him of his best services whenever the benefits came to be advertised. Mr. Villars, the comedian, thanked him in a handfome manner; and we foon after fat down to table, where the defigning hypocrite, by a behaviour the moft fpecious and polite, and by an unaffuming pretence to all the virtues with which he was utterly unacquainted, foon got the better of my father's referve, and not a little filenced the contempt which I had always entertained for those itine rant dependants on the theatre. Not to be minutely circumftantial, fuffice it, Mr. Babler, that Villars received an invitation, no less warm than general, to our house; and, in lefs than a week, made fuch good ufe of my father's hofpitality, as entirely to captivate the affections of his inexperienced daughter, and to fill her with an infuperable aversion to the happy habitation in which for her whole life she had been fo carefully brought up.

I was too much a novice, however, in the bufinefs of amour, to keep the matter fo perfectly concealed from the eyes of a father, who in his youth had been remarkably well received among the ladies, as I could with: he faw with what eagerness I hung upon every fyllable that fell from Villars; and remarked, with concern, that unless Villars was in the house, I ftudioufly avoided his company. One Sunday afternoon, therefore, while I imagined he was at church, he unexpectedly darted from a closet in the very room where Villars and I were exchanging vows of everlafting fidelity; and ordering my lover, with a look of indignation, never to come again into his prefente, defired me immediately to retire to my room.

Though thame and confufion kept me filent in the prefence of my father, I was, nevertheless, no fooner alone, than I began to think his behaviour a very unjuftifiable piece of barbarity: all the care and anxiety which for more than twenty years he had manifefted for my welfare, was immediately banished from my remembrance. I looked upon him as the greatest enemy I had in the world; and, full of nothing but the idea of my adorable Villars, I determined, like the inconfiderate, the unnatural monfter I was, to quit the man who gave me being, who educated me with the niceft circumfpection, and of whofe worth I was perfectly convinced, to ge

off with a fellow who, for ought I knew, might be a highwayman, to whom I never owed an obligation, and whose perfon I had never feen till the week before, in which he fo unfortunately brought a recommendation to my father's.

Before I had time to execute this dutiful project, however, my unhappy father came into my room; and looking

t

at me for fome tiine with an air of inexpreffible anguish, at last burst into a flood of tears. When he had fomewhat recovered himself O Ifabella!' faid he, little did I think to have feen fuch a day as this; and little did I imagine you would ever give me caufe to regret the hour of your birth. In what part of my duty, tell me, child, has there been a deficiency, to occafion fo fatal a 'negligence in yours? What has your father done, that you wish to shake off every fentiment of nature and affection, and defire to fly from the arms which have cherished you fince the first moment of your existence, to refuge with a villain, whom you have not known above ten or a dozen days? In the alienation of your affections, has he hesitated to break the facred laws of friendship and hofpitality; or fcrupled to put on the awful form of virtue, to profecute the most infamous ends? While I entertained him with the greatest cordiality, he was doing me the moft irreparable injury; and when I harboured him moft in my bofom, like the venomous adder, the more deeply he ftung me to the heart. And will you, Ifabella, instead of revenging the caufe of fo injured, and, I hope I may fay, fo tender a parent, become yourfelf acceffary to the deftruction of my happiness? Will you be guilty of a parricide to reward an affaffin, who has attempted more than my life? And fhall it be faid, that a common-place compliment to her beauty is of more confideration to fo fenfible a young lady, than the everlafting tranquillity of her father? Alas! my child, let not C your youth and inexperience lead you into an irretrievable mistake. The man that would be guilty of a crime to engage your affections, would not ftop at a crime to cat you off, when time and poffeffion had rendered you lefs attractive to his imagination. Confider, my dear, the man who courts you to quit your father's houfe, is in⚫terested

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fort of fatisfaction, to think how mortified my father must be when he found I had fo chearfully taken him at his word.

As it would not be prudent for Mr. Villars to stay in the neighbourhood when our affair became any way public, we quitted the country with the utmoft expedition; and by the following evening arrived at a confiderable town, near an hundred miles off, in which a ftrol ling company was at that time performing, from whom Mr. Villars had received feveral very preffing letters, requefting him to join them, and offering him by much the most capital caft of all the characters. At this place we were married the morning after our arrival; and, to my everlafting infamy I mention it, no one reflection of what might be felt at home was once fuffered to difcredit the festival with a figh.

I had not, however, been many weeks married, before I found a very material alteration in the behaviour of my hofband; instead of the good humour and complaifance which he formerly affuined, he treated me with nothing but a round of the moft filent furlinefs, or the moft farcaftic contempt. If he talked fometimes, it was of having thrown himfelf away; and, in proportion as our circumftances became contracted, (for the players had but very little bufinefs, and the principal part of my wardrobe was now difpofed of) he was bafe enough even to reproach me with running away from my father. I now faw, when it was too late, the imprudence of my conduct, and would have given the world, had I been mistress of it, to call back the days my former tranquillity. I perceived clearly that Villars's fole motive in ever addreffing me was the confideration of my father's opulence: he faw me an only child, and naturally imagined that, though the venerable old gentleman might be offended with me at first, he would, nevertheless, quickly relent, and take me again to the arms of his affection as a daughter. With this view, he obliged me to fend home letters upon letters, all expreffing the deepest penitence for my fault, and painting the wretchedness of our fituation in colours the most affecting. A poft fcarcely went, for feveral weeks, but what carried fome petition of this nature; and, perhaps, I might have continued writing confider.

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ably longer, had not the following note been at latt fent in anfwer to my various epiftles

TO MRS. VILLARS, AT THE THEATRE IN SHREWSBURY.

MADAM,

WHEN I had a daughter, she never

fpoke a word but what gave me pleafure, nor mentioned a want which I did not fly to remove. You, Madam, have robbed me of that daughter; yet, after the barbarity of plunging a dagger in my bofom, are now mean enough to throw yourself at my feet, and to folicit my compaflion for bread. In reality, I do not know whether I fhould moft deteft you for the inhumanity of your conduct on the one hand, or defpife you for the bafenets of your behaviour on the other. Is it not enough to be guilty, but you must try to be despicable? For fhame, Madam, exert a little more fpirit, and be uni formly culpable: talk as much of duty and affection to your hufband as you pleafe; but let not the heavy hand of ne ceflity fqueeze you into a paltry affecta, tion of either to a father, about whole heart you have twisted a thousand scorpions, and who, probably, before you receive this, may be ready for that grave which you kindly opened for him on the fixth of Auguft. Trouble me, I beseech you, no more; I am familiar with your hand, and fhall never open another letter of your writing. As you have difpofed of your perfon, give me leave to difpofe of my property; for be affured, no confideration on earth fhall tempt me to provide for a villain, or to mitigate the punifhment which Providence has in this world pronounced against filial difobedience. Could you abandon a father, and yet hope for felicity? Could you rife up against the fountain of your being, and yet form an idea of content? The very fuppofition is a blafphemy against Heaven. Make, therefore, a proper use of your present chastisement, and rather rejoice at it as an happiness, than lament it as a misfortune; fince, had you efcaped the indignation of Omnipotence in this world, there was but too just a foundation to expect an eternity of torments in the next.

HORACE BRANDON.

This letter, which my confcience convinced me was what I ought to have expected, putting an end to all our hopes, Mr. Villars no longer kept meafures with me: he wanted money-money he would have; and even told me, in very plain terms, I might that very night put him in poffeffion of fifty guineas, if I would. O, Mr. Babler, his propofal was a horrid one. A young gentleman of great fortune had, it feems, praised me to his face; and knowing, perhaps, his character, taken the liberty of I cannot enter into an explanation. You may judge, Sir, with what a degree of united rage and aftonishment any woman muft have heard fuch a circumftance from the husband of her heart. For my own part, though I had forfeited all pretenlions to the filial character, I was yet tremblingly alive in all my other relations. I received the overture, therefore, with the indignation it merited; and Mr. Villars, finding that neither the most foothing language of hypocrify, nor the moft vehement arguments of a horfewhip, were fufficient to alter my refolution, he privately decamped in a few nights after, leaving me in a ftrange country, not only without a fixpence, but over head and ears in debt, and in a fituation also that required the tendereft circumfpection. This was too much; it brought on the pains of parturiency;

- SIR,

and I was delivered of a boy, who, happily for himself, poor orphan, died in a few hours after his birth. For me, I languifhed a long time in the moft deplorable circumstances; and must have inevitably perished, had it not been for the humanity of the company, who, notwithstanding their own diftreffes were extremely urgent, nevertheless strained a point to relieve mine; and, when my health was somewhat established, enlisted me at a full share, though I had never before appeared in any thing but Ifabella in the Innocent Adultery.

In this way of life, Sir, I have ever fince continued, not knowing how to better myfelf. Was my heart at eafe, I might poffibly entertain you with fome very humourous little narratives. But, alas! Sir, remorfe is the only companion of my bofom. My unhappy father, who did not furvive his letter three days, is ever prefent to my remembrance; and even Villars, greatly as he is the object of abhorrence to my reafon, now and then draws a tear from my tendernefs, and gives me a moment of diftrefs. He has for these four years been ftrolling with a company, in various parts of the Ainerican Plantations; and is lately married to a woman infinitely better calculated for his purposes than the

UNFORTUNATE ISABELLA,

TO THE BABLER.

OUR unfortunate correfpondent, Y Mrs. Villars, at the conclufion of her letter, in your last paper, gave an intimation that, if her heart was any way at eafe, he could amuse the public with fome curious adventures of a strolling -company. Now, Sir, that your readers may not be disappointed of fuch an entertainment, I have taken the liberty to fend you the following little narrative; and fhall not, through an ill-timed at-fectation of modefty, fay you will confer a great obligation on me by giving it an immediate place.

By fome fuch unhappy attachment as Mrs. Villars, I became, about three years ago, a member of a trolling company in the wett of England; and, as my voice was tolerably good, my perfon

not difagreeable, and my paffion for the ftage not a little vehement, I made a very capital figure in all the country towns of our circuit, and fhone away every other night as a Juliet, à Monimia, an Eudofia, or a Statira. To be fure, it was often whimsical enough to fee a heroine of my confequence in diftress for a pair of ftockings, an odd ruffle, or a tolerable cap. Yet the novelty of the profeffion, and the greatness of my applaufe, very readily induced me to overlook all difficulties: add to this likewise, that I poffelfed the invaluable fociety of the amiable vagabond who undid me; a cir cumftance of itself fufficient to compenfate for every other inconvenience of miffortune.

My first appearance, Mr. Babler, was in the character of Cordelia, in King Lear. My husband performed the part of

Edgar;