PREFACE.

I SHALL make no apology for the publication of the following pages, nor use any efforts to deprecate the severity of criticism. Such as they are, they are given to the world, and by their merits or defects they must stand or fall. They are not sent forth under the wing of Literary patronage, but submitted to the Public, on whose fiat I am content that their existence should depend.

Fitzroy Square,

November 30th, 1822.

L. C.

TEMPTATION.

CHAPTER I.

"Yes Sir, she has a tongue

That never halts for want of argument,
She can dispute, and reason, and tell tales
As endless as the coward's vain account

Of bloody battles and heroic acts;

Or Lady Faddle's tedious history
Of her grave ancestors of Faddle-hall."

Tragedy of " Sir Thomas More."

HUYP VANDER DORDRECHT was the son of a sage magistrate of Amsterdam, and was not a little proud of his paternal descent. His mother, Aaltje VuistSlaagen, was one of the most respectable of her profession, though rather inclined

to act the termagant. Huyp, however, was her darling; and as he gave early indications of genius, and high notions, she determined that Huyp should be a great man, let the world say what it would. Aaltje, though pensioned by the magistrate, never objected to earn a penny in an honest way. Huyp was an extravagant little dog, and cost her a great deal in broken windows, and cracked sculls, for he inherited from his mother a very irritable disposition, and never scrupled to revenge himself amply for an affront.

Aaltje's patience was frequently tried to the utmost by the conduct of Huyp, but as she intended to make something of him in the end, and was not without hopes of becoming a lady herself, she bridled her passions, and endeavoured to reason him into a different line of conduct. "Perverse dog!" she would frequently exclaim, "all my remonstrances