Pray for me, my dear father and mother; and don’t be angry that I have not yet run away from this house, so late my comfort and delight, but now my terror and anguish.  I am forc’d to break off hastily.

Your dutiful and honest DAUGHTER.

III.—­Pamela in Distress

O my dearest Father and Mother,—­Let me write and bewail my miserable fate, though I have no hope that what I write can be convey’d to your hands!  I have now nothing to do but write and weep and fear and pray!  But I will tell you what has befallen me, and some way, perhaps, may be opened to send the melancholy scribble to you.  Alas, the unhappy Pamela may be undone before you can know her hard lot!

Last Thursday morning came, when I was to set out and return home to you, my dearest parents.  I had taken my leave of my fellow-servants overnight, and a mournful leave it was to us all, for men, as well as women servants, wept to part with me; and for my part, I was overwhelmed with tears on the affecting instances of their love.

My master was above stairs, and never ask’d to see me.  False heart, he knew that I was not to be out of his reach!  Preserve me, heaven, from his power, and from his wickedness!

I look’d up when I got to the chariot, and I saw my master at the window, and I courtsy’d three times to him very low, and pray’d for him with my hands lifted up; for I could not speak.  And he bow’d his head to me, which made me then very glad he would take such notice of me.

Robin drove so fast that I said to myself, at this rate of driving I shall soon be with my father and mother.  But, alas! by nightfall he had driven me to a farmhouse far from home; and the farmer and his wife, he being a tenant of Mr. B., my master, while they treated me kindly, would do nothing to aid me in flight.  And next day he drove me still further, and when we stopped at an inn in a town strange to me, the mistress of the inn was expecting me, and immediately called out for her sister, Jewkes.  Jewkes! thought I. That is the name of the housekeeper at my master’s house in Lincolnshire.

Then the wicked creature appear’d, and I was frighted out of my wits.  The wretch would not trust me out of her sight, and soon I was forced to set out with her in the chariot.  Now I gave over all thoughts of redemption.

Here are strange pains, thought I, taken to ruin a poor, innocent, helpless young female.  This plot is laid too deep to be baffled, I fear.

About eight at night we enter’d the courtyard of this handsome, large, old, lonely mansion, that looked to me then as if built for solitude and mischief.  And here, said I to myself, I fear, is to be the scene of my ruin, unless God protect me, Who is all-sufficient.

I was very ill at entering it, partly from fatigue, and partly from dejection of spirits.  Mrs. Jewkes seem’d mighty officious to welcome me, and call’d me madam at every word.