Two months had now passed, and of Pekuah nothing had been heard; the hopes, which they had endeavoured to raise in each other, grew more languid, and the princess, when she saw nothing more to be tried, sunk down inconsolable in hopeless dejection.  A thousand times she reproached herself with the easy compliance, by which she permitted her favourite to stay behind her.  “Had not my fondness,” said she, “lessened my authority, Pekuah had not dared to talk of her terrours.  She ought to have feared me more than spectres.  A severe look would have overpowered her; a peremptory command would have compelled obedience.  Why did foolish indulgence prevail upon me?  Why did I not speak, and refuse to hear?”

“Great princess,” said Imlac, “do not reproach yourself for your virtue, or consider that as blamable by which evil has accidentally been caused.  Your tenderness for the timidity of Pekuah was generous and kind.  When we act according to our duty, we commit the event to him, by whose laws our actions are governed, and who will suffer none to be finally punished for obedience.  When, in prospect of some good, whether natural or moral, we break the rules prescribed us, we withdraw from the direction of superiour wisdom, and take all consequences upon ourselves.  Man cannot so far know the connexion of causes and events, as that he may venture to do wrong, in order to do right.  When we pursue our end by lawful means, we may always console our miscarriage by the hope of future recompense.  When we consult only our own policy, and attempt to find a nearer way to good, by overleaping the settled boundaries of right and wrong, we cannot be happy even by success, because we cannot escape the consciousness of our fault; but, if we miscarry, the disappointment is irremediably imbittered.  How comfortless is the sorrow of him, who feels, at once, the pangs of guilt, and the vexation of calamity, which guilt has brought upon him?

“Consider, princess, what would have been your condition, if the lady Pekuah had entreated to accompany you, and, being compelled to stay in the tents, had been carried away; or how would you have borne the thought, if you had forced her into the pyramid, and she had died before you in agonies of terrour?”

“Had either happened,” said Nekayah, “I could not have endured life till now:  I should have been tortured to madness by the remembrance of such cruelty, or must have pined away in abhorrence of myself.”

“This, at least,” said Imlac, “is the present reward of virtuous conduct, that no unlucky consequence can oblige us to repent it.”

CHAP.  XXXV.

THE PRINCESS LANGUISHES FOR WANT OF PEKUAH.