The Recorder, Or, Lady's And Gentleman's Miscellany

CALEB WILLIAMS.
[Continued from our last.]

"What is in the wind now? Do you think, you saucy trumpet, that you shall get the better of me by sheer impertinence? Sit down! rest you satisfied! you would to know by what right you are here, do you? By the right of possession. This house is mine; and you are in my power. There is no Mrs. Jakeman now to spirit you away; no, nor no Mr. Falkland to bully for you. Nay more, I have countermined you, and blown up all your schemes. Do you think I want any other right, to punish an audacious rebel like you? Do you think I will be contradicted and opposed for nothing? When did you ever know any body resist my will without being made to repent? And shall I now see myself brow-beaten by a chit-faced girl? I am not come to that neither! Have I not given you a fortune? Damn you, who brought you up? I will make you a bill for clothing and lodging. Do not you know that every creditor has a right to stop his runaway debtor? You may think as you please; but here you are till you marry Grimes. Heaven and earth shall not prevent but I will get the better of your obstinacy yet."

"Ungenerous, unmerciful man! and so it is enough for you that I have nobody to defend me? But I am not so helpless as you may imagine. You may imprison my body, but you cannot conquer my mind. Marry Mr. Grimes! And is this the way to bring me to your purpose? Every hardship I suffer puts still farther distant the end for which I am thus unjustly treated. You are not used to have your will contradicted! When did I ever contradict it? And in an affair that is so completely my own concern shall my will go for nothing? Are you not ashamed of laying down this rule for yourself, and suffering no other creature to take the benefit of it? I want nothing of you; how dare you refuse me the privilege of a reasonable being, and deny me to live Unmolested in poverty and innocence? What sort of man do you show yourself in this case, you who lay claim to the respect and applause of every one that knows you?"

The spirited reproaches of Emily had at first the effect to fill Mr. Tyrrel with astonishment, and make him feel abashed and overawed in the presence of this unprotected innocent. But his confusion was the result of surprise. When the first emotion wore off, his habitual passion returned. He cursed himself for an ass in being moved by her expostulations, and was ten times more exasperated against Emily for daring to talk to him in this provoking language, at a time when she had every thing to fear from his power. His despotic and unforgiving propensities were stimulated to a degree little short of madness. At the same time his manners, which were gloomy and thoughtful, led him to meditate a variety of schemes for the punishment of her obstinacy. He began to suspect that there was little hope of succeeding by open force; he therefore determined to have recourse to treachery.

He found in Grimes an instrument sufficiently adapted to his purpose. This fellow, who would not perhaps intentionally have hurt a worm, was fitted by the coarseness of his perceptions for the perpetration of the greatest injuries. He regarded both injury and advantage merely as they related to the gratifications of appetite; and considered it as an essential part of true wisdom to treat with contempt the effeminacy of those who suffer themselves to be tormented with ideal misfortunes. He conceived that no happier destiny could befall a young woman than to be his wife, and believed that termination would be an ample compensation for any calamities she might suppose herself to undergo in the interval. He was therefore easily prevailed upon by certain temptations which Mr. Tyrrel knew how to employ, to take a part in the plot into which Miss Melville was meant to be betrayed.

Matters being thus prepared, Mr. Tyrrel proceeded through the means of the jailor, (for the experience he had already had of personal discussion did not incline him to repeat his visits) to play upon the fears of his prisoner. This woman, sometimes under pretence of friendship and sometimes with open malice, informed Emily from time to time of the preparations that were making for consummating her fate. One day the squire had rode over to look at a neat little farm which was destined for the habitation of the new-married couple, and at another a quantity of live stock and household furniture was procured, that every thing might be ready for their reception. She then told her of a licence that was bought, a parson in readiness, and a day fixed for the nuptials. When Emily endeavoured, though with increasing misgivings, to ridicule these proceedings as absolutely nugatory without her consent, her artful gouvernante told her various stories of forced marriages, and assured her that neither protestations, nor violence, nor fainting would be of any avail, either to suspend the ceremony, or to set it aside when once performed.

The situation of Miss Melville was in an eminent degree pitiable. She had no intercourse but with her persecutors. She had not a human being with whom to consult, and who might afford her the smallest degree of consolation and encouragement. She had courage; but it was neither confirmed nor directed by the dictates of experience. It could not therefore be expected to be so flexible as with better information it would no doubt have been found. She had a clear and noble spirit; but she had some of her sex's errors. Her mind sunk under the uniform terrors with which she was assailed, and her health became visibly impaired.

Her firmness being thus far undermined. Grimes, in pursuance of his instructions, took care in his next interview to throw out an insinuation, that for his own part he never cared much for the match, and, since she was so averse to it, would be very well contented that it should never take place.

Emily was rejoiced to find her admirer in so favourable a disposition; and earnestly pressed him to give effect to this humane declaration. Her representations to him on this subject were full of eloquence and energy. Grimes appeared to be moved at the fervency of her manner; but objected the resentment of Mr. Tyrrel and his landlord, who would infallibly ruin him upon the least appearance of backwardness on his part, as poor Hawkins had been ruined before. At length however he suggested a project in consequence of which he might assist her in her escape, without its ever coming to their knowledge, as indeed there was no likelihood their suspicions in this case would fix upon him. "To be sure," said he, "you have refused me in a disdainful sort of a way, as a man may say. Mayhap you thought I was no better than a brute."

To be continued.