May Heaven signalize its vengeance, in the face of all the world, upon
the most abandoned and profligate of men!—And in its own time, I doubt
not but it will.—And we must look to a WORLD BEYOND THIS for the reward
of your sufferings!
Another shocking detection, my dear!—How have you been deluded!—Very
watchful 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 a
villanous forgery.*
* See Vol. V. Letter XXX.
The hand, indeed, is astonishingly like mine; and the cover, I see, is
actually my cover: but yet the letter is not so exactly imitated, but
that, (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 a
few extracts from mine. Mine was a very long one. He has omitted every
thing, I see, in it that could have shown you what a detestable house
the house is; and given you suspicions of the vile Tomlinson.—You will
see this, and how he has turned Miss Lardner’s information, and my
advices to you, [execrable villain!] to his own horrid ends, by the
rough draught of the genuine letter, which I shall enclose.*
* See Vol. V. Letter XX.
Apprehensive for both our safeties from the villany of such a daring
and profligate contriver, I must call upon you, my dear, to resolve
upon taking legal vengeance of the infernal wretch. And this not only
for our own sakes, but for the sakes of innocents who otherwise may yet
be deluded 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
time my messenger, (whose honesty I can vouch for) would come, could
have a creature ready to personate you! Strange, that the man should
happen to arrive just as you were gone to church, (as I find was the
fact, on comparing what he says with your hint that you were at church
twice that day,) when he might have got to Mrs. Moore’s two hours
before!—But had you told me, my dear, that the villain had found you
out, and was about you!—You should have done that—yet I blame you upon
a judgment founded on 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
to account for this wretch’s successful villany, and for his means of
working up his specious delusions, but by supposing, (if he be not the
devil himself,) that he has a familiar constantly at his elbow.
Sometimes it seems to me that this familiar assumes the shape of that
solemn villain Tomlinson: sometimes that of the execrable Sinclair, as
he calls her: sometimes it is permitted to take that of Lady Betty
Lawrance—but, when it would assume the angelic shape and mien of my
beloved friend, 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
I execrate him! I have hardly any doubt that he has sold himself for a
time. Oh! may the time be short!—or may his infernal prompter no more
keep 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 into
your own hands at Hampstead. And when you have perused them, I will
leave to you to judge how much reason I had to be surprised that you
wrote me not an answer to either of those letters; one of which you
owned you had received, (though it proved to be his forged one,) the
other delivered into your own hands, as I was assured; and both of them
of so much concern to your honour; and still now much more surprised I
must be, when I received a letter from Mrs. Townsend, dated June 15,
from Hampstead, importing, ‘That Mr. Lovelace, who had been with you
several days, 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 own consent, had carried you to town with them—to your former
lodgings; where you still were: that the Hampstead women believed you
to be married; and reflected upon me as a fomenter of differences
between man and wife: that he himself was at Hampstead the day before;
viz. Wednesday the 14th; and boasted of his happiness with you;
inviting Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Bevis, and Miss Rawlins, to go to town, to
visit his spouse; which they promised to do: that he declared that you
were entirely reconciled to your former lodgings:—and that, finally,
the women at Hampstead told Mrs. Townsend, that he had very handsomely
discharged theirs.’
I own to you, my dear, that I was so much surprised and disgusted at
these appearances against a conduct till then unexceptionable, that I
was resolved to make myself as easy as I could, and wait till you
should think fit to write to me. But I could rein-in my impatience but
for a few days; and on the 20th of June I wrote a sharp letter to you;
which I find you did not receive.
What a fatality, my dear, has appeared in your case, from the very
beginning till this hour! Had my mother permitted——
But can I blame her; when you have a father and mother living, who have
so much to answer for?—So much!—as no father and mother, considering
the child they have driven, persecuted, exposed, renounced, ever had to
answer 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, what
rakes and libertines will do, when they get a young creature into their
power! It is probable that he might have the intolerable presumption to
hope an easier conquest: but, when your unexampled vigilance and
exalted virtue made potions, and rapes, and the utmost violences,
necessary to the attainment of his detestable end, we see that he never
boggled at them. I have no doubt that the same or equal wickedness
would be oftener committed by men of his villanous cast, if the folly
and credulity of the poor inconsiderates who throw themselves into
their hands, did not give them an easier triumph.
With what comfort must those parents reflect upon these things who have
happily disposed of their daughters in marriage to a virtuous man! And
how happy the young women who find themselves safe in a worthy
protection!—If such a person as Miss Clarissa Harlowe could not escape,
who can be secure?—Since, though every rake is not a LOVELACE, neither
is every woman a CLARISSA: and his attempts were but proportioned to
your resistance and vigilance.
My mother has commanded me to let you know her thoughts upon the whole
of your sad story. I will do it in another letter; and send it to you
with this, by a special messenger.
But, for the future, if you approve of it, I will send my letters by
the usual 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,) except such 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 my mother is fixing a condition to our correspondence,
which, I doubt, you will not comply with, though I wish you would. This
condition I shall acquaint you with by-and-by.
Mean time, begging excuse for all the harsh things in my last, of which
your sweet meekness and superior greatness of soul have now made me
most heartily ashamed, I beseech you, my dearest creature, to believe
me to be
Your truly sympathising, and unalterable friend, ANNA HOWE.