A tender Attachment. her child when she should be no more; and, resolving to ensure such advantages for her, which might put it out of the power of her worthless father to bereave her of, she transgressed against conviction, and the love of the daughter triumphed over the virtuous principles that had hitherto been so strictly cherished by the mother. Unhappily deceived and ill-fated victim, who buildest thine expectations on the constancy and gratitude of man! he, who left the wretched Jane Shore, without ensuring her a provision to guard her from the extreme of penury in her age, who ungratefully deserted the noble Warwick to whom he owed his crown, will equally, with cruel negligence, leave thee also, poor Maria!" but Jane Shore left a kind and indulgent hus band, and Warwick was morose and ambitious. Maria's story was unparalleled; VOL. I. 66 C ་ A tender Attachment. and oft-times her smiling face, in the midst of splendour, covered a depressed and almost broken heart: the sad, though envied, mistress of an illustrious prince. It is proper, however, to introduce her to the reader before that period, which plunged her into a sea of trouble, in embarking on whose waves, she was not altogether inculpable; but which brought with it the wreck of all her earthly prospects of happiness, and which punishment, added to the poignant feelings of her lacerated heart, we trust, has made sufficient atonement for all her errors; errors so ameliorated by the finest virtues of the soul, which she so eminently possessed, that they scarce deserve the harsh name of crimes. Oh! let the eye of purity, while it turns the averted glance from habitual contamination and abandoned vice, drop a tear over the frailties of A tender Attachment. an unfortunate sister, and often to concurring circumstances give that praise, which they may perhaps think due alone to their superior virtue. น A Victim to Gratitude. CHAP. III. A VICTIM TO GRATITUDE. Had some kind angel op'd the book HOME. MARIA DENBIGH lost an indulgent father in her state of early childhood. He fell, while gallantly defending the interests of the house of York, and left a widow, almost portionless, with one daughter; whose bud of blossom promised to expand into the fairest flower of spring. So far from priding herself in the superior and increasing charms of her daughter, Mrs. Denbigh beheld them A Victim to Gratitude. with a solicitude, bordering on sorrow. She almost wished that some accident, while it spared the form and life of Maria, might destroy those charms of face, which were so uncommonly lovely. The prince, arrived at manhood, had already, though in his early youth, evinced that proneness to gallantry, which made every virtuous mother tremble for a fair and unportioned daughter. His parasites saw and encouraged his inclinations, by every temptation they could throw in his way; knowing that to flatter the darling vice of one high in power, would ensure them that favor, which the man of real integrity can never enjoy. His counsels are too bold to applaud guilt or cringe to splendor; but the minions employed about the person of the misguided Edward, gasping for places and pensions, infused their baneful poison |