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 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS.
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY G. SCHULZE, 13, POLAND STREET.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS: 
 
 A MINOR. 
 
 BV 
 
 SIR ROGER GRESLEY, BART. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1829.
 
 A ' 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 o My object in compiling these Memoirs is 
 
 ostensible enough : I wish to deter young 
 
 \ men of family and fortune from pursuing 
 
 V 
 
 V 
 
 ^ the track of Sir Philip Gasteneys. 
 
 The characters and incidents are purely 

 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 fictitious. I state this distinctly, so that 
 should any one be absurd enough to 
 think otherwise, he may enjoy his conceit 
 at leisure. 
 
 But though the story as a whole be fabu- 
 lous, I do not mean to deny that in some of 
 the scenes I have availed myself of events 
 which I have either witnessed or heard of 
 in real life. 
 
 I have affixed my name to it, not from 
 any motive of vanity — since I do not expect 
 to derive any credit from it — but because I 
 am not conscious of having written any
 
 PREFACE, VII 
 
 thing of which I ought to be ashamed : and 
 1 neither understand nor admire the specious 
 modesty of those who, although they are 
 universally known as the authors of a work, 
 indulge in the affectation of with holding 
 their names from its title page, until they 
 have ascertained whether the voice of 
 public opinion be in their favour. 
 
 ROGER GRESLEY. 
 
 Paris, March 25th, 1829.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Sir Philip Gastbneys was the only son 
 of a family which traced its origin from the 
 Conquest. A tedious disease, the offspring 
 of dissipation, brought his father to an 
 early grave, and left Sir Philip at an age 
 of infantine weakness to the care of a mo- 
 ther, whose affection was superior to her 
 judgment. 
 
 B
 
 3 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 It was on this account that Lady Gaste- 
 iieys resolved to educate her son at home. 
 Anxious in maternal solicitude, she could 
 not bear the thought of even momen- 
 tary separation from her beloved child. 
 With no feeling, no wish but what was 
 turned towards his prosperity, she re- 
 solved to dedicate her life to his interests 
 and sacrifice her own enjoyments to his 
 welfare. Happy had it been if the event 
 had answered her designs ! 
 
 But, as might naturally have been ex- 
 pected, it was far otherwise. At the age 
 of fifteen, as the sequel of this history will 
 shew, the indulgence or the misjudgment 
 of bis mother had made Sir Philip his 
 own master. He no longer brooked au-
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 3 
 
 thority or submitted to restraint. Tlie 
 control wliich others should have had 
 over him was dispensed with, and his 
 own passions were as yet too green and 
 strong to admit of his having any over 
 himself. At this dangerous age, when he 
 should have been bound in the swaddling 
 clothes of education, he assumed the garb 
 of fashion, and with a figure not contemp- 
 tible, with a mind not inferior to common 
 ability, with natural elegance, acquired ac- 
 complishments and a good heart. Sir 
 Philip entered into a malicious and volup- 
 tuous world. Possessing the power, when 
 he was endued with the will of pleasing in 
 an eminent degree, the rank and fortune 
 of Sir Philip Gasteneys soon furnished 
 him with friends, with flatterers and with 
 
 B 2
 
 4 SIR PHILIP GASTBNEYS, 
 
 partisans. Regent of the sphere in which 
 he moved, with nothing to restrain his 
 passions and every thing to feed his va- 
 nity, Sir Philip esteemed liis consequence 
 by the rule of his pride, and measured 
 his importance by the span of his am- 
 bition. With vanity enough to be aware 
 of his attractions, and without fortitude 
 sufficient to resist temptation, he easily fell 
 into the snares that surrounded him. 
 Having no real intention, no innate pre- 
 disposition to be wicked, he committed 
 every species of vice, because he could 
 not abandon one object of gratification : 
 but to the pliancy of his mind and the 
 softness of his disposition, not to any natu- 
 ral depravity of heart, his errors must be 
 attributed ; from inability to repel the
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKNEYS. 5 
 
 first impulse of desire, he trod in tlie steps 
 of folly till he entered the patii of guilt, and 
 ran through a rapid sueeession of offences, 
 the growing enormity and fatal conse- 
 quences of which finally weighed upon liis 
 conscience and restored him, with repen- 
 tance, to happiness and peace. 
 
 But the passion which led Sir Pliilip 
 astray more fatally than any other was his 
 inordinate love of women. Sprung from a 
 father who had sacrificed his reputation and 
 his health to his sensual appetite, he inherit- 
 ed in no ordinary degree this infirmity of 
 the flesli ; and the mode in which he had 
 been educated, increased rather than dimi- 
 nished the natural defect that was implanted 
 in him. The intense ardour of his feelings
 
 6 SIR PHILIP GASTKNEYS. 
 
 and the romantic character of his imagina- 
 tion drew him towards the female sex by 
 an instinctive impulse. His passion was 
 gratified by their charms ; his vanity was 
 flattered by overcoming their scruples :— 
 and though in the elements of his amours 
 he shunned the idea of injuring innocence, 
 and would have rejected with abhorrence 
 the perfidious arts which he afterwards 
 employed in the more advanced stages of 
 his dissipation, he became a melancholy 
 instance of the certainty with which, when 
 once the reins of discipline are relaxed, we 
 proceed from trifling indulgences to seduc- 
 tive folly, and from seductive folly to irre- 
 mediable crime. 
 
 An extravagance that knew no bounds
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKNEYS. 7 
 
 when employed upon liiinsclf, a generosity 
 unlimited towards those whom he esteemed, 
 were likewise two features very strongly 
 marked in the opening character of Sir 
 Philip Gasteneys ; and they too Avere links 
 which connected him more closely with 
 error and misfortune. They drew around 
 him a set of senseless rakes, whose plea- 
 sure consisted in prodigality, and needy 
 sycophants, whose only object was to pro- 
 fit by the ruin they contributed to make. 
 A novice in delusion and unversed in the 
 mysteries of world liness, with all the no- 
 tions of a man. Sir Philip had not the 
 prudence of a child. 
 
 Amid the circle of pleasures to which he 
 was early introduced, it is natural to sup-
 
 8 SIR PHILIP GASTKNEYS, 
 
 pose that, with such a temperament of mind 
 as I have described. Sir Philip would be 
 ambitious to distinguish himself. It did 
 not suit his aspiring disposition to shine as 
 an inferior star in the hemisphere of gaiety 
 and folly ; and fully aware of his decided 
 superiority over the greater part of his con- 
 temporaries, he bent all the energy of those 
 abilities, which, if exerted in a more meri- 
 torious cause, would have gained him repu- 
 tation, to the race of fashion and pleasure 
 which he resolved to run. 
 
 It is not then surprising that, in pro- 
 cess of time. Sir Philip Gasteneys should 
 have learnt the art of seduction (for so it 
 may be termed) in its most perfect state. 
 Accustomed always to try his powers upon
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKNKVS. ^ 
 
 some new object, and delighted witli afrcsli 
 pursuit, lie knew every channel, every se- 
 cret winding of the female heart, every 
 palpitation of the breast, every emotion of 
 the countenance, every tone of the voice. 
 He could mark with undeviating accuracy 
 every stage, and the minutest progress in 
 every stage of the pending conflict between 
 vice and virtue. He knew precisely what 
 measures to adopt according to the cha- 
 racter of her whom he wished to conquer, 
 and he could calculate with certainty upon 
 the proportionate success of his attempts. 
 He was the deepest reader of the hearts of 
 others ; the most profound dissembler of 
 his own. 
 
 Stained, however, as the escutcheon oi 
 
 B 3
 
 iO SIR PHILIP GASTENEYSi 
 
 Sir Philip's character certainly was by- 
 many blemishes, it still was blazoned by 
 numerous virtues. It proclaimed him to 
 be a noble knight, of a fair and captivating 
 exterior, ever without fear, but not always 
 without reproach. Thus, though he was 
 passionate, he was generous and forgiving ; 
 though impetuous, firm ; though fickle in 
 his choice, never cruel nor ungrateful in 
 his change. The failings of Sir Philip, for 
 they were not radical defects, were the fail- 
 ings of an ingenuous nature, too early worked 
 upon by the machinations of the world. 
 He was like the young oak in the planta- 
 tion, which for want of a protecting fence, 
 is blasted in its tender groAvth by the bois- 
 terous winds, or nipped in its branches 
 by the browsing herd : the spirit was good.
 
 SIR rHILII» GASTENEYS. 1 I 
 
 but the flesh was weak. Throughout his 
 life he was never known to commit crime 
 from the love of vice — but from the frailty 
 of nature; his errors, great as tliey were, 
 always commanded pity, though they drew 
 forth reprobation ; and he was one of those 
 enviable sinners who, like the son of Bru- 
 tus, irresistibly excite esteem, at the very 
 moment that they incur condemnation. 
 
 Thus far have we drawn the outline of 
 a character which may, at first sight, a})- 
 pear somewhat unintelligible. The lights 
 of virtue and the shades of vice, which 
 illumined and obscured Sir Philip's con- 
 duct, may seem not to blend easily with 
 each other, even if they be not totally irre- 
 conciliable. But their combination is
 
 12 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 simple and natural ; Sir Philip erred not 
 more than many others, but his feelings 
 were more acute, his sense of rectitude 
 more strong than theirs, so that he erred 
 with greater reluctance and magnified his 
 errors by their very contrast with his vir- 
 tues. The faithful detail we shall give of 
 his life, Avhilst a minor, will enable the 
 reader to be his own judge how far good 
 predominated over evil in his disposition, 
 and consequently, how much he was en- 
 titled to esteem and commiseration, rather 
 than odium and censure. 
 
 The period at which we shall introduce 
 Sir Philip to the more intimate acquaintance 
 of our readers was at the time when he was 
 fifteen years of age. At that epoch Lady
 
 SIR PHILIP CASTENEYS. 13 
 
 Gasteneys took him to London. It Mas 
 his first visit to the metropolis, and he 
 went there knowing, at his extreme youth, 
 a great deal, and predisposed to know a 
 great deal more. He had run through all 
 the courses of juvenile pleasure which his 
 hitherto confined sphere of action had 
 afforded him, and he was anxious and pre- 
 pared for a more extensive arena on which 
 to indulge his inclination and gratify his 
 vanity. The remonstrances of maternal 
 solicitude had therefore no weight with him ; 
 and as what advice could not effect. Lady 
 Gasteneys never employed more vigorous 
 measures to accomplish, he gave way to 
 all his humours and ran wild and riot about 
 the town. In a short time he was the 
 watchman's proverb and the prostitutes' idol ;
 
 14 SIR PHILIP GASTBNEYS. 
 
 he knew all their haunts and was initiated 
 into all their mysteries. 
 
 Hut this promiscuous profligacy was not 
 adapted to the elegance of his mind nor the 
 delicacy of his feeling :— he had given in to 
 it, at first, from the buoyancy of his spirits, 
 and been led into it farther by the ardour 
 and impetuosity of his disposition— for what- 
 ever he followed, he pursued to the end. 
 He had now begun to grow weary of these 
 dishonourable campaigns ; he found that 
 there was no merit in victory where there 
 was no opposition to surmount; and was 
 ashamed of laurels that were won without 
 strife and worn without envv. 
 
 With these impressions he left London,
 
 SIR IMULIl' CASTENKYS. 15 
 
 for the state of Lady Gasteneys' health 
 induced her, in compliance with the advice 
 of her physician, to repair to one of the 
 most fashionable watering places in the 
 west of England. Her arrival, or rather 
 that of Sir Philip soon became known, and 
 as soon brought visitors, compliments, and 
 invitations to her door. The young Baro- 
 net soon found himself in the centre of every 
 thing that was agreeable and gay ; forget 
 ting past pleasures he began to look out for 
 new ones, and it was not long before an 
 acquaintance, which he formed with a fa- 
 mily who took the lead in the fashionable 
 circle of the place, furnished him with the 
 opportunity. 
 
 The head of this family was an old gen-
 
 16 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 tleman of humble capacity and good dis- 
 position — one who thought well of every 
 body, but much better than any body of 
 himself — courted good society to gratify 
 his pride, and tolerated bad to display his 
 importance. Prejudiced people will, of 
 course, conjecture that he was a Scotcli- 
 man. 
 
 His wife was a shrewd, intelligent, in- 
 triguing woman of noble connexion, ac- 
 complished mind, subtle understanding, 
 corrupt heart and fascinating manners. 
 Her whole thoughts were bent upon worldly 
 objects. Thus, with a ruined husband, her 
 study was to appear rich 5 with a profligate 
 family, it was her policy to seem virtuous : 
 she paid that respect to the world which it
 
 SIR IMIILII' GASIKNEYS. 17 
 
 noininally required, and grunted to it the 
 indulgence which it secretly wished. 
 
 This lady and gentleman had a large fa- 
 mily of daughters. The two eldest were 
 spinsters \\ho had worried the whole troop 
 of their male acquaintance for the last fif- 
 teen years without effect. They had danced, 
 and sung, and drawn in pencil, and cut out 
 figures ^fith their scissors, and all to no 
 purpose, for they were diaholically ugly, 
 without being proportionately chaste or 
 adequately rich. 
 
 These ladies were certainly not very well 
 calculated to make any impression on Sir 
 Philip Gasteneys ; yet they nevertheless 
 attempted it. There was another, however.
 
 18 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS* 
 
 and a younger child, who, possessing many 
 personal charms, was divested of most of her 
 sisters' mental defects : she was not beau- 
 tiful, but she was young and engaging; her 
 heart was pure and her feelings were strong. 
 
 Sir Philip was introduced to her at ' a 
 ball. He danced with her the whole even- 
 ing, and promised to call on her the next 
 morning. This conduct did not pass un- 
 observed by Mrs. Loudon, and accordingly 
 in expectation of his visit, the whole artil- 
 lery of intrigue and seduction was brought 
 to play upon Sir Philip. The room was 
 filled with the most fashionable visitors who 
 had been got together under some pretence 
 to hear a child's debut upon the piano ; 
 letters and cards were laid carelessly upon
 
 SIK I'Hri-lP GASTENKYS. 19 
 
 the table, which hud been gcraped together 
 and rehgiously preserved as relics to excite 
 the attention, respect and credulity of fa- 
 shionable visitors. From these, extracts were 
 to be read, intimacies proved, and claims 
 of importance to be drawn with a degree 
 of care, and accident, and indifference, the 
 acquirement of which had cost infinite 
 trouble and produced the most contempti- 
 ble results. Works of art, the humble spe- 
 cimens of aspirants after fame, were to be 
 shewn as proofs of patronage conferred and 
 taste consulted. 
 
 All this had been studiously and inge- 
 niously devised, by the time Sir Philip 
 made his appearance ; he was received with 
 easy and affected coolness. The conver-
 
 20 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 sation was artfully conducted : the old 
 gentleman praised his talent^ the old lady 
 exaggerated his fortune, and the younger 
 hags, whispered audibly to each other of 
 his beauty. But Amelia was missing ; she 
 had been purposely kept out of the way, 
 and in answer to his inquiries after her, 
 he was told that she had suffered from the 
 ball and was confined by a slight cold 
 to her apartments. Sir Philip was too 
 young to see through the trick, or to hide 
 his disappointment, and after half an 
 hour's vain endeavours to be pleased, he 
 went away evidently vexed. 
 
 This was precisely what Mrs. Loudon ex- 
 pected, and what she desired. She had now 
 found the way to Sir Philip's weakness, and
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 21 
 
 she was not one of tliose who fail to im- 
 prove an opportunity. Accordingly he very 
 soon received an invitation to dine at 
 Brierly, such was the name of Mrs. Lou- 
 don's luibitation. The house was pleasantly 
 situated and was certainly improved and 
 decorated by the taste of its owner. In 
 short, it was a pretty place enough ; espe- 
 cially to one who went there with tender 
 inclinations. 
 
 Sir Philip accepted the invitation. The 
 dinner was good, the company select, and 
 Amelia in her best attire : but who sat 
 next her at the table ? Not Sir Philip Gas- 
 teneys ; Mrs. Loudon knew that the way 
 to excite passions, is to oppose them : she 
 hud already discovered the quick sensibi-
 
 22 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 lity of Sir Philip's heart and she very 
 wisely resolved to irritate it. She there- 
 fore contrived to place him next herself 
 and a very handsome young man next her 
 daughter. Opportunities were not want- 
 ing, and none were thrown away of praising 
 Amelia, and still more of extolling the young 
 gentleman who sat by her, ignorant of the 
 the part Mrs. Loudon was imposing on 
 him ; but above all, she threw out nume- 
 rous hints to Sir Philip of his rank and 
 the splendour of his fortune ; presumed to 
 take an interest in his welfare, and cau- 
 tioned his young and inexperienced mind 
 against the snares that would be laid for 
 him by artful persons of both sexes ; and 
 the attempts that would be made to inveigle 
 him who could command any woman
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 23 
 
 in the world, and ought to marry the 
 best. 
 
 The natural dignity of Sir Philip's mind 
 made him dislike, and his extreme acute- 
 ness caused him to suspect Mrs. Loudon's 
 motives : but his reigning impulse was 
 not to be overcome by premature appre- 
 hensions and he thought he should be a 
 match for Mrs. Loudon. He did not there- 
 fore stop to enquire the consequences or 
 the end of his designs ; but after dinner, 
 approached and fixed his whole attention 
 on Amelia. Fi-om cautious admiration he 
 proceeded to the most enthusiastic expres- 
 sions of passion, and in the course of the 
 evening convinced her, in language which 
 she had never before heard of the exis-
 
 24 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 tence of feelings which she had long 
 desired to excite. 
 
 In this way several days passed, and 
 each tended to strengthen their young 
 hearts in mutual attachment. The farther 
 he advanced, the more he desired to go on ; 
 Amelia was amiable, fond and innocent, yet 
 how could he marry her ? it was absolutely 
 impossible ; yet how could he forsake her ? 
 it was equally so. His mother and guar- 
 dians, nay his own pride and ambition 
 would oppose the one ; his love, his vanity, 
 his sense of honour and good feeling rejected 
 the other. That Amelia loved him, that he 
 could triumph over her weakness was cer- 
 tain ; but he would not willingly encourage 
 the thought of doing her premeditated wrong.
 
 SIR rillLIP GASTKNEYS. 25 
 
 Thus they went on entangling each 
 others hearts and deriving from it no gra- 
 tification but the consciousness of being mu- 
 tually beloved, till the time arrived for Lady 
 Gasteneys' departure. Sir Philij) was now 
 sixteen; a mere boy in every body's estima- 
 tion but his own. Can the firmness of 
 manhood be expected at such an age, or 
 principle be supposed to triumph over na- 
 ture ? On the night before Lady Gasteneys' 
 departure the young lovers were to meet 
 at a ball. Who shall describe their happi- 
 ness at the present scene, their anguish at 
 the idea that it would close so soon ? In 
 Sir Philip's disposition there was a cer- 
 tain degree of melancholy, not unfrequently 
 united Avith an ardent temperament. He 
 saw Amelia for the last time ; her kindness, 
 
 c
 
 26 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 her innocence, her present fondness, her 
 humble hope, raised his feehngs to the very 
 highest pitcli of emotion, and completely 
 superseded all the thoughts of gaiety, the 
 instigations of pride and the demands of 
 fashion. He felt as though he were her 
 slave, and was not ashamed to wear her 
 chains ; he devoted himself to her as to 
 only one object which connected him with 
 the scene around him. His politeness, his 
 gaiety, his wit, were all absorbed in one 
 feeUng of deep abstracted devotion. 
 
 The whole assembly remarked this beha- 
 viour, and Mfs. Loudon congratulated her- 
 self, and was congratulated by others upon 
 the probable success of her measures ; for 
 though Sir Philip's youth prevented any
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTBNBYS. 27 
 
 iiiimcdiatc advantage from being taken of 
 his feelings, she trusted to her daughter's 
 charms, to his good principles, and, above 
 all, to her own abilities, to direct them in 
 the same channel till he should be his own 
 master. With this view, she resolved to 
 implicate Sir Philip as deeply as she pos- 
 sibly could with her daughter's name and 
 reputation, and to plunge him into an 
 abyss from which, she hoped, he would 
 be unable to extricate himself. 
 
 On returning from the ball it so hap- 
 pened, or was so arranged, that Sir Philip 
 went alone in the carriage with Amelia. 
 The distance they had to go was about 
 three miles, and they arrived at home some 
 time before the rest of the party. Sir 
 
 c 2
 
 28 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Philip was at the higliest point of enthu- 
 siasm : he sat beside a being young, ten- 
 der, and passionate as himself. It was per- 
 haps the first time he had ever loved ; the 
 first that he had ventured to declare his 
 passion to a virtuous and unsuspecting 
 mind. He drew near Amelia and told 
 her that it might perhaps be the last time 
 he should ever see her. He painted his 
 adoration in glowing colours ; bewailed his 
 fate in terms of the most poignant anguish ; 
 vowed everlasting devotion, and humbly 
 but fervently sued for some proof of 
 affection ; some token of undisguised 
 feeling in return. Can the sensitive 
 plant be indifferent to the touch ? 
 Could female tenderness resist such an 
 appeal ?
 
 SIR PniLIP GASTENEYS. 29 
 
 The bonds of principle were broken, ;uul 
 
 Sir Philip, for the first time in his life, 
 tasted the cup of unadulterated joy. 
 
 He threw himself on his couch after he 
 reached home in a state of mind which he 
 had never before experienced. He had to 
 struggle between love and duty — interest 
 and passion. The one pressed him not to 
 desert a girl whose affections and happi- 
 ness were in his hands ; the other not to 
 abandon a mother whose existence de- 
 pended upon his choice. The one told 
 him that he should be ruined in his worldly 
 interests by any honourable connexion 
 with Amelia; the other, that there was 
 nothing in the world Morth caring for but 
 her.
 
 30 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 With these thoughts he passed a rest- 
 less and miserable night ; sleep never vi- 
 sited his eyes — repose never quieted his 
 aching heart. The morning came, and 
 with it the bustle and preparation of de- 
 parture. The decision must be made ; he 
 thought of his mother — of Amelia — last 
 and least of all, of himself: the conflict 
 was long and severe; and if he decided 
 wrongly, it was with the intention of acting 
 rightly. 
 
 He tore himself from the shrine of his 
 idolatry — from the temple of his adorations ; 
 he abandoned all his pleasure and his pas- 
 sions — renounced his triumph, and re- 
 tired into exile. He knew very well, that 
 had he acted otherwise, he would only
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 31 
 
 have exposed the frailty of Amelia, Avith- 
 out tlie power of repairing it. 
 
 This was a powerful effort for so young 
 and impetuous a mind; and it eost Sir 
 Philip many an hour and night of wretch- 
 edness and regret. Before he left her he 
 had arranged the means of carrying on a 
 secret correspondence with Amelia, and 
 his first care was to take advantage of it. 
 He poured forth the agony and ardour of 
 his whole soul : wept over his absence, and 
 promised to return. His anxiety to receive 
 an answer to this letter may be felt by 
 those who have been in a similar situation. 
 He counted the hours, and accused the 
 post of delay ; searched the letter-bag, and 
 blamed the cruelty of Amelia. Thus five
 
 32 SIR PHILIP GASTENEV^i 
 
 days elapsed, and in truth he had good 
 reason to be apprehensive lest some acci- 
 dent should have occurred in the conve3^ance 
 or delivery of the letter. By Amelia's in- 
 struction it had been addressed to Mrs. 
 Loudon's maid, and he almost began to 
 suspect the fidelity of the on6 and the arts 
 of the other. At length the agony of doubt 
 was over : the gentleman, his friend, who 
 had consented to receive Amelia's letter 
 under cover to himself, brought him one 
 marked in the corner with the initials 
 they had agreed on. 
 
 Amelia wrote to him in all the warmth 
 and freshness of a young and unsuspecting 
 heart. She depicted her wretchedness — 
 but doubted not his truth ^ longed for hi«
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 33 
 
 presence — but did not reproach him Un- 
 his absence. With all the delicacy of early 
 passion she told Sir Philip how entirely 
 she was devoted to him ; but left to his 
 own feelings the decision of her fate ; and 
 if he consulted her present at the expense 
 of her future happiness, it is not to be 
 wondered at. Sir Philip soon found op- 
 portunities of visiting her imknown either 
 to her parents or his own, and the surrep- 
 titious moments, thus occasionally occupied, 
 were productive of enjoyment to themselves 
 and of distress to no one. 
 
 Sir Philip had laid it down as a principle, 
 which nothing ever induced him to violate, 
 not to be the acti\'e cause of betraying his 
 
 c 3
 
 34 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 own errors, or those into -wliich he had in- 
 voluntarily thrown others. Though he had 
 not sufficient command over his passions 
 as to forego gratification with those who 
 were willing to afford it to him, whilst at 
 the same time they participated in it them- 
 selves, yet he would no longer continue 
 that indulgence if it were to interrupt the 
 tranquillity or destroy the peace of an in- 
 nocent party. The moment, therefore, that 
 any circumstance occurred which compelled 
 him either to abandon his pursuit or to ex- 
 pose it, his conduct was never dubious. 
 It was this consideration for others, rather 
 than for himself, which divested his amours 
 in many instances of the wretched conse- 
 quences which frequently attend such indul-
 
 SIR nil MP r.ASTENBYS. 35 
 
 gences and made hiiii appear to the world, 
 and in i^mnc measure to his own mind, 
 more innocent than in reahty he was. 
 
 Under existing circumstances. Sir Phihp 
 although more strongly tempted than he 
 had ever yet been, determined to conforu) 
 to this resolution. 
 
 Lady Gasteneys, discovering probably 
 how little influence a tutor in her own house 
 possessed over her self-willed and giddy 
 son, and alarmed by the representations 
 and persuaded by the advice of her best 
 friends, had determined on removing the 
 young Baronet to a private tutor's at a 
 considerable distance from her own resi- 
 dence, and had some time previously an-
 
 36 SIR PHILIP GASTKNiJYS. 
 
 nounced her intention to him. The day 
 had now arrived when Sir Philip Gasteneys 
 had to be launched upon a different sea j 
 and as novelty and adventure were always 
 agreeable to him, the only regret he ex- 
 perienced was the loss of his Amelia, 
 any future approach to whom would, by 
 this measure, be rendered utterly imprac- 
 ticable. To this, however, aware of the 
 impossibility of doing otherwise without 
 exposing her, he qvuetly submitted, and 
 with his grief and his secret buried in his 
 bosom, transported himself to his new 
 abode. 
 
 But it would be wronging him to suppose 
 that he forgot her ; for though he never 
 saw her again, and though shortly after-
 
 SIR PHI IIP GASTKNEYS. 37 
 
 wards the measure of her frailty and misery 
 was full and she paid the penalty of it by 
 her deatli, he loved her to the very last. 
 
 The rectory, for it was one, to ^^ilic}l 
 Sir Philip Gasteneys was removed, was 
 situated in a secluded vale in one of the 
 most retired counties in England. There 
 was no habitation near it, save of the far 
 mer or the peasant ; and no occupation to 
 be found but in the study of nature or of 
 books. A clear little trout stream ran at 
 the bottom of the garden, inviting the pa- 
 tient angler to an hour's recreation ; and 
 the old gothic church with its burial ground 
 which stood hard by, seemed to remind the 
 inmates of the parsonage of their duties in 
 this world and their proximity to the next.
 
 38 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 The clergyman, to whose care he was en- 
 trusted, was a mild, amiable and most ac- 
 complished man. Learned without pedantry, 
 correct without squeamishness, and strict 
 without harshness in his discipline, his 
 life was one perpetual effort after virtue. 
 He knew very well that he must bear the 
 cross before he could wear the crown, and 
 endeavoured, by the discharge of temporal 
 duties, to gain a title to eternal pleasures. 
 
 Sir Philip soon acquired under his di- 
 rection, a greater fondness for literary 
 pursuits of which he had always been 
 enamoured, and greater steadiness in his 
 application to them. He poured over the 
 pages of ancient and of modern learning 
 with equal and increasing ardour. The
 
 bill IMIILIl' GAS'IKNEYS. 39 
 
 classics M'cre not allowed to engross all 
 the fine energies of his mind, and divert 
 it from more useful and necessary attain- 
 ments ; the sciences were not forgotten ; 
 the arts not neglected, nor were the sports 
 and pleasures of the held forbidden or de- 
 spised. 
 
 He made a rapid progress in improve- 
 wient, and it was to Mr. Townshend that 
 he owed that cultivation of his talents which 
 he afterwards attained. Sir Philip Gaste- 
 neys, prone to love every thing amiable, 
 soon learnt to love his tutor, and to make 
 his tutor love him. Accustomed in a short 
 time to the solitude and tranquillity of the 
 scene, and learning almost to forget, and 
 ceasing gradually to desire pleasures which
 
 40 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 no longer presented themselves, he found 
 himself more happy when shooting yellow- 
 hammers in the fields and playing at ba- 
 gatelle with his tutor's boy, as relaxations 
 from his more serious pursuits, than ever 
 he had been amid the noise and bustle of 
 the world. 
 
 His existence passed on satisfactorily; 
 his mind was settling on better things, 
 his views were beginning to extend them- 
 selves to spheres of usefulness and dis- 
 tinction. Mr. Townshend soon discovered 
 the peculiar tastes and inclinations of his 
 young pupil, and by adapting his studies 
 to them, rather than endeavouring to direct 
 them in a less congenial channel, he ef- 
 fected a rapid progress in his improvement.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEVS. 4l 
 
 His moral and intellectual qualities derived 
 equal benefit from his tuition ; and when, 
 after a period of twelve months. Sir Philip 
 was removed from Longfield, 1 believe that 
 his heart was as uncorruptcd, his original 
 feelings were as amiable, and his principles 
 of honour and rectitude as just as could 
 be desired. 
 
 I have refrained from entering into an ac- 
 count of some transactions which, as might 
 be expected, occurred" to Sir Philip during 
 his residence at Longfield. It is not to 
 be supposed that he had forgotten to love, 
 though the object of his affections be not 
 revealed. Love in a garret is for the most 
 part uninteresting ; and scenes of agrarian 
 courtship are unworthy of detail. Certain it
 
 42 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 is, that if he occasionally transformed himself 
 into a Daphnis, he never wanted a Chloe ; 
 nor were initials on the bark the only me- 
 morandum which he left behind him of his 
 name. It was during this period, indeed, 
 that he first beheld the being who influenced 
 a great portion of his future life, but whose 
 history we shall not for the pi'esent relate. 
 
 Less interesting adventures, in the tran- 
 saction of which, no feelings nor circum- 
 stances were involved but what accompany 
 the most ordinary course, need not detain 
 us, so we will pass on to his introduction 
 to College. 
 
 He was entered as a gentleman com- 
 moner at Christ Church, and found himself
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKNEYS. 43 
 
 in a circle of young men superior to him 
 in rank, inferior to him in present wealth, 
 and both superior and inferior to him in 
 ability and information. Amongst these 
 he formed many acquaintances — scarcely 
 one friend. The private education which 
 he had received, made him suspicious of 
 others, and others suspicious of him. In 
 the untutored openness of his disposition, 
 he would have abandoned himself to them 
 without disguise ; but though not as mis- 
 trustful as he was taught afterwards to 
 become, he still had seen enough to know 
 that some restraint must necessarily be 
 imposed on his genuine feelings. 
 
 Besides, Sir Philip Gasteneys was proud ; 
 the blood of eight centuries of ancestors
 
 44 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 did not flow in him in vain ; and though he 
 was a commoner himself, he recollected that 
 his forefathers had been noble. Thus he 
 felt deeply what he conceived to be the 
 slightest indignity, and sought in the ex- 
 penditure of more money, and the conscious 
 satisfaction which he felt in his own abi- 
 lities and acquirements, to raise himself 
 to a level with the most distinguished of 
 his associates. 
 
 But this conduct was not calculated to 
 render him popular ; and there was besides 
 at this time, a system of subserviency and 
 flattery to men of the liighest rank from their 
 inferiors, established at Christ Church, which 
 the generous and high-spirited nature of Sir 
 Philip Gasteneys utterly despised. From his
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 45 
 
 very infancy, he spurned every thing which 
 infants generally seek ; from his cradle he 
 was a man in inclinations and ideas ; and 
 when he found (as he did) these im- 
 portant boys investing their juvenile fan- 
 cies Mith liie forms of political institu- 
 tions, and affixing to their private life 
 the regulations and habits of the states- 
 man, he felt a contempt for such mum- 
 mery, which he could not, and did not 
 endeavour to conceal. 
 
 His disposition too was gay, his spirits 
 were young and ardent. The melancholy 
 which formed a principal ingredient in his 
 character had, as yet, lain undisturbed at the 
 bottom of his heart j disappointment and 
 guilt, and self reproach had not yet called 
 it into action ; life and all its charms, its
 
 46 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 sunshine without its showers, were before 
 himj he felt capable of enjoyment, willing 
 to share it with, and impart it to others : 
 and he rejected with disgust, the cold and 
 artificial system which, about that time, 
 was beginning to turn our once prodigal 
 young heirs into misers, our gallants into 
 saints, and our boyish rakes into book- 
 worms. For him, such a fashionable mania 
 had no charms, and as he would not con- 
 form to it for all the inducements which 
 its votaries could offer, he set himself vi- 
 gorously against it. He marched proudly 
 by those whose principles he knew to be 
 at variance with his own, and made him- 
 self the centre of his own circle ; they who 
 chose to enter it were welcome — where he 
 liked, he liked truly — and where he hated, 
 it was without disguise.
 
 sift PHILIP CASTENEYS. 4? 
 
 Sir Philip, amused with the novelty of 
 his situation, passed the first year of his 
 college life contentedly enough ; he had 
 the hest horses, the gayest parties, and 
 was the highest player of his day. His 
 studies, to which he at first applied him- 
 self, gradually became neglected ; his own 
 taste led him to the cultivation of history, 
 philosophy and the fine arts, subjects which 
 are for the most part neglected in the 
 prescribed course of a college educatian. 
 All thoughts of a degree were of course 
 abandoned ; and temporary gratification of 
 mind and body became his principal and 
 ruling desire. 
 
 It was after he had been there about 
 a year, that he went to see his mother.
 
 48 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 who was residing at his paternal mansion. 
 This abode of his ancestors was such as 
 might have been expected from the nature 
 of his descent : it had been founded in 
 ages long gone by, and had survived through 
 various epochs to the present hour ; un- 
 changed in the great features of its ori- 
 ginal design, but enlarged, altered and 
 added to according to the prevaihng fashion 
 of the day, the wants or caprices of its 
 owners, and the skill or inability of their 
 architects ; but it was still to the eye of 
 the most ignorant observer, what it ori- 
 ginally and all along had been — the do- 
 mestic residence of a powerful and distin- 
 guished family. The Norman arch, with 
 its billet and nebulc, its zigzag and fret, the 
 lancet window, the tapering pinnacle Avith
 
 SIU PHILIP GASTKNEVS. 49 
 
 its roses, its tracery and its crockets, 
 proclaimed tlie successive age of its many 
 and various masters, whilst the numerous 
 escutcheons in stone, in oak, in plaister 
 and in glass, on the walls, the friezes, the 
 ceilings and the windows, accompanied with 
 occasional mottoes and moral sentences, 
 exhibited at once the splendour of their al- 
 liances, their loyalty to the king, and their 
 devotion to God, 
 
 But by far the greater and most ha- 
 bitable part of this venerable mansion stood 
 now, as it was built in the reign of the 
 virtuous and virgin queen. The low, large, 
 square pannelled, old oak doors, embossed 
 with nails, still swung upon their rusty and 
 time-worn hinges. In the great hall, the beams 
 
 D
 
 50 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 and rafters displayed their cobwebbed and 
 gigantic forms. The dais, with its long, 
 narrow, solid table, still occupied its old 
 position, but no longer groaned under its 
 pewter dishes and enormous joints. The 
 gallery was there, but the minstrels and 
 musicians were all departed to their long 
 home ; and the iron manacle was still at- 
 tached to the wall, although there was no 
 refractory guest or temperate domestic to 
 undergo its pains.* 
 
 * In those days, reversing the moral order of things 
 in these saintish times, sobrietj' was considered a vice 
 and drunkenness a virtue. This passage alludes to 
 the prevailing custom of confining any one by the 
 hand to the wall, on his knees, who refused to drink 
 the accustomed quantity of ale, and in that position 
 pouring the remainder down liis sleeve.
 
 SIR PHILIP OASTENEYS. 51 
 
 One side of this vast and interesting 
 pile was occupied by a gallery ; the family 
 portraits, from the first dawn of painting 
 to the bright era of Sir Joshuaj were ranged 
 in regular succession, and the broad light 
 of day gleamed from the wide oriel windows 
 on the loyal and euphuistic knight of Eli- 
 zabeth, and the Cavalier and Kound-head 
 of Cromwell and of Charles. At right angles 
 to this were the gable ends, the turrets 
 and the vanes, the lable and the railing, 
 and the demi - Grecian, demi - gothic ara- 
 besques, with the belted columns and the 
 carved pilasters of a somewhat later period. 
 Every style that was old and ^•enerable, and 
 English seemed there to have found a safe 
 and natural asylum, while only two modern 
 casements, in an obscure angle of this 
 
 D 2
 
 52 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 majestic building, appeared to indicate, that 
 the rude hand of innovation had been pa- 
 ralyzed in its impious attempts. 
 
 It was fortunate for its future fate, and 
 for all lovers of antiquity, that Sir Philip 
 Gasteneys, in inheriting the possessions, 
 succeeded likewise to the spirit and taste 
 of their forefathers. On these vestiges of 
 former magnificence and grandeur, he had 
 always looked with a childish affection ; 
 and sincere was the admiration which he felt 
 at surveying the pannelled wainscoats, the 
 arras hangings, and the buhl and marble 
 which more recent but admirable taste 
 had imparted from the ruined chateaux of 
 monarchical France, and the dilapidated 
 palaces of classic Italy, and intermixed
 
 SiR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 53 
 
 with the ancient specimen of our more 
 homely and less costly national furniture. 
 
 In this respect, indeed, in its interior 
 decorations, Canningshury Hall was a com- 
 plete model. All the productions, the choicest 
 specimens of art and ingenuity, seemed to 
 rival each other by their opposing beauty, 
 and yet to harmonize in the most attrac- 
 tive union. Bronzes and ivory carvings, 
 the choicest M'orks of Cellini and Flamingo, 
 ebony and oak, japan and martjueterie, 
 sculpture and painting, nielli, agemina, and 
 tarsia porcelain from the Indies, Dresden 
 and Sevres, all exhibited their individual 
 and emulous pretensions, yet all seemed 
 bound in a close and beautiful alliance.
 
 54 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Nor had the taste which prevailed over 
 the building deserted the grounds of Can- 
 ningsbury. The same genius seemed to 
 have held the reins of nature and of art : 
 and in the disposal and arrangement of its 
 walks, its shrubberies, its slips, its gardens, 
 and parterres, to have availed itself with 
 consummate skill of the rich and various 
 materials at its disposal. At the bottom of 
 a smooth green lawn, on which lay a formal 
 and luxurious flower-garden, (like a rich 
 coronet of gems upon a velvet cushion), 
 flowed a full and majestic river. Above 
 its banks, the masculine and venerable 
 cedar, the elegant cypress, the melancholy 
 arbor-vitse and the gloomy yew, mingled 
 their branches with the oak, the elm, the
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 55 
 
 sycamore and the beech. There was not u 
 shrub, which wealth or curiosity coukl pro- 
 cure, or ingenuity propagate, whose pecuUar 
 property was not judiciously consulted, or 
 form or foliage advantageously displayed. 
 The walks, which occasionally went in 
 straight and protracted lengths through 
 groves of fir or avenues of lime, and occa- 
 sionally relaxed from their stiff and old 
 fashioned attitudes, into the more graceful 
 sinuosities of the modern school, were 
 neither too sprucely trimmed, nor too af- 
 fectedly neglected — neitlier terminated 
 abruptly, nor continued needlessly — 
 neither geometrically formed, nor coiled in 
 circles like a snake. 
 
 Here and there, too, in appropriate situa-
 
 56 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYSi 
 
 tions and at convenient distances, the wan- 
 derer in this elysium was invited to shelter 
 himself from the sun, or save himself froni 
 the shower ; or on the open seat to repose 
 awhile from the search, and meditate upon 
 the sight of beauties yet unexplored or 
 already investigated ; or if weaiy of the 
 objects immediately around him, and am- 
 bitious of surveying the face of nature 
 afar, he might ascend the steps of some 
 lofty tower, and, travelling with his eye 
 almost as far as with his imagination, 
 gaze upon the vast expanse of the sur- 
 rounding scenery. 
 
 The bath, too, was here, where the visitor 
 might cool his feverish limbs ; the boat- 
 house whence he might embark with the
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTBNKYS. 57 
 
 gay breeze ; the tackle and apparatus 
 with which to pursue tliat amusement 
 which Johnson describes as the recreation 
 of the fool ; but there \rere no busts 
 without names, nor statues with wrong 
 ones; no introduction of fabidous gods to 
 outrage the majesty of the God of nature ; 
 no monuments to dogs, no tablets for 
 epitaphs, no quotations from the classics, 
 no scraps from the muse, no nymphs 
 with urns without water, nor rock-work 
 upon sand. It seemed as if these puerilities 
 had not entered into the manly notions of 
 !Sir Philip's progenitors, nor were the older 
 but more impressive absurdities of the 
 Dutch gardeners imitated or allowed. 
 The clipped firs and architectural hedges 
 had either never existed or not been suf- 
 
 D 3
 
 58 SIR PHILIP GASTENEVS. 
 
 fered to continue. The tortures and con- 
 ceits once practised upon nature, had been 
 banished; art was not permitted to cari- 
 cature her rival ; and though there were 
 vases and bowers, and fountains and grot- 
 toes since the nature of the soil admitted 
 of them, there was nothing displaced, 
 nothing extravagant; nothing which the 
 most critical could condemn or the most 
 fastidious reject. 
 
 Sir Philip drove through the stately 
 beeches, and a long avenue of oaks on the 
 banks of the beautiful river, which flowed 
 through his park, until he alighted at the 
 hall door. The deer gathered in herds, as if 
 to welcome him ; the labourer rested on his 
 spade, and the old grey - headed porter
 
 SIR PIIILLP GASTENKVS. 59 
 
 drew back the massive and trusty bolt to 
 give admittance to his young master. The 
 gorgeous rays of a setting sun gleamed 
 through the painted casements, and shone 
 upon the old suits of armour, and the 
 implements of war and of the chase which 
 hung against the walls ; trophies of less 
 degenerate days. Sir Philip passed along 
 the darkly polished and uncovered boards, 
 and with a joyous countenance entered the 
 library. On its shelves was ranged a 
 choice and complete collection of the clas- 
 sics ; of works in every branch of history, 
 and particularly of the British ; of the fine 
 arts, and of literature, and poetry in the 
 Enghsh, French and Italian languages. 
 But its greatest treasures were in the fine
 
 60 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 artSj and the history of the middle ages, 
 and the revival of literature. From the 
 days of Alberti and Leonardo, to those of 
 Palladio and Sir Joshua ; and from the 
 epoch of fiction and romance under Arthur 
 and Charlemagne, to the splendid realities 
 of Elizabeth and Leo, there was scarcely 
 a work or a treatise, a Conte, or a Fa- 
 bliau, which could not be produced in its 
 original and quaint costume to gratify the 
 taste and curiosity of the artist, the re- 
 search of the antiquary, or the imagina- 
 tion of the poet. A rich cabinet of 
 medals, gems and coins, ancient and mo- 
 dern ; and a numerous collection of en- 
 gravings from Finiguerra to Morghen af- 
 forded their valuable illustrations to these 
 stores of knowledge and productions of
 
 SIR PHILIP r;.\STENEYS. 61 
 
 learning ; whilst the busts of ptiintcrs, 
 sculptors and architects, liistorians, philo- 
 sophers and poets, ranged in chronological 
 order around the apartment, seemed placed 
 there, as if to inspire respect to their 
 memory, and guard their labour from abuse. 
 
 On entering the room, Sir I^hilip found 
 it occupied by a lady whom he instantly 
 recognised. When quite a boy, he had 
 first become acquainted with her at the 
 house of a friend where she was staying, 
 and it was then that she made that 
 impression upon his young heart, 
 which time and circumstances afterwards 
 confirmed. She was single, young, beau- 
 tiful, attractive. Her delicate and tender
 
 62 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 feelings harmonized M'ith his own, There 
 was a playfuhiess and simpUcity in her 
 disposition, an innocent childishness in 
 her manner, which won his youthful affec- 
 tions and excited his rising sensibilities. 
 They were thrown for some time together : 
 they used to walk and play, and talk 
 together of love, without either of them 
 scarcely knowing what it meant : but its 
 ways, though secret, are easily unravelled, 
 and so Sir Philip found it. 
 
 The night before she was to depart, she 
 went into his chamber to bid him farewell : 
 she kissed him, and he kissed her, as in 
 innocence apparently to all around they 
 might well do, but felt what no one but
 
 SIR I'lIILlP GASTENKYS. 63 
 
 themselves could either suspect or know ; 
 their hearts were silently plighted to each 
 other : their alVections tacitly exchanged. 
 
 That night Sir Philip Gasteneys, whose 
 mind was naturally given to devotion, and 
 who, invariably, under circumstances of 
 despair or hope addressed his petition or 
 his thanks to God, put up a prayer to the 
 Supreme Being for her happiness, and 
 vowed to her eternal and devoted love. 
 
 He kept his oath. Tliat night she 
 gave him a purse, the work of her own 
 hands, which with other relics of her af- 
 fection, he has faithfully preserved to this 
 hour. The next morning he surveyed her 
 room : he threw himself upon her yet
 
 64 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 warm but deserted bed : he walked where 
 she had walked, and sat down where she 
 had rested. 
 
 Were not these the symptoms of pas- 
 sion belonging to his age ? and was it 
 not an age when passions, once strongly 
 excited, are not easily subdued ? 
 
 From that time he never beheld her 
 again till she was married ; but he did 
 not forget her. It was by accident he 
 met her, about a year after her marriage, 
 M'ith her husband, with whom he had been 
 previously acquainted. He was now older 
 and more versed in the mysteries of love. 
 He put all his young science into practice. 
 She suspected him of no harm : she could
 
 SIR PHILrP GASTENEYS. Go 
 
 accuse liiin of no boldness ; wluit seemed 
 innocent, at lirst became dangerous upon 
 investigation. But the seed had been 
 already sown, and tliough she knew not 
 what fruit it might prochice, she would be 
 compelled to pluck it. 
 
 He left her with the full secret of his 
 feelings and his iiopes disclosed. The 
 great barrier of virtue, the first and most 
 important buh\'ark had been carried ; she 
 had listened to his avowal : she could not 
 obliterate it, she could not prevent its repe- 
 tition. There were no projects to evade, no 
 proposals to reject, no schemes to counte- 
 ract : he only desired to love her — in secret, 
 and to worship her — in silence.
 
 G6 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Thus they parted: and Sir Philip Gas- 
 teneys had only once seen her afterwards, 
 until now : it was whilst on a visit to her 
 own house with his mother. The time 
 was short, and unproductive of the result 
 which Sir Philip ardently and indefatiga- 
 bly sought. Her love was not yet deep 
 enough to overcome her duty. 
 
 Sir Philip was not aware, before his 
 arrival at home, that Mr. and Mrs. Seton 
 were there ; and he was the more sur- 
 prised at finding them as he had some 
 reason for imagining that Lady Gasteneys 
 was aware of the state of his feelings towards 
 the latter : but mothers in these cases are 
 generally indulgent ; and, with all their 
 love of virtue and recommendation of
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKKEYS. GJ 
 
 morality, often second their sons in tran- 
 sactions which they would not be able to 
 arrange without them. 
 
 Lady Gasteneys, however, need not be 
 subject to this accusation ; her indiscretion, 
 if indiscretion it were, proceeded probably 
 from the confidence she reposed in her 
 son's principles, or her ignorance of the 
 determined nature of his passion. 
 
 He now seized the opportunity which 
 fortune had developed to him, to prosecute 
 his suit with Evelina 3 and he made such 
 gradual inroads upon her affection that she 
 found her repose and tranquillity affected 
 by it. Naturally of a gay and lively dis- 
 position, of strong and susceptible feelings.
 
 68 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 he administered to her amusement by his 
 wit, and attracted her admiration by his 
 enthusiasm. He reminded her of the length 
 of time during which he had known her, 
 of the early days where he first loved her, 
 of the hopes which he had formed of 
 making her his wife, and which she had 
 frustrated : of his enduring faith, of his 
 helpless devotion. 
 
 Evelina had been educated by virtuous 
 and sensible parents, had imbibed the most 
 correct principles, and was endowed with 
 the most amiable disposition ; but she 
 married, principally in compliance with 
 her father's wishes, a man of whom she 
 knew but little, who had never interested 
 her much, and was not calculated to in-
 
 SIR PHILIP CASTENEYS. 6'J 
 
 terest her more. She was like a being who 
 fixes his rctiideiicc on the first spot which 
 may present itself for convenience and 
 comfort, wherein there may be notliing to 
 admire, nor any thing to disgust, and 
 who afterwards discovers that the sur- 
 rounding neighbourhood possesses sites 
 of infinite beauty and manifold attractions, 
 which might liave been as easily within 
 his reach. What a mortification for him 
 to discover that he must either now remain, 
 where his hasty and inconsiderate choice 
 had placed him, or transplant himself else- 
 where with the loss of his original invest- 
 ment ! 
 
 It was thus with Evelina ; she had 
 bound herself to one whom she could not
 
 70 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 now abandon, without the sacrifice of 
 every thing most dear to woman ; yet she 
 beheld in Sir Philip Gasteneys a man 
 superior to her husband in birth, in for- 
 tune, in personal charms, in accomplish- 
 ments, in temper, and she heard his 
 solemn and daily protestations that he 
 had destined her for his own. She re- 
 flected, she could not help reflecting, that 
 she had been the destroyer of her own 
 happiness as well as his : for she might 
 have possessed him when it would have 
 been no sin to love him, and she saw 
 him now a defrauded suitor, not a base 
 seducer at her feet, imploring from pity, 
 what he might have gained from choice. 
 
 Nor was there any hypocrisy in these
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEyS. 71 
 
 representations on the part of Sir Philip 
 Gasteneys. He was perfectly sincere in 
 liis admiration of her, and he believed, 
 tliat had she been single he would not have 
 hesitated to marry her. He convinced 
 himself that he had a sort of right to her; 
 and that since he could not obtain her in 
 one way, it would be pardonable to do so 
 in another. 
 
 The period of his visit to Canningsbury 
 was now drawing to a close, and they were 
 to return home. JMr. Seton, to repay in 
 some measure, the civilities which he had 
 received from Lady Gasteneys, and not 
 dreaming of the attachment which subsisted 
 between her son and his wife, invited Sir 
 Phihp to accompany them. Of this kind-
 
 72 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 ness he was too happy to avail himself, for 
 though he felt some remorse at the idea 
 of thus making an unsuspecting husband 
 contribute to his own ruin, yet he had not 
 resolution enough to oppose himself to the 
 proffered inducement. 
 
 They accordingly departed : Sir Philip full 
 of tumultuous hope, Evelina of nervous joy, 
 Mr. Seton of indifference and unconcern. 
 
 The journey was long and tedious, but 
 to persons under the influence of such feel- 
 ings as those of Sir Philip and Evelina, 
 distance is imperceptible and delay gratify- 
 ing. Mr. Seton's house was in — shire, in 
 one of the wildest and most romantic tracts 
 of that mountainous and chaotic region.
 
 SIR IMIILIF GASTENIiVS. 73 
 
 It was the remains of an old castle adapted, 
 witli considerable regard to consistency, to 
 the wants of modern life. It was built 
 upon a steep acclivity ; the sides of the 
 wild hills which environed it, were hung 
 over many a vast acre with dark impene- 
 trable forests of their native fir, and for 
 miles around with the thick and prickly 
 furze. At the foot of the castle, through 
 the grounds in devious and rugged course 
 ran the little river Ilu, here penetrating a 
 secret channel under ground, and there 
 emerging with triumphant impetus from 
 beneath some massive rock to freshen with 
 its glad and liberated waters the grassy 
 and secluded plain. 
 
 In a 
 
 greeu and woody amphitheatre,
 
 74 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 stood a small and very ancient parish 
 church. There were some few tombs and 
 monmiiental tablets- recording with simple 
 and unlettered affection, the virtues of the 
 deceased and the regret of the survivors. 
 It seemed to be a burial place in which 
 the relics only of loveliness and innocence 
 reposed ; one could not fancy that the sa- 
 credness and serenity of its clayey occu- 
 pants were profaned by the corpses of 
 guilty ambition or unpunished crime : the 
 air within its precincts breathed only of 
 humility and content. As you entered 
 through the low and humble porch, round 
 which the tenacious ivy had fastened its 
 embrace for many a by-gone year, (strong 
 to preserve, as the coils of the boa are to 
 destroy,) you felt that it was a place con-
 
 SIR PHI LI 1' GASTKNEYS. 75 
 
 secrated, not in name only, to piety and 
 peace. The old carved oaken pulpit, the 
 rudely sculptured stone front whose devices 
 still savoured of the mysteries of paganism, 
 and the empty niche where once, and for so 
 many ages, stood the vessel of the holy 
 water, recalled you to the very origin, and 
 from the origin to the reformation of our 
 Holy Church. One could not but sigh at 
 the painted glass \Ahich was broken, the 
 ornaments which were defaced, the tomb- 
 stones which were stripped of their brazen 
 effigies, victims alike of fanatic violence or 
 puerile disport. 
 
 In one corner of the wall near the commu- 
 nion table, was a monument, two hundred 
 years old, to a previous owner of the 
 
 K 2
 
 76 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 estate. The epitaph on it concluded 
 with this quaint and beautiful tribute to 
 virtuous age : 
 
 " Beloved he lived ; and died o'ercharged with years, 
 Fuller of honour than of silver hairs," 
 
 In such a place as this, much gaiety 
 was not to be expected; and, as the car- 
 riage-wheels rolled over the ricketty and 
 rattling draw-bridge, the heart, or at any 
 rate, the spirits of Sir Philip Gasteneys 
 abated somewhat of their natural elasticity. 
 Some of the huge square towers with their 
 hanging parapets, were in ruins ; the grass 
 grew in the angles of the vast court, which 
 once resounded to the hoofs of gallant 
 steeds, and was filled with armed retainers ; 
 and the raven now stretched its black
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTliNKYS. 77 
 
 wings to the air, in wliich once had floated 
 the standard of the Seton. 
 
 There was a report too, that the castle 
 was hanntcd, which, added to the pau- 
 city of tiic neighbouring families, was a 
 sufficient reason for its being little fre- 
 quented by company. Mr. Seton was a 
 hospitable man enough ; that is to say, he 
 always asked every body who called, to stay 
 and dine with him, a custom not likely 
 to ruin him, when the visitors came about 
 once a month and nothing was added to 
 the family diimer for their reception • but 
 he had no idea of opening his house, or 
 inviting company before hand ; or making a 
 partv, or even giving A\hat country people 
 call an occasional blow out. The fatted
 
 78 SIR PHILIP GASTKNKYS. 
 
 calf was very seldom killed, and when 
 killed, very slowly eaten. 
 
 The j)rincipal, or rather the only amuse- 
 ments, were in the sports of the field. The 
 moor and copses contained abundance of 
 game ; the lakes and rivulets were full of 
 fish ; and there was a pack of fox hounds 
 and harriers in the neighbourhood. Mr. 
 Seton himself was a great sportsman and 
 occupied his whole time between hunting 
 and shooting, coursing and farming, in all of 
 which pursuits he thought himself infinitely 
 superior to his neighbours. 
 
 Sir Philip Gasteneys certainly did not 
 congratulate himself upon the change 
 which he had made from his own elegant
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 79 
 
 and luxurious mansion, to tliis dreary and 
 unsociable abode ; but still Evelina was its 
 inmate, and it was in her that he sought 
 for compensation. Mr. Seton left them to 
 do exactly as they pleased, and they passed 
 the whole of every day in each other's com- 
 pany. They walked, rode, sat and sang 
 together, The day was not long enough 
 for their communion. 
 
 Amidst, however, the general plainness, 
 not to say poverty of Kniperslcy Castle, there 
 was one apartment which Evelina with ex- 
 quisite skill and taste, and admirable econo- 
 my of her trivial means, had dedicated to 
 herself : it was her own boudoir ; this room 
 was a small octagon, and was situated in 
 one of the turrets \\hich overhung a deep
 
 80 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 ravine, at a point where the river in its 
 rugged course fell over the point of a 
 rock into a natural basin below. Its walls 
 were pannelled in small compartments and 
 the frieze was carved alternately with her 
 initials, and the shield of her arms em- 
 blazoned in their proper colours : the wains- 
 coat was painted in red, green and gold ; 
 on each side was a mirror, and all around 
 were affixed gilt brackets, variously sur- 
 mounted with rare bits of European and 
 Oriental porcelain, and miniatures in rich 
 frames of velvet, enamel and gold. 
 
 At one end was a conservatory : small, 
 but full of choice and odoriferous plants, 
 cultivated with her own hands ; and at the 
 other an aviary, with canaries, parrots,
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 81 
 
 bullfinches and thrushes, whose varied 
 notes kept up an agceeuble, though inhar- 
 monious concert. Tiie furniture, in colour 
 apple green, was of the simplest yet most 
 tasteful kind ; there avus no profusion, yet 
 no meanness ; no ostentation, yet no po- 
 verty; no superfluity, yet nothing deficient ; 
 whilst a piano and a harp, the newest pub- 
 lications in books and prints, drawings 
 and various styles of work, evinced the 
 cultivation of her mind and the innocence 
 and purity of her amusements. 
 
 In this delicious boudoir Sir Philip 
 passed the seductive hours, until he forgot 
 what was due to others and to himself 3 but 
 what principally excited his astonishment 
 
 K 3
 
 82 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 and puzzled his judgment, was the perfect 
 blindness which seemed to obscure the dis- 
 cernment of Mr. Seton. To the casual 
 observers, who were occasionally guests 
 at his table, the attentions of Sir Philip 
 to Mrs. Seton were visible enough, and as 
 is usual in such cases, had become the sub- 
 ject of conversation and censure to all the 
 gossips in the neighbourhood. There was 
 one amongst them to whom some parts 
 of Sir Philip's previous history and cha- 
 racter were known : and he did not fail to 
 publish his observations of the past and his 
 predictions of the future. Reports were 
 thus gradually spread of the intimacy which 
 subsisted between them ; and Sir Philip 
 himself, in spite of his utmost caution, Mas
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 3S 
 
 SO aware of the marked nature of their in- 
 tercourse, that he could scarcely convince 
 himself that it was unknown to Mr. Setoii. 
 
 This very suspicion operated power- 
 fully on his mind : he communicated it to 
 Evelina, and found that she too entertained 
 it. A thousand dark surmises presented 
 themselves to their imagination. That Mr, 
 Seton should not have a glimpse of what any 
 one else saw so plainly, was incredihle ; that 
 he should be indifferent to it, equally so. 
 What then could this conduct imply ? 
 was he desirous of encouraging their ad- 
 vances, to avail himself of their indiscretion ? 
 
 This last thought communicated itself 
 imperceptibly and irresi!>tibly to the active
 
 84 SIR PHTLIP GASTENKYS. 
 
 imagination of Sir Philip Gasteneys, and 
 made him resolve the more sedulously to 
 defeat any such project if it existed. He 
 had discovered that serious discontent and 
 uncomfortableness had for some time 
 existed between Mr. and Mrs. Seton. 
 Their tempers did not assimilate, nor were 
 their taste and pursuits conformable to each 
 other : the feeling under which Evelina 
 had now been struggling for some time, 
 had enlarged the cause of dissatisfaction, 
 and widened the breach between them. 
 
 In the course of these dissensions, Mr. 
 Seton would frequently develop his feelings 
 to Sir Philip and ask his advice ; a course 
 which the judgment of the latter con- 
 demned, and the honesty of his heart re-
 
 sill PHILIP GASTKNEYS. 86 
 
 jected. He could not reconcile it to his 
 conscience to deceive or betray a person 
 who voluntarily and unsuspectingly con- 
 fided in him and looked to him for help, 
 yet he could not relinquish the dearest ob- 
 ject of existence. He did every thing in 
 his power to heal their dissensions, and in 
 great measure succeeded. He loved Eve 
 lina, but he did not desire to destroy the 
 domestic peace of Mr. Seton. 
 
 And thus things for some time continued, 
 whilst still the scruples of Evelina were un- 
 vanquished, though her heart, with its 
 deepest aflfection, was irrevocably transferred 
 to Sir Philip Gasteneys. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that
 
 86 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 he met with an accident which confined 
 him for many weeks to his apartment, and 
 at one time threatened serious consequences. 
 During this period of anxiety and dis- 
 tress, the deep and entire affection of Eve- 
 lina was developed to him. She watched 
 by his bedside, she administered to his 
 wants, she cheered his drooping spirit, and 
 calmed his agitated soul. Her very exis- 
 tence seemed to hang upon his fate. 
 
 There is nothing from which the heart 
 imbibes such tender recollections, or by 
 which it is impressed with so much gra- 
 titude as the attentions shewn on a 
 dying bed. They seem to link one inse- 
 parably with the giver of them ; to invest 
 one with a right to incorporate one's most
 
 SJU IMIILIP GASTENEYS. 87 
 
 secret thoughts with theirs, to make it a 
 duty to love and clierish tliem. When 
 Sir Philip Gastcneys arose from his me- 
 lancholy couch, he looked upon Evelina as 
 his deliverer, — she regarded him as her God. 
 
 The struggle was over : they were blind 
 to the danger of their situation, and they 
 fell into the commission of evil. They 
 sinned — knowingly, wilfully, irresistibly; 
 and if the severest punishment that heaven 
 or earth could have affixed to their crime 
 had been before their eyes, it is feared, 
 alas ! so infatuated were they, that they 
 would nevertheless have sinned. 
 
 But the morrow was to come. It 
 
 was after a night of guilty enjoyment
 
 88 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 that tliey were to meet, on his return 
 home, the one, an injured husband, 
 the other an abused friend. They knew 
 that no trace of their transgression was 
 discernible ; they were safe from detection, 
 secure from reproach. But they had lost 
 their innocence, and tranquillity refused 
 to sit upon their brow ! The day passed 
 wretchedly, they wandered on each other's 
 arm in the most secluded places, and lin- 
 gered in the most solitary spots. The 
 bright sun of a July evening was retiring 
 from the world, and they found themselves 
 in the churchyard which I have described. 
 The full tide of remorse and love came 
 over them : they entered the house of God, 
 they approached his altar, they asked for- 
 giveness upon their knees, and swore in
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 89 
 
 the same breath a vow of endless and 
 immutable alTection. 
 
 It was shortly after this, that Sir Philip 
 was obliged to return home. He felt that 
 any more protraeted stay would compro- 
 mise Mrs. Seton's honour. He was not 
 free from surmises that it had not already 
 been endangered. It was difficult to tear 
 himself from a scene endeared by such 
 recollections. The ivy is not separated 
 from the tree, nor the periwinkle from the 
 rock with more reluctant violence than 
 Sir Philip from Evelina : she fixed her 
 large blue eyes upon him with a gaze of 
 deep and unutterable despair ; he clasped 
 her in his arms, pressed her to his desolate 
 bosom, overpowered her with caresses, and
 
 90 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 flooded her with tears. A thousand times 
 did he meditate on removing her for ever 
 from her now wretched home, and making 
 her his wife, and a thousand times did he 
 reject the project when he compared with 
 his own happiness the ruin it would, bring 
 on her husband, her children, and herself. 
 
 They parted ; but their hearts could not 
 be rent asunder. From that hour, for 
 many, many months. Sir Philip and Eve- 
 lina knew no peace. 
 
 He went back iu lonely misery to his 
 mother, but he could not now bear the 
 place in which any object reminded him 
 of Evelina. He returned to Oxford. The 
 gaiety and dissipation of his College life
 
 SIR FUILIP CASTENEYS. 91 
 
 had no longer any charm for him. All 
 and every thing were flown. His mind 
 had lost its energies, his body its appetite, 
 his 30ul its repose. 
 
 Before his departure he had arranged 
 the means of corresponding secretly "with 
 Evelina. It was the only pleasure left 
 him. It was one of these communications 
 from her, which one morning conveyed to 
 him a discovery which he had long dreaded : 
 the jealousy of Mr. Scton had at length 
 been excited by the insinuations of some, 
 and the friendly warnings of others. He 
 had been told of the intimacy which was 
 supposed to exist between his wife and 
 Sir Philip Gastcneys; and, with a sort of 
 doubtful feeling, which on the one hand
 
 92 SIR PHILfP GASTENEYS. 
 
 was not strong enough to convince himself, 
 nor on the other to resist the importuni- 
 ties of his advisers, he determined on com- 
 municating the nature of his sentiments, 
 and the disagreableness of liis situation to 
 Sir Phihp, and on terminating by these 
 means, in an amicable manner their former 
 intercourse. 
 
 He had imparted this intention to Mrs. 
 Seton, and it was of this that she now 
 apprized Sir Philip. Accordingly the 
 next morning post brought him the follow- 
 ing letter : 
 
 " Dear Sir Philip, 
 " The world, it appears, has thought fit 
 to raise injurious, and perhaps unjustifiable
 
 SIR I'llILIP GASjTENEYS. 93 
 
 reports of the nature of your feelings and 
 conduct towards Mrs. Seton, since your 
 departure hence. 
 
 " I have no means of judging accurately 
 of the truth or falsehood of these repre- 
 sentations, and I am unwilling to suspect, 
 what I should be sorrv to be convinced 
 of. 
 
 " But 1 cannot act with apparent in- 
 difference towards my best interests, or 
 with complete negligence to the advice and 
 entreaties of my best friends ; and I, there- 
 fore, have come to this resolution, as the 
 best which, under all circumstances, \ 
 can adopt, of communicating to you my 
 desire, that from this time, in order to
 
 94 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 prevent the further progress of these 
 rumours, our acquaintance and intercourse 
 may cease. 
 
 " I am, yours truly, 
 
 " Henry Seton." 
 Knipersley Castle. 
 7b Sir Philip Gasteneys, Bart. 
 
 On the receipt of this letter. Sir Philip 
 was agitated by the most conflicting emo- 
 tions. A stop was immediately to be put 
 to his intercourse with Evelina ; her honour 
 to be compromised, his own character to 
 be attacked, Mr. Seton's mind to be dis- 
 turbed. He could not submit to his in- 
 junctions without tacitly acknowledging the 
 justice and necessity of them. He saw no
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. U-t 
 
 E^ood, and much ill arising from such a 
 course. 
 
 But how was it to be avoided ? He could 
 not deny the truth of Mr. Seton's suspi- 
 cions without expressing his indignation at, 
 and demanding satisfaction for them : and 
 this mode of proceeding, though it seemed 
 on all accounts, the best calculated to an- 
 swer the ends he had in view, viz : of gra- 
 tifying himself and Evelina, and continuing 
 his intimacy with her, was liable to this ob- 
 jection, the chance of his being the destroyer 
 of Mr. Seton, as well as the seducer of 
 his wife. It was a dreadful alternative to 
 expose himself to the possibility of adding 
 murder to adultery, and robbing children 
 of a father, as well as a husband of his wife.
 
 96 SrR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Sir Philip was lost between his desire 
 to remedy what he had already done, and 
 his dread of doing something worse. He 
 hesitated between a choice of evils, such 
 as seldom present themselves for decision ; 
 but he was of a bold and adventurous 
 disposition, firm of purpose, fearless of exe- 
 cution. As yet, there was hope, there was 
 a remedy ; and, desperate as they might 
 seem, he was bound, in justice to Evelina, 
 to avail himself of them, if he could. 
 
 He considted only his own heart ; to no 
 human being had he ever breathed a sylla- 
 ble of his long and fatal, and engrossing 
 passion. The secret of his heart had been 
 known only to Evelina ; and, now in the 
 crisis of his misery and misfortune, he
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTBNKYS. 97 
 
 would not disclose her shame and the tale 
 of her sorrow, even to his bosom friend. 
 
 He wrote the following answer to Mr. 
 Seton's letter : 
 
 Sir, 
 " I have had the honour to receive a 
 communication from you, which it has been 
 as painful to me to read, as it must have 
 been to you to write. 
 
 " Sir, you have ventured, without regard 
 to Mrs. Seton's feelings, to your own, or 
 to mine, to accuse me of sentiments and 
 conduct towards her, which I ought never 
 to have entertained ; these acaisations and 
 charges you found only upon surmises and 
 
 F
 
 98 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 reports, the truth of which you have taken 
 no pains to investigate, and the authors 
 of which you do not condescend to name : 
 whilst, without reference to your own ob- 
 servation, which, during the many months 
 that I had the pleasure of passing under 
 your roof, had no cause to suspect me ; 
 and admitting that you ^ have no means 
 of judging accurately of the truth or false- 
 hood of them,' you afl&x to them the stamp 
 of your authority and recognition, by re- 
 fusing to hold communion with me any 
 more. 
 
 " Sir, if you have been so far led astray 
 froni your sense of duty to Mrs. Seton and 
 delicacy to yourself, as thus to proclaim her 
 to the world, as a woman whose reputa-
 
 SIR VmiAV r.ASTBNKYS. 99 
 
 tion is blighted and whose virtue has been 
 assailed, I own, with great truth and can- 
 dour, that I have too much sincere regard 
 for her, too lively a recollection of her great 
 kindness to me, too much gratitude to her 
 yet unpaid, and too much respect also for 
 my own character, thus to surrender so 
 easily to unjust condemnation. 
 
 " I therefore feel it to be a duty which 
 I cannot dispense with, nor discharge 
 without regret, to require at your hands, 
 either the names of the calumuiators, 
 who bring these charges against me, and 
 have offered you the advice on which 
 you have acted, or a full and explicit 
 recantation of, and apology for them, 
 
 p 2
 
 too SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 or satisfaction for the injury thus offered 
 me. 
 
 " 1 have the honour to be, 
 " Sir, 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Philip Gastbneys." 
 7(9 Henry Set on, Esq. 
 
 Sir Philip waited with restless anxiety 
 for a reply to this letter ; and great was his 
 satisfaction, on receiving one far different 
 from what he had expected. Mr. Seton, 
 doubtful himself upon a point, on which 
 he was reluctant to be convinced, struck, 
 perhaps, with the apparent force of Sir 
 Philip's arguments, and unwilling, by any 
 act of his own, to publish the ignominy
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKNEYS. 101 
 
 of his fiiinlly, wrote to Sir Philip, to assure 
 him of his regret at having been momen- 
 tarily induced to countenance reports, which 
 he now utterly discredited, and expressing 
 his hopes, that they should remain on the 
 same friendly and confidential footing on 
 which they had previously stood. 
 
 The danger was past ; guilt and auda • 
 city had triumphed ; but it had been too 
 imminent to be incurred again. Sir Philip 
 could not any further risk the peace and 
 happiness of a family which he had alreadj' 
 too deeply injured. 
 
 He resolved to go abroad ; it was the 
 only course which prudence pointed out to 
 him. It was a great effort to separate
 
 102 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 himself from Evelina ; but of great efforts, 
 when necessary, he was capable. 
 
 He was possessed, in consequence of a 
 long minority, of a very large sum, which 
 was disposable by will, although he had not 
 attained the age of twenty-one ; he was 
 now in fact, only nineteen. This property 
 he bequeathed before he left England, in 
 case of his death, to Evelina ; it was the 
 only proof he could give her of his undying 
 affection. 
 
 He left Oxford, and proceeded to Lon- 
 don, from thence he set sail to Calais : it 
 was to the classic soil of Italy that he de- 
 termined to repair ; it had been the fa- 
 vourite dream of his youngest hours, it was
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 103 
 
 adapted to his studies, his pleasures and 
 his tastes. 
 
 Wlio can find adventures on the beaten 
 road over which Hannibal was the first to 
 cross ? It would be an idle attempt to look 
 for wonders oneself, or to describe to others 
 what they all have seen. Sir Philip, in- 
 deed, was disposed to view eveiy thing 
 through a gloomy medium j and the season 
 of the year, for it was the depth of winter, 
 in those rugged regions where she has 
 fixed her tyrannic reign, was ill calculated 
 to cheer his vision. He went, like any other 
 traveller, over the uninteresting and un- 
 varied plain of la belle France, a})iding 
 at the best hotels, and adding, like his 
 precursors, his sometimes reluctant testi- 
 mony to the comfort and accommodations of
 
 104 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 the house and the attentions of the host ; 
 comforts and attentions they might well be 
 termed, if compared with what he met 
 with in the unciviHzed and miserable haunts, 
 which afterwards occurred on his passage. 
 
 On arriving at that mighty barrier which 
 is the natviral bulwark of Italy, the snow 
 was found to have rendered the road im- 
 passable ; but Sir Philip could not brook 
 delay, and deaf to remonstrance, and in- 
 sensible to fear, he set off from Lanslebourg. 
 Twelve melancholy hours passed away, the 
 long unbroken ascent M'as perseveringly 
 continued, many perils were encountered ; 
 some accidents occurred, when, by the 
 united help of horses, oxen and men. Sir 
 Philip arrived at the lonely inn on the 
 high and desolate plain of Mount Cenis.
 
 SIR IMIiriT r.ASTKNEYS. 105 
 
 With tlic aid of his servant he got, or rather 
 was taken out of his carriage ; for the coki 
 hail benumbed his limbs, and the glare of 
 the eternal snow which covers the face of 
 this mountain, had rendered him half blind 
 and giddy. 
 
 Words might be sought in vain to 
 describe the inconceivable wretchedness of 
 this sole refuge of the weary traveller in 
 one of the most arbitrary regions of na- 
 ture. Sir Philip was conducted up a steep 
 and snow-clad stair-case into a large and 
 gloomy room, where a crowd of benighted 
 and assassin-like strangers, were contending 
 with each other for proximity to the soli- 
 tary stove, which diffused a feeble warmth 
 through its innnense circumference. Sir 
 
 F 3
 
 106 SIR PHILIP GASTKNEYS. 
 
 Philip did not long remain here to dispute 
 the empire of barbarity and selfishness, but 
 desired to be shewn into a room for the 
 night. He was accordingly led through a 
 long, dark, narrow, uneven and slippery 
 passage into a small bed-chamber. The 
 floor was uncarpeted, except with grease, 
 the windows uncurtained, whilst a solitary 
 table and two chairs were placed against 
 the wall. The walls themselves were 
 painted in a rude and gaudy manner ; a 
 remnant which the Italians still preserve 
 of the customs of their great progenitors. 
 The door with a reluctant latch and super- 
 annuated hinges gave no token of its exis- 
 tence, but by its ceaseless and annoying 
 creak, and was as useless in excluding the 
 wind, as it was efficacious in disturbing
 
 SIR rillLIP GASTENEYS. 107 
 
 the tranquillity of tliu chamber to which 
 it belonged. In another corner of this mi- 
 serable den, was placed the bed : if a bun- 
 dle of straw and a coverlid of rags, laid 
 upon two transverse boards without pillow, 
 bolster or hangings, could justly be so 
 termed. 
 
 To this hole, the most miserable he had 
 ever entered, Sir Philip was consigned for 
 the night. By the light of a solitary tal- 
 low candle, which gave more indication 
 of its intended office by its smell than by 
 its flame, he was left to ruminate on his 
 situation. The cook who first dressed his 
 dinner had now strewed his couch, and 
 left him with a " fclicmifna notte" to the 
 fleas and to his fate.
 
 108 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS, 
 
 What a comparison between his present 
 situation and the one he had not long 
 since left ! Could Evelina fail to occupy 
 his distracted mind ? could sleep close his 
 eyelids when he thought of her and of what 
 he had lost ? 
 
 He rose at day-break and proceeded on 
 his journey, but nothing now could inte- 
 rest him. The gaiety of cities, the bril- 
 liancy of courts, the charms of music, of 
 poetry, painting, architecture and sculp- 
 ture, were all lost on him. The splendid 
 regularity of Turin, the smiling magnifi- 
 cence of Florence, the voluptuous freedom 
 of the Sardinians, the sprightly converse 
 of the Tuscans, failed to attract him. He 
 hurried on to a scene more accordant with
 
 SIR I'lIILIF GASTJiNBYS. 109 
 
 his owji gloomy unci dilapidated feelings, 
 where he might indulge in meditation, and 
 mourn in secret : it was to Rome that he 
 repaired, lie longed to commune with her 
 monuments and dwell amid her ruins. 
 
 But the pest of English society, which 
 he was anxious to avoid, still followed him 
 even here. The world had now grown an- 
 ticjuarian ; and every body thought it ne- 
 cessary to visit the grave of the Caesars 
 and the cradle of the Popes. It was not 
 enough, as formerly, that people should be 
 content with reading the travels of others, 
 they must needs tra^•cl and write travels 
 themselves, and infect with their barbarous 
 and unlettered presence, the asylum of 
 antiquity and the birth-place of the arts.
 
 no SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Rome was at this time crowded with fo- 
 reigners of all descriptions, but particularly 
 by English. Our countrymen, established 
 there from principles of economy which 
 they could not practice at home, found 
 themselves rich enough with the wreck of 
 their fortunes to eclipse in splendour and 
 magnificence the impoverished nobles of 
 the Italian courts. They insolently took 
 possession of the finest palaces of the 
 grandees, and vied with each other in the 
 frequency and sumptuousness of entertain- 
 ments held in the hired saloons of the unin- 
 vited owner. Petty jealousies, the degrad- 
 ing rivalries and animosities which influence 
 little minds, destroyed at the same time 
 the harmony which might have pervaded 
 their society and divided it into party ca-
 
 SIR I'HILIP GASTENEYS. Ill 
 
 bals and opposition coteries. The eccentric 
 and defamed Countess who had lost her 
 caste in society at home, was here the self- 
 erected arbitrcss of propriety and ton. The 
 learned wife of an expectant heir luade up 
 for less ample display by the selection of 
 more intellectual guests, and tried to hold 
 that rank as a blue-stockinj^, which she 
 anticipated as a Marchioness. In her less 
 gorgeous apartments, the flashes of wit 
 were meant to supply those of wax candles, 
 and the feast of reason was served up in 
 lieu of more substantial fare to guests whose 
 appetites were sharper than their intellects. 
 In this circle every body was expected to 
 bring amusement for others, not to find it 
 provided for themselves, and a solo on the
 
 112 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS, 
 
 harp or a duet by the lady and her go- 
 verness on the piano, with a stupid disser- 
 tation on a broken lamp, or a piece of 
 lava, was the attraction for which each 
 noviciate guest had to do penance by 
 climbing to the summit of the Pincio. 
 
 There were others too of our high-born 
 country-folks, who sought to amuse men 
 with the pastimes of children, and with 
 thirteen of their offspring, brought to Rome 
 for education, got up a dance on the car- 
 pet, or a concert e7i famille. It was de- 
 lightful to be linked almost double M'ith a 
 little girl no higher than your knee, or sit 
 crying " bravo" and " encore"' to the chirping 
 of a nest of young christians less harmo-
 
 SIR PllILIl' GASTKNEYS. 113 
 
 nious than screech-owls ; and nothing could 
 be more intcresthig than this sacrifice of 
 mature age to youthful enjoyment. 
 
 Nor Mas it much better at tlic houses of 
 the foreign ministers. There was so little 
 good materiel for filling the enormous salons 
 of the ancient palaces which they occupied, 
 that it was ' absolutely necessary to have 
 recourse to the high-ways and ditches in 
 search of guests. The line once broken, 
 the rout became a rabble, and it was an even 
 chance at one of these grand soirees, where 
 the aristocratic representative of the grand 
 nwmirque of the gratide nation, received 
 without distinction the introductions of a 
 banker's clerk, that the skirt of your coat 
 was torn off by the very tailor who cut it
 
 114 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 out. With the English, the confusion of 
 rank and society was still worse than with 
 the strangers of any other nation : for 
 having no minister at the court of Rome, 
 they were necessarily at the mercy of fo- 
 reigners totally unacquainted with their 
 birth and station ; and many is the shopman 
 west of Temple-Bar who has availed him- 
 self of this ignorance to make his bow to 
 a princess and shake hands with a cardinal. 
 
 There were tableaux too, a species of 
 entertainment, the actors in which should 
 have pretty faces and no brains. Ecarte 
 was played upon credit for a scudo a game, 
 and long whist was occasionally attempted. 
 
 Sir Philip Gasteneys soon discovered the
 
 SIR IMIILIP GASTENEYS. 115 
 
 nature of the society, and as soon became 
 disgusted with it. There were baUs, and 
 parties, and concerts somewhere or other 
 every night, and he had no sooner arrived 
 than all these dilTercnt classes were anxious 
 to enrol him in their circle ', but there 
 was no reciprocity of feeling between him 
 and them. He despised the arrogance of 
 some, and loathed the ignorance of others. 
 
 His mornings, however, were passed to 
 his heart's content in the Forum, the Basi- 
 licee or the Cohseum. He wandered in the 
 baths of Caracidia, or amid the ruins of 
 the Palatine, and lingered with becoming 
 emotions on the various scenes consecrated 
 by republican virtue, or degraded by im- 
 perial vice.
 
 116 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Of all places in the world, Rome is the 
 most fit to teach wisdom, to inspire 
 morality. It abounds with so many exist- 
 ing associations of good and evil, it fur- 
 nishes so many striking instances of patrio- 
 tism and treason, of heroism and cowardice, 
 of prosperity and misfortune, it teems with 
 so many contradictory examples of honour 
 and bad faith, of equity and injustice, of 
 cruelty and mercy, of chastity and corrup- 
 tion, that the most thoughtless is compelled 
 to reflect, and the most negligent to con- 
 sider. It is impossible to live in it, and 
 be indifferent to its lessons. 
 
 The comparison of the many awful 
 changes it has undergone, the contrast 
 between its present and its past condition.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTBNEYS. 11* 
 
 the melancholy humiliation to which its 
 temporal power is reduced, and the vain 
 importance with which its spiritual rulers 
 still endeavour to invest it in the eyes of 
 a more enlightened and less superstitious 
 world, afford a constant and unwearying 
 suhject of reflection and discourse. 
 
 Sir Philip's great delight was in the 
 study of that long and dismal period, m hich 
 extinguished the genius of the ancient, and 
 gave birth to that of the modern world. 
 He loved to observe the gradual decay, the 
 total annihilation, the progressive resuscita- 
 tion of the faculties of man, and to riot in the 
 undisturbed contemplation of all the wonders 
 which the past periods of his greatness had 
 produced. He studied the vast and admirable
 
 118 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 proportions, the chaste and elegant design, 
 the exquisitely rich, yet not overloaded orna- 
 ments of the Greek and Roman architects, 
 and sighed with indignation and pity at 
 the barbarous hands, which, with rude ma- 
 terials and uncultured taste, had insolently 
 essayed to alter or restore their crumbling 
 members : and again he turned with pride 
 and satisfaction from the pieced architrave 
 and mangled columns of St. Lorenzo, where 
 cornices are sawed into mutules, and capi- 
 tals degraded into bases, to the gigantic 
 Cupola of St. Peter's, and the modest and 
 unassuming Tempietto of Bramante. 
 
 To the student of architecture, to hiin 
 who loves to trace its march from the days 
 of its former perfection, through successive
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. \\9 
 
 Stages to the present hour, or to liiin whose 
 curiosity is interested in the early progress 
 of Christianity and its disciples, the Basilicae 
 offer the most interesting spectacle of any 
 of the monuments of ancient Rome. In 
 their still brilliant but coarse mosaics, their 
 marble ambones, their spiral and twisted 
 columns, and their frescoes from the brush 
 of Masaccio or Giotto, the mind is led back 
 to the remote and obscure periods when the 
 absurd superstitions of paganism, were aban- 
 doned for the scarcely less unintelligible 
 mysteries of the new Doctrine, when a fresh 
 set of performers played almost similar 
 ceremonies upon the same stage. From 
 these rude efforts of simple and incipient 
 zeal, when, as yet the thought of serving 
 their Redeemer was not superseded in the
 
 120 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 mind of the primitive christians, by the 
 impious ambition of exalting their church 
 and its worldly interests, under the pretence 
 of piety, it was instructive to mark, as you 
 might well do at Rome, the gradual ad- 
 vances made in the temporal power and 
 influence of the Clergy and the Pope, from 
 the days of Constantine to those of Charle- 
 magne and the Countess Matilda, the 
 grasping Borgia and the warlike Julius, 
 and observe their domineering authority over 
 the consciences and purses of their univer- 
 sal flock by the increasing splendour and 
 magnificence of their churches, where the 
 marbles of Africa and Asia, relics of im- 
 perial grandeur, where gilding and sculp- 
 ture, painting and precious stones, dazzle 
 the eye and bewilder the imagination.
 
 SIR PHILIP (JASTEXEYS. 121 
 
 It certainly is a striking peculiarity, and 
 one indicative of the great influence which 
 the immortal works of the ancient architects 
 exercised over the minds and tastes of their 
 degenerate descendants in the capital, that 
 no example, beyond an obscure window or 
 an insignificant arch, should be found within 
 the walls or precincts of the once mistress of 
 the world. That htjle of architecture, 
 absurdly enough denominated gothic, though 
 introduced into Europe long after the Goths 
 had ceased to make their irruptions, and 
 apparently derived by progressive stages 
 from the Roman, both in its leading fea- 
 tures and its ornaments, never ventured 
 to intrude its unhallowed forms into the 
 Queen of Cities, though it overran every 
 other part of Italy and the world. The 
 
 G
 
 122 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 latest monuments which we have of works 
 purely Roman in the fifth and sixth centuries, 
 and the earliest which exist from the hands 
 of barbarians, but not of Goths, and par- 
 ticularly those in the South of France, prove 
 satisfactorily enough, one would imagine, 
 that the styles popularly denominated, 
 Saxon, Norman and Gothic, all had one 
 common origin in the corruption, and rude 
 and unskilful imitation of the master-pieces 
 of antiquity : the clumsy and undigested 
 combination of men equally devoid of 
 science and of taste ; too ignorant even to 
 copy well, much less capable of inventing. 
 The ornaments reversed, the mouldings 
 misapplied, the capitals of the columns, the 
 intersection of the arch, lead one irresistibly 
 to this conclusion ; until in process of time.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 123 
 
 as the sciences and arts became more culti- 
 vated, and the more tlian Philistine darkness 
 of tiie middle ages began to be dispelled, (in 
 the 12th and 13th centuries), the great power 
 which the Papacy then began to exercise 
 over every kingdom and state in Europe, and 
 the predominating influence of religion gave 
 an impulse and energy to ecclesiastical 
 architecture, which called forth the exer- 
 tions of the ablest and most wealthy Princes 
 and subjects, and raised it, in the course of 
 four centuries, to a degree of magnificence, 
 variety and beauty, which, preserving the 
 same general character, acquired in some 
 measure peculiar distinction in the four 
 countries, where it was principally cultivated, 
 viz. Italy, Germany, England and France. 
 
 G 2
 
 124 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 It was the daily custom of Sir Philip to 
 visit some one of the galleries or studios. 
 In the Vatican, the Borghese, and the Capi- 
 tol was his element : he devoted many- 
 hours to reading the classics, historians and 
 poets, and made his own reflections in 
 writing on the occurrences of the day; a 
 practice which he never abandoned. By 
 these means, he soon became intimately ac- 
 quainted with the subjects which thus 
 charmed and occupied his attention : Tira- 
 boschi, Muratori, Sismondi, became familiar 
 to him J Winkelmann, Agincourt, Lanzi and 
 Cicognara were his bosom friends. 
 
 Nor with these deeper occupations of the 
 mind, did he forget the lighter accomplish-
 
 SIR PHILIl' OASTKNEYS. IVlS 
 
 meats : mu-iic and singing, unci the melli- 
 fluous language whicli he liad never yet 
 learnt, filled up his intervals of study, and 
 prepared him for the enjoyment of the 
 Opei'u and Drama. 
 
 But with these various and commendable 
 pursuits, the want of society, of something 
 which he might love, of a being in whom 
 he might feel some interest, gradually preyed 
 upon his resolution and spirits. He felt 
 that a part of his nature, that part which 
 it was his peculiar quality to exercise and 
 cultivate, was lying dormant 3 the sensi- 
 bilities of his soul were unexcited. 
 
 He hud not forgotten Evelina ! she was 
 ever present to his solitary thoughts ! It
 
 126 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 
 
 was the very recollection of the happiness 
 he had enjoyed, the comparison between his 
 actual loneliness and his past connection 
 with her ; the memory of her fondness, the 
 absence of her sweet and delicate attentions, 
 that made him feel like an abandoned and 
 neglected being. He wandered along the 
 melancholy streets of the Eternal City, and 
 felt how transitory his bliss had been. His 
 eyes rested continually on objects of grati- 
 fication to the mind, but sought in vain, 
 for any thing to interest the heart. 
 
 It was in one of these fits of extreme de- 
 pression, havmg momentarily resolved on 
 returning to England that he found himself 
 in St. Peter's. Before an altar in one of 
 the chapels knelt a female in the act of
 
 SIR PHILir GASTKNKYS. 127 
 
 prayer. She was in deep mourning, and 
 her eyes were raised towards heaven. Her 
 face was the living image of the Magdalen 
 of Carlo Dolce. Never had Sir Philip seen 
 a more perfect combination of dignity, ten- 
 derness and grief. 
 
 He resolved to ascertain who she was, to 
 learn her history, if possible to know her. 
 He watched without daring to address her 
 till she arose, and the curtain fell upon her 
 graceful and majestic figure. One might 
 have imagined that a statue of Michael 
 Angelo had been imbued with motion, and 
 descended from its pedestal to walk in con- 
 scious superiority amongst the living daugh- 
 ters of men. 
 
 Sir Philip was not long in discovering
 
 128 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 her name and family. He had observed, at 
 a distance, the house which she entered : 
 a magnificent palace encumbered with all 
 the ornaments and enrichments which dis- 
 tinguish and disgrace the Italian architec- 
 ture of the seventeenth century. Columns 
 crowded together, yet supporting nothing ; 
 orders repeated, mingled and misplaced ; 
 fleur de lis instead of acanthus leaves in 
 the capital, and bees instead of roses in the 
 Abacus ;* from Borromini to Bernini, one 
 disgusting mass of splendid freaks and 
 senseless affectations. 
 
 The eye of taste is shocked at the mon- 
 t^trous incongruities and absurdities, the 
 
 * This puerility is to be observed iu many of the 
 palaces of the Barberini family, whose armorial bearings 
 were bees.
 
 SIR PHILIP CASTKNEYS. . 1*29 
 
 difficult and unintelligible deviations from 
 simplicity and order, which every where 
 present themselves in the edifices of modern 
 Rome. The boasted architects of the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries, instead of 
 having profited from the fine examples of 
 ancient art, by which they were surrounded, 
 seem to have vied with each other in raising 
 contrasts to the ruined beauties which thev 
 pretended to admire, but did not attempt to 
 imitate ; and as though determined to avoid 
 the error of their predecessors in the middle 
 ages, of borrowing and misapplying and 
 ill-arranging the materials of the ancients, 
 appear to have tortured their ingenuity to 
 invent a style, certainly more original, but 
 scarcely less deformed. 
 
 G 3
 
 130 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Yet they have been, defended, as the 
 master-pieces of the Roman artists have 
 been decried 3 and the same ignorance which 
 made Montaigne insensible to the modest 
 beauties of the one, caused Donato to 
 overrate the meretricious splendour of the 
 other. 
 
 Sir Philip found that this lady was of 
 noble birth ; a conjecture which might easily 
 be made in a country where nobles are more 
 numerous than plebeians, and that she had 
 lost her mother some few months ago. She 
 was the only daughter of Count Barberini 
 and had one brother. 
 
 His next object was to be introduced to
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 131 
 
 her, and gain access to the family, but this 
 was not easily accomplished. The Italian 
 nobihty, and particularly the Roman, de- 
 pressed by their poverty and altered con- 
 dition, are shy of having any intercourse 
 with foreigners, to whom they consider 
 themselves, perhaps, hi every thing but 
 wealth, superior j and they consequently go 
 little into society. He discovered, however, 
 that she was intimate, and in some measure 
 connected with an English lady whom he 
 knew, and that she fretjucntly went to her 
 house. At one of these visits Sir Philip 
 contrived to introduce himself and subse- 
 quently improved and increased the oppor- 
 tunities of seeing her. 
 
 He was in love ; but he was awed by the
 
 132 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 apparent inaccessibility of the object. He 
 regarded her as the pious worshipper regards 
 the image of the Virgin over the altar, which 
 might be admired — adored — but could not be 
 approached too nearly. 
 
 Her whole deportment was that of a 
 being different from, and immeasurably 
 superior to the generality of women. Her 
 conversation was full of feeling, taste and 
 information, and there was a romantic action 
 about every thing she thought, and said, 
 and did, that kept inferior minds from at- 
 tempting, almost from wishing to commu- 
 nicate M'ith her. She had no pride, but 
 that of a noble and independent mind ; 
 no affectation of the little graces and 
 accomplishments of her sex j no disguise
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKXEYS. 133 
 
 of real feelings ; no iissuinption of false 
 ones. 
 
 But Paulina was a thorough ItaUan. Full 
 of passion, infirm of principle, careless to 
 control, or unable to subdue any natural emo- 
 tion which had once arisen in her ; she 
 was one who judged not by the precepts of 
 education, or the dictates of schoolmen, of 
 what was right or wrong, but by the im- 
 pulses of nature and the inclinations of her 
 heart, and preserved, under the demeanor 
 which the good order of society and tiie 
 manners of her high station required, the 
 arbitrary right to dispose as she pleased of 
 her aftections and herself. 
 
 Nor for a long time did Sir Philip Gaste-
 
 134 SIR PHILIP GASTENBYS. 
 
 neys, with all his knowledge of the various 
 shapes which female sensibility assumes, 
 entertain the most remote idea of Paulina's 
 real character. From the first hour of his 
 acquaintance with her, he had imbibed so 
 forcible an opinion of her modesty and virtue, 
 that the base idea of making any inroad 
 on them, never once occurred to him. He 
 endeavoured, indeed, to make himself as 
 agreeable to her as he could ; first, because 
 he admired her, a sensation which he could 
 not help, and secondly, because he respected 
 as it appeared to him, her amiable and in- 
 genuous disposition. He delighted too, in 
 the charms and accomplishments of her 
 mind, in the richness and vivacity of her 
 imagination, added to which, there was a 
 degree of gloom and melancholy occasion-
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 135 
 
 alJy over-spreading her fine and expressive 
 countenance, and pervading her discourse, 
 whicli iiarnionized greatly with the present 
 state of his own feelings. 
 
 And it was this very opinion, which pro- 
 bahly made him more cautious and re- 
 served in his behaviour, at the same time 
 that it increased liis passion for her. Re- 
 hictant to, or rather resolved not to think of 
 any honourable engagement with a foreigner, 
 Sir Philip endeavoured to hide from her, 
 by an indifference which he really did not 
 feel, the existence of sentiments, the dis- 
 covery of which, he conceived, gratifying 
 as it miirht be to Paulina's vanity, could 
 be productive of no advantage to him ; still 
 however, some secret signs, indications of
 
 136 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 feelings better understood than described, 
 occasionally escaped him. His conversa- 
 tion, his attentions, his presence became 
 daily more agreeable to her ; accident, the 
 result of desire always ingenious and abun- 
 dant in its resources, threw them more 
 frequently together. In these interviews, 
 there were moments when the languishing 
 expression of her fine dark eye fell beneath 
 his glance, and its orb became suffused with 
 tears : there were mysterious allusions and 
 obscure hints in her words, which he longed 
 to understand, yet did not dare to inter- 
 pret. Sir Philip began to think that he 
 had made an impression on her, but he 
 did not imagine that she would listen to 
 his proposals. The breath of slander had 
 never passed near her, the thoughtless and
 
 SIR PHILIP CASTENEYS. 137 
 
 presumptuous boy Imd never joked, the 
 hardened libertine never dared to trifle witli 
 her name. 
 
 Sir Philip felt himself embarrassed, and 
 the problem was a difficult one to solve. It 
 was evident that he touched some chord 
 which vibrated througli Paulina's frame ; 
 but what it was, lie himself could not guess. 
 There were none of the ordinary and vulgar 
 symptoms of admiration and affection, none 
 of the common preludes of a love-sick girl. 
 The speculation was a dangerous one, but 
 the temptation was great ; he shuddered at 
 the idea of wounding Paulina's delicacy, 
 and forfeiting her esteem by acting upon a 
 miscalculation of her principles and feel- 
 ings, yet he could not forgive himself for
 
 138 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 losing so great a prize, from falsely over- 
 rating them. 
 
 A man less acquainted with human na- 
 ture, and more diffident of his own power, 
 would have been at a loss how to act in 
 such an emergency ; Sir Phihp knew very 
 well, that if Paulina were in love with him 
 and intended to indulge that sentiment, re- 
 straint on his part would produce activity 
 on hers ; and that if she were not, no 
 efforts, of which he was capable, would 
 shake the stability of that virtue for which 
 she had so much credit. 
 
 " The man's a fool, who tries by force or skill 
 To check the torrent of a woman's will : 
 For if she will, she will, you may depend on't ; 
 And if she won't, she won't, and there's an end on't."
 
 SIR IMlILir GASTKNEVS. 13'J 
 
 He therefore dcterinincd, more for her 
 sake than for his own, to make her tlie ar- 
 biter of her own fate ; and waited, witli ap- 
 parent indilTerence, the course which she 
 woukl take, of surrender or retreat. 
 
 And in this he judged and acted wisely ; 
 any premature disclosure on his part, of a 
 passion, which might have been hopeless, 
 would only have exposed PauUna to ob- 
 servation and perhaps to slander. 
 
 But his doubts were of short duration ; 
 Paulina yielded to an impulse Avhich had 
 long agitated her and which she had taken 
 little pains to oppose. The most ordinary 
 mode of communication between lovers gra- 
 dually inclining to develop their secret
 
 140 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 hopes and wishes, is by means of poetry. 
 Through its medium, they speak intelligibly 
 but indirectly, and whilst seeming to read 
 and write of others, think only of them- 
 selves. Of this mode, Paulina, who was 
 herself a poet of no contemptible calibre, 
 did not disdain to avail herself. In the 
 passages which she oft times repeated in 
 conversation to Sir Philip, (and she knew 
 all the best authors of her country well), 
 he did not fail to discover allusions, which 
 plainly indicated that his suspicions were 
 correct, and to establish, by his replies, a 
 sort of mystical language, obsciu-e and in- 
 comprehensible to all the world besides, but 
 expressive and harmonious to themselves. 
 
 There lived in Rome a celebrated music-
 
 SIR I'll I LIP GASTBNEYS. 141 
 
 master, by name Spallini. This man was 
 paralytic and had lost the use of his lower 
 extremities, but his reputation was great ; 
 and fasliion, if not science, had established 
 the necessity of every one's receiving in- 
 struction from him, who was ambitious of 
 playing, or of being supposed to play well. 
 The consequence was, that all the young 
 ladies of Rome went to him, since he 
 could not go to them. Nature, in spite of the 
 Pope and Conclave, took the same course 
 at Rome, as it was wont to do at Paris, 
 and as it will always do in similar circum- 
 stances all over the world. Spallini was 
 to the one, as Mademoiselle Ic Normand 
 to the other : the former taught the piano, 
 the latter told fortunes, and both were pro- 
 ficients and helpmates in intrigue.
 
 142 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Sir Philip, among the numerous talents 
 with which nature had endowed him, pos- 
 sessed some taste for music. At the house 
 of this professor, he easily established a 
 free intercourse, and if he made no great 
 advances under his master, he made ample 
 amends with his mistress, for in a short 
 time, such was Paulina. 
 
 Of all the incidents which ever occurred 
 to him^ and his life was fruitful in them, 
 this was the most extraordinary ; that a 
 being, who seemed to tower above the or- 
 dinary weakness of mankind, and to defy 
 even the secret formation of an illicit wish 
 should have yielded to an assault which 
 was scarcely threatened, or rather should 
 have offered to capitulate, because she was
 
 SIR PUILIP GASTENEYS. 143 
 
 afraid of not being attacked, seemed al- 
 most incomprehensible. Never had he found 
 any one so able in arrangement, so artful 
 in management, so fearless in execution, so 
 fertile in design. 
 
 But the great charm of this conquest 
 was, the infantine simplicity and artless- 
 ness of its victim. Paulina listened only 
 to the suggestions of iier heart ; it was 
 nature acting in its purest and most un- 
 sophisticated state. She felt only that she 
 loved, and that her love must be indulged. 
 For many months. Sir Philip lived with 
 her as a mother with her first-born child : 
 full of fondness, anxiety, hope, fear and 
 joy. He was lost in the vast capacity of 
 his happiness, like a stranger in the centre
 
 144 sm PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 of the Colosseum, who knows, yet scarcely 
 can comprehend the mighty circumference 
 by which he is surrounded. 
 
 How glorious was the contemplation of 
 possessing such a being — how intoxicating 
 the thought of passing hours and days in a 
 secret paradise, amid the very haunts of 
 men, which no one could guess and every 
 one would envy ! 
 
 But this, as well as every other gratifi- 
 cation with Sir Philip, wore out after a 
 time ; novelty had always been to him one 
 of the chief sources of happiness. His 
 genius was so universal and his compre- 
 hension so quick, that he generally made 
 himself master of any subject he liked to
 
 SIK PHILIP GASTENEYS. 145 
 
 undertukc, (and he never attempted any 
 which was not agreeable to hhii,) in the 
 same time tliat others took to set about 
 studying it. This was the great secret of 
 his success in every thing ; whatever he did, 
 he did from his very soul. His mind was 
 like a great city, wherein there is one vast 
 central channel of comnmnication, alonar 
 which are placed the principal objects, 
 which serve as guides and land- marks to 
 the subordinate streets and places di- 
 verging from it. He had been so well 
 grounded in the elements of those studies 
 which were most congenial to his nature, 
 that he had little difficulty in arriving at 
 their most minute details. 
 
 He no\^- began to grow weary of the 
 
 H
 
 146 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 wonders and attractions of Rome. Every 
 thing will satiate if partaken of too long. 
 He had enjoyed a delicious banquet of in- 
 tellectual pleasures for many months, and 
 having learnt to appreciate real beauties 
 himself, he was sick of hearing others 
 pretend to admire and criticise objects, 
 the merits of which they neither felt nor 
 understood. 
 
 There is nothing so tantalizing to a man 
 of science as to be obliged to listen to the 
 remarks and opinions of persons immea- 
 surably inferior to him — to remain silent 
 lest his observations should be misconstrued, 
 and to nod assent lest his silence should be 
 mistaken for ignorance. At Rome, every 
 body, from the Cardinal to the school-boy.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 147 
 
 and from the nuitron to the miss, thinks 
 himself or herself authorized to discuss the 
 wonders and beauties of that immortal City, 
 and in some shape or other, to display en- 
 thusiasm and learning. There is no end to 
 the profanation which these Tyros commit 
 against the Holy City, nor any shelter 
 from the persecution with which they visit, 
 without remorse, strangers, acquaintance 
 and friends. 
 
 For the most part, indeed, he followed 
 his way unobserved, and treated the ob- 
 servations of others with contempt. He 
 would not listen to the old beldame who 
 pointed out the beauties of the Colosseum, 
 from its mosaic likeness upon her wrinkled 
 neck, and he turned with disgust from the 
 
 H 2
 
 148 SIR, PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 immodest coquette, who criticised the 
 shape of the Apollo's leg, for the sake of 
 shewing her own up to the garter. 
 
 Nor was he much better pleased with the 
 elements of which society was composed 
 amongst men : a narrowness of mind and 
 restraint of action seemed to pervade all the 
 descendants of the masters of the world. 
 The great efforts of the rulers of modern 
 Rome were apparently directed to the ex- 
 clusion of knowledge, and the concealment, 
 not the extirpation of vice. Outside every 
 thing was fair ; inside, every thing rotten, 
 and the spurious morality which excluded 
 women from the Crypt of St. Peters, or the 
 Chapel which preserves the flagellation 
 column in Santa Prassede, introduced itself
 
 SIR IMIILIP GASTENEYS. 149 
 
 from the convent to the drawing room, and 
 converted that agreeable and natural inter- 
 course, Avhich adorns the salons of London 
 and Paris, into the stiff and formal etiquette 
 of an Italian soirde. 
 
 This was the necessary result of the 
 Roman Catholic system. Its natural and ine- 
 vitable tendency is to make hypocrites, not 
 saints of its professors. It is not in human 
 nature that any set of principles should 
 make one body of mankind less corrupt or 
 more virtuous than another, but it may 
 make it more artful. In l^ngland and 
 France there is not more debauchery among 
 the men, nor more immorality among the 
 women than in Italy, but there is infinitely 
 more appearance of them in both. In the
 
 150 SIR PHILIP GASTENEVS. 
 
 first, we violate openly the forms which 
 regulate society, and bear our punishment 
 along with our pleasure. In the latter, less 
 respect perhaps is paid to real virtue, but 
 much more to outward form. 
 
 This is undoubtedly true ; yet nothing can 
 be more subversive of morality, or more 
 contrary to the true spirit of the christian 
 religion. If any one were to judge of the 
 society of Rome from what he simply saw 
 in a drawing room, he would suppose that 
 if the men were all Josephs, there was at 
 any rate no Potiphars amongst the women. 
 Yet the exact reverse of this is the fact : 
 celibacy amongst the priests is a bye word ; 
 fidelity amongst wives a reproach ; conceal- 
 ment with both a virtue. The Spartans
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 151 
 
 never taught their youth with more dex- 
 terity to steal, than the Pope instructs his 
 disciples to sin. 
 
 It is in Rome only that the true spirit of 
 the Roman Catholic doctrines and Priest- 
 hood can be adequately observed and com- 
 prehended ; it is there only that it displays 
 itself at once in its most attractive beauties, 
 and revolting deformities ; that we sneer at 
 the gross and ill-executed mummery, which 
 deludes the minds of the illiterate and poor, 
 yet feel ourselves waver at the imposing 
 solemnities, which accompany the sacred 
 and venerable presence of the mitred repre- 
 sentative of St. Peter. 
 
 Undoubtedly the Church of Rome has
 
 152 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 
 
 consulted the nature of man more profound- 
 ly than any other ; undoubtedly she has 
 succeeded in establishing a form of worship 
 which affects the senses so much, that it 
 almost destroys the reason ; which elevates 
 the soul, which inspires devotion, which 
 fills one with an idea of the greatness and 
 majesty of heaven. The temples of the 
 Roman Catholics, rich in marbles, mosaic 
 and gold, full of the finest productions of 
 the chisel and the pencil, glowing with 
 frankincense, and resounding with the rich 
 tones of the organ, and the fine voices of 
 the choristers, seem as though they were 
 raised for the worship of God, by persons 
 anxious to display their utmost zeal in 
 adoring him. All their institutions tend to 
 captivate the imagination, to seduce the
 
 SIR PHILIP CASTENEYS. 153 
 
 heart, to bewilder the jiulgment, to enervate 
 tlic reason. 
 
 There is too, another circumstance inde 
 pendent of their outward cei-emonies, wliich 
 acts as an eternal principle in the pre- 
 servation of their church, and exercises a 
 great influence, till it be properly under- 
 stood, upon the mind of otliers : it is the 
 unwearying zeal Avhich they evince in 
 making converts to their creed. It is a 
 point of belief with a Roman Catholic, that 
 by saving (as he supposes) tiie soul of a 
 heretic, he thereby saves his own. Thus, 
 that \\hich assumes the appearance of dis- 
 interested charity and impartial zeal, is, 
 in fact, nothing but the result of the most 
 bigoted and selfish feeling. The Roman 
 
 II S
 
 154 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Catholic seeks to convert, not upon the 
 modern principle which gratuitously sends 
 the bible to the Deserts of Africa and the 
 wilds of regions unexplored, but with the 
 sole and simple view of ensuring his own 
 salvation and increasing his temporal in- 
 fluence. It is this which animates every 
 individual member of the Romish hierarchy 
 from the Irish priest to the mitred abbot : 
 for in spite of all that modern politicians 
 may assert, the spirit of Gregory the Se- 
 venth still lurks in the subterraneous 
 apartments of the Vatican, and Boniface the 
 Eighth skulks behind the arras which hangs 
 the chamber of the courteous Leo.* 
 
 * This was written before the death of the late Pope, 
 who was remarkable for the urbanity of his manners.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 155 
 
 Sir Philip at length became desirous of 
 extending his tour and visiting Naples. He 
 had heard much of the gaiety and delicious 
 cUmate of that capital, and he was more- 
 over somewhat apprehensive, lest any 
 suspicion should be excited by a more pro- 
 longed stay at Rome : for his intercourse 
 with Paulina had been managed with great 
 difficulty, and was continued at extreme risk. 
 
 For Naples accordingly he departed; 
 oppressed at leaving Paulina, but more 
 oppressed at her wretchedness in having 
 lost him. The amusements of Naples 
 soon effaced these disagreeable impressions. 
 The gallery was more interesting than he 
 had anticipated ; the bay delighted. Mount 
 Vesuvius astonished him ; the women were 
 beautiful and kind, as he always found
 
 156 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 them, and Sir Philip felt that nothing was 
 wanting to complete his satisfaction, ex- 
 cept that which he never possessed and 
 without which he could in reality enjoy 
 nothing — a contented mind. 
 
 We shall not occupy our time in record- 
 ing any events of his life in this dissipated 
 city. He yielded to the influence of the 
 same sky which had corrupted many a 
 Roman heart. The shores of Baise and 
 Pozzuoli, the Island of Tiberius, the exca- 
 vated wonders of Herculaneum and Pompeii, 
 and the gigantic and mysterious temples of 
 Paestum had never beheld a more enthu- 
 siastic visitor. 
 
 Money is a powerful agent at Naples, 
 and Sir Philip had plenty of it. It would
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENBYS. 157 
 
 have been well for him if his purse had 
 always been the only minister to his plea- 
 sures. At Naples it happened to be so, 
 and in the gratification of his ruling 
 passion, he was content to dishonour one 
 of the Princes of the blood and to pur- 
 chase, with an annuity, the attractions of 
 an hour. In short, having taken Horace 
 for his model and his guide during the few 
 months which he passed there, he began 
 to think of returning to Rome. Some 
 strange i-eports, which had reached him, 
 contributed to this determination : — he iiad 
 heard that Paulina was about to be mar- 
 ried to one of his most intimate friends 
 who had arrived at Rome since his depar- 
 ture from it. This circumstance, or rather 
 the bare suspicion of it, annoyed him, and 
 he set out to ascertain the truth.
 
 158 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 On his arrival he sought his friend and 
 found that his information was correct. 
 To this man he had formerly been much 
 indebted; he knew his generous and con- 
 fiding disposition, and could not bear 
 that he should become so unsuspectingly 
 the victim of a captivating but abandoned 
 woman. In his first interview with his 
 friend he discovered that he was com- 
 pletely ignorant of the real character of 
 her whom he had chosen for his wife, and 
 was about to contract an engagement 
 pregnant with future and infinite misery. 
 In this crisis, for the marriage was shortly 
 to be solemnized, Sir Philip long he- 
 sitated as to the course he should adopt. 
 He knew very well that to endeavour to 
 dissuade Mr. Seymour from his purpose 
 without assigning some satisfactory rea-
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 159 
 
 son would be useless, for honour and in- 
 clination equally governed him ; and there- 
 fore, since he could not frame any plau- 
 sible cause beside the real one, Sir Philip 
 detcrniincd to communicate to his friend the 
 whole secret of his connexion with Pau- 
 lina. It is true that no selfish feelings 
 towards her deterred him from this course. 
 Paulina was not susceptible of constant or 
 lengthened attachment. Her love for Sir 
 Philip was all evaporated, and it was the 
 new inclination which had lately seized 
 her that she was now bent on indulging. 
 He unbosomed himself to Mr. Seymour, 
 and the marriage was consequently broken 
 off; but the active and guilty conscience 
 of Paulina did not long remain ignorant 
 of the reason of her lover's inconstancy,
 
 160 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 s 
 
 and she had no sooner discovered it than 
 she sighed to be revenged. She had lost 
 her lover — and a husband — and the pre- 
 servation of character no longer was va- 
 luable. She revealed to her brother the 
 story of her seduction by Sir Philip Gas- 
 teneys and called upon him, as her natu- 
 ral protector, to make him fulfil the pledge 
 vt^hich she asserted he had given her of 
 marriage. The passions of an Italian, 
 when once excited, brook no control ; 
 considerations of expediency and worldly- 
 mindedness never induce him to tolerate 
 an injury which, having been inflicted, 
 cannot be removed. The Count Lorenzo 
 instantly complied witli his sister's demand, 
 and sent Sir Philip Gasteneys a communi- 
 cation, requiring him either to fulfil his
 
 SIU PHILIP GASTENKYS. 161 
 
 plij^htod fixith to Paulina, or to satisfy the 
 Mounded honour of her family. 
 
 Sir Piiilip received this communication 
 without surprise, for he had originally fore- 
 seen it — but not without great anxiety 
 and pain. Marriage, of course, was out 
 of the question ; he who had gone so far 
 to save his friend from what he considered 
 a ruinous connexion, was not likely to 
 contract it himself; and as his heart could 
 not consent to the one, so his honour 
 could not refuse the other alternative offered 
 him by Count Lorenzo. He therefore ac- 
 cepted the challenge ; but with a view of 
 avoiding the necessary chance of injuring 
 his antagonist if, according to the usual
 
 162 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 custom in Italy they fought with swords, 
 he proposed, under the pretext of being 
 unacquainted with the use of the former 
 weapon, that they should meet with pistols, 
 intending, in that case, not to fire at his 
 antagonist. This proposition was refused, 
 and Sir Philip Gasteneys, against his will, 
 saw himself reduced to the revolting ne- 
 cessity of adding possibly another and a 
 greater injury to the one which he had 
 already inflicted upon Paulina's house. 
 
 They accordingly met, and Sir Philip 
 cautiously kept entirely on the defensive ; 
 when, luckily perhaps for his future safety, 
 the foot of his adversary slipped and brought 
 him in contact with the point of Sir Phi-
 
 SIR PIIILJP GASTENEYS. 16S 
 
 lip's sword. The wound wus coiibidered 
 mortal althougii the sufferer still lived, 
 and Sir Philip was obliged to fly. 
 
 He directed his course to Paris : along 
 that road where the sea reflects in its glassy 
 bosom the beauties of the coast, and the 
 coast embellishes the wonders of the ocean. 
 Where the vine and the olive, the orange 
 and the myrtle, seem to verify by their 
 close and familiar intercourse, the loves 
 of the plants : where the pine rises in 
 sober majesty, with its round and melan- 
 choly head, and contrasts with the ele- 
 gant and slender forms of the aspiring cy- 
 press : on that shore where nature has 
 lavished her bounties so profusely on man, 
 and man has availed himself so proudly of
 
 164 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 his superiority over nature : where the sum- 
 mit of the highest hill, and the surface of 
 the lowest valley and the sides of the in- 
 termediate steeps are crowned with the 
 temples of God, or hung with the palaces 
 of the great, or studded with the neat and 
 humble cottage of the peasant. But these 
 charms were lost upon Sir Philip Gasteneys ; 
 nature excited no emotion in, art had lost 
 her influence over him. He passed by 
 the venerable antiquities of Pisa without a 
 sigh, and left behind him the pride and 
 magnificence of Genoa without a thought. 
 The calm serenity of Nice was unenjoyed, 
 and he passed through the bustling acti- 
 vity of Lyons as the hearse is borne in 
 melancholy stillness through the crowded 
 streets. He had seen these places in hap-
 
 SIR PHILll' GASTENEYS. 165 
 
 pier and in better clays, and his soul refused 
 to renew its communit^n with them. 
 
 At Paris no course but that of reckless 
 dissipation now seemed open to him, which 
 could aftbrd a chance of silencing his re- 
 flections or dispelling his remorse. He had 
 arrived, by a long course of unpremeditated 
 folly, at a point which awoke him to a sense 
 of the horror and enormity of his past life, 
 and the awful responsibility of his present 
 situation, for he did not vet know that Lo- 
 renzo lived. His reflections were of the bit- 
 terest nature : he had caused much misery to 
 others, poisoned the future happiness of his 
 own life, was tormented with the oppression 
 of guilt, yet was sensible of having done all 
 in his power to avert it. What coukl be
 
 166 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 expected of such a man, under such circum- 
 stances, in such a place as Paris ? Nothing, 
 but that he should seek to drown his reflec- 
 tions in the dissipation of that gay capital. 
 Amongst these there was one to which he 
 had hitherto been a stranger, which seemed 
 calculated, by its engrossing influence, to 
 occupy his mind and divert it from the re- 
 collection of the past, more effectually than 
 any other. He was disgusted for a time 
 with intrigue and it was therefore to the 
 Goddess of the Salon that he now paid his 
 nightly adorations. He became a gambler. 
 How many men of minds more innocent 
 and consciences less disturbed than Sir 
 Philip Gasteneys, have fallen a prey to the 
 pernicious attractions of hazard and rouge 
 et noir ! By little and little he became a
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTEKEYS. 1G7 
 
 constant votary at tlie shrine wliere reno- 
 vated Princes and fallen Republicans, cour- 
 tiers and courtezans, sages and fools, he- 
 roes and saints, the favourites and the hun- 
 ters of fortune paid their midnight devo- 
 tions. 
 
 This could not last long without ruin: 
 the same impetuous and generous disposition 
 which had already been so fi\tal to him 
 made him disregard his ill-fortune and 
 throw away his good, so that he was soon 
 reduced to great pecuniary inconvenience, 
 or rather awakened to a sense of the serious 
 losses, which in opposition to his cool judg- 
 ment and mature consideration he had ne- 
 cessarily sustained. To his other reproaches 
 were now added that of his having been the
 
 168 SIR PHILIP GASTBNEYS. 
 
 dupe of heartless and designing villains. 
 Night after night has he lain in his mise- 
 rable bed, regretting the sums which he had 
 lost, and still more bitterly bewailing 
 the weakness and irresolution which had 
 made him yield to temptation in spite of 
 his conviction of its destructive end. 
 
 No man was more thoroughly sensible 
 than Sir Philip Gasteneys of the utter im- 
 practicability by any system, or skill, con- 
 sistent with honour, to win at these nefarious 
 tables. There was no mode which he had 
 not tried, and no plan which he had not 
 adopted; more from the curiosity and the 
 desire to keep on playing without ruining 
 himself than the wish to gain: yet they had 
 all failed, as he knew very well they would,
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKXEVS. 169 
 
 and the reflection M'hich annoyed him most 
 in pursuing this course was that of his want 
 of rcsohition to abandon it. A hundred times 
 had he determined, a hundred times sworn, 
 never to play any more — a hundred times 
 his firmness forsook him and his oath was 
 l)rokcn. He now began to despise himself 
 for this weakness; his temper became sour- 
 ed ; his pursuits in literature and the fine 
 arts, and his political interests in life inter- 
 rupted and checked, and his doys were in- 
 tolerably wretched. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that he 
 one day found himself in the gardens at 
 Fontainbleau : reflecting on the fortunes of 
 that great man, mIiosc failings he admired 
 and whose fate he deplored, when he ac- 
 
 I
 
 170 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 cidentally m€t a family whom he had known 
 in England in his early days, and who 
 were come to Paris as was universally the 
 fashion, at that time, to witness its follies 
 and to transport them to their native soil. 
 Of this family there were several daughters, 
 one of whom, Lady Editha, had, even 
 ill his boyish years, attracted the favourable 
 attention of Sir Philip Gasteneys. From 
 that time, however, until now, he had seen 
 no more of her and in his present mood 
 and situation the adventure was agreeable 
 if not interesting : he requested permission 
 to visit them, and returned to his hotel more 
 composed and cheerful than he left it. 
 
 He was not long in avaiUng himself of 
 the permission which he had obtained and
 
 SIR ruir.ip GASTENRys. 17] 
 
 Lord and Lady Lincoln, good-natured peo- 
 ple, encouraged him by their reception, to 
 renew his visits: in a short time the com- 
 pany of Lady Editha seemed to render an 
 evening at the Salon less essential to his 
 amusement. " Seven's the main, eleven's the 
 nick," a phrase of late so familiar to him, 
 was odious in comparison to the soft words 
 of praise and admiration, which now began 
 gradually to escape him; calculation on the 
 chances of the dice gave way to those on the 
 probable advantages and hazards of wedlock, 
 and Sir Philip, for the first time, asked him- 
 self if it were possible he should marry ? 
 
 HoM- absurd a question, and how certain 
 is the man Mho answers it in the negative to 
 renounce his words. Sir Philip did so, not 
 
 I 2
 
 i72 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS . 
 
 because he had ever formed any foolish 
 determination to that effect nor entertained 
 any prejudice against it, but simply, because 
 having lived freely till then, having seen and 
 known so many women, the slightest notion 
 of entering seriously into such an engage- 
 ment had never entered his head. 
 
 But so it was : Sir Philip had never been 
 accustomed to control his inclinations, and 
 so soon as he fixed them on any woman of 
 virtue and strict principle, was he certain to 
 offer himself in marriage. His nature was 
 too generous and noble, his heart too good, 
 his admiration of what was right too great, 
 his sympathy with genuine virtue too sincere 
 to allow him to divert any one from her 
 sense of duty to gratify his own wishes^
 
 SIR FHILIP GASTENEYS. 1*3 
 
 and consult his selfish interests or scruples, 
 if there were any mode of avoiding it. 
 
 In this position he shortly found himst-lf 
 with Lady Editha. She was one of those 
 amiable and innocent beings whose great 
 and rare attraction consists in their extreme 
 simplicity, in their natural pre-disposition to 
 virtue, and their utter ignorance of vice, in 
 whom the strongest principle is united with 
 the purest but most impassioned nature. 
 
 No sooner had Sir Philip discovered Lady 
 Editha's character, than he immediately dis- 
 carded all idea of dishonourable love. His 
 respect inflamed his admiration j and from 
 this moment he did not feign, for any sel- 
 fish consideration, but actually felt an 
 honest and devoted attachment to lier.
 
 174 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 He desired to be united to her to secure his 
 own happiness : he would have died to pro- 
 mote hers. 
 
 Having once contemplated this result, 
 his notions of self interest likewise led him 
 to observe the most scrupulous and deco- 
 rous conduct towards her. His general opi- 
 nions of female chastity were so unfavoura- 
 ble, and his expectations of what it ought to 
 be so extravagant, that he did not imagine 
 it to be an easy matter to meet with any one 
 adapted to his views, and having found one, 
 he would have thought it an injury to him- 
 self to have unveiled to her the depravity of 
 our naturs. 
 
 But although in this instance he was 
 honestly and sincerely disposed and did
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 175 
 
 every thing, not from the wish to deceive, 
 but to render himself really worthy of 
 Lady Editha, her affections were not so 
 easily obtained : she had heard, when a 
 little girl, for she was now only seven- 
 teen, of the general character and dissipa- 
 tion of Sir Philip's life ; he had been the 
 companion of her brothers in their extrava- 
 gance and debaucheries, and had been re- 
 presented to her, as they had been to others, 
 full of every defect and devoid of every virtue. 
 
 Sir Philip was aware of this circumstance 
 and could easily make allowance for it. He 
 knew that he had done much to excite the 
 unfavourable, nothing to gain the good opi- 
 nion of the world; that his errors were all 
 manifest, his merits known only to his
 
 176 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 friends ; but this knowledge did not shake 
 his consciousness of his own nature, of the 
 intrinsic goodness of his heart, and he would 
 not believe tiiat any one so young and in- 
 nocent as Lady Editha could be impene- 
 trable to conviction, or insensible to the 
 devotion which he was ready and resolved 
 to pay her. 
 
 In executing intentions thus amiably and 
 honourably formed, the previous acquain- 
 tance of Sir Philip Gasteneys with the world 
 and his experience of female character, were 
 greatly serviceable to him. In a ghort time 
 he so completely abandoned, not in appear- 
 ance but in reality, his former habits, so 
 deserted his ancient acquaintance and adapt- 
 ed himself in all his thoughts, words and
 
 SIR PHILIP r.ASTENEYS. 177 
 
 actions, to tlic ideas and wishes of Lady 
 Editha, as to succeed not only in con- 
 vincing her that the world had misunder- 
 stood or misrepresented liim, but in great 
 measure in reforming himself; and this re- 
 formation he effected honestly. He was not 
 the man to appear what he was not, when 
 his object was open and legitimate; he loved 
 Lady Editha truly, and would have held 
 any sacrifice cheap which might have ren- 
 dered him in his own estimation worthy of 
 her. 
 
 That in the course of his addresses Sir 
 
 Philip did sometimes play a hypocritical 
 
 part, cannot be denied. What lover under 
 
 any circumstances ever did otherwise? To 
 
 Lady Editha he was generous and good- 
 
 I 3
 
 178 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 natured — so he was to all the world : he con- 
 vinced her of his proud and independent 
 spirit, which nobody could doubt; he at- 
 tracted her by his accomplishments which 
 every one admired ; gained her respect by 
 his talents which no one denied. These, be- 
 sides the advantages of his address and per- 
 son, were passports which he presented to 
 her, in common only with all the world, but 
 which toAvards mankind in general were 
 counterbalanced by other disadvantages 
 which he concealed from her, or rather 
 which he voluntarily corrected in her pre- 
 sence. His temper was naturally violent and 
 impetuous ; to her, he was at all times calm 
 and submissive: his desires were volatile, 
 his pursuits erratic, his tastes inconstant ; 
 to her he seemed fixed, from her he ap-
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTEXEYS. 179 
 
 pearctl inalienable: on her, one woukliiave 
 thougiit, that all his present and his futvive 
 hopes were fixed, she was the true thermo- 
 meter of his existence. 
 
 There were two ingredients in the dispo- 
 sition of Lady Editha that were peculiarly 
 difficult to manage : these were jealousy and 
 suspicion, or, more properly speaking, the 
 latter was included in the former, since it 
 only evinced itself towards the object of her 
 affections; in general no one could be more 
 confiding, or less liable to distrust, than she 
 was. 
 
 Full of ingenuousness and honesty herself, 
 never harbouring the most remote idea of
 
 180 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 
 
 deceit, she was naturally disposed to trust 
 others; but with Sir Philip Gasteneys the 
 case was different: she knew what he had 
 been to some, and when once she began to 
 open to her young heart the prospects of 
 building its only happiness in this world 
 upon him, she looked with narrowness and 
 anxiety to his behaviour, and instituted a 
 strict and not, perhaps, unneccessaiy com- 
 parison between his actions and his words. 
 
 Of this Sir Philip Gasteneys was well 
 aware,' and as he loved her sincerely, he was 
 pleased to observe it, knowing very well 
 that his conduct would prove irreproachable, 
 and desiring to gain a just title to her con- 
 fidence and respect before he obtained her
 
 SIR PHILIP r.AsTENEYS. 181 
 
 artections unci, as he hoped, her hand. In 
 this attempt, however, he had to encounter 
 great and numerous obstacles. 
 
 One of the principal of these was the op- 
 position which his mother, Lady Gasteneys, 
 so soon as she heard of Sir Philip's inten- 
 tions, evinced to them. She had conceived 
 some unaccountable prejudice against the 
 faniil}' of Lady Editlia, whom she had never 
 seen, and w'as determined to punish what 
 she conceived to be the iniquities of the fa- 
 ther upon the child — a resolution equally 
 devoid of feeling and justice. With this view, 
 under pretence of advocating her son's in- 
 terests and welfare, there were no means, 
 however base, unnatural or false to Mhich 
 she did not resort for the purpose of inter-
 
 182 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 rupting the growing attachment between Sir 
 PhiUp and Lady Editha, and to a very active 
 and ingenious mind, peculiarly constructed 
 to create embarrassments and originate 
 doubts and spread suspicion, she added the 
 plausible appearance of being influenced 
 solely by a regard for the future happiness of 
 her only child, and of one who had never 
 injured her, and of whom no syllable of 
 harm had ever yet been breathed. 
 
 This was a strong position from which to 
 act upon the offensive. Lady Gasteneys wore 
 a mask which none but those who had seen 
 her put it on, could have penetrated: and 
 under its protection she entered upon the 
 most unnatural, unreasonable, and unrelent- 
 ing persecution of her own offspring and
 
 SIR rinr.ip gastknkys. 183 
 
 the legitimate and honouraiilc object of liis 
 choice, that the auiials of maternal cruelty 
 and turpitude exhibit. 
 
 Lady Gasteneys was a very extraordinary 
 woman, of great abilities and little judg- 
 ment, of violent passions and the strictest 
 principles, generous yet unjust, mean yet ex- 
 travagant, charitable yet cold hearted, ho- 
 nourable yet false. Thus her measures 
 though generally Avell taken were frequently 
 unsuccessful, and her intention being good, 
 her actions were almost invariably the 
 reverse. 
 
 Prejudice and obstinacy, or, as she called 
 tiicm firmness, were her two great failings. 
 In the present instance she had no one prin- 
 ciple or object to consult, but that of pure
 
 184 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 opposition to her son's wishes. Had Sir 
 Philip fixed his choice upon any one else, 
 she would equally have opposed him ; for 
 having devoted herself very much to him in 
 his early years, she had conceived a notion 
 that he ought to sacrifice every thing to her 
 caprice in after-life. 
 
 She had no sooner discovered that all her 
 efforts to dissuade her son from his intentions 
 were unavailing, than she endeavoured by 
 representing him in the most odious colours 
 to Lord and Lady Lincoln to prejudice them 
 against him. She described him as dissi- 
 pated, extravagant, a gambler and an adul- 
 terer; she pointed out all the follies and 
 errors of his past hfe which she magnified 
 into crimes, and the little chance which 
 she saw of his reformation.
 
 SIR IMIILIP CASTKNEVS. 185 
 
 These were artful and appiiUing represen- 
 tations, and it was the duty of Lord and 
 Lady Lincohi, for the sake of tlicir daughter's 
 interest and liappiness not to disregard them. 
 They coukl not help viewing them with se- 
 rious apprehension. Sir Phihp soon per- 
 ceived from their reserved manner and the 
 constrained behaviour of Lady Editha, the 
 effect which they had produced. He wrote to 
 his mother to reason, to persuade, to implore 
 but in vain ; he offered to wait any length of 
 time, to submit to any ordeal ; he entreated 
 that she would become acquainted with Lady 
 Editha, and offered to abandon her for ever, 
 if she did not c-ipprovc of his choice when 
 she knew the object of it. In vain ; Lady 
 Gasteneys had made up her mind against 
 the marriage without knowing why, and
 
 186 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 on that very account continued in spite of 
 reason, affection or discretion, to oppose 
 it by the most violent means. 
 
 This unnatural behaviour at last drove Sir 
 Philip to despair. He felt that for the 
 first time in his life his inclinations had 
 chanced to lead him into an honourable 
 pursuit, and one for which he had nothing 
 to reproach himself; and it was a poor in- 
 ducement for him to continue in his honest 
 and virtuous course, to be thus cruelly 
 and undeservedly harassed and traduced. 
 There is nothing so calculated to alienate 
 the mind from virtue, as contempt and 
 obloquy ; nothing more dangerous than 
 the example of vice triumphant. He felt 
 and complained bitterly, and in the violence
 
 SIR nilLIP CASfKNEYS. 187 
 
 of his anguish, he one clay wrote a letter to 
 his mother in which he wound up his re- 
 proaches with a curse. 
 
 Thus the afTair proceeded ; his alTections 
 daily and hourly becoming more engrossed 
 as his prospect of happiness became less 
 visible. The charms of Lady Editha 
 seemed to increase in proportion as they 
 receded from him ; and his desire to possess 
 her acquired strength, as his chance of 
 obtaining her diminished. 
 
 She was indeed a lovely creature ! In 
 the vory blossom of youth, which every 
 day seemed to freshen, when none of the 
 alterations or imperfections of time could 
 even be suspected. Her figure was of that
 
 188 SIR PHILIP GAbTENEYS. 
 
 size which Cleomenes has sculptured, and 
 its proportions, if possible, were more beau- 
 tiful than his. She was the beau ideal of 
 nature— a perfect combination of the most 
 chosen parts. Her long, dark, thick brown 
 hair, hung down like the tresses of Cano- 
 va's Magdalen, or were bound up like 
 Sappho's round her poetic head: and her 
 breath was sweeter than the mingled per- 
 fume of the magnolia and myrtle. 
 
 But her greatest charm, after all, was 
 her extreme innocence : the enchanting 
 simplicity and perfect singleness of her 
 heart. So unacquainted was she with 
 vice, so unconscious and ignorant of its 
 ways, that she never dreamt of its existence 
 unless she was told of it, and knew of it
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 189 
 
 only in anj' one, as children know of events 
 beyond the reach of their own vision, from 
 the report of others : and this very inno- 
 cence as it was attractive, so it was inju- 
 rious to Sir Philip. She heard from her 
 mother what Lady Gasteneys had said of 
 him, and her young heart feared to love or 
 to admire what she was told was wrong. 
 
 An unfortunate circumstance which oc- 
 curred about this time tended very consider- 
 ably to add to Sir Philip's embarrassment 
 and distress, and to retard that progress, 
 which in spite of all obstacles, he was gra- 
 dually making in the affections of Lady Edi- 
 tha. She had not yet indeed, admitted that 
 she loved him, as in her inmost heart she 
 did, nor given a promise, which she knew
 
 190 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 nothing could ever induce her to break, and 
 for the disappointment of Avhich if broken, 
 she felt that nothing could atone : but 
 they had conversed in a language which 
 all the young understand and the old re- 
 member to have spoken, and there was 
 little else wanting but the formal interfe- 
 rence of the priest to make them one for 
 ever. 
 
 Eighteen months had now passed away, 
 and the patience of Sir Philip was on the 
 decline. Lord and Lady Lincoln had 
 finally declared, that nothing should in- 
 duce them to give their consent to the ac- 
 complishment of his wishes until the sanc- 
 tion of Lady Gasteneys had been obtained : 
 or until he was of an age legally to act
 
 SIR riMLlP GASTENEYS. 191 
 
 for himself; and Sir Philip having no lon- 
 ger any hope of the former was trying to 
 reconcile himself to the idea of attaining 
 his majority and ending his celibacy at the 
 same time, when the event to which we 
 have alluded occurred. 
 
 He was sitting one day in his apartment, 
 after having had an interview of more than 
 usual interest and happiness with Lady Edi- 
 tha, when his servant entered and said that 
 a lady was waiting who immediately desired 
 to speak with him. Sir Philip conjecturing 
 that it was one of those visits to which he 
 was frequently accustomed and for which 
 he then felt himself in no suitable mood, 
 desired that she should be refused admit- 
 tance. The servant retired, ineffectually
 
 192 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 
 
 as it appeared with his master's excuse, 
 for in another moment the door again 
 opened, with some violence, and his eyes 
 rested upon Mrs. Seton ! 
 
 Grief and despair mingled with that ex- 
 pression of affection and tenderness which 
 had once been and were still so dear to him, 
 were in her countenance. All the fondness 
 of his soul came over him, and as she threw 
 herself into his arms, he clasped her to his 
 bosom with the ardour of days gone by. She 
 told him in a few short and interrupted sen- 
 tences the cause and the object of her flight 
 — they were shame detected and protection 
 sought for : her husband had obtained pos- 
 session, by breaking open her desk, of the 
 proofs of her past guilt, and her continued
 
 SIR PHILIP r.ASTENEYS. 193 
 
 correspondence with Sir Philip, and hiid 
 driven her with blows and impreciitions 
 from his door. 
 
 She had no other resource than to seek 
 the seducer for whom she hud lost husband 
 and home, character and children. With 
 tears and trembling she appealed to Sir Phi- 
 lip Gasteneys : could he refuse to cherish 
 and protect her in this her hour of need ? 
 
 His resolution was immediately taken, as 
 it always had been, in conformity ^v'ith the 
 original goodness of his disposition. He did 
 every thing he could to repair the injury he 
 had done her, consistently with his present 
 situation, of which she was previously aware, 
 
 K
 
 194 SIR PHILIP GASTBNEYS. 
 
 and resolved to keep the knowledge of this 
 distressing occurrence a secret, if he could, 
 from Lady Editha. 
 
 In this determination he was actuated by- 
 no unworthy motive of deceit ; his present 
 dilemma was the unexpected result of an 
 error into which he had fallen before he 
 knew Lady Editha, and for which therefore 
 he could not be held accountable to her; and 
 as he knew very well that she had heard of 
 many of the events of his past life, and pro- 
 bably of this very one, in the way most un- 
 favourable to liis reputation, he did not ima- 
 gine that he was deceiving her by this be- 
 haviour. 
 
 He immediately engaged apartments for
 
 SIR IMIILIP GASTRNEYS. 195 
 
 Mrs. Seton, and provided lier with ;i carriage 
 and servants, for delicacy both to her and 
 Lady Editha would not allow him to reside 
 with her in the same house or to have her 
 seen in his equipages; and having thus as far 
 as he could, endeavoured to shelter her from 
 the cruel effects of ill-natured observation, 
 and himself from the injury which his now 
 unavoidable connexion with her might have 
 upon his present plans, he continued as 
 usual, his addresses to Lady Editha. 
 
 But the incident, from its publicity in 
 England could not of course long escape ob- 
 servation. There are always abundance of 
 people, under the guise of a sincere regard 
 for one's interest, ready to communicate any 
 intelligence which they know is calculated 
 
 K <2
 
 196 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 to wound one's feelings or mortify one's 
 pride ; and with the pretext of being one's 
 best friend, prove themselves one's bitterest 
 enemy. 
 
 Lady Editha was soon made acquainted 
 with the arrival of Mrs. Seton in Paris, and 
 her connexion with Sir Philip; and it pro- 
 duced the most violent and unfortunate 
 change in her behaviour. She began to be- 
 lieve all the ill of Sir Philip which she had 
 ever heard of him, but never discovered till 
 now : she accused herself of ever having 
 listened to him, reproached him for his trea- 
 chery and deceit, and resolved never to see 
 him any more. 
 
 How foolish is it in persons, and more
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTKNKYS. 197 
 
 particularly in females, so subject to the vi- 
 cissitudes of tlie passions to make resolutions 
 of an extreme nature which it is almost im- 
 possible they should adhere to ! Justice at 
 any rate recjuired that she should not con- 
 demn Sir Philip Gasteneys for ever, with- 
 out hearing his defence ; that she should, at 
 any rate, see him once more, and so she did -, 
 but it was in vain that Sir Philip pleaded his 
 just excuse and told her with all the since- 
 rity of his heart how falsely she suspected 
 him, explained the real nature of his situa- 
 tion and reiterated his assurances of his rea- 
 diness to abandon every thing, besides the 
 duties of humanity, to convince her of his 
 faith. Jealousy, the only real passion to 
 which she was liable, had entered into Lady
 
 f98 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 Editha's soul, and made her alike insensible 
 to reason or persuasion. 
 
 Sir Philip now began to feel the conse- 
 quence of his past conduct : without any 
 fresh fault of his own he was about to lose 
 as the penalty of his previous guilt, the only 
 object for which he cared to live. In this 
 extremity the society of Mrs. Seton was no 
 compensation to him, for she was, in fact, 
 the blameless cause of his actual disappoint- 
 ment, and thus he sought again in those 
 habits which, since his attachment to Lady 
 Editha he had gradually relinquished, the 
 means of diverting his present melancholy 
 ideas. He resorted with renewed anxiety to 
 the gaming table; his nights and days were
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS, 199 
 
 passed over the vain attempt to counteract 
 the combinations, which \mdcr the name of 
 chance, had been designedly contrived by 
 heads much abler than his o^vn, for his un- 
 doing. In the tumult of his anxiety and re- 
 morse he went from the superb apartments 
 of the Cercle des Etrmigers to the less res- 
 pectable society of Frescati and the still 
 more degraded receptacles of the Palais 
 Royal : he flew from one to the other, as 
 though there had been a separate divinity in 
 each, one of whom at last he might con- 
 ciliate. 
 
 It was at one of these midnight scenes 
 that he was suddenly interrupted by the in- 
 telligence of his mother being dangerously 
 ill. Her health had been for some time pre-
 
 200 SIR PHILIP GASTENEVS. 
 
 carious, but no apprehension of any serious 
 result had till then been entertained: the 
 thought that he had cursed her flashed 
 across his mind, and the recollection that it 
 might even then be too late to retract his 
 imprecation and receive the pardon of his 
 dying parent overpowered him. The box 
 fell insensibly from his hand. His money 
 and counters remained scattered on the 
 table, and he rushed out of the room, as 
 one distracted. 
 
 With the celerity of despair he ordered 
 his carriage and departed : not a syllable 
 escaped his lips till he arrived at Calais. It 
 was the middle of the night; there was no 
 regular vessel ready. He threw himself 
 into an open boat, unconcerned and care-
 
 SIR PHILIP OASTKNIiYS. 201 
 
 less about every thing but to proceed. It 
 was a dreadful night, and went hard with 
 the mariners. " The rain descended, and 
 the storm came, and the wind blew," but 
 Sir Philip trembled not, for liis thoughts 
 were on other things. The bark rode 
 tightly through the gale. Sir Philip was on 
 shore. With breathless anxiety he rode to 
 London, as the gamester keeps on throwing 
 with the desperate possibility of winning 
 against almost the certainty of losing. A 
 few hours brought him to his mother's house, 
 he kept his eyes bent down, lest he should 
 see the windows closed. The door was 
 opened by his old and faithful nurse. She 
 spoke not, but tears were in her eyes. 
 Lady Gasteneys was dead ! 
 
 K 3
 
 202 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 The shock was too great for his already 
 agitated nerves. The fatigue and excite- 
 ment which he had gone through ; the cold 
 he had suffered on his journey and passage, 
 for it was in the month of December, 
 brought on a fever, which in a few days 
 threatened to baffle the slvill of his physi- 
 cians. In this conjoint agony of body and 
 mind, his thoughts were alternately directed 
 to the mother whom he had lost, and the 
 mistress whom he might pei'haps never gain. 
 To the former, from whom he had of late 
 been so much estranged, he had never 
 ceased to entertain the strongest affection, 
 and now when he found himself alone in 
 the wide world, so young, without relations 
 or friends, the last descendant of his ancient
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENKYS. 203 
 
 house, all her late unkindness was forgotten, 
 and the memory only of her eare and solici- 
 tude remained. As he became worse, his 
 physicians thought it advisable to make him 
 sensible of his situation, and without ex- 
 cluding hope, to apprize him of his danger. 
 Indeed, Sir Philip had himself desired it : 
 for he had no apprehension of death, no 
 alarm at the idea of being transferred to 
 another world. His conscience acquittetl 
 him of having deliberately committed any 
 crime, from which his feelings revolted at 
 the moment, and though he had grievously 
 erred, he hoped to be forgiven both by God 
 and man. He occupied himself with pro- 
 viding for the payment of his debts, and 
 making such arrangements as he thought 
 most just, and confirmed the will which he
 
 had formerly made, as to the remainder of 
 his personal property in favour of Mrs. 
 Seton. What better reparation could he 
 make to her ? 
 
 To Lady Editha he wrote the following 
 letter : 
 
 « Editha," 
 
 ec 
 
 The mother whom I cursed on your ac- 
 count is dead ; and on the bed of sickness, 
 from which I shall probably never rise again, 
 my last thoughts and feelings are dedicated 
 to you. 
 
 "In the course of that short life which I 
 am now about to resign, I have done much 
 wrong to others, but none, even in imagi-
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 205 
 
 nation to you ; and if there be any one to 
 
 whom I may appeal to soothe and console 
 me in my present agony, it is surely, you. 
 
 " Editha, I have loved you very fondly. I 
 was vain enough to hope, what I could not 
 but desire, that I might perhaps make you 
 happy, and that by devoting to you my 
 life, as 1 should have done, and sacrificing 
 my remotest wish to your interests and 
 pleasures, I might have atoned through you 
 for the past, and lived a better life for the 
 future. 
 
 " 'riiese visions are now fled ! Had I met 
 you earlier in my career, I might have 
 spared much misery to others, and to myself 
 the repentance of the present hour.
 
 206 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 " Farewell ! could I but know that you 
 would ever have loved me, had it pleased 
 God to spare my life, or have thought me 
 worthy of your affection, I should even now 
 be happy. Could you but close my eyes 
 and give me your blessing, I should be con- 
 tent : but if the bliss of ever beholding you 
 again be denied me, at least let me be 
 permitted to know that you have received 
 these assurances of my devotion, and with 
 them this ring,* so different from the one, 
 I once fondly hoped to have given you : 
 that you will sometimes deign perhaps to 
 wear it, and think on him who sent it, 
 with regret. — God bless you ! Farewell." 
 
 On the receipt of this letter. Lady Editha 
 * It was a mourning one.
 
 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 20? 
 
 was sensibly affected. She now perceived, 
 what she had lately tried to conceal from 
 herself, how much her future happiness 
 depended on Sir Philip, and how little she 
 could hope for in this world, divided from 
 him. She induced Lord and Lady Lincoln 
 immediately to set out for England, that 
 she might listen to his prayers. Not a 
 moment was lost : she stood by his bed- 
 side — she was with him — the angel whom 
 he had invoked was come to save him. Her 
 small delicate hand rested on his burning 
 forehead ; and in its soft and gentle pres- 
 sure there was promise of life and joy. 
 
 From that moment Sir Philip Gasteneys 
 gradually recovered. He had always been 
 the creature of impulse, and this unexpected 
 change in Lady Editha gave a new direction
 
 208 SIR PHILIP GASTENEYS. 
 
 to his physical frame, and strength to 
 struggle with his malady. The speed with 
 which he recovered was now to the surprise 
 of his physicians and attendants, equal to 
 the rapidity with which his illness had ad- 
 vanced on him, and in a short time he was 
 able to look with confidence to future scenes 
 of happiness and health. 
 
 The days which he now passed were the 
 most tranquil and the happiest he had ever 
 known. He was about to indulge, for the 
 first time in his life, the warmest feelings 
 of his nature without guilt or shame. He 
 felt the unspeakable charm of delight ac- 
 companied by innocence. 
 
 Having in the meantime attained his 
 twenty-first year, he made a handsome
 
 SIR IMIILII' GASTENEYS. 209 
 
 settlement on Mrs. Setou avIio continued 
 to reside in Piuis, and was shortly after, 
 (with every chance of enjoying thiit per- 
 manent and rational happiness, to which 
 untoward events, and his too frccjuently 
 uncontrolled passions had hitherto made 
 him a stranger), united to Lady Editha. 
 
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