![]() | The history of Lady Julia Mandeville | ![]() |
To the Earl of Rochdale.
Belmont, Wednesday.
My Lord,
CONVINCED Lord Melvin is more unfortunate than culpable, it would be cruel to treat him as a criminal: I feel a horror I cannot conquer at the idea of ever receiving the visit your Lordship has proposed; but, conscious of the injustice of indulging it, I sacrifise it to our antient friendship, and only postpone, not refuse, the visit: I will struggle with the reluctance of my heart, to see the guiltless author of my misery, as soon as he is publicly exculpated from the crime he at present stands charged with: Colonel Mandeville must appear as his accuser: wretched as his hand has made me, justice obliges me to bear witness to his innocence: Lady Anne Wilmot, who
We are greatly obliged to Lady Rochdale and Lady Louisa; the time of whose visit their own politeness and sensibility will regulate; it is a severe addition to my wretchedness, that the family of my friend is so fatally involved in it.
Oh! Lord Rochdale! you are a father, and can pity us: you can judge the anguish to which we must ever be a prey; never more shall we know a chearful hour;
The shortness of life, and the consideration of how much of our own is past, are the only consolations we can receive: it cannot be long before we rejoin our beloved child: we have only to pray for that ardently expected hour, which will re-unite us to all we love.
Why will man lay schemes of lasting felicity? By an over-solicitude to continue my family and name, and secure the happiness of my child, I have defeated my own purpose, and fatally destroyed both.
Humbled in the dust, I confess the hand of heaven: the pride of birth, the grandeur of my house, had too great a share in my resolves!
Oh! my friend!–but I consider the hand which directed the blow, and submit to the will of my God.
I am, &c.
Belmont.
![]() | The history of Lady Julia Mandeville | ![]() |