“I continued, with solemnity, ’I have borne with your tyranny and infidelities.  I disdain to utter what I have borne with.  I thought you unprincipled, but not so decidedly vicious.  I formed a tie, in the sight of heaven—­I have held it sacred; even when men, more conformable to my taste, have made me feel—­I despise all subterfuge!—­that I was not dead to love.  Neglected by you, I have resolutely stifled the enticing emotions, and respected the plighted faith you outraged.  And you dare now to insult me, by selling me to prostitution!—­Yes—­equally lost to delicacy and principle—­you dared sacrilegiously to barter the honour of the mother of your child.’

“Then, turning to Mr. S——­, I added, ‘I call on you, Sir, to witness,’ and I lifted my hands and eyes to heaven, ’that, as solemnly as I took his name, I now abjure it,’ I pulled off my ring, and put it on the table; ’and that I mean immediately to quit his house, never to enter it more.  I will provide for myself and child.  I leave him as free as I am determined to be myself—­he shall be answerable for no debts of mine.’

“Astonishment closed their lips, till Mr. Venables, gently pushing his friend, with a forced smile, out of the room, nature for a moment prevailed, and, appearing like himself, he turned round, burning with rage, to me:  but there was no terror in the frown, excepting when contrasted with the malignant smile which preceded it.  He bade me ’leave the house at my peril; told me he despised my threats; I had no resource; I could not swear the peace against him!—­I was not afraid of my life!—­he had never struck me!’

“He threw the letter in the fire, which I had incautiously left in his hands; and, quitting the room, locked the door on me.

“When left alone, I was a moment or two before I could recollect myself—­One scene had succeeded another with such rapidity, I almost doubted whether I was reflecting on a real event.  ’Was it possible?  Was I, indeed, free?’—­Yes; free I termed myself, when I decidedly perceived the conduct I ought to adopt.  How had I panted for liberty—­liberty, that I would have purchased at any price, but that of my own esteem!  I rose, and shook myself; opened the window, and methought the air never smelled so sweet.  The face of heaven grew fairer as I viewed it, and the clouds seemed to flit away obedient to my wishes, to give my soul room to expand.  I was all soul, and (wild as it may appear) felt as if I could have dissolved in the soft balmy gale that kissed my cheek, or have glided below the horizon on the glowing, descending beams.  A seraphic satisfaction animated, without agitating my spirits; and my imagination collected, in visions sublimely terrible, or soothingly beautiful, an immense variety of the endless images, which nature affords, and fancy combines, of the grand and fair.  The lustre of these bright picturesque sketches faded with the setting sun; but I was still alive to the calm delight they had diffused through my heart.