LETTER XIV

Mr. Lovelace, to John Belford, Esq. 
Tuesday, Aug. 22.

I must write on, to divert myself:  for I can get no rest; no refreshing rest.  I awaked just now in a cursed fright.  How a man may be affected by dreams!

’Methought I had an interview with my beloved.  I found her all goodness, condescension, and forgiveness.  She suffered herself to be overcome in my favour by the joint intercessions of Lord M., Lady Sarah, Lady Betty, and my two cousins Montague, who waited upon her in deep mourning; the ladies in long trains sweeping after them; Lord M. in a long black mantle trailing after him.  They told her they came in these robs to express their sorrow for my sins against her, and to implore her to forgive me.

’I myself, I thought, was upon my knees, with a sword in my hand, offering either to put it up in the scabbard, or to thrust it into my heart, as she should command the one or the other.

’At that moment her cousin Morden, I thought, all of a sudden, flashed in through a window, with his drawn sword—­Die, Lovelace! said he; this instant die, and be d——­d, if in earnest thou repairest not by marriage my cousin’s wrongs!

’I was rising to resent this insult, I thought, when Lord M. ran between us with his great black mantle, and threw it over my face:  and instantly my charmer, with that sweet voice which has so often played upon my ravished ears, wrapped her arms around me, muffled as I was in my Lord’s mantle:  O spare, spare my Lovelace! and spare, O Lovelace, my beloved cousin Morden!  Let me not have my distresses augmented by the fall of either or both of those who are so dear to me!

’At this, charmed with her sweet mediation, I thought I would have clasped her in my arms:  when immediately the most angelic form I had ever beheld, all clad in transparent white, descended in a cloud, which, opening, discovered a firmament above it, crowded with golden cherubs and glittering seraphs, all addressing her with Welcome, welcome, welcome! and, encircling my charmer, ascended with her to the region of seraphims; and instantly, the opened cloud closing, I lost sight of her, and of the bright form together, and found wrapt in my arms her azure robe (all stuck thick with stars of embossed silver) which I had caught hold of in hopes of detaining her; but was all that was left me of my beloved Clarissa.  And then, (horrid to relate!) the floor sinking under me, as the firmament had opened for her, I dropt into a hole more frightful than that of Elden; and, tumbling over and over down it, without view of a bottom, I awaked in a panic; and was as effectually disordered for half an hour, as if my dream had been a reality.’

Wilt thou forgive my troubling thee with such visionary stuff?  Thou wilt see by it only that, sleeping or waking, my Clarissa is always present with me.