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I* was born in a country far to the West, where the men are braver, and the women more fair than those of Circassia; where the valour of the hero is guided by wisdom, and where delicacy of sentiment points the shafts of female beauty. I was the only daughter of an officer in the army, the child of his age, and as he used fondly to express it, the only chain that bound him to the world, or made his life pleasing. His station procured him an acquaintance with men of greater rank and fortune than himself, and his regard for me induced him to bring me into every family where he was acquainted. Thus I was early taught all the elegances and fashionable foibles of such as the world calls polite, and though without fortune myself, was taught to despise those who lived as if they were poor.

My intercourse with the great, and my affectation of grandeur procured me many lovers; but want of fortune deterred them all from any other views than those of passing the present moment agreeably; or of meditating my future ruin. In every company I found myself addressed in a warmer strain of passion, than other ladies who were superior in point of rank and beauty; and this I imputed to an excess of respect, which in reality proceeded from very different motives.

Among the number of such as paid me their addresses, was a gentleman, a friend of my father, rather in the decline of life, with nothing remarkable either in his person or address to recommend him. His age which was about forty, his fortune which was moderate, and barely sufficient to support him, served to throw me off my guard, so that I considered him as the only sincere admirer I had.

*This story bears a striking similitude to the real history of Miss Sd who accompanied Lady W--e, in her retreat near Florence, and which the editor had from her own mouth.

Designing

Designing lovers in the decline of life are ever anost dangerous. Skilled in all the weaknesses of the sex, they seize each favourable opportunity, and by having less passion than youthful admirers, have less real respect, and therefore less timidity. This insidious wretch used a thousand arts to succeed in his base designs, all which I saw, but imputed to different views, because I thought it absurd to believe the real motives.

As he continued to frequent my father's, the friendship between them became every day greater; and at last from the intimacy with which he was received, I was taught to look upon him as a guardian and a friend. Though I never loved, yet I esteemed him : and this was enough to make me wish for a union, for which he seemed desirous, but to which he feigned several delays; while in the mean time, from a false report of our being married, every other admirer forsook me.

I was at last however awakened from the delusion, by an account of his being just married to another young lady with a considerable fortune. This was no great mortification to me, as I had always regarded him merely from prudential motives; but it had a very different effect upon my father, who, rash and passionate by Nature, and besides stimulated by a mistaken notion of military honour, upbraided his friend in such terms, that a challenge was soon given and accepted.

It was about midnight when I was awakened by a message from my father, who desired to see me that moment. I rose with some surprise, and following the messenger, attended only by another servant, came to a field not far from the house, where I found him, the assertor of my honour, my only friend and supporter, the tutor and companion of my youth, lying on one side covered over with

blood,

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CITIZEN OF TI

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ved myself received either with constation; or whenever I was civilly > from the most base and ungenerous

en from the society of the virtuous, I order to dispel the anxieties of insuptude, obliged to take up with the comse whose characters were blasted like it who perhaps deserved their infamy. number was a lady of the first distinccharacter the public thought proper to with greater infamy than mine. A simiistress soon united us: I knew that geoach had made her miserable; and I had o regard misery as an excuse for guilt. this lady had not virtue enough to avoid , yet she had too much delicate sensibility el it. She therefore proposed our leaving atry where we were born, and going to live -y, where our characters and misfortunes be unknown. With this I eagerly complied, we soon found ourselves in one of the most ing retreats in the most beautiful province of enchanting country.

I was taught to look fend Though I and this was en for which he invel ser

ad my companion chosen this as a retreat for red virtue, an harbour where we might look tranquillity on the distant angry world, I should e been happy; but very different was her den; she had pitched upon this situation only to joy those pleasures in private, which she had not ufficient effrontery to satisfy in a more open manher. A nearer acquaintance soon shewed me the vicious part of her character; her mind as well as her body seemed formed only for pleasure; she was sentimental only as it served to protract the inmediate enjoyment. Formed for society alone, she spoke infinitely better than she wrote, and wrote

infinitely

I* was born in a country far to the West, where the men are braver, and the women more fair than those of Circassia; where the valour of the hero is guided by wisdom, and where delicacy of sentiment points the shafts of female beauty. I was the only daughter of an officer in the army, the child of his age, and as he used fondly to express it, the only chain that bound him to the world, or made his life pleasing. His station procured him an acquaintance with men of greater rank and fortune than himself, and his regard for me induced him to bring me into every family where he was acquainted. Thus I was early taught all the elegances and fashionable foibles of such as the world calls polite, and though without fortune myself, was taught to despise those who lived as if they were poor.

My intercourse with the great, and my affectation of grandeur procured me many lovers; but want of fortune deterred them all from any other views than those of passing the present moment agreeably; or of meditating my future ruin. In every company I found myself addressed in a warmer strain of passion, than other ladies who were superior in point of rank and beauty; and this I imputed to an excess of respect, which in reality proceeded from very different motives.

Among the number of such as paid me their addresses, was a gentleman, a friend of my father, rather in the decline of life, with nothing remarkable either in his person or address to recommend him. His age which was about forty, his fortune which was moderate, and barely sufficient to support him, served to throw me off my guard, so that I considered him as the only sincere admirer I had.

*This story bears a striking similitude to the real history of Miss Sd who accompanied Lady W--e, in her retreat near Florence, and which the editor had from her own mouth.

Designing

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