dragged forward before the curtain, to thank the grocers,
tallow-chandlers, cheesemongers, and plough-men for the great honour
they had done me. Heavens! how I felt the degradation; but it was too
late.

The natural result of this constant intercourse with Eugenia, may easily
be anticipated. I do not attempt to extenuate my fault--it was
inexcusable, and has brought its punishment; but for poor, forlorn
Eugenia I plead; her virtue fell before my _importunity_ and my personal
appearance. She fell a victim to those unhappy circumstances of which I
basely took the advantage. Two months I had lived with her, as man and
wife; I forgot my family, profession, and even Emily. I was now upon
the ship's books: and though no one knew anything of me, my father was
ignorant of my absence from my ship--everything was sacrificed to
Eugenia. I acted with her, strolled the fields, and vowed volumes of
stuff about constancy. When we played, we filled the house; and some of
the more respectable townspeople offered to introduce us to the London
boards, but this we both declined. We cared for nothing but the society
of each other.

And now that time has cooled the youthful ardour that carried me away,
let me do justice to this unfortunate girl. She was the most natural,
unaffected and gifted person I ever met with. Boundless wit, enchanting
liveliness, a strong mind, and self-devotion towards me, the first and,
I firmly believe, the only object she ever loved; and her love for me
ceased only with her life. Her faults, though not to be defended, may
be palliated and deplored, because they were the defects of education.
Her infant days were passed in scenes of domestic strife, profligacy,
and penury; her maturer years, under the guidance of a weak mother, were
employed in polishing, not strengthening, the edifice of her
understanding, and the external ornaments only served to accelerate the
fall of the fabric, and to increase the calamity.

Bred up in France, and almost in the fervour of the Revolution, she had
imbibed some of its libertine opinions; among others, that marriage was
a civil contract, and if entered into at all, might be broken at the
pleasure of either party. This idea was strengthened and confirmed in
her by the instances she had seen of matrimonial discord, particularly
in her own family. When two people, who fancied they loved, had bound
themselves by an indissoluble knot, they felt from that time the
irkso