“The consequence of all this could be no other than ruin.  Before the end of four years I became involved in debt to the extent of L300.  My landlord seized my stock for rent, and, to avoid immediate confinement in prison, I was forced to leave the country.

“In this condition I arrived in town a week ago.  I had just taken a lodging, and had written my dear Amelia word where she might find me; and that very evening, as I was returning from a coffee-house, because I endeavoured to assist the injured party in an affray, I was seized by the watch and committed here by a justice of the peace.”

III.—­Amelia in London

Miss Matthews, being greatly drawn to Captain Booth, procured his discharge by the expenditure of L20, and obtained her own release at the same time.

Amelia arrived in London to receive her husband in her arms.  “For,” said she, “your confinement was known all over the county, my sister having spread the news with a malicious joy; and so, not hearing from you, I hastened to town with our children.”

Poor Booth, in spite of his release, was very cast down.  Seeing tears in his eyes at the sight of his children, Amelia, embracing him with rapturous fondness, cried out, “My dear Billy, let nothing make you uneasy.  Heaven will provide for us and these poor babes.  Great fortunes are not necessary to happiness.  Make yourself easy, my dear love, for you have a wife who will think herself happy with you, and endeavour to make you so, in any situation.  Fear nothing, Billy; industry will always provide us a wholesome meal.”

Booth, who was naturally of a sanguine temper, took the cue she had given him, but he could not help reproaching himself as the cause of all her wretchedness.  This it was that enervated his heart and threw him into agonies, which all that profusion of heroic tenderness that the most excellent of women intended for his comfort served only to heighten and aggravate:  as the more she rose in his admiration, the more she quickened the sense of his unworthiness.

His affairs did not prosper; in vain he solicited a commission in the army.  With no great man to back him, and with his friend, Captain James (now a colonel, and in London), too taken up with his own affairs to exert any influence on behalf of Booth, it seemed as though no escape from misery was possible.  The beautiful Amelia, always patient and cheerful, remained his comforter.  And Atkinson, now a sergeant in the guards, was the devoted servant of both Amelia and her husband.

Then one morning, when Amelia was out, Booth was arrested for debt and carried to the bailiff’s house in Gray’s Inn Lane.

“Who has done this barbarous action?” cries Amelia, when the news is told her by Sergeant Atkinson.

“One I am ashamed to name,” cries the sergeant; “indeed, I had always a very different opinion of him; but Dr. Harrison is the man who has done the deed.”