But had the prosecution been carried on to effect, and had he even been sentenced to death, can it be supposed that his family would not have had interest enough to obtain his pardon, for a crime thought too lightly of, though one of the greatest that can be committed against a creature valuing her honour above her life?—­While I had been censured as pursuing with sanguinary views a man who offered me early all the reparation in his power to make?

And had he been pardoned, would he not then have been at liberty to do as much mischief as ever?

I dare say, Sir, such is the assurance of the man upon whom my unhappy destiny threw me; and such his inveteracy to my family, (which would then have appeared to be justified by their known inveteracy to him, and by their earnest endeavours to take away his life;) that he would not have been sorry to have had an opportunity to confront me, and my father, uncles, and brother, at the bar of a court of justice, on such an occasion.  In which case, would not (on his acquittal, or pardon) resentments have been reciprocally heightened?  And then would my brother, or my cousin Morden, have been more secure than now?

How do these conditions aggravate my fault!  My motives, at first, were not indeed blamable:  but I had forgotten the excellent caution, which yet I was not ignorant of, That we ought not to do evil that good may come of it.

In full conviction of the purity of my heart, and of the firmness of my principles, [Why may I not, thus called upon, say what I am conscious of, and yet without the imputation of faulty pride; since all is but a duty, and I should be utterly inexcusable, could I not justly say what I do?—­ In this full conviction,] he has offered me marriage.  He has avowed his penitence:  a sincere penitence I have reason to think it, though perhaps not a christian one.  And his noble relations, (kinder to the poor sufferer than her own,) on the same conviction, and his own not ungenerous acknowledgements, have joined to intercede with me to forgive and accept of him.  Although I cannot comply with the latter part of their intercession, have not you, Sir, from the best rules, and from the divinest example, taught me to forgive injuries?

The injury I have received from him is indeed of the highest nature, and it was attended with circumstances of unmanly baseness and premeditation; yet, I bless God, it has not tainted my mind; it has not hurt my morals.  No thanks indeed to the wicked man that it has not.  No vile courses have followed it.  My will is unviolated.  The evil, (respecting myself, and not my friends,) is merely personal.  No credulity, no weakness, no want of vigilance, have I to reproach myself with.  I have, through grace, triumphed over the deepest machinations.  I have escaped from him.  I have renounced him.  The man whom once I could have loved, I have been enabled to despise:  And shall not charity complete my triumph? and shall I not enjoy it?—­And where would be my triumph if he deserved my forgiveness?—­Poor man! he has had a loss in losing me!  I have the pride to think so, because I think I know my own heart.  I have had none in losing him.