Tortures, tragedies of blood, and heinous crimes added piquancy to Mrs. Haywood’s love stories, but were not the normal material of her romances.  Her talent was chiefly for “soft things.”  She preferred the novel of intrigue and passion in which the characters could be run through a breathless maze of amatory adventures, with a pause now and again to relate a digressive episode for variety’s sake.  Typical of this sort, the best adapted to the romancer’s genius, is “The Agreeable Caledonian:  or, Memoirs of Signiora di Morella, a Roman Lady, Who made her Escape from a Monastery at Viterbo, for the Love of a Scots Nobleman.  Intermix’d with many other Entertaining little Histories and Adventures which presented themselves to her in the Course of her Travels.”  No moralizing, no romantic idealism disturbs the rapid current of events.  It is a pure “cloak and sword” novel, definitely located in Italy, with all the machinery of secret assignations, escapes from convents, adventures on the road and at inns, sudden assaults, duels, seductions, and revenge characteristic of Spanish fiction.

Don Jaques di Morella determines to marry his daughter, Clementina, to a certain Cardinal, who has offered to renounce the scarlet hat for love of her.  When she piques her lover by her evident unwillingness to wed, Don Jaques packs her off to a convent at Viterbo.  By picking up a copy of verses Clementina becomes acquainted with Signiora Miramene, who relates the history of her correspondence with the Baron Glencairn.

Clementina becomes the instrument of the lovers, but no sooner sees the lovely North Briton than she herself is captivated.  In response to her proffered affection, Glencairn manages by an extraordinary device to convey her out of the convent.  In spite of the rage of Dan Jaques they escape to Sienna.  The further surprising turns in their affairs to be later communicated to the public.

Part II.  At Sienna the lovers enjoy a season of perfect felicity until Don Jaques comes to town in pursuit of a defaulting steward, discovers Clementina, and apprehends the pair.  While the two are confined in separate convents awaiting trial, Clementina’s maid, Ismenia (who has already related her little history), becomes their go-between and serves her mistress the same trick that Clementina had already played upon her friend Miramene.  Ismenia and the faithless Baron decamp to parts unknown, while Clementina’s father starts back to Rome with his recreant daughter.  In man’s clothes she escapes from her parent to seek revenge upon her lover.  At an inn she hears a woman in the next room complaining of her gallant’s desertion, and going in to console her, hears the moving story of Signiora Vicino and Monsieur Beaumont, told as a warning to the credulous and unwary sex.  The injured fair enters a convent.

Still in pursuit of her lover, Clementina on Montelupe meets the funeral of a young woman who had been torn to pieces by wolves.  The chief mourner proves to be Glencairn.  She is hindered in an attempt to stab him and thrown into prison, where he visits her and disarms her resentment by offering to marry her.  After the ceremony they proceed to Paris where each plunges into dissipation.  Finally they separate, Clementina dies of a fever, and the Baron is left free to pursue his inclinations through a possible third part, which, however, was never written.