I should have promised (but care not for order of time, connection, or any thing else) that, between eight and nine in the evening, another servant of Lord M. on horseback came, to desire me to carry down with me Dr. S., the old peer having been once (in extremis, as they judge he is now) relieved and reprieved by him.  I sent and engaged the doctor to accompany me down:  and am to call upon him by four this morning:  or the devil should have both my Lord and the Doctor, if I’d stir till I got all made up.

Poke thy damn’d nose forward into the event, if thou wilt—­Curse me if thou shalt have it till its proper time and place.  And too soon then.

She had hardly got into her chamber, but I found a little paper, as I was going into mine, which I took up; and opening it, (for it was carefully pinned in another paper,) what should it be but a promissory note, given as a bribe, with a further promise of a diamond ring, to induce Dorcas to favour her mistress’s escape?

How my temper changed in a moment!—­Ring, ring, ring, ring, I my bell, with a violence enough to break the string, and as if the house were on fire.

Every devil frighted into active life:  the whole house in an uproar.  Up runs Will.—­Sir—­Sir—­Sir!—­Eyes goggling, mouth distended—­Bid the damn’d toad Dorcas come hither, (as I stood at the stair-head,) in a horrible rage, and out of breath, cried I.

In sight came the trembling devil—­but standing aloof, from the report made her by Will. of the passion I was in, as well as from what she had heard.

Flash came out my sword immediately; for I had it ready on—­Cursed, confounded, villanous bribery and corruption——­

Up runs she to her lady’s door, screaming out for safety and protection.

Good your honour, interposed Will., for God’s sake!—­O Lord, O Lord!—­ receiving a good cuff.—­

Take that, varlet, for saving the ungrateful wretch from my vengeance.

Wretch!  I intended to say; but if it were some other word of like ending, passion must be my excuse.

Up ran two or three of the sisterhood, What’s the matter!  What’s the matter!

The matter! (for still my beloved opened not the door; on the contrary, drew another bolt,) This abominable Dorcas!—­(call her aunt up!—­let her see what a traitress she has placed about me!—­and let her bring the toad to answer for herself)—­has taken a bribe, a provision for life, to betray her trust; by that means to perpetuate a quarrel between a man and his wife, and frustrate for ever all hopes of reconciliation between us!

Let me perish, Belford, if I have patience to proceed with the farce!

***

If I must resume, I must——­

Up came the aunt, puffing and blowing—­As she hoped for mercy, she was not privy to it!  She never knew such a plotting, perverse lady in her life!—­Well might servants be at the pass they were, when such ladies as Mrs. Lovelace made no conscience of corrupting them.  For her part she desired no mercy for the wretch; no niece of her’s, if she were not faithful to her trust!—­But what was the proof?——­