Read Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 6 Page 71


  LETTER LXXI

  MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWESUNDAY, JULY 9.

  May Heaven signalize its vengeance, in the face of all the world, uponthe most abandoned and profligate of men!--And in its own time, I doubtnot but it will.--And we must look to a WORLD BEYOND THIS for the rewardof your sufferings!

  Another shocking detection, my dear!--How have you been deluded!--Verywatchful I have thought you; very sagacious:--but, alas! not watchful,not sagacious enough, for the horrid villain you have had to deal with!----

  The letter you sent me enclosed as mine, of the 7th of June, is avillanous forgery.*

  * See Vol. V. Letter XXX.

  The hand, indeed, is astonishingly like mine; and the cover, I see, isactually my cover: but yet the letter is not so exactly imitated, butthat, (had you had any suspicions about his vileness at the time,) you,who so well know my hand, might have detected it.

  In short, this vile, forged letter, though a long one, contains but afew extracts from mine. Mine was a very long one. He has omitted everything, I see, in it that could have shown you what a detestable house thehouse is; and given you suspicions of the vile Tomlinson.--You will seethis, and how he has turned Miss Lardner's information, and my advices toyou, [execrable villain!] to his own horrid ends, by the rough draught ofthe genuine letter, which I shall enclose.*

  * See Vol. V. Letter XX.

  Apprehensive for both our safeties from the villany of such a daring andprofligate contriver, I must call upon you, my dear, to resolve upontaking legal vengeance of the infernal wretch. And this not only for ourown sakes, but for the sakes of innocents who otherwise may yet bedeluded and outraged by him.

  [She then gives the particulars of the report made by the young fellow whom she sent to Hampstead with her letter; and who supposed he had delivered it into her own hand;* and then proceeds:]

  * See Vol. VI. Letter VI.

  I am astonished, that the vile wretch, who could know nothing of the timemy messenger, (whose honesty I can vouch for) would come, could have acreature ready to personate you! Strange, that the man should happen toarrive just as you were gone to church, (as I find was the fact, oncomparing what he says with your hint that you were at church twice thatday,) when he might have got to Mrs. Moore's two hours before!--But hadyou told me, my dear, that the villain had found you out, and was aboutyou!--You should have done that--yet I blame you upon a judgment foundedon the event only!

  I never had any faith in the stories that go current among country girls,of specters, familiars, and demons; yet I see not any other way toaccount for this wretch's successful villany, and for his means ofworking up his specious delusions, but by supposing, (if he be not thedevil himself,) that he has a familiar constantly at his elbow.Sometimes it seems to me that this familiar assumes the shape of thatsolemn villain Tomlinson: sometimes that of the execrable Sinclair, as hecalls her: sometimes it is permitted to take that of Lady Betty Lawrance--but, when it would assume the angelic shape and mien of my belovedfriend, see what a bloated figure it made!

  'Tis my opinion, my dear, that you will be no longer safe where you are,than while the V. is in the country. Words are poor!--or how could Iexecrate him! I have hardly any doubt that he has sold himself for atime. Oh! may the time be short!--or may his infernal prompter no morekeep covenant with him than he does with others!

  I enclose not only the rough draught of my long letter mentioned above,but the heads of that which the young fellow thought he delivered intoyour own hands at Hampstead. And when you have perused them, I willleave to you to judge how much reason I had to be surprised that youwrote me not an answer to either of those letters; one of which you ownedyou had received, (though it proved to be his forged one,) the otherdelivered into your own hands, as I was assured; and both of them of somuch concern to your honour; and still now much more surprised I must be,when I received a letter from Mrs. Townsend, dated June 15, fromHampstead, importing, 'That Mr. Lovelace, who had been with you severaldays, had, on the Monday before, brought Lady Betty and his cousin,richly dressed, and in a coach-and-four, to visit you: who, with your ownconsent, had carried you to town with them--to your former lodgings;where you still were: that the Hampstead women believed you to bemarried; and reflected upon me as a fomenter of differences between manand wife: that he himself was at Hampstead the day before; viz. Wednesdaythe 14th; and boasted of his happiness with you; inviting Mrs. Moore,Mrs. Bevis, and Miss Rawlins, to go to town, to visit his spouse; whichthey promised to do: that he declared that you were entirely reconciledto your former lodgings:--and that, finally, the women at Hampstead toldMrs. Townsend, that he had very handsomely discharged theirs.'

  I own to you, my dear, that I was so much surprised and disgusted atthese appearances against a conduct till then unexceptionable, that I wasresolved to make myself as easy as I could, and wait till you shouldthink fit to write to me. But I could rein-in my impatience but for afew days; and on the 20th of June I wrote a sharp letter to you; which Ifind you did not receive.

  What a fatality, my dear, has appeared in your case, from the verybeginning till this hour! Had my mother permitted----

  But can I blame her; when you have a father and mother living, who haveso much to answer for?--So much!--as no father and mother, consideringthe child they have driven, persecuted, exposed, renounced, ever had toanswer for!

  But again I must execrate the abandoned villain--yet, as I said before,all words are poor, and beneath the occasion.

  But see we not, in the horrid perjuries and treachery of this man, whatrakes and libertines will do, when they get a young creature into theirpower! It is probable that he might have the intolerable presumption tohope an easier conquest: but, when your unexampled vigilance and exaltedvirtue made potions, and rapes, and the utmost violences, necessary tothe attainment of his detestable end, we see that he never boggled atthem. I have no doubt that the same or equal wickedness would be oftenercommitted by men of his villanous cast, if the folly and credulity of thepoor inconsiderates who throw themselves into their hands, did not givethem an easier triumph.

  With what comfort must those parents reflect upon these things who havehappily disposed of their daughters in marriage to a virtuous man! Andhow happy the young women who find themselves safe in a worthyprotection!--If such a person as Miss Clarissa Harlowe could not escape,who can be secure?--Since, though every rake is not a LOVELACE, neitheris every woman a CLARISSA: and his attempts were but proportioned to yourresistance and vigilance.

  My mother has commanded me to let you know her thoughts upon the whole ofyour sad story. I will do it in another letter; and send it to you withthis, by a special messenger.

  But, for the future, if you approve of it, I will send my letters by theusual hand, (Collins's,) to be left at the Saracen's Head, on Snow-hill:whither you may send your's, (as we both used to do, to Wilson's,) exceptsuch as we shall think fit to transmit by the post: which I am afraid,after my next, must be directed to Mr. Hickman, as before: since mymother is fixing a condition to our correspondence, which, I doubt, youwill not comply with, though I wish you would. This condition I shallacquaint you with by-and-by.

  Mean time, begging excuse for all the harsh things in my last, of whichyour sweet meekness and superior greatness of soul have now made me mostheartily ashamed, I beseech you, my dearest creature, to believe me to be

  Your truly sympathising,and unalterable friend,ANNA HOWE.