oung lady, and in
what manner she lived with her lord. Never did I hear a person more
universally spoke well of:--the poor adored her charity, affability, and
condescending sweetness of disposition:--the rich admired her wit, her
virtue, and good breeding:--her beauty, tho' allowed inferior to few of
her sex, was the least qualification that seemed deserving praise:--to
add to all this, they told me she was a pattern of conjugal affection,
and the best of mothers to a numerous race of Children;--that her lord
had all the value he ought to have for so amiable a wife, and that no
wedded pair ever lived together in greater harmony; and it was with the
utmost concern, whoever I spoke to on this affair concluded what they
related of her with saying, that so excellent an example of all that was
valuable in womankind would shortly be taken from them;--that she had
long, with an unexampled patience, lingered under a severe illness which
every day threatened dissolution.

These accounts made me hesitate no farther:--I went boldly to the
castle, asked to speak with the lord M----e, who received me with a
politeness befitting his quality: I told him that my curiosity of seeing
foreign countries had brought me to Ireland, and being in my tour thro'
those parts, I took the liberty of calling at his seat, having formerly
had the honour of being known to his lady when at her father's house,
and whom I now heard, to my great concern, was indisposed, otherwise
have been glad to pay my respects to her. The nobleman answered, with
tears in his eyes, that she was indeed in a condition such as give no
hope of her recovery, but that she sometimes saw company, tho' obliged
to receive them in bed, having lost the use of her limbs, and would
perhaps be glad of the visit of a person she had known so long.

On this I told him my name, which he immediately sent in; and her woman
not long after came from her to let me know she would admit me. My lord
went in with me; and to countenance what I said, I accosted her with the
freedom of a person who had been acquainted when children, spoke of her
father as of a gentleman who had favoured me with his good-will, tho',
in reality, I had never seen him in my life, but remembered well enough
what she had mentioned to me concerning him, and some others of her
family, to talk as if I had been intimate among them. I could perceive
she was very well pleased with the method I had taken of introducing
myself; an