A Reformation. CHAP. IX. A REFORMATION. Willing at once to prove The certain joys that are in virtuous love. PRIOR. THE fate of Queen Margaret, after the battle of Hexham, is too singular not to be recorded. Flying, after her defeat, into a forest, where she endeavoured to conceal herself, she was beset, in the thick darkness of the evening, by robbers, who stripped her of some jewels she had about her, and which were very valuable, and treated her with great indignity. When the thieves were separating the booty, it raised a great quarrel between A Reformation. them; and, while their attention was thus engaged, she took the opportunity of escaping with her son into a thicker part of the forest, where she wandered about some time, exhausted with hunger, fatigue, terror, and affliction. In this wretched condition she saw a robber approach, with a drawn sword. Seeing no possible means of an escape, she resolved to trust to his generosity, and, advancing towards him, she presented to him the prince, calling out to him-" Here, my friend, I commit to your care the safety your king's son." of The man, whose generous feelings were not entirely extinct by his vicious course of life, struck with this accident, felt charmed by the confidence the queen reposed in him; and vowed he would not only abstain from injuring her, but devote himself entirely to her service. By mean A Reformation. of this man, she dwelt, for a time, concealed in the vicinity of the forest; and he at last conducted her to the sea coast, whence she escaped to Flanders. In the mean time the successful Edward was revelling in scenes of pleasure to an excess of satiety, that defeated his pursuits after felicity. Ill health, from frequent inebriation and midnight banquetings, brought reflection to the thoughtless mind of the dissipated prince; and now Lady Elizabeth began to see her weakening power in the way to be triumphant. Ever mistress of herself, gentle and persuasive, she received his returning affection with that complacent sweetness, which rendered the personal charms she yet possessed more alluring; and her merit was much heightened by a comparison with the disgusting fair one he began to be completely weary of. She had A Reformation. contrived to draw large sums from the prince; while her continual inebriation, when in his company, had produced in his mind the repelling of every inclination for the society of any other female, but her, whom he thought so mentally endowed as Lady Elizabeth. Had his penetration viewed only the qualifications of the mind with delight, he would have again sought, in the charms of Maria de Rosenvault's conversation, for the most soothing balsam to a wounded spirit.— But inconstancy and man are synonimous terms!-Lady Elizabeth was a newer object. Maria loved him with too much real tenderness, to call in the aid of that hypocritical exactitude which carefully watches it's time, can be all things to all humours, and unite pretended softness with outward dignity. Her allowance was ill paid, and, at best, so irregular, and by A Reformation. such diminutive portions, that, at length, cast on the unpitying world, and almost friendless, with a beloved daughter to support, whose refined and cultivated sense, and whose height of figure, made her appear faster approaching to womanhood than she really was, induced her unfortunate mother to accept the protection of an officer of rank, who had served under, and been the intimate companion of, Edward, and the partaker of all his youthful pleasures. Little more of Maria remains to be said. Over every faulty part of her conduct we would wish to cast the veil of commiseration and excuse. From feelings the most acute, by ingratitude from those she had most loved and most obliged, her sufferings became keen and poignant; the sorrows of her heart were of the most corroding kind, and threatened |