LOVES OF A BACHELOR. 353 



ings, and I concluded it by quoting, with the utmost sincerity, the 

 well-known couplet of one of our celebrated poets, which couplet 

 now possessed a meaning and an energy I have never before dis- 

 covered in it. It was — 



" Ye gods ! annihilate both space and time, 

 And make two lovers happy ! " 



I was in the act of folding up this letter with all the neatness I pos- 

 sibly could, when one of the servants handed me an Edinburgh 

 newspaper, which some unknown acquaintance had addressed to me. 

 I paused for a moment to glance at its contents, and the very first 

 paragraph which caught my eye was one headed " Elopement.'' I 

 perused it — it was as follows : — 



" Last night an elopement took place from a house at no great 

 distance from South Bridge, under somewhat extraoi-dinary circum- 

 stances. The fair fugitive's name is C — st — a O — g — 1 — vie, and 

 that of her paramour Mr. R — b — t L— m — nt. It is currently 

 rumoured — and, though we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the 

 report, it seems to meet with universal credence — that the en- 

 amoured pair had, on the evening of the elopement, been discovered 

 in circumstances which the tongue of scandal will not fail to interpret 

 in its own way. Of this, however, we are certain, and the fact adds 

 much to the delinquency of both the fugitive parlies, that the frail fair 

 was pledged to another gentleman, a Mr. J — n — th — n M — rt — m — r, 

 a native of the town of E , county of Moray, — that the prepara- 

 tions for their marriage were all but completed, — and that the cele- 

 bration of their nuptials was to have taken place in a few days 

 The lovers, we understand proceeded in the direction of Gretna 

 Green." 



Strange as it may seem the perusal of this paragraph did not pro- 

 duce any sensible immediate confusion in my mind : I rather felt an 

 emotion of a certain indefinable kind of desperation come over me, 

 coupled with a resolve to end my existence by my own hand that 

 very moment. I looked around me for some weapon — some razor 

 or knife, or other instrument, for that purpose ; but could find none. 

 I then rushed out of the house, and hastened to the nearest iron- 

 monger's shop for the purpose of purchasing a pair of pistols with 

 which to blow out my brains; but just as I had intimated to the 

 shopman the articles I wanted, one of my nearest relations accident- 

 'ally entered. By this time, however, the shopman, not dreaming 

 for a moment of the object I had in view, had placed a variety of 

 pistols on the counter, expressing once or twice a hope that some of 

 them icould (uiszoer my purpose. But as I had been so far defeated 

 in my object by the unanticipated intrusion of my relation, I men- 

 tioned to the young man, who appeared bo very anxious to accom- 

 modate me, that neither of those on the counter would suit ; and 

 then departed. By this time I had become agitated, and betrayed a 

 certain wildness of manner, which circumstance, conjoined with tlie 

 nature of the articles I had intended to purchase, excited my friend's 

 suspicions as to the catastrophe I was contemplating, and accordingly 

 he took the precaution of accompanying me home, kept me in the 



