ls, French and Spanish, which writers in England
found profit in imitating, racked sensationalism to the utmost degree by
stories of horrible and perverted lust. All the excitement that could be
obtained from incest, threatened, narrowly averted, or actually
committed, was offered to eager readers. Usually, as in Defoe's "Moll
Flanders" or Fielding's "Tom Jones," ignorance of birth was an essential
element in the plot. A story of this type in which the catastrophe is
prevented by a timely discovery of the hero's parentage, is "The Force
of Nature: or, the Lucky Disappointment" (1725).

Felisinda, daughter of Don Alvario of Valladolid, falls in love with a
dependent of her father's named Fernando, who returns her passion, but
when by a dropped letter she reveals their mutual tenderness, her father
becomes exceedingly disordered and threatens to marry her out of hand to
Don Carlos, who had long solicited the match. That generous lover,
however, refuses to marry her against her will. The disappointment
proves mortal to Don Alvario, who leaves his estate to Felisinda and
Fernando equally, provided they do not marry each other. Felisinda is
committed to the care of an abbess named Berinthia, but by the aid of a
probationer, Alantha, the lovers manage to correspond. They agree that
Fernando shall convert his moiety to ready money, convey it to Brussels,
and there await Felisinda, whose escape he entrusts to a friend,
Cleomas. Alantha, meantime, has fallen in love with Fernando, and
substitutes herself for Felisinda. Cleomas in conducting the supposed
mistress of his friend to the nearest port falls under the influence of
her beauty and attempts to betray her, but is prevented and slain by a
chance passenger, who turns out to be Carlos. He brings Alantha to a
better mind, and conducts her in search of Fernando, but they discover
in Brussels that he has set out again for Spain. When Fernando reaches
Valladolid to inquire what has become of Cleomas and his lady, he is
arrested on the charge of abducting Alantha. At the trial he is accused
of having made away with her, and is sentenced to death, whereupon
Berinthia, the abbess, faints, and being revived, owns him for her son
by Alvario, and "in tears and blessings pours out all the mother on
him." At the proper moment Carlos comes in with Alantha to prove
Fernando's innocence. Felisinda rewards the constancy of Carlos, and
Fernando can do no less than marry Alantha.

Incest is a