inge,

They futhe hadd changedd ether cleading:

The myftreffe the maidens did weare; And proud was the falfe one fo bedeckid,

All in her Ladyes geer.

This wicked jaide had thereto biddenn
One more of her varietts vile,
To go to her Ladies little bowere
An murdeir her the while.

When it was darke the menn did cum,
As the Maiden telled to the ye
For they was as wicked as the herfelle
In the wylles of lecherye.

They all beene com, and the knyghte alfo,

Undir the greenewoode tre, He stopped awhile with his fweard in his hand,

Till he his fere mighte fee.
The Maiden to the windowe did goe,
To ftand there for a while;
And howe her face to the carlish man,
The Knighte for to begyle.

The Knight when he faw his Ladyes face

He at the carlish man flue, And he strikened him wi his fweard edge

And thruften him thruegh and through.

Lye there and die, fayde the angrie Knighte,

Whofe lege-man ever you bee :
Such mickle vilanes nere went on earth,
As two like you and free.

At the fame tyme, all in the towere,
The lyke was doinge alfo;

But infteede of the Myftreffe the man didd ftrik

The Maiden a wofull blow.

Sir Hugh cummin in to catche on his wife,

Aftounded he was to fee That he was all bluidye and on the ground

Meninge moft pitioeuslye.

But when he kenned that it was the Maiden,

Ybulked in his Ladies geer, "Where is my fere, what man is this "Some traitorye I do feere."

"Ho mercye, ha mercye, fayde the "Maiden,

"On iny poore dyeinge fhrive. "For I am the wickedefte of woman

That ever was borne alive.

"Forgive

Here tak thy Ladye goode Sir Hugh,
For a truere one nere can bee
There is never a knighte in all En
glande

Has one fairer of mare comelie.

The Knight he clafped her in his arms,
My wife, my fweete Ladye,
See this vyle Maidden getteth the
pane

Shee meined for you and me.

Mayefte alwayes fyke luck the willye have,

My prayers fhall alway bee, That themfelfes maye alyke be catche eath

In their on treachorye.

Copyede from a faire book of an ciente English Poeffey Ap: 10. 1687

WRITE, my friend," said

Agatha to the author of this Work," write my melancholy ftory; and, fince you with it, publish it to the world. If it teach the young, that the conqueft of ourselves, arduous as it appears, is generally attainable, and often rewarded in that attainment: if it teach them and all, that there are few trials, however fevere, but may be fupported with the aid of religion and a confcience clear of reproach; if it teaches this, your Agatha will not have lived, fhe will not have fuffered in vain.

Our feelings were given us for the Bobleft of purpofes. Heaven endued us with fenfibility, that we might be alive

to religion, pity, charity, and friendship; and while that fenfibility is dlrected by our reafon to its proper chan nel, it is our richeft ornament. But when our feelings, our pattions, get the, better of ourfelves; when, because we have fuch and fuch wishes, and fuch and fuch propenfities, we feebly yield to them, we are no longer free agents, we are under the dominion of thofe paffions which, while they are fuffered to govern us will infallibly render us wretch. ed; but which if, on the other hand, we govern them, would only serve to make us happy, and give a zeft to our enjoyments.'

We

We have felected these two paffages from this very entertaining and inftructive work, as giving, in a few words, a comprehenfive view of the moral defign of the writer, who, we understand, is a young lady, and that this is her firft attempt to acquire literary reputation, which, in our humble opinion, it is calculated firmly to establish. From many circumftances in the narrative there is reafon to believe, that the principal erents in the affecting story of Agatha are real facts, which, though ornamented with fiction, and made the vehicle for the introduction of a variety of characters and incidents interwoven with the main fubje&t, have occurred in the life of fome young female of a noble family, driven from France by the Revolution, when the convents were plundered and demolished, and probably now refiding with fome fifterhood of nuns in England.

The language throughout is chafte, correct, and elegant; and that important leffon, the conqueft of our paffions, is inculcated by the united force of precept and example.

Agatha is reprefented to be the daughter and only child of Sir Charles and Lady Belmont. Her mother, a French lady, for private reafons, directs the course of her education to the attainment of thofe accomplishments which may render even a life of feclufion a life of pleasure. "A thousand inevi. table circumftances, fhe would fay, may feparate us from the world, and from all we prize in it; let us not, therefore, leave ourselves friendless. A book, a pen, a pencil, are fure and faithful friends." At the fame time, the drew fuch a difmal picture of the world, with all its delufive and tranfi tory enjoyments, as was best calculated to make her young pupil entertain an early dread of entering into fociety. "Yet Agatha could not forbear thinking that her mother reafoned too feverely; and with the ardour of youth ful hopes, the ftill fancied that the world, bad as it was, might afford her fome happiness. Impreffed with thefe ideas, and endued by nature with the tendereft and moft fufceptible of hear:s, at the age of fixteen, when her beauty and accomplishments formed the fubje&t of converfation throughout the neighbourhood, the i. left under the care and protection of Mifs Hammond, the only lady whom her parents nad received and acknowledged as a friend, while they VOL. XXX. SEPT. 1796.

are obliged to repair fuddenly to France, on account of Lady Belmont's fortune.

Mifs Hammond is defcribed as an amiable and uncommonly fenfible woman, univerfally beloved and refpected, who, though confiderably turned of thirty, had every requifite to render her the companion of youth; the was lively, entertaining, and ftudious to please, but the inculcated the fame principles as Lady Belmont, the fame dread of the world, the fame with for folitude. At her house, however, Agatha enjoyed a new scene, as fhe had never quitted home before, and promised herself much delight in feeing fome of Mifs Hammond's friends, from whom the might expect to receive invitations, and thus enlarge her acquaintance. This accordingly happens: fhe is invited to accompany Mifs Haminond to Milfon Hall, by Mifs Milfon, the eldest daughter of Sir John Milfon, a neighbouring baronet. But this and all her other profpects of temporary felicity are fuddenly blafted. Mifs Hammond, the friend of her heart, her companion from her infancy, was feized with a violent fever, and though every poffible affiftance was procured immediately, the dif order baffled medicine, a delirium enfued, and the expired in the arms of her diftracted friend."

This was the first of the many fevere trials Agatha had to undergo: the who a few days before had felt herself the happieft of human beings, was now the molt miferable. She feemed alone upon the earth. Befide Mifs Hammond, the had never had a friend, never a companion for a day; and her parents far ditant, there feemed not a being in the world to whom he had the least relation, or on whofe regard the had the smallest claim.

By the advice of the phyfician, the determined to return home, after the laft fad duties had been paid to her departed friend. On the melancholy day of the funeral, she had fhut herself up in a back parlour to avoid a prof. pect of the fad proceffion and indulge her grief, when the door opened, and a young man entered, on whofe coun tenance were depicted the Arongeft marks of agony and horror. A moft affecting feene enfues, and the young man proves to be a brother of the deceafed lady, whom the had lamented as dead in a foreign country. Sympathetic' forrows and reciprocal efforts to confole

each

each other, end, as the reader will cafily imagine, in an attachment of the tendercft kind. Poor Agatha, who had known nothing of the world, infenfible of the impropriety of remain ing in the house with Mr. Hammond, is generoufly apprized of it by Ham mond himself, and accepts an invitation from Mifs Milfon, who conveys her to her father's. At Milfon-hall the family and a number of fingular characters, as vifitors, are introduced, and delineated in a mafterly ftyle, which fhews, that our young novelift poffeffes an extensive knowledge of human life, acquired chiefly by a great compafs of reading.

As it is impoffible to follow her in all the interefting adventures the relates, and the many characters the defcribes, we fhall only notice thofe which are directly connected with the fate of Agatha. Of thefe, Mrs. Hubert, a beautiful and accomplished widow, is the principal, between whom and Agatha a predilection and friendly attachment took place foon after their first interview at Milfon-hall.

Hammond having received a polite invitation from Mifs Milfon, when the took Agatha from his houfe, makes frequent excursions to Milfon-hall, opens his mind delicately to Agatha, becomes her avowed admirer, is confidered by all the family and their friends as her destined husband, and as no reasonable objection to him could be fuppofed on the part of her parents, meets with proper encouragement from her. Yet, to her friend Mrs, Hubert fhe makes the following folemn declaration, which fhould ferve as an example for all amiable young ladies; and as the fted faitly adheres to it, and, in the end, triumphs over a laudable propenfity by religious fortitude and refignation, we cannot but consider the circulation of fuch principles, even through the channel of a Novel, as juftly entitled to commenda

tion.

"In every circumstance, in every trial of my life, nothing hall tempt me to a breach of duty. And were I to love with all the tenderness you have pourtrayed, and did my love promife a life of the moft enchanting happiness, yet while that and my duty pointed different ways, duty thould be my conftant guide, and I am firmly refolved, that no confideration of felffelicity hall ever prompt me to forfake it for a moment."

She is very foon put to the fevere, and, in her cafe, cruel trial. Sir Charles and Lady Belmont return unexpectedly, and are furprized to find her walking with Hammond, and leaning on his arm. This circumstance contributes to induce them to take Agatha home with them rather abruptly; and as foon as she has recovered from the agitation which their return, and leaving Milfon-hall, had occafioned, the fatal fecret on which the melancholy ftory of Agatha, and the adventures related as recent events de pend, is difclosed to her.

In confequence of a religious vow made by her mother, the violation of which he would confider as an unpardonable fin, Agatha confents, after a fevere conft, to become a nun: the affecting scenes of taking leave of her friends, of Hammond, and of her native country, enfue. She is ta ken by her parents to a remote province in France, where Sir Charles had purchafed an eftate near the convent in which they had refolved to place her. In due time he takes the veil, and is not only reconciled to, but pleased with her fituation. The character of the Lady Abbefs, the defcription of the convent, and anecdotes of fome of the nuns, are painted in the most lively and alluring colours, to abate the prejudices juttly entertained against the monaftic life, Here Agatha receives an unexpected vifit from Mrs. Hubert, who had accompanied a family in their tra vels to the South of France for the be nefit of their health, but the carefully conceals from her that Hammond is one of the party. Mrs. Hubert returns to England, Hammond lives retired in the neighbourhood of the convent, and Agatha paffes the two fucceeding years "in the duties of religion, charity, and friendship, fill enjoying that peace which the world cannot give," when intelligence is received of the intended plunder and demolition of the convents; and here begins the horrid narrative of the maffacres and other cruelties which were exercifed throughout the unhappy kingdom of France at that period. Sir Charles and Lady Belmont are obliged to fly precipitately. The convent is attacked, the nuns difperfe, and Agatha efcaping alone, is met on the road in the hands of two ruffians who had teiz. ed her, and is refcued by Hammond. After a number of extraordinary adventures, they arrive fafe at Brittol, accompanied by St. Valorie and his family,

whe

who at the hazard of their lives had protected and concealed them in France. St. Valorie's reflections on the happy fate of England contrafted with that of France, form a beautiful apostrophe, which does equal honour to the head and heart of the loyal writer. Agatha is received with open arms, by Mrs. Hubert, and agrees to refide with her till he has tidings of her parents. Hammond continues to folicit her to make him happy; but Agatha, "regarding her rows as facred and inviolaule," with a liberality which furnishes another bright example to her fex, perfuades him to marry Mrs. Hubert. Having accomplifhed this difinterefted act of friendfhip, her laft fevere trials are the death of these friends, and the dreadful intel.

ligence of the horrid fate of her parents. Impritoned in France, after fuffering every fpecies of perfecution in attempting to escape the fury of the populace, Lady Belmont dies in a state of diftraction, and Sir Charles expires under the axe of the guillotine.

Agatha, after this dreadful fhock, paffes her life in retirement with a fifter nun, who had escaped from the fame

convent.

Such is the outline of this variegated mixture of truth and fable, in which are interfperfed fome pretty pieces of poetry. It is elegantly printed, and each volume is ornamented with a beau tiful vignette, reprefenting an interefting fcene in the narrative, defigned by Stothard and engraved by Granger,

MISS HAMILTON, in an excel

lent Preliminary Differtation, takes notice of the difadvantages to be en countered by writers in every branch of Orientai Literature. "The names of the heroes of Greece and Rome are rendered familiar at a period of life when the mind receives every imprefEon with facility, and tenaciously retains the impreffions it receives. With the name of every hero the idea of his character is affociated, and the whole becomes afterward fo connected in the mind with the blissful period of life at which it was firft received, that the recollected fcenes of juvenile felicity may frequently, even in the moft ac complished minds, be found to give a zeft to the charms of the antient authors. Of thefe advantages, refulting from early prepoffeffions, the Perfian and Hindoo writers are entirely deftitate." Our Authoress (for these Letters are original, though fictitious) goes on to give an account of the geographical fituation, the Religion, Government, and Manners of Hindostan; to applaud the efforts of those perfons, chiefly the late Governor-General Mr. Haftings, to whom we are indebted for what we know already, and from which we may expect farther difcoveries of the Antiquities and Literature of Hin.

doftan. To the merit of Mr. Haftings our Authorefs not only pays a juft tribute of praife in a very elegant Dedica tion, but alfo in the Preliminary Differta. tion. Having fpoken of the reftoration of their antient Laws; a tranflation of thefe into the Perfian and English languages; the encourageinent of Agricul ture; the fecurity of Property; and the bleffing of Peace; the fays"these falutary regulations, originating with Mr. Haftings, fteadily pursued by Sir John Macpherson and Lord Cornwallis, and perfevered in by the prefent Governor-General, will diffuse the fmiles of profperity and happiness over the best provinces of Hindoftan, long after the difcordant voice of Party ball have been humbled in the filence of eternal reft, and the rancorous mifre prefentations of envy and malevolence

as

much forgotten as the florid harangues and turgid declamations which conveyed them to the short-lived notice of the world."

The according voice of all Afia has uniformly and loudly proclaimed the talents and virtues of Mr. Haftings; which are now alfo univerfally acknow. ledged in Europe. It is fcarcely cre dible that fuch declamations, as Mifs Hamilton fo well defcribes, could have feduced the minds of men even for a

moment.