return to me when the confusion of the hour a little fubfided. The ftupor of my grief being thus fhaken off for a moment, I recollected, that if I facred myself to fink, my boy, deprived of the nourishment which fuitained him, would perih merably, I took therefore the fa enance my fervants offered me; but I neither fpoke nor fhed tears, nor heeded any thing that was faid to me my mind dwelling on the plan I had formed to avail myself of the generofity of the English officer, and to engage him to aflift me in finding Montgomery, whether living or dead. I was late before this gallant young man returned to me: the moment he entered, he enquired eagerly after my health and safety. I thanked him as well as I could for the prefervation I owed to him; but added, that to give it higher value, he must yet add another favour, and ena le me to find the body of my husband, who had fallen in the field. "He feemed amazed at my defign and represented to me, that befides the terrifying circumftances attendant on fuch an undertaking, fo unfit for my age and fex to encounter, my endeavours would very probably be fruitlels Nor fhould you, Madam," added he, "fo implicitly vielė to grief: he, whofe death you lament as certain, may be a prifoner." "This ray of probability would have cheered for a moment the blackness of my defpair, had not the particulars related by Montgomery's fervant left me nothing to hope. I related there circumstances to the English offer, with that gloomy defneration which precludes the power of thedding tears. He faw the ftate of my mind, and generously refolved not only to gratify me, but himself to protect me with a party of his men. With iny little boy in my arms (før I refnied to leave him as obftinately as to relinquish my project), I went forth on this dreadful errand, to a scene of death and defolation fo terrible, that I will not shock you by an attempt to paint it: livid bodies covered with ghaftly wounds, from whom the wrenches who follow camps, making war move hideous, were yet ittipping their bloody garments; heaps of human beings thus butchered by the hands of their fellow creatures, affected me with fuch a fenfation of fick horror, that I was frequently on the point of fainting Montgomery among them! left to be the food of wolves or dogs-that beloved face, that form on which my eyes had fo doated, di-figured and mangled by birds of prey!--This horrid image renewed from time to time my exhaufted ftrength; and the pity of my noble conductor, mote and more excited in my favour, fuffered him not to tire in the mournful office of attending me. But "We had however traverfed in vain se much of the bloody field that my fearch feemed to be at length defperate; and my protector entreated me to confider, that by a longer perfeverance I fhould injure my own health, and perhaps deftroy my chitd, without a poffibility of being of the leat ufe to the loft object of my affection. It was now indeed night; but the moon fhone with great luftre: and just as he had agreed to indulge me with ten rainutes longer, on condition that I would then defift, the rays of the moon fell on femething white a few yards from me, which glittered extremely An impulfe, for which I cannot now account, made me fuddenly catch it up it was part of the fleeve of a hirt, and in it was a button fet with brilliants, that had once belonged to Lord' Pevensey, and which as the diamonds furrounded a cypher formed of her hair, had been, after his Lordship's death, given by my mother to Montgomery. This well known memorial convinced me of one fatal truth-that Montgomery was among the dead; but it revived the wretched hope of finding his body, which |