these the woeful moans of my unhappy mother? Speak! what will you have me do? Do your facred manes rife againft the project of an imprudent daughter? What do you foretell me? What muft I do?" Clara could scarce refpire; her chilled heart beat no longer. A fword ftained with gore, a parcel of papers offer themfelves to her fight. "It is the fword that flew Adela!" fhe cried, "and thefe papers fay, Adieu, my dear Duverly! come foon to join your Adela." Clara put the bloody fword and the parcel of letters into the fepulchral urn from whence the had taken them. But difcovering an empty tomb in the corner, it attracted her fad curiofity; upon it the fees thefe words: Unfortunate family! thou shalt be revenged.This tomb is destined for the daughter of my enemy. Though perfuaded that this tomb was erected when the cottage was firft built, ker terrors and apprehenfions were revived again. She took her mother's let ters, fazed the lamp, and entered the cavern, through which the pursued her way. Thus alone, bewildered 'midft the hades of night, fhe goes, like Hypermneftra, in fearch of her lover. She now leaves the cavern, and enters the foreft which furrounds it. Profound darknefs till maintained the empire of night; the forcft was all in awful filence. The trembling Clara ftrayed in this wilderneis, with her thoughts on the dangers that threatened her in a place full of robbers and precipices. She reflected that the light of her lamp might attract fome of thofe ruffians, and expofe her to their cruelty; the extinguiined it, and fet it down on the ground. She was determining to return to the cavern to pafs the night, when the perceived, at a great diftance, a light, which the lamp had hindered her from feeing before. She turned pale, and itop, ed. The light advanced ftraight towards her. Luckily her preleace of mind did not forlake her; ufed to moti bodily exercifes, perceiving a tree, the climbed up, and fat down upon a bough. 1wo men drew near, one holding a lanthern, the other a parcel. "Well, Handofdeath," said one, "we have walked pretty well; we are now near the cavern."" I think it is time, Mr. Breakpate, to end our journey; it begins to tire my old legs. Thefe two thoufand louisd'ors are dnd heavy! Sit down under this tree." "Mr. Handofdeath, now tell me a little of the story about that man; how the devil, my boy, could you alone rob him of fuch a load of money?"Hark'ye, and I'll tell you. I came back laft night from the difcovery on which my comrades had fent me, and there was a man riding full gallop upon the highway, with a portmanteau behind him. I felt fuch a flow of fpirits and courage, that I hid myself behind a tree, determined to have a go at him. The moment he paffed me, I fired my piftol-his horfe fell-the rider very naturally followed--and I fell upon him.-Come, my friend, faid I, give me what you have got in that bag, and don't be long.- Pray, Mr. Highwayman," faid he; "I hope you won't rob another thief!" What do you mean by another? faid I. "Why I was a banker," faid he, and am now a bankrupt for a very large fum--I have about eight hundred thousand livres in bank notes, and about two thoufand louisd'ors in cafhI can affure you, upon my honour, I ftole it all! One wolf fhould not devour another. Pray have pity on your comrade." I could not help laughing at the fellow's fpeech. Mr. Banker, faid I, you ought to be very thankful for being a thief like me; if you was an honeft man, I would murder you-but, as I find you are a partner in trade I have fome regard for you--by the bye, though, you must give me a bit of your luck. I want the cafh, and you may keep the pipers. "O heaven!" faid he, "what the whole fum?" Aye, aye, replied I; and be thankful for your good fortune, or I'll-As foon as my man found me clap a piftol to his head, he was in a terrible hurry to unpack the parcel to give it me. I put up with that fubmiflion, and gave him the watch-word for the other robbers, and away I came. He thanked me very civilly, and made his way on foot. I wou'dn't, d'ye fee, take advantage of th 66 -- man; isn't that confcience? Now, Mr. Breakpate, I met you coming alongyou afked me, what I had got? I owned it all; but we muft keep the fecret between us. Zounds! have we any bufinefs to divide the money among our comrades? Have they help'd to the glory of the day! No! So let's hide the cafh fomewhere, go back to the cavern, and, when we want it, we know where it is." That's your fort, my brave boy!" "Well, where fhall we hide it." The best way, I think, would be beneath fome tree, and mark it properly." "Stop, do you know this fpot well?" Yes, that I do; there are four highways all around, and a path that leads to the old madman's cottage."——“ O yes, you are right; I have heard fay the old dunny has got a very pretty daughter!" "Who knows that? as yet we never faw any body come out of the place. Don't you think now there would be fome way to get into their quarter to make booty?". "The devil a booty you'd make; the old fellow lives as a hermit; and ar'n't there walls, ditches, and every thing to keep us out?" "So it is quite a trong hold?"-" Aye, and a good one, I'll warrant you. Come don't let us forget our yellow boys. This is a fine tree; won't it do to protect the. afh?""To be fure !" "Come then, bear a hand feady to work." Handofdeath and Breakpate tore a branch from the tree on which poor Clara fat. They made a kind of ftake of the branch, and dug a hole large and deep enough to contain the bag. They accordingly depofited the money, and covered it with earth; after which they marked the tree with four or five notches, and withdrew, not without having well examined the place and its envi rons. What Clara felt during the converfation and proceeding of thefe two villains, may eafily be judged. What they faid about the cottage had, above all, fright ened her to an extreme? She was afraid left they fhould difcover her, and, in fpite of her drefs, eafily diftinguith her fex by her features and tone of voice. When they were out of fight, fhe leaped from the tree, and feeling, for the firft time, the want of gold to an adventurer, fhe determined to rob the thief who had robbed another. She dug out the treasure with the fame ftake they interred it with; but finding the precious burden too heavy, neceffity taught her an expedient. She fancied to make it lighter by dividing it. In confequence of this notion, fhe put a certain fum in her shoes, her bosom, and in all her pockets. Thus provided, the commenced her march. She took her way from certain hints dropped by the robbers, and her imagination was pregnant with pleafing thoughts, and the hope of again meeting with Alexis. (To be continued.) The Falfe Friend. YOUNG Benizen was the fon of a Pembrokeshire baronet, by a lady of fafhion and fortune. Hymen had not actually and in form united the hands of his parents, but their youthful hearts were blended by mutual tenderness; and in the virtual prefence of the god they pledged their vows. In fix weeks after the birth of our hero, his beautiful mother paid the debt of nature, and with her dying breath gave him in charge to his diftracted father. The charge was, however, needlefs; for the father, notwith ftanding the irregularity of his birth, loved him with legitimate affection. When he was fit to imbibe inftruction, the beft preceptors were employed; and when his education became ripe for the univerfity, he was fent to Oriel college at Oxford. Having finished his education at Oxford, he returned to his father, who ftill remained in a fingle ftate, and was received with all the affection natural to his degree of confanguinity; introduc-. ed to all the neighbouring nobility and gentry, and in fome time fent up to. Lincoln's Inn, where he was to read law, more with a view to the care and conduct of his own future property, than from any profeflional inducement. Here he had a fet of elegant chambers in the New Square, kept a curricle, three faddle horfes, a groom, and a body fervant; affociated with the moft re fpectable fpectable and elegant members of the fociety, and was, in every respect, what might be called a young man of fashion. While he was thus dividing his time. between study, and the natural purfuits of a warm and animated mind, he be came acquainted with a fellow ftudent, whom we fball diftinguifh by the name of Flashmore. To him, alfo, nature had been kind in refpect to perfon and manners; but, inftead of that open and honeft heart which directed the progrefs of young Benizen, his conduct was governed by fraud, diffimulation, and avarice! In external appearance, Flashmore was rather fplendid than even shewy, and, in a happy fluency of fine words, more an orator than a fcholar. His own fortune being contracted, he had the addrefs to accommodate his occafions by the means of others; and, though he did not generally pafs upon the world for lefs than a gentleman, he was, in fact, little more than a complete sharper. Young Benizen, however, found in the companionship of Flafhmore fo great an intereft, that he was never happy but in his fociety; and Flashmore, who faw the afcendancy he had acquired, did not fail to make the best ufe of it. He poffeffed, to the fulleft, that art which, when used with liberality, is, perhaps, not unwarrantable; but, when exercifed with defign, becomes mean and infamous. In fhort, to ufe a law phrafe, though Benizen was upon every occafion of expence and entertainment the donor, Flathmore contrived to invert the diftinction, and to make the acceptance of favour appear, as it were, the gift of preference. The purfe, the board, the liberal confidence of Benizen, was Flashmore's without any apparent obligation, except that conferred by him in the acquiefcence of participation. loffes, of courfe, were, in proportion to his ignorance, fo frequent, and fo heavy, as to compel him to applications which his fond parent at length refufed to comply with; he was, therefore, obliged to borrow a part of his own money, and to give fecurity for the repayment of what he had actually been plundered of. Upon one of thefe fecurities, which got into the hands of a notorious Jew money-broker, he was arrefted; the fum was five hundred pounds; and, although he immediately bailed, and might have pleaded in full abatement to the action, fuch was his fpirit and sense of honour, that he fuffered judgment to go again't him by default, and was arrelled a fecond time in execution. The In this fituation he had no alternative; his other creditors, tradefinen, and fharpers, lodged detainers against him : the idea of a prifon was infupportable, and he ventured to fubmit the whole of his embarraffment to his father. father, ftill fond and benevolent, immediately wrote to his folicitor, who paid the feveral demands, amounting to two thousand pounds, and Benizen once more reftored to freedom. was In a few days the fweets of liberty were, however, foon foured; the folici tor above mentioned delivered a letter into his own hands, the contents of which, in one fatal moment, overthrew not only all the pleafures of his prefent enjoyment, but of his contemplative happinefs, in a fyftem of future conduct, which he had ferioully refolved upon. The letter pronounced a full and tender abfolution for all errors and extravagancies, an affectionate exhortation to avoid bad company, and gaming, as the worft of all moral and religious evils; an intimation that time had long comFlashmore was a member of two menced its hoftile innovations, and that clubs, the first rather of fafhion, though, from the weak and debilitated habit in as all gambling clubs are, infefted by a which this generous parent then found few fharpers; the latter of a lower or- himflf, he could not expect to be much der, where every vulture preyed upon his longer an inhabitant of this world. fellow, and where fair chance feldom or Tears of gratitude, tears of filial love, never directed the feries of the feveral for fome time faved the fenfibility of adventurers. To both thefe feminaries our young reformift from the pointed of deftruction was the unfufpecting grief of, what fuccceded. The fecret Benizen introduced as a member. His of his Lirth, which he had been an up t ter ftranger to, was now revealed; but, as his legitimacy was not doubted, the old man obferved the future enjoyment of his inheritance was fecure. The letter concluded with a requifition, that he would immediately repair to Benizencaftle, as his prefence was neceffary on many occafions. Whether this laft communication was made with a view of adding to the weight of obligation which was due to parental affection; or whether as a check or alloy to that too inconfiderate difpofition to extravagance and high life, which the old gentleman had obferved in his offspring, we cannot poffibly determine; but, in all likelihood, it proceeded from a degree of both. In a convulfion of remorfe and fond emotions, young Benizen threw the letter on the table, and retired to another apartment, where, falling on a fopha, he indulged in the natural effects of forrow. He had not been long there before his friend Flathmore entered the chambers, where obferving the letter as above defcribed, curiofity, that infuperable concomitant of a bafe mind, inftantly induced him to read the whole of it, and thus to make him felf full mafter of a fecret, which was unknown to all the world. Having gratified this difhonelt fpirit, he thought his confolations neceffary to the peace of his friend's mind, and therefore entering the apartment where he lay, roufed him from his melancholy reverie. Indeed he was not miftaken in his influence, for although Benizen had refolved to feparate himfelf from the mifchiefs of play, he ftill continued fond of the dark agent by whom he was first made acquainted with them. To be as brief as poffible, having recovered fufficient fpirits, the journey to Benizen caftle was immediately prepared for, and in four days Benizen embraced his father, who received him with every mark of forgivenefs and love. It was a meeting more interefling than we can find room for the detail of; and the joy of the old man on hearing of his fon's determined refolution in refpect olay, had fo good an effect, as to contribute much in refpect to health and its: but, alas! the tyrant Time had already made good his claims upon human infirmity, the interval was but a lightning before that awful gloom to which mortality muft at length fubmit. In about a month after, he expired in the arms of his affectionate fon. No fooner did Flafhmore hear of this event, than he determined upon following his friend, and accordingly went off poft to Benizen-caftle; where he fuccefsfully exerted himfelf in diffipating, by degrees, a melancholy which otherwife might have been long and injurious. Proud of an opportunity to fhew his gratitude and friendship, the young heir of Benizen-caftle introduced him to all the family relations, by whom he was careffed, and treated with fingular bofpitality: but in a little time, growing weary, as he faid, of a dull country life, and not content with valuable bounties, which he was in the daily receipt of, he propofed to the young baronet a return to the capital- Here it was that the latter, in declining the journey, firft difclofed his firm refolves in regard to play. His prefence, he faid, was for fome time longer indifpenfable in the country; but as that of his friend's was not fo, and as He was a favoured votary of the blind goddefs, to prefs his continuance would be, however defirable, unkind. Although mortified to the very foul at this declaration, Flafhmore had diffimulation enough to conceal his feelings. He hoped, he faid, his friend would make a vifit to the capital as foon as poflible, and having affairs of much confequence to urge his return, he nam ed a day for his departure. Upon the death of the old baronet, Flathmore had long promifed himself a noble pigeon in his young fucceffor. In this, however, being difappointed, he inftantly formed the treacherous defign of becoming the execrable inftrument of his ruin. provided his villainy could apply to his advantage. During his vint at Benizen caftle, among other family matters, he found that the next heir in reverfion to the eftate, which was at leaft three thoufand a year difencumbered, was a young man in the Temple, a Mr. Tenure, who practifed in the conveyancing line of the profeffion; and who, by by dint of industry, contrived to obtain a mere competence as a draftfman for attornies. From difplaying this young man's circumstances, on the scale of his own corrupt nature, he immediately thought him a " fit fubject for the fiend to work upon," and accordingly loft no time in attempting his purpofe, Having introduced the matter with all poffible art and caution, and finding Tenure liften with serious attention, he not only disclosed the fecret of the letter, but actually produced the inftrument itfelf, which, in the courfe of the day, in which it was received, he had contrived to purloin. He faid he was a man of business, and that before he would deliver up the only evidence of Tenure's right, he must be fecured by a bond of annuity, and a rent charge of one thousand pounds per annum. Tenure agreed with him, that two thousand pounds a year was better than nothing, and obferved, that as his relation had come into the world without the atteftation of a legal inftitute, he certainly had not a legal right to inheritance. At this moment, added Tenure, I am in a violent hurry to finish a draft, upon which, in fact, I am to dine to-day; to-morrow I am pofitively engaged to a friend, to go with m into Hampshire for a few days, but up in my return we will fet the matter forward, and you fhall be rewarded as your honelt regard for the laws of your country deserves. Accordingly they parted-the next morning Tenure examined his ftock of cafh, and finding he had not fufficient to pay the expence of an infide paffage, took his feat on the roof of a coach, and in the evening of the fame day arrived at Benizen-caftle, where taking his kinfman into a private apartment, he difclofed the whole of the plot; the robbery, the letter, and the propofal. The facts fpoke for themfelves-the noble difinterestedness and honour of Tenure, was not lefs brilliant and generous, than the guilt of Flashmore, black and abominable! The queftions now were how to obtain the letter how to punish the robber, and (with Benizen, above all) how to recompenfe the heroic fpirit of his benevolent relative; but the laft was foon fettled, for Tenure Hib. Mag. July, 1792. at once declared, that in moral justice, he thought Benizen had as good a right to his father's fortune, as if it had been affured to him by legal authority, and concluded his remark with a folemn declaration of relinquishing all right and claim whatever. Benizen thought it highly neceffary to accompany his kinfman to London, and they accordingly fet off together-Tenure advised, that upon the fecond meeting, to execute the deed of annuity, Benizen fhould be concealed in an adjacent room, and that when the letter fhould be produced, he fhould burft out and fecure it; and that in order to terrify Flashmore into future filence upon the fubject, a peace officer should be at hand to terrify him into fubmiffion. As foon as Tenure and Benizen arrived in London, the fecond meeting was appointed Flashmore attended with his bond and his rent-charge, and a confidential friend, who, by the bye, was the identical Jew money-broker who arrested Benizen, to atteft the writings. "Before we proceed further, fays Tenure, it appears that the letter which is the hinge of every thing, fhould be fully identified; I have a friend in the next room, who with your approbation I will fhew it to, he is well acquainted with the hand-writing of the old baronet, and therefore very capable of fatisfying you and me in every refpect." "By all means, replied Flafhmore. Then I will introduce him, rejoined the honeft conveyancer; and at the inftant, the letter lying on the table, opened the door of the other apartment. Benizen entered!-Flafhmore, terrified beyond the power of fpeech or action, fat motionlefs; and the little Jew rascal fhrunk, if poffible, into fomething lefs, and more contemptible, than his usual character. The peace officer was now called in, and Flashmore and the Ifraelite both given into his charge. Benizen having fecured the letter, upbraided the former, with all his perfidy; and as a condition of clemency, made him fign a written paper, declaring the whole to be (what it really was not) a forgery. The money-broker was kicked down ftairs, by Benizen's footman, and the business D conclud |