but was inclined to do he like, whatever he had offered to do. But he went no farther than what I have said, nor did he offer so much as to sit down on the bed-side with me, but took his leave, said he loved me tenderly, and would convince me of it by such demonstrations as should be to my satisfaction. I told him I had a great deal of reason to believe him, that he was full master of the whole house and of me, as far as was within the bounds we had spoken of, which I believed he would not break, and asked him if he would not lodge there that night.

He said he could not well stay that night, business requiring him in London, but added, smiling, that he would come the next day and take a night's lodging with me. I pressed him to stay that night, and told him I should be glad a friend so valuable should be under the same roof with me; and indeed I began at that time not only to be much obliged to him, but to love him too, and that in a manner that I had not been acquainted with myself.

O let no woman slight the temptation that being generously delivered from trouble is to any spirit furnished with gratitude and just principles. This gentleman had freely and voluntarily delivered me from misery, from poverty, and rags; he had made me what I was, and put me into a way to be even more than I ever was, namely, to live happy and pleased, and on his bounty I depended. What could I say to this gentleman when he pressed me to yield to him, and argued the lawfulness of it? But of that in its place.

I pressed him again to stay that night, and told him it was the first completely happy night that I had ever had in the house in my life, and I should be very sorry to have it be without his company, who was the cause and foundation of it all; that we would be innocently merry, but that it could never be without him; and, in short, I courted him so, that he said he could not deny me, but he would take his horse and go to London, do the business he had to do, which it seems was to pay a foreign bill that was due that night, and would else be protested, and that he would come back in three hours at farthest, and sup with me; but bade me get nothing there, for since I was resolved to be merry, which was what he desired above all things, he would send me something from London; And we will make it a wedding supper, my dear, says he; and with that word took me in his arms,

MY LANDLORD BECOMES MY LODGER.

29

and kissed me so vehemently, that I made no question but he intended to do everything else that Amy had talked of. What do ye

I started a little at the word wedding. mean, to call it by such a name? says I; adding, We will have a supper, but t'other is impossible, as well on your side as mine; he laughed; Well, says he, you shall call it what you will, but it may be the same thing, for I shall satisfy you it is not so impossible as you make it.

I don't understand you, said I; have not I a husband and you a wife?

Well, well, says he, we will talk of that after supper; so he rose up, gave me another kiss, and took his horse for London.

This kind of discourse had fired my blood, I confess, and I knew not what to think of it; it was plain now that he intended to lie with me, but how he would reconcile it to a legal thing, like a marriage, that I could not imagine. We had both of us used Amy with so much intimacy, and trusted her with everything, having such unexampled instances of her fidelity, that he made no scruple to kiss me and say all these things to me before her; nor had he cared one farthing if I would have let him lie with me, to have had Amy there too all night. When he was gone, Well, Amy, says I, what will all this come to now? I am all in a sweat at him. Come to, madam, says Amy, I see what it will come to, I must put you to bed to-night together. Why you would not be so impudent, you jade you, says I, would you? Yes, I would, says she, with all my heart, and think you both as honest as ever you were in your lives.

What ails the slut to talk so? said I; honest! how can it be honest? Why, I'll tell you, madam, says Amy, I sounded it as soon as I heard him speak, and it is very true too; he calls you widow, and such indeed you are, for as my master has left you so many years, he is dead to be sure; at least he is dead to you; he is no husband; you are and ought to be free to marry who you will; and his wife being gone from him, and refusing to lie with him, then he is a single man again as much as ever; and though you cannot bring the laws of the land to join you together, yet one refusing to do the office of a wife, and the other of a husband, you may certainly take one another fairly.

Nay, Amy, says I, if I could take him fairly, you may be

sure I'd take him above all the men in the world; it turned the very heart within me when I heard him say he loved me; how could it do otherwise, when you know what a condition I was in before, despised and trampled on by all the world? I could have took him in my arms and kissed him as freely as he did me, if it had not been for shame.

Ay, and all the rest too, says Amy, at the first word; I don't see how you can think of denying him anything; has he not brought you out of the devil's clutches, brought you out of the blackest misery that ever poor lady was reduced to? Can a woman deny such a man anything?

Nay, I don't know what to do, Amy, says I; I hope he won't desire anything of that kind of me, I hope he won't attempt it; if he does, I know not what to say to him.

Not ask you, says Amy; depend upon it he will ask you, and you will grant it too; I am sure my mistress is no fool; come, pray madam, let me go air you a clean shift; don't let him find you in foul linen the wedding night.

But that I know you to be a very honest girl, Amy, says I, you would make me abhor you; why, you argue for the devil, as if you were one of his privy counsellors.

It's no matter for that, madam, I say nothing but what I think; you own you love this gentleman, and he has given you sufficient testimony of his affection to you; your conditions are alike unhappy, and he is of opinion that he may take another woman, his first wife having broke her honour, and living from him; and that though the laws of the land will not allow him to marry formally, yet that he may take another woman into his arms, provided he keeps true to the other woman as a wife; nay, he says it is usual to do so, and allowed by the custom of the place, in several countries abroad; and, I must own, I am of the same mind; else it is in the power of a whore, after she has jilted and abandoned her husband, to confine him from the pleasure as well as convenience of a woman all the days of his life, which would be very unreasonable, and, as times go, not tolerable to all people; and the like on your side, madam.

Had I now had my senses about me, and had my reason not been overcome by the powerful attraction of so kind, so beneficent a friend: had I consulted conscience and virtue, I should have repelled this Amy, however faithful and honest to me in other things, as a viper, and engine of the devil:

POVERTY BECOMES MY SNARE.

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I ought to have remembered, that neither he or I, either by the laws of God or man, could come together upon any other terms than that of notorious adultery. The ignorant jade's argument, that he had brought me out of the hands of the devil, by which she meant the devil of poverty and distress, should have been a powerful motive to me not to plunge myself into the jaws of hell, and into the power of the real devil, in recompense for that deliverance. I should have looked upon all the good this man had done for me, to have been the particular work of the goodness of Heaven, and that goodness should have moved me to a return of duty and humble obedience. I should have received the mercy thankfully, and applied it soberly, to the praise and honour of my Maker; whereas, by this wicked course, all the bounty and kindness of this gentleman became a snare to me, was a mere bait to the devil's hook; I received his kindness at the dear expense of body and soul, mortgaging faith, religion, conscience, and modesty, for (as I may call it) a morsel of bread; or if you will, ruined my soul from a principle of gratitude, and gave myself up to the devil, to show myself grateful to my benefactor. I must do the gentleman that justice as to say, I verily believe that he did nothing but what he thought was lawful; and I must do that justice upon myself as to say, I did what my own conscience convinced me, at the very time I did it, was horribly unlawful, scandalous, and abominable.

The

But poverty was my snare; dreadful poverty! misery I had been in was great, such as would make the heart tremble at the apprehensions of its return; and I might appeal to any that has had any experience of the world, whether one so entirely destitute as I was of all manner of all helps, or friends, either to support me, or to assist me to support myself, could withstand the proposal; not that I plead this as a justification of my conduct, but that it may move the pity even of those that abhor the crime.

Besides this, I was young, handsome, and, with all the mortifications I had met with, was vain, and that not a little; and, as it was a new thing, so it was a pleasant thing to be courted, caressed, embraced, and high professions of affec.ion made to me, by a man so agreeable, and so able to dr me good.

Add to this, that if I had ventured to disoblige this gentle

man, I had no friend in the world to have recourse to; I had no prospect, no, not of a bit of bread; I had nothing before me but to fall back into the same misery that I had been in before.

Amy had but too much rhetoric in this cause; she represented all those things in their proper colours, she argued them all with her utmost skill, and at last the merry jade, when she came to dress me, Look ye, madam, said she, if you won't consent, tell him you will do as Rachael did to Jacob, when she could have no children, put her maid to bed to him; tell him you cannot comply with him, but there's Amy, he may ask her the question, she has promised me she won't deny you.

And would you have me say so, Amy? said I.

No, madam, but I would really have you do so; besides, you are undone if you do not; and if my doing it would save you from being undone, as I said before, he shall, if he will; if he asks me, I won't deny him, not I; hang me if I do, says Amy.

Well, I know not what to do, says I to Amy. Do! says Amy; your choice is fair and plain; here you may have a handsome, charming gentleman, be rich, live pleasantly, and in plenty, or refuse him, and want a dinner, go in rags, live in tears; in short, beg and starve; you know this is the case, madam, says Amy, I wonder how you can say you know not what to do.

Well, Amy, says I, the case is as you say, and I think verily I must yield to him; but then, said I, moved by conscience, don't talk any more of your cant of its being lawful that I ought to marry again, and that he ought to marry again, and such stuff as that; 'tis all nonsense, says I, Amy, there's nothing in it, let me hear no more of that, for if I yield, 'tis in vain to mince the matter, I am a whore, Amy, neither better nor worse, I assure you.

I don't think so, madam, by no means, says Amy, I wonder how you can talk so; and then she run on with her argument of the unreasonableness that a woman should be obliged to live single, or a man to live single, in such cases as before. Well, Amy, said I, come, let us dispute no more, for the longer I enter into that part, the greater my scruples will be; but if I let it alone, the necessity of my present circumstances is such, that I believe I shall yield to him, if he should