LETTER XXXIV
COLONEL MORDEN, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.SAT. SEPT. 16.
I have been employed in a most melancholy task: in reading the will ofthe dear deceased.
The unhappy mother and Mrs. Norton chose to be absent on the affectingoccasion. But Mrs. Harlowe made it her earnest request that everyarticle of it should be fulfilled.
They were all extremely touched with the preamble.
The first words of the will--'I, Clarissa Harlowe, now by strangemelancholy accidents, lodging,' &c. drew tears from some, sighs fromall.
The directions for her funeral, in case she were or were not permittedto be carried down; the mention of her orders having been given for themanner of her being laid out, and the presence of mind so visiblethroughout the whole, obtained their admiration, expressed by hands andeyes lifted up, and by falling tears.
When I read the direction, 'That her body was not to be viewed, exceptany of her relations should vouchsafe, for the last time, to look uponher;' they turned away, and turned to me, three or four timesalternately. Mrs. Hervey and Miss Arabella sobbed; the uncles wipedtheir eyes; the brother looked down; the father wrung his hands.
I was obliged to stop at the words, 'That she was nobody's.'
But when I came to the address to be made to the accursed man, 'if hewere not to be diverted from seeing her dead, whom ONCE before he hadseen in a manner dead'----execration, and either vows or wishes ofrevenge, filled every mouth.
These were still more fervently renewed, when they came to hear read herforgiveness of even this man.
You remember, Sir, on our first reading of the will in town, theobservations I made on the foul play which it is evident the excellentcreature met with from this abandoned man, and what I said upon theoccasion. I am not used to repeat things of that nature.
The dear creature's noble contempt of the nothing, as she nobly calls it,about which she had been giving such particular directions, to wit, herbody; and her apologizing for the particularity of those directions fromthe circumstances she was in--had the same, and as strong an effect uponme, as when I first read the animated paragraph; and, pointed by my eye,(by turns cast upon them all,) affected them all.
When the article was read which bequeathed to the father thegrandfather's estate, and the reason assigned for it, (so generous and sodutiful,) the father could sit no longer; but withdrew, wiping his eyes,and lifting up his spread hands at Mr. James Harlowe; who rose to attendhim to the door, as Arabella likewise did----All he could say--O Son!Son!--O Girl! Girl!--as if he reproached them for the parts they hadacted, and put him upon acting.
But yet, on some occasions, this brother and sister showed themselves tobe true will disputants.
Let tongue and eyes express what they will, Mr. Belford, the firstreading of a will, where a person dies worth anything considerable,generally affords a true test of the relations' love to the deceased.
The clothes, the thirty guineas for mourning to Mrs. Norton, with therecommendation of the good woman for housekeeper at The Grove, werethought sufficient, had the article of 600L. which was called monstrous,been omitted. Some other passages in the will were called flights, andsuch whimsies as distinguish people of imagination from those ofjudgment.
My cousin Dolly Hervey was grudged the library. Miss Harlowe said, Thatas she and her sister never bought the same books, she would take thatto herself, and would make it up to her cousin Dolly one way or other.
I intend, Mr. Belford, to save you the trouble of interposing--thelibrary shall be my cousin Dolly's.
Mrs. Hervey could hardly keep her seat. On this occasion, however, sheonly said, That her late dear and ever dear niece, was too glad to herand hers. But, at another time, she declared, with tears, that she couldnot forgive herself for a letter she wrote,* looking at Miss Arabella,whom, it seems, unknown to any body, she had consulted before she wroteit and which, she said, must have wounded a spirit, that now she saw hadbeen too deeply wounded before.
* See Vol. III. Letter LII.
O my Aunt, said Arabella, no more of that!--Who would have thought thatthe dear creature had been such a penitent?
Mr. John and Mr. Antony Harlowe were so much affected with the articlesin their favour, (bequeathed to them without a word or hint of reproachor recrimination,) that they broke out into self-accusations; andlamented that their sweet niece, as they called her, was not got aboveall grateful acknowledgement and returns. Indeed, the mutual upbraidingsand grief of all present, upon those articles in which every one wasremembered for good, so often interrupted me, that the reading took upabove six hours. But curses upon the accursed man were a refuge to whichthey often resorted to exonerate themselves.
How wounding a thing, Mr. Belford, is a generous and well-distinguishedforgiveness! What revenge can be more effectual, and more noble, wererevenge intended, and were it wished to strike remorse into a guilty orungrateful heart! But my dear cousin's motives were all duty and love.She seems indeed to have been, as much as a mortal could be, LOVE itself.Love sublimed by a purity, by a true delicacy, that hardly any womanbefore her could boast of. O Mr. Belford, what an example would she havegiven in every station of life, (as wife, mother, mistress, friend,) hadher lot fallen upon a man blessed with a mind like her own!
The 600L. bequeathed to Mrs. Norton, the library to Miss Hervey, and theremembrances to Miss Howe, were not the only articles grudged. Yet towhat purpose did they regret the pecuniary bequests, when the poor'sfund, and not themselves, would have had the benefit, had not thoselegacies been bequeathed?
But enough passed to convince me that my cousin was absolutely right inher choice of an executor out of the family. Had she chosen one in it,I dare say that her will would have been no more regarded than if it hadbeen the will of a dead king; than that of Lousi XIV. in particular; soflagrantly broken through by his nephew the Duke of Orleans before he wascold. The only will of that monarch, perhaps, which was ever disputed.
But little does Mr. James Harlowe think that, while he is grasping athundreds, he will, most probably, lose thousands, if he be my survivor.A man of a spirit so selfish and narrow shall not be my heir.
You will better conceive, Mr. Belford, than I can express, how much theywere touched at the hint that the dear creature had been obliged to partwith some of her clothes.
Silent reproach seized every one of them when I came to the passage whereshe mentions that she deferred filling up some blanks, in hopes ofreceiving their last blessing and forgiveness.
I will only add, that they could not bear to hear read the concludingpart, so solemnly addressed to her Redeemer. They all arose from theirseats, and crowded out of the apartment we were in; and then, as Iafterwards found, separated, in order to seek that consolation insolitary retirement, which, though they could not hope for from their ownreflections, yet, at the time, they had less reason to expect in eachother's company. I am, Sir,
Your faithful and obedient servant,WILLIAM MORDEN.