y of her conduct,
thought he was joking with her, when he told her to prepare for going
into the country in two days: she was the more induced to think so as it
was in the very middle of an extremely severe winter; but she soon
perceived that he was in earnest: she knew from the air and manner of her
husband that he thought he had sufficient reason to treat her in this
imperious style; and finding all her relations serious and cold to her
complaint, she had no hope left in this universally abandoned situation
but in the tenderness of Hamilton. She imagined she should hear from him
the cause of her misfortunes, of which she was still totally ignorant,
and that his love would invent some means or other to prevent a journey,
which she flattered herself would be even more affecting to him than to
herself; but she was expecting pity from a crocodile.

At last, when she saw the eve of her departure was come, that every
preparation was made for a long journey; that she was receiving farewell
visits in form, and that still she heard nothing from Hamilton, both her
hopes and her patience forsook her in this wretched situation. A few
tears perhaps might have afforded her some relief, but she chose rather
to deny herself that comfort, than to give her husband so much
satisfaction. Hamilton's conduct on this occasion appeared to her
unaccountable; and as he still never came near her, she found means
to convey to him the following billet.

"Is it possible that you should be one of those, who, without vouchsafing
to tell me for what crime I am treated like a slave, suffer me to be
dragged from society? What means your silence and indolence in a
juncture wherein your tenderness ought most particularly to appear, and
actively exert itself? I am upon the point of departing, and am ashamed
to think that you are the cause of my looking upon it with horror, as I
have reason to believe that you are less concerned at it than any other
person: do, at least, let me know to what place I am to be dragged; what
is to be done with me within a wilderness? and on what account you, like
all the rest of the world, appear changed in your behaviour towards a
person whom all the world could not oblige to change with regard to you,
if your weakness or your ingratitude did not render you unworthy of her
tenderness."

This billet did but harden his heart, and make him more proud of his
vengeance: he swallowed down full draughts of pleasure in beholding he