The widow rejoiced that I had got the mischief-maker’s letter.  I excused myself to her, and instantly withdrew with it; and, after I had read it, fell to my short-hand, to acquaint thee with my good luck:  and they not returning so soon as church was done, (stepping, as it proved, into Miss Rawlins’s, and tarrying there awhile, to bring that busy girl with them to drink tea,) I wrote thus far to thee, that thou mightest, when thou camest to this place, rejoice with me upon the occasion.

They are all three just come in.

I hasten to them.

LETTER VII

Mr. Lovelace, to John Belford, ESQ.

I have begun another letter to thee, in continuation of my narrative:  but I believe I shall send thee this before I shall finish that.  By the enclosed thou wilt see, that neither of the correspondents deserve mercy from me:  and I am resolved to make the ending with one the beginning with the other.

If thou sayest that the provocations I have given to one of them will justify her freedoms; I answer, so they will, to any other person but myself.  But he that is capable of giving those provocations, and has the power to punish those who abuse him for giving them, will show his resentment; and the more remorselessly, perhaps, as he has deserved the freedoms.

If thou sayest, it is, however, wrong to do so; I reply, that it is nevertheless human nature:—­And wouldst thou not have me to be a man, Jack?

Here read the letter, if thou wilt.  But thou art not my friend, if thou offerest to plead for either of the saucy creatures, after thou hast read it.

TO MRS. HARRIOT LUCAS,

At Mrs. Moore’s, at Hampstead. 
June 10.

After the discoveries I had made of the villanous machinations of the most abandoned of men, particularized in my long letter of Wednesday* last, you will believe, my dearest friend, that my surprise upon perusing your’s of Thursday evening from Hampstead** was not so great as my indignation.  Had the villain attempted to fire a city instead of a house, I should not have wondered at it.  All that I am amazed at is, that he (whose boast, as I am told, it is, that no woman shall keep him out of her bed-chamber, when he has made a resolution to be in it) did not discover his foot before.  And it is as strange to me, that, having got you at such a shocking advantage, and in such a horrid house, you could, at the time, escape dishonour, and afterwards get from such a set of infernals.

* See Vol.  V. Letter XX. ** Ibid.  See Letter XXI.

I gave you, in my long letter of Wednesday and Thursday last, reasons why you ought to mistrust that specious Tomlinson.  That man, my dear, must be a solemn villain.  May lightning from Heaven blast the wretch, who has set him and the rest of his remorseless gang at work, to endeavour to destroy the most consummate virtue!—­Heaven be praised! you have escaped from all their snares, and now are out of danger.—­So I will not trouble you at present with the particulars I have further collected relating to this abominable imposture.