MAJOR SEMPLE LISLE. i^ 



Critical cant flie fo well knew how to afiume, 

 inveighed againft my falfc rcprefentations ; and, 

 by way of completing her cruelty, concluded 

 by lliowing the letter llie had received from 

 me. 



The effedt of this frightful eccLiirciiTement, 

 upon the fenfibility of a delicate woman, may 

 be eafier conceived than expreifed. She wrote 

 a letter to Sir James Harris, and another to 

 myfelf, in the moft pathetic terms that affec- 

 tion could poffibly fuggeft. She expreifed the 

 inoft anxious folicitude, left the impetuofity of 

 my temper fhould hurry me into unneceffary 

 dangers ; in fine, fhe wrote, to ufe Sir James's 

 own words, *^ as none but an KngliJJjzvoman could 

 *' write." 



It will be readily believed that the Duchefs's 

 behaviour to Mad Porquet had not contributed 

 to raife in my mind any high veneration for 

 her charadlerj and the idea of leaving a wife 

 and children, whom I loved with the tendereli 

 affedlion, in the power of a woman, who alrea- 

 dy had fported in the moft unfeeling manner 

 with her forrows, became unfupportable. I 

 had in fad: dreaded fomething of the kind, anci 

 had taken a houfe at Narva, diftant between 

 twenty and thirty miles from the Duchefs's 

 eflate, to ferve as a retreat to my family; and I 

 now refolved, without lofs of time, to remove 



C them 



