oung maiden; because his appetite demanded a more perfect sacrifice than
that which she could yield in her present deplorable situation, when her
will must have been altogether unconcerned in his success. Determined,
therefore, to make a conquest of her virtue, before he would take
possession of her person, he mimicked that compassion and benevolence
which his heart had never felt, and, when the coach arrived at London,
not only discharged what she owed for her place, but likewise procured
for her an apartment in the house to which he himself had been directed
for lodgings, and even hired a nurse to attend her during a severe fever,
which was the consequence of her disappointment and despondence. Indeed,
she was supplied with all necessaries by the generosity of this noble
Count, who, for the interest of his passion, and the honour of his name,
was resolved to extend his charity to the last farthing of her own money,
which he had been wise enough to secure for this purpose.

Her youth soon got the better of her distemper, and when she understood
her obligations to the Count, who did not fail to attend her in person
with great tenderness, her heart, which had been before prepossessed in
his favour, now glowed with all the warmth of gratitude, esteem, and
affection. She knew herself in a strange place, destitute of all
resource but in his generosity. She loved his person, she was dazzled by
his rank; and he knew so well how to improve the opportunities and
advantages he derived from her unhappy situation, that he gradually
proceeded in sapping from one degree of intimacy to another, until all
the bulwarks of her chastity were undermined, and she submitted to his
desire; not with the reluctance of a vanquished people, but with all the
transports of a joyful city, that opens its gates to receive a darling
prince returned from conquest. For by this time he had artfully
concentred and kindled up all the inflammable ingredients of her
constitution; and she now looked back upon the virtuous principles of her
education, as upon a disagreeable and tedious dream, from which she had
waked to the fruition of never-fading joy.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

HE BY ACCIDENT ENCOUNTERS HIS OLD FRIEND, WITH WHOM HE HOLDS A
CONFERENCE, AND RENEWS A TREATY.

Our hero, having thus provided himself with a proper subject for his
hours of dalliance, thought it was now high time to study the ground
which he had pitched upon for the scene