When his friends:

that depended on him. folicited him to ftand forth as county member, telling him that all parties would join in electing him, his conftant anfwer was, that he thanked them for their good opinion, but his utmost ambition was to live amongst them, fulfilling to the best of his capacity the duties of an acting magiftrate and a plain country gentleman; in which ftation he humbly con-ceived he fhould ferve them better, and ap prove himself a more useful member of the. community, than by attending upon parlia-. ment, for which he modeftly, and perhaps. truly, afferted that he had no talents..

CHAPTER V..

The Coward out of Doors is a Lion, in his own Houfe.

HAVING now fo happily difpofed of our

hero for a while, we are at leisure to look back to the state of affairs at Crowbery Castle, where the mifadventure of Juftice. Blachford had made no flight impreffion. The Captain, who had laid his plan of the prefs. gang,

gang, as we have related, was now deterred from putting it to the experiment, not only by the shameful catastrophe of Blachford's murderous plot, but also by the confideration of Sir Roger Manstock's having taken Henry into his protection. Blachford's cafe was ftill extremely doubtful; he seemed to be dofing away his life, with few and fhort intervals of faint and imperfect fenfibility; the fcull was evidently fractured, and Zachary had pronounced upon the trepan as indifpenfable: it had been thought proper, however, to call in the affiftance of a London furgeon, and his arrival was hourly expected. Nobody doubted his being the victim of his own plot; but O'Rourke, who probably would have brought it home to him in his own defence, had escaped from the people who apprehended him, and was far enough out of reach; nobody stirred. in his purfuit, and the few perfons, who were interested to conceal the evidence of Blachford's criminality, were much more likely to affift his flight than to stop it.. To leave the matter mysterious, or rather to aim at making it fo, was the most they could hope for: to caft fufpicion upon Henry was out of their power, no chicanery could do that, against the

joint force of fo many witneffes, who could depose to the very words that O'Rourke had uttered, when he confeffed that what he had done was by his master's orders, only that he had mistaken the perfon upon whom they were to have been executed; and this account, in which they perfectly agreed, was circulated Lover all the neighbourhood. In the mean time old Weevil the miller, who had been eventually the preferver of Henry's life, by perfuading him to return with him through the park, was not idle in publishing his account of the affair, and the motives that induced him fortunately to advise as he did. Blachford, therefore, whether living or dying, was effectually ruined in reputation, and fo univerfally execrated as the vileft of wretches, that even the Viscount himfelf, and his fatellites the law'yer and the captain, were fain to disavow him. Still the heart of the proud peer rankled with rage and jealoufy: difappointed of the revenge he had promifed himself to enjoy through the means of others, and intimidated from taking any open measures of his own against the object of his malice by the firm language Henry had held in his late interview, his daf tardly fpirit had no other refource but to vent

itfelf

itfelf upon the defenceless party in his power, and in this his cruelty knew no bounds. In his treatment of Lady Crowbery he kept no terms of decency or referve, publishing to all parties (not even his own domestics excepted) the charges he had against her-“ Will you tell me," he wou'd afk, " that wife is virtuous, who was not only feen by others, but whom I myself faw, hanging upon the neck of a handsome vagabond, embracing him in her arms, and careffing him with all the ecftacy of an enflamed and guilty paffion? Who will fay that this is not an action that implies criminality fo ftrongly, that ocular demonstration could fcarce add to the conviction of it? What other motive but one can a woman of her fort have for a conduct fo extraordinary towards a fellow, who is a perfect stranger to her, and who, till fhe put cloaths upon his back, had not a pocket to hold the money fhe lavishly bestowed upon him? Will any one perfuade me that all these favours and fondneffes are to be accounted for rom mere refpect to the memory of a certain parfon Ratcliffe, who picked him up as a foundling, and whom he has not fet eyes on for thefe twelve years paft?

paft? The mereft dupe in nature could not find credulity for fuch a tale."

In this ftile his Lordship took every occafion to vent his grievances, and make public the breach between himself and Lady Crowbery: When in conference with her he would hold a harfher language; and as he preffed for answers, which the difficulty of her fituation would not allow her to give, every interview ferved only to ftrengthen his conclufions and enflame his animofity.

It was generally fufpected that a feparation would take place, and this he had threatened her with; but when the fhowed a willingness to meet him in this measure, he feemed to drop it altogether, and the rather, as in that cafe her paternal eftate would have remained with her, which during their joint establishment was fo liberally applied to the common ftock, that the major part of the family dif bursements was provided for out of her fund. He had however long abandoned all hope of any benefit upon the contingency of his furvivorship, and of an heir there was now no longer any prospect. As he had therefore no intereft in view on either of thefe accounts,

he