ceffity of paufing for fome minutes, to compofe himself. "I had never feen d'Ollifont from fome little time before my marriage till the time I am fpeaking of.An interval of near eighteen years had elapfed, but yet his features were well known to me, though the greateft alteration was visible in his whole perfon. I now beheld him in the utmoft diftrefs, having, as he faid, been obliged to fly from that part of Spain, where he had remained for a confiderable time in the utmost difgrace, and in a state little better than ftarving. He related to me how truly he repented of the vicious life he had led, and that his only with was now to procure, in fome way, an honeft fubfiftence by his own induftry-I immediately offered him my houfe, as an afylum for the prefent, which he thankfully received, and lived with us after the manner of my own family. During this time he behaved in a molt pleafing and infinuative manner to all; and there was not even one in the family but greatly refpected and admired d'Ollifont. "I rejoiced much in the reforma. tion that had been effected in him, and determined to fpare no expenfe or intereft in the procurement of an office for him, on the emoluments of which he might live comfortable and happy. "Circumstances continued in this fituation for fome little time; nor had any place become vacant, which I thought worthy to prefent to him': he, however, ftill remained in my houfe, and every day gained more general eneem. One evening, having walked in my garden rather later than ufoal, I cut across an unfrequented path to my houfe on one fide of it was a thick grove of trees, the foliage of which entirely prevented any thing from being feen behind.-It was a fpot feldom inti uded upon, infomuch that in fome parts it was nearly impaffable.-I had got about the middle of this place, when I heard d'Ollifont's voice mention, with vehemence, the name of my daughter. Though rather furprifed at his manner, yet it awakened in me no fufpicion; and I was just going to hail him, when words of a dreadful nature caught my ear. "This night (faid he to the perfon who was with him, a man of infamous character, and who had formerly been his fervant) must she be fecured.-Your are fure you well know the place. "Oh! (returned the other) let me alone for that!-and, egad! you have found out an excellent fpot; for, were the lady Lucretia's cries to be as loud as the town-bell, the devil take me if any one can hear her, but thofe who are with you!-You wi!! excufe me though, fignor: but I think your manner of proceeding is ridiculous-why not marry her? for then, fome time or other, you may ftand a chance to come in for fome of the baron's money." "Curfes on himself and money! (exclaimed the villain) I could have plundered him of that long ago; but the lofs of it, as I told you before, would not make him half miferable enough it is revenge I thirst for, not gain; nor have I fo long played the hypocrite with him, but to invent fome fcheme that may at once blaft his happiness.-My hatred commenced against him when he fhrunk from the proposals I made, and turned fage moralift: but it has, if poffible, increafed tenfold fince ĺ have feen him flourish, for years, in profperity and honour, while I am doomed to live on the narrow limits of a fmall income.--You may fay he acts nobly now, and he has it in his power to be of confiderable fervice to me; but my proud foul is ready to burft every hour I am looked at as a dependent on his bounty; and I am continually become more anxious to work his downfall." "I heard horror,-the fervant or nyfelf; and it is probable, had I not been prevented by him, I fhould have taken away my own life. "I heard no more, but trembled; the greatest ftatue of furprife and with the emotions of horror and pathon. A wretch, whom I had theltered under my roof with the trueft friendship,-to plan the difhonour of my child, was too much!-I unfortunately had a loaded piftol in my belt; and, having torn away the boughs which parted us, I flood before the aftonished reptile. "He trembled, and turned pale, as did Eburne, who was with him; but the recollection of the former ftill remained, to invent one of the moft damnable contrivances mau could be the author of. "Villain! (I exclaimed, and held the piftol to his brea) doft thou not deferve to receive death at the hands of one whom, having the greateft obligations to him, thou would crush to the earth,-and, fiend-like, grin at the mifery thou had brought upon himself and family?" "During the time I uttered thefe words, a fervant from the hou.e appeared in fight, though not near enough to hear what pa..ed. 66 I "Being at length more compofed, reproached d'Ollifont in the bittereft terms for his perfidy, and walked forward to my houfe; but had not entered it above an hour before I found myself arrested on his accufation, and was that night, though all my friends interfered, dragged from my wife and child, to experience the miferies of a gaol. "Picture to yourfelves my fitua tion:-the night was fpent in diftracted ravings, and the morning brought a vifit from my Callandra and her daughter, which in fome meafure refiored my feattered fenfes; hut it was only to experience pangs the most poignant and fevere. "D'Ollifont, and the wretch who was with him, fwore to my having ftopped the former in the private walk of my own garden, when by himfelf; Eburne being then at fome diftance, though near enough to obferve all that paffed:-that first, with fair words, i ftove to perfuade "I mean not (I continued, feeing him fhrink from me) to affaffinate you. Doubtless, you have weapons ftand, therefore, and defend your-him to be an accomplice with myself felf." "I have none (he cried); my life is in your power." "Daftardly wretch!" exclaimed I. "At that moment the fervant came up he was fent from the houfe to feek me.Unfortunately, the last few words of d'Ollifont, with my an. fwer, was the only part of the converfation he heard.When, how was I aftonished, to hear d'Ollifont exclaim, "I will die fooner than commit fuch a defraud (at the fame inftant, producing a forged note on the bank of Venice)-here is a man (faid he to the fervant - pointing to Eburne) who can witness that your matter just now threatened my life, unless I confented to be a partner with him in paflingthefe falfe notes." "It is dificult to fay which flood in a forgery on the bank of Venice, and gave him a falfe bill,-informing him that I had many more of the fame fort; but that, finding him continue obftinate in his refufal, I Irad proceeded to extremities, and, placing a piftol to his breaft, threatened to deprive him of life, fhould he refufe: that my intentions were fruftrated by kburne, who, hearing thefe words, immediately came forward. life; at all events I was doomed to a public trial. It was in vain I pleaded my own tale, and the reafons for my behaviour: to every one, except thofe to whom I was very well known, it carried in it fomething romantic that d’Ollifont should wish to debauch my daughter, which was fure to end in his ruin, without even one chance to be bencfited by the crime. "During the interval between my imprisonment and the day of trial, d'Ollifont was fent for to his relation, the count Maferini, in Italy, whofe health was in fuch a state that his life was even defpaired of, owing to the falfe report of his children's death. He returned, however, at the time my trial was expected to be brought on, the poffeffor of his uncle's estates and wealth. "In the time of his abfence from Spain, a number of falfe bills, the fame as d'Ollifont had produced, were found, by the information of one of my own fervants, buried in a fmall cheft, near a spot I used much to frequent in my garden: this fresh proof, which I had every reafon to fuppofe to be planned by fome fcheme in which the villain Eburne was concerned,-and who, I have no doubt, bribed my fervant, added greatly to the horrid accufation against me. I had, therefore, entirely made up my mind to expect no mercy, and refolved to prepare myfelf in that manner which would give me a degree of fortitude in my laft moments, that should imprefs every one with fome ideas of my innocence. "The night preceding the awful day which was to decide my fate, my prifon-doors flew open, and count d'Ollifont ftood before me. He ftarted back fome fteps, at my wretched appearance; and a convulfive trembling showed that his conícience touched him to the .oul. "I fixed my eyes on him with a look which feemed to add to his confufion, and was going to upbraid VOL. XXVII. him, when he interrupted me.-"Hold! (he cried) I have even a greater power over you than you fuppofe.-Laft night your daughter attempted to plunge a poignard in my breaft; and there is little doubt that a fimilar sentence to that which pafles death upon you, will do the -fame by Lucretia." "I heard no more-but fainted before him. The keeper of the pri fon was called, and after fome little time I recovered.—We were again left alone. "D'Ollifont now told me, there was yet one way to fave both myself and child.-The conditions he propofed were for me to go to Italy, and by a facred oath promife to perform fome fervices he fhould have occafion for." And I (he continued) will fwear, in the fame manner, that your family fhall go with you, and your fortune in every refpect be fecured." "Was it true that my daughter had made an attempt upon his life, I was certain the laws of Spain must condemn her to death.-Had my own exiftence been only at stake, it is probable I should have fcorned the villain's offer, knowing my Caffandra and her child were provided for by money I had placed in the hands of a friend, fo as to keep them above the frowns of fortune, in point of pecuniary concerns. But the idea of my Lucretia being cut off by an ignominious death, occafioned moft probably by love for me, in her revenge against my bittereft enemy, cut me to the foul; and almoft any alternative would have been accepted to fave her.-I demanded, however, the nature of thofe fervices, conceiving it might be fome crime he dared not to undertake himself, and therefore had pitched on me to be the perpetrator of the deed. "He fwore, by the moft facred oath, that my conjectures were illfounded. Still my foul revolted at the idea of fubmitting to the villain Το in and an unequalled fingularity of manners. His derelictions of attention were not furpaffed by thofe which the fruitfulnefs of fportive fancy has recorded of the ever-memorable Adams. A few fpecimens of his oddities will ferve, not merely to delight the humourift, but may contribute alfo, not a little, to affift the philofophical analyft in his lucubrations on the human understanding. Mr. Harveft paffed much of his time in the family of the prefent lord O- -, his parishioner, and was exhibited, not unfrequently, to the vifitors as a subject of merriment and curiofity, but without infolence on one fide, or fervility on the other. One night he was fitting, amidst all the pageantry of politenefs, with lady O and the family, in the front box of a London theatre. To the EDITOR of the LADY's In this confpicuous situation, poor SIR, MAGAZINE. HAVING obferved that, in your Magazine for June, 1794, P. 311 you have inferted fome biographical anecdotes of the rev. Mr. George Harvest, I fend you fome others of the fame remarkable character, given by the learned and ingenious Mr. Gilbert Wakefield, in his Memoirs of his own Life. You will find that they rectify more than one mistake which feem to have been made in your former account of a man, who, with all his oddities, had much merit, as a man of learning, tafte, and unblemished integrity. June 15, 1796. EUGENIA. ON NE who frequently vifited Mr. Harveft, on pulling out his handkerchief, brought with it an old greafy flannel night-cap, which fell cries a gentleman below, elevating into the pit. "Who owns this?" the trophy, in full difplay, on the point of his cane:-"Who owns this?" The unaffected fimplicity of our divine, little confidering the delicate fenfations of his friends, and overjoyed at the recovery of this his hand, feizes the cap, and, in the valuable chattel, eagerly darts out action, cries out, "It is mine!"— The party were utterly difconcerted at the circumftance, and blushed for their companion, who wonder. ed, in the mean time, at their confufion, and expected rather the fympathies of benevolence with the joy of their friend at this happy recovery of his property. Woodefon, as well as our family at Richmond, was the rev. On another occafion, Harveft acGeorge Harveft, fellow of Magda-companied his patron into France: len college, Cambridge, and curate of Thames Ditton, one of my father's chapels, for many years:-a man of great moral rectitude, but no lefs obliquity of underftanding, and, during the neceffary delay at fome poft town, our contemplative parfon rambled about after a bookfeller's fhop, and found one. Here he amufed himself awhile with his favourite | Our uncleanly countryman might have feverely rued his inattention to the decencies of life in another region; but the polite Frenchman put a candid conftruction upon the cafe, and extricated the grim ecclefiaftic from his diftrefs by a fafe conveyance to the white lion inn. This unthinking vifionary would ftay at my father's, day after day, totally infenfible of the laple of time; till, on the Saturday afternoon, it became necessary to admonish him of the expediency of returning to his Sunday's duty. He once engaged to go a journey of fome extent with an acquaintance. When the traveller had proceeded ten or twelve miles, they ftopt at the inn of a country town. "I will ftep out (fays Harveft) for a few minutes to fee a friend, and will return immediately." He met with his friend, entered into a converíation with him, and thought no more of his fellow traveller, who waited in vain, and was compelled to go on without him. Harvest returned favourite companions; but at laft reflected, that his friends were in hafte to depart, and might be much incommoded by his ftay. But he had forgot the name of the inn, and to expect him to find a road merely because he had traverfed it before, was to expect that Thefeus fhould unravel the Dædalean labyrinth without the thread of Ariadne. Not a word of French could our traveller speak to be underflood; but recollected the fign of the inn to be a lion. Still, how to make the bookfeller comprehend this, was the difficulty. Harvest, however, tall and sturdy, raised himself, to the no fmall terror of the bookfeller, with projected and curvetting arms, into the formidable attitude of a lion rampant; and fucceeded, at length, by a repetition of this happy effort, in fuggefting an idea of a lion to the ftaring Frenchman. But another difficulty, of a more arduous nature, now prefented itself. There are black lions, and red lions, and white lions, of which laft colour was the lion in question. Now no two-home, as ufual, at the call of his footed creature under the fun could lefs exemplify that admirable maxim of the prefbyterian divine, that "Cleanliness is next to Godlines," than the hero of our ftory, who was Slovenlinefs in perfon. Harveft, therefore, to complete the aggregate, and exprefs the ipecific idea, not of a lion only, but of a white lion, on the fenforium of the bookfeller, unbuttons his waistcoat, and fhows his fhirt. He was convinced to his coft, by woeful experience, of the truth of that Virgilian verfe: Tantum ævi longinqua valet mutare vetuftas * ! weekly function on the fabbath. Our Adonis, early in life, was to have married a daughter of Dr. Edmund Gibson, bishop of London (who afterwards, more happily, difpofed of her accomplishments to the prefent bifhop of Bristol), and, as the ftory goes, forgot the day of his intended nuptials. He was out a fishing; and, at twelve o'clock, ftarts up, and cries, "L-d blefs me! I was to have been married to-day!" The authenticity of this narrative Harvest utterly denied to my father. "The truth was, (fald be) I found myfelf unable to make good my for, alas! like the mulberry of old-engagements to the bifhop." For Qui color albus erat, nunc eft contra rius albo t. *How great a change may length of it was commonly faid that this guilelefs and upright Nathaniel had ap propriated an independent fortune of his own to the difcharge of his father's debts, who had been eminent brewer at Kingston-uponThames; and, in confequence of Tt2 an this |