um, redeems him from his creditors, and
after practicing a little mystification to test his constancy, leads him
to the altar. Few of Mrs. Haywood's novels are more entirely moral or
more essentially dull.

Though the scene of "The Rash Resolve: or, the Untimely Discovery"
(1724) is laid in Porto Rico and in Spain, the romancer took little
advantage of her opportunity to introduce the usual "cloak and sword"
incidents of Spanish fiction. Instead her tale is one of generous love
and melting pathos more characteristic of the romance than of the
_novella_ or its successors.

The Porto Rican heiress, Emanuella, is defrauded of her fortune by her
guardian, Don Pedro, and imprisoned in his house to force her to marry
his son, Don Marco. That generous lover helps her to escape to Madrid,
and to emphasize the truth of her claims against his wily father, falls
upon his sword in the presence of the court. Emanuella's title to her
fortune cleared by this extraordinary measure, she continues to reside
at the house of Don Jabin, whose daughter, Berillia, she saves from a
monastery by making up the deficiency in her dowry. The ungrateful girl,
however, resents Emanuella's disapproval of her foppish lover, and
resolves to be revenged upon her benefactress. She, therefore, forwards
Emanuella's affair with Emilius until the lovers are hopelessly
compromised; then taking advantage of the loss of the lady's fortune at
sea, blackens her character to Emilius and provokes him to desert her.
The abandoned Emanuella enters a convent.

Emilius is challenged by Octavio as a rival in the love of Julia, and
though he had never before heard of the lady, he soon becomes her lover
in fact, and eventually marries her. Emanuella escapes from the nunnery
and wanders to a little provincial town where she bears a son to
Emilius. Berillia, who has been rusticated to a village near by in
consequence of her amour, encounters her unfortunate friend by chance
and runs away from her duenna to join her. She persuades Emanuella to
draw a large sum on Don Jabin, robs her, and goes to join her gallant.
The injured lady supports her child by mean drudgery until by chance she
meets Emilius and his wife, who do all they can to comfort her. But worn
out by her afflictions, she dies of a broken heart, leaving her son to
be adopted by his father.

Dr. Johnson might with equal truth have said to Mrs. Haywood as to the
author of the "Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph," "